By Alexis Carter

Come

An Opening Meditation

Those who have given your last dime, come.
Those who are holding back out of worry and fear, come.
Those who have given your all and have come up empty, come.
When you’ve weighed in and keep coming up short, do not worry.
When God’s addition, subtraction, and multiplication is beyond our calculations and understanding, your wrestling is welcome. Choose not to live with clenched fists, holding back your gifts, and unable to open your hands to receive the abundance God has for you. Today, choose to wrestle with God about your lack, and ask God to open your hearts and hands to receive God’s abundance.

There Are No Strangers Here

A Litany for the Story of Ruth

Leader: You who have come from a different language, land, or lineage.
People: You may feel like a stranger.
Leader: You are not without a Redeemer.
People: You may be a foreigner.
Leader: You are not without a Redeemer.
People: You may be an orphan, widow, or widower.
Leader: You are not without a Redeemer.
People: Until there are no strangers, foreigners, and those who suffer alone, I will work for their freedom and declare their value.
All: We are not without a Redeemer. The LORD is using us to buy back the truth that all of God’s people are worthy of redemption and belonging!

We Wait with Blessed Hope

A Prayer of Intercession

Gracious God, thank you that you use our very minds and bodies to accomplish your purposes in this world. We call to mind the ones who are coming who will build upon the dreams and deeds that you have begun through us. Give us the grace to teach our children to know the LORD so that your heritage will continue through them. Build our homes and communities with strong foundations of great faith and peace that will outlast us and sustain those who come after us. We do not merely look to law enforcement and elected officials to watch over our city, but we ask that you set a guard over this city. May our descendants be the very arrows that defend the good works that you are doing in the earth. We will not live to see the manifestation of all the promises that you have made nor the fullness of the fruit of the seeds that we have sown. Yet, Merciful God, we wait with a blessed hope that you will send those who will build upon our dreams and deeds to the glory of your name. Amen.

True Prosperity

A Sending for Mark 12:38-44

Remember that abundance in accounts does not equal spiritual prosperity. Remember those who experience poverty in their purses still can possess the power of generosity. We do not measure God’s abundance by comparing our materials to those of our neighbors. While we are counting and comparing our change, God is found measuring our motives. God’s goodness and generosity tip the scales of humanity—as you go from the place, may your actions do likewise. Amen.

Rev. Alexis Carter Thomas is a writer, researcher, and adjunct professor who lives with her husband, John, in South Carolina. Her current work includes an ethnographic study of the flourishing of Black clergywomen and providing soul care as a form of reparations to women to give their time, resources, and life to the thriving of Black churches.