God of powerful love and loving power, we praise and thank you for the gift of your Son. The example he set keeps us striving, and the grace he showed we can never repay. We praise you for the boundaries he crossed, and the barriers he destroyed among ourselves, and between ourselves and you. We remember his sacrifice on the cross and his calling to take up our own crosses and follow him. And we celebrate that his death on the cross was not the end of his story, so that death might not be the end of our stories either.

We give you thanks for the lives of saints who have joined the church triumphant, living eternally in your presence. Today we give you thanks especially for the lives of Lanie Kabrick, Barbara Sweeney, Don Bain, and Jack Phifer. Even more we thank you for the life they now life with you. Comfort those who mourn and give us all the hope for your future.

We give you thanks for new life. This morning we give thanks especially for the birth of Rose Margaret Darr. Give her a life that is full, safe, and joyous, and bless Neely and Andrew with grace for themselves and for her as she grows. May she always know your love and your grace.

Enlarge the bounds of our love to include not only those whose names we know, but also those whose names we will never know, and even those whose names make us fearful or angry. Empower us to welcome the stranger and the enemy. Make us generous with the love that we have received from you, so that we might be examples to others of the live to which you call us all – life lived in your kingdom both now and for eternity.

All of this we pray in the name and for the sake of Jesus, our Lord. Amen.