A Liturgy for Gathered Friends

Written for the "3rd Annual BFF Christmas Dinner" and dedicated to all the dear friends who fill my days with joy. God be praised!

May you be praised, Lord, for so many things:

For your Son, our Life and Light, the keeper and color of our days.

For this table with bread for our bones and wine for glad hearts,

And for friendships that are as solid as stone, immovable signposts of your grace.

Forgive us, Lord, for the ways we fail to love one another:

When our pride keeps an apology from passing our lips,

When envy keeps our hearts from rejoicing together,

And when anger keeps a record of wrongs.

With each passing year, increase our love.

Increase it for you, for your Word, for your ways.

Let it flow in abundance to one another,

So a weary world might look on and know us as yours.

Use us, together, to build your Kingdom.

Let this table ever expand to the lost and the least,

Reminding one another that there is always room,

And being first to pull up the chairs.

We praise you for times of plenty, years of adding and abounding:

More gifts than we could store and more goodness than deserved.

Laughter has been the score of our lives,

The perpetual backdrop to moments mundane and grand.

We ask you for help in times of want, years when you take.

Grief is a newer guest at our table and we sent no invitation.

But it is okay, Lord, as long as you’re seated, too.

Be seated with us, tonight and always.

We are each other’s,

And we are Yours.

Oh, the grace.