A Prayer of thanks for storm sunday

last week for flora and fauna Sunday we celebrated God's creation with flowers in the church.

This week for Storm Sunday we will bring a Tesla plasma globe to symbolize lightning.

It is easy to give God thanks for many of the wonders of creation, but when it comes to towering thunderclouds and the deadly swirl of hurricane and tropical cyclone, or the biting cold of blizzard its not that easy. This Sunday however in the season of creation is set aside to acknowledge storms as part of God's creation. They may cause us to worry and fear, and remind of us how small we are and how fragile life is and how temporal the things we have built, but it is good to acknowledge that as part of God's creation that the God whom we worship, who in Jesus Christ stepped into our world speaks and the wind and waves bey him (Mark 4:41).

Many of the Psalms and biblical narrative speak of God's ability to speak through storms. In Psalm 29 as a storm front comes off the Mediterranean sea and over the hills of Lebanon and onto Jerusalem shows God's Glory. The mighty storm in the book of Jonah, comes to turn Johan back to God's ways. In Acts the wild winter seas bring Paul to new mission possibilities in Malta, Psalm 107 tells of God's ability to guide his people home across ragging storms, and of course in Mark we see that Jesus is able to still the wind and calm the waves.  These passages speak to us because we often use the metaphor of storm to talk of the problems we face in life and God's ability to speak into those situations and see us through equally transfer across.

I wonder if the increasingly wild weather we face at the moment isn't part of God's speaking to us as well. Telling us we have tried to usurp the creator and consume and do what every we want with out consequence.

Once again please feel free to use any or none or all of this prayer if you find it helpful.

Blessings

Lord who spoke and it all came into being

We give you thanks for the wonders you have made.

The things it’s easy to thank you for

The seeming infinite array of star field and galaxy cluster

For the Majestic mountain vista reflected in still lake

Spring flowers and signs of returning warmth and new life

Birds, whose chorus welcomes the new day

Crops and grape vines, vegetables and fruit trees

Towering forest giants and decorative garden shrubs

 Animal life, those we love and even those that scare

The cooling breeze at the end of a hot summer’s day

The hopeful glimpse of Sun on a frost coated morning

Lord who spoke and it all came into being

We give you thanks for the wonders you have made

Today, even though it is harder, we give you thanks for storms

For lightening flash and thunder clap

The howl of rushing wind, and boom as ocean swell becomes crashing wave

Drenching rain, swelling river and stinging hail

Blizzard, snow dump and hoar frost, of sudden polar blast

Dank humidity, the swirling angry mass of tropical cyclone

Mysterious solar flare and cosmic ray

We face them all with awe and fear

They remind us of how small we are

Of the frailty of life and temporal nature of what we have made

We say “glory” over it all you are sovereign and in control

Lord who spoke and it all came into being

We give you thanks for the wonders you have made

WE give you thanks for what scripture says of storms

That they come and go at your command, servants that do your bidding

Even the wind and the waves obey, as Jesus speaks

You bring your people through, from wild sea to safe destination

You speak to your people through them, leading and guiding

In Psalm 29, we hear your voice in the thunder and see your glory,

They speak to turn us around and back on track, like the great storm in Jonah

They lead us on wild journeys to new mission fields like Paul to Malta

AS metaphor it speaks of your care for us in the battering of life’s troubles

You are with us able to speak and calm, lead us through, point and direct

Lord who spoke and it all came into being

We give you thanks for the wonders you have made

We also come to you in confession and supplication

When we see the wild weather and fiercer storms of climate change

We are aware that we thought we were you and could do what we pleased

In our arrogance we have treated the earth with disrespect; as right not gift

Forgive us for our abuse and over use without thought of consequence

Forgive us for failing to care for those stricken by storm and drought

Thanks you that in Jesus you stepped into the calms and storm of our life

That in Jesus death we are forgiven and by his being raised we have new life

Fill us a fresh not with wind of storm but the wind of your spirit

Enable us and equip us to follow Jesus and show love and compassion

To care for creation as part of our praise of its creator: Father, Son and Holy Spirit