God of all Things

(God in the midst of Stifling)

You are the God of all people
Too many to mention
When I try to list all the kinds of people you are God of
I get caught up
In who and what you are the God of
And yet, it helps,
I find
To start to name
How you are God
to people who are struggling right now
And so I lift your name in praise today

You of the God of Weather Predictors
The God who keeps humanity humble because we cannot
even tell you if it will rain tomorrow--but you help us to develop
the science for national disasters, and to be overprepared--and then to complain when the disasters never hit as hard as predicted. You paint the sky in rainbows, reminding us that you love us, and never want us to be hurt by disasters. You remind us that you are the God of love and peace--and remind us too to hang our weapons us as well.

You are the God of Immigrants
Calling your people to get up and journey, so many times
And to never forget that we are all immigrants at some point in our lives: emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, and so we are are never to mistreat immigrants. If only, God, if only we would remember your words and treat immigrants with love and respect, because you make crystal that you are the God of immigrants. The God of those displaced: by violence, by climate change and those who simply had to leave because they felt it in their hearts. Whatever the reason, you know that immigration is an important part of human existence.

You God of tireless Data recorders. You call yourself the Keeper, the God who keeps track, the Great Mathematician. You know every hair on our head, every grain of sand, every star in the sky--so God you know
Thank God, you know....
The unseen and unknown Piles of Paperwork
The God of Government workers who do mysterious things that we don't even know--you are the God of tax collectors--every single person I know who has had to work with the IRS is relieved how nice they are. You are also, the blessed God of grant filers and grant fulfillers. The God who knows that it takes a special kind of spirit to keep the lights on in any kind of place that serves.

You are the God of the arts, the God that knows that we need creativity, theater, museums, reading. The God who understands that we are herd animals who need places to gather and just be. A God who wants us to just wonder at life. You give us the power to name all things, so that we too can pursue the arts and be creative as we find all ways to "name" and create new ways to understand the world. You are the God of creativity.



The God of Education and those who need to be Educated
The God of Teachers who somehow make it to the end of the year--and all the children, teenagers and adults who are juggling everything who make it too. You are up with the janitors and bus drivers in the morning, and hold the hands of those studying and grading into the night. You accompany us in Psalms, reminding us that you are with us from the wee hours to the earliest dawn of the days.

You are the God of the disabled, For you understand what it means to be fully human, but different. To come into resurrection scarred and not whole. The Resurrected Jesus came with Holes in his arms and his side--because all of us who live long enough will not be fully abled anymore. It is a part of being human, and that does not stop God from being our God. God does not bless those who are able bodied. God loves us exactly as we are.
God loves all of us, the young, the elderly, the healthy, the frail
The doctors, the nurses, the caretaking, the hospice workers, the sick.
You are the God of all. God help us to understand that we are not valued by what we do, or how much work we produce, but instead you walk with those on the journey of care--breathing in and out as they make whatever journey they make in these handcrafted, beautiful and imperfect human bodies of ours.

God, I could go on and on about who you are the God of...

You are the God of the Veterans, who deserve love and care every step of their live, not just when they have served their country: for you have said "Feed my Sheep."

You are the God of the LGBTQIA community, for you have said "Love one another" and there is no asterisk on that command, and you give us to one another as family, and teach us to love and care for each other from the baptizing of the Ethiopian Eunuch to the understanding that in Jesus Christ "There is no male nor female, no Greek nor Hebrew no slave nor free."

God you are the God of all of those who are being
pushed away
forgotten
stifled
ignored

And yet

That does not stop the reality
You see all people
value them
Call them into being
Value the fullness of who they are
You love them
Because of who they are

God of all people
Help us to remember that
When others try to
Grind our identities into nothing

Remind us
of our belatedness in God
we pray
Amen.