God.

It is Easter.
It is Resurrection Day.
It is a massive celebration of new life and bunnies,
Peeps and people singing,
chocolate and resurrection,
new dresses and empty grave clothes.
It is a day of arguing over how to celebrate you and how to find you and who has the best party.

It is, we confess, a really confusing day.

We confess that we want to celebrate you,
but we often celebrate us.
We confess that we want to understand resurrection,
but we want to resurrect ourselves.
We confess that we know you make all things new,
but we’re not sure we can afford to give up the old. The familiarity, the comfort, the identity.
We confess that we know you offer forgiveness,
but we’re not sure we want to admit we need it.

Thank you for your patience with us.
Thank you that while we were not worth dying for, in our eyes, you died for us and rose again.
Because you want us to be your friends, your children, your body.

Help us today to know our failings,
then your forgiveness,
then your love for us,
then fellowship with you and each other.

Help us not get stuck in our crud, in our sense of obligation.
Help us today to acknowledge that with you we have life.
Even when we are here in a hospital, wrestling with the realization of death.

Help us, we ask.

Amen.

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Acts 10:34-43; 1 Corinthians 15:19-26

This prayer (and a year’s worth) are available in “God. We Need You”: A Year of Prayer in a Hospital Chapel.