Prayer For Homecoming Sunday

Gracious God,
Thank you for wanting to spend time with us.
Thank you for teaching us how to hang out with you.
Thank you that we can feel right at home with you.
Bless us according to our known and unknown needs.
In Jesus' name,
Amen

Oh Lord
I ask that you grant me with a blessing to bring my grandbabies home.
Oh Lord I ask that you be with my daughter and her mother as they go on this journey tomorrow as they try to bring( Lea. Rj. Bre. And Zae, home. In our father's name Jesus Christ. Amen.

Bless us, most loving provident God,
may this coming home be a re-creation and experience of hospitality and hope.

May all who enter this home, may all who walk through these doors
know and feel your love and presence.

Keeping watch on our going out and our coming in,
no one is stranger, all are guest; no one is alien, all are friend.

May the life celebrated in each room in this house
give delight and honor and reverence to you.

Amen

It is always good to go home, O God.

We are grateful that our final home is in you, for that is where our hearts are. But in the meantime it is wonderful to return to our earthly roots, and to celebrate the sense of joy and familiarity we feel when we go there. . .

It reminds us that the whole earth is yours, and that wherever we go, we are still part of a larger family. We thank you for the things about home that remain comfortable to usthe good people we knew, the memories that are rekindled when we return, the places where we once walked and sat and studied, the stores where we shopped, the church where they sing the old songs, pray real prayers, and declare the gospel the way they always did.

And we thank you for what those returning bring to us at homea sense of freshness, a reminder that there is a world out there beyond the one we know, a witness to the power of the church and the congregation to draw them back, and a testimony to the way the gospel continues to go out from this place to the farthest corners of the earth.

Give us an assurance that life goes on and is good, and the knowledge that our fellowship in you can never be broken, regardless of how far we roam or what we do.

Let the spirit of Christ reign in our hearts today, and make us glad together. And let your name be glorified in the renewal we experience. For you are our God, and we have never forgotten it!

Amen.

As we present these gifts today, we present ourselves. We give thanks for the many gifts that are offered those on these plates and those through our PAR program. May they be used for the work of your church here and across the globe through the M. and S. Fund. And we give thanks for those gifts that are offered through our talent and time as well. Bless all our gifts and bless us too we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Through Jesus the Christ we know the depth of God's love for us and for all creation. We are never lost. The Spirit seeks us out with a daring and tender love, finding us and calling us home. Rest assured that God's healing love and compassionate forgiveness is with us all. Thanks be to God. Amen.

O Loving God, we know that you have made us for yourself and that our hearts are restless until they rest in you. As we pray those ancient words from the early church, be with us now. Gather us this morning trusting that you have made us for yourself. On this Homecoming Sunday still our restless hearts. Bring us home to you once again so that we might truly rest in you. Gather us now as we sing your praise. Amen.