FEATHER: Creator God, we your children lift our prayer to you today. We thank you for the diversity of this world we have been gifted; we thank you for the abundance of gifts seen and unseen and especially for your endless love and grace. We confess that we have failed and offended you and the world before us; we have sinned by our own will and way. Forgive us this day as we begin anew. As the Sun rises on this new day, come into our lives, warm our hearts, that we may see the other before us as you see us, with grace, love and peace. Bless us this day that we may be a blessing to all. This we pray in Christ Jesus, amen.
SAGE: Read Galatians 3:26-28. We journey in a world so divided, conflicted and polarized, but amidst the storm of offence, faith whispers that we, the children of God, should walk a different path to seek peace, unity and life in Christ. Our separation begins when we start to see and hear only ourselves and not the other before us, when our voice, opinions and rights are more important than those of others.
What does it mean to be one in the body of Christ, where the left hand is no more important than the right hand but where both were meant to bless and consecrate the other before us? Where diversity was not meant to divide, but to unite, so that all members walking and working together as one in the body of faith may see the wonder and depth of God in all that is before us in creation?
As Indigenous Ministries seeks to make its voice heard amongst the many, we acknowledge that unity and the guidance of faith are the keys to blazing the path before us. Our nations and our ministries are not diminished by our diversity or geographical separation but are united by our connection with and through the Creator God. Indigenous Ministries can be a vital member of the body and a blessed voice in the choir glorifying God our Creator only if the rest of the body can listen and accept our gifts. Our voice and song rises in identity, strengthened by the fact that we are and always have been equally children of the Almighty.
So could we, the body of faith, transform the world if we together acknowledged and celebrated each other for what we bring and offer as children of creation? Would the body of Christ flourish if we but served in humility and peace? Could we go further and do more to reach out to the needy and suffering, if we could but look up from the mirror and truly see? Can we the church go forward as an instrument of healing and inclusion, and our faith be a living witness in truth and equity?
The month of May brings the planting of gardens, the cleaning and preparation of yards, all of creation beginning to sing anew. So may our life and faith witness be renewed and arise, as we reach out as a body of faith, blessing each other as one in Christ.
