A Better Way/Ambassadors for Christ (Lent 4C)

Prayed in worship on March 30, 2025
Decatur First United Methodist Church
Decatur, GA

New every morning is your love, great God of light, 
and all day long you are working for good in the world.  

We want so desperately to be a part of your good work.  
To love as you do
To show up fearlessly as you do
To give generously as you do
To see ourselves and others with compassion as you do. 
And yet, we are easily confused and distracted
by worldly standards & expectations -
We confuse busy-ness for worthiness.
We confuse wealth for value.
We confuse stuff for abundance.
We confuse control for power. 

Dear God by those standards we will never be good enough, 
we will never be enough of anything.   
Show us a better way. 
Show us the freedom that comes from following the path of Jesus, 
Banish the demons of comparison and control, 
Give us hearts that trust in your goodness, 
even when the ground beneath us begins to shift and give way. 
Help us to live into our calling as ambassadors for you 
in this world that you love so much.
Remind us that we are a new creation, whether we feel like one or not.  
Be powerfully present with those of us for whom life has become unmanageable, 
which is most of us, Oh God.  
Grant us your peace that passes understanding.
Bring healing and wholeness in the way that only you can.
Show us what is ours to do, 
And help us to surrender everything else
to the goodness of your will and your work in the world,
through Jesus Christ, our savior and Lord. Amen.

Inspired by 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

16 So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

18 All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.

20 So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.