Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us,

Lord, we need some deliverance today.

We need deliverance from all that ails our bodies, causing us to tremble in our bones, shaking our confidence because we question our health.

We need deliverance from all that ails our families, causing us worry for those we love, moving our hearts to fear for those who are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

We need deliverance from all that ails our community: addictions, poverty, food insecurity; all those things that leave our hearts hurting for our neighbors.

We need deliverance from all that ails our country: the negativity, the infighting, the cajoling, the divisions; all those things that would seek to divide rather than unify.

Lord, we need some deliverance today.

Come with your great might, spreading your grace and mercy abundantly across our lives and our land. Teach us what it is to be your agents of that grace and mercy, to be agents of your great might, that through us, you will deliver others.

For Lord, we need some deliverance today.

Through your Son, born as a helpless infant, in the most vulnerable position imaginable, you delivered us. You astound us with your power, for the birth of your Son proves that, in helplessness, you are powerful, which means in despair, you are hope; in hatred, you are love; in war, you are peace; in sorrow, you are joy. You deliver us, for you come in power through vulnerability.

Meet us in our vulnerability. We declare our vulnerability, we open ourselves up before you this morning, by uttering a simple phrase that can only come from our helplessness:

We need some deliverance today.

Do not disappoint. Bring your power into our helplessness and reward our vulnerability.

For that is the witness of your Son, Jesus Christ, whose name we raise and whose prayer we give by saying…