We come to you, God, as we are. Not as we’ve heard we should be, not as we think we should be, not even as we hope we will be, but as we are. So, some of us come with fear today…because of headlines on our screens about a new disease that seems to be covering the earth and stalking us. Others of us come with frustration and judgemental hearts…we confess an unloving over-reaction on our part to the seemingly over-reaction of a minority of others in culture. We know of Your call to love and your command: “Do not fear”…and we confess that at times, both seem hard. And we recognize that your call to not live in fear does not necessarily mean that everything’s fine or that everything will turn out fine. Perhaps it is a call to remind ourselves that our fear can be enfolded by something larger, something that is not global in scope, but larger than the universe. Something called love. We confess that, because we live in such an unusual and amazing time in history, we’re not good at facing these kinds of global threats. We know that all of our ancestors—and a majority of the modern world—are more used to this sort of uncertainty and are much more familiar with sickness, lack of control, and death than we are. We acknowledge that our fear, and our lack of resilience, is actually because we live in a time of great circumstantial blessing, where the diseases that killed so many in our history are now largely managed with modern medication. So, we say, “thank You”…and teach us. We also acknowledge the gift that it is to live in Canada, with the wealth of resources that have been invested in our medical system, and the fact that it is available to all….and we pray for the parts of the world that would be devastated were this virus to hit them….where there is poverty, minimal health care, and very little social structure to be able to deal with this…God have mercy we pray. We also pray for the many people who have been, and will be affected by the economic downturn that this virus is creating…for the billions of people in developing countries who live so close to the edge in terms of livelihood, for whom this crisis means the difference between eating simple food and not eating at all. Lord have mercy upon them. And we pray for one another. We pray that our fear will not cause us to turn on one another, hoard our resources, or to quit caring for others and think only for ourselves. We think of Your church who lived centuries ago…who were known for the fact that as others were fleeing plague-ridden cities, they were marching in, in order to care for the sick, knowing that if they died, they would come alive again in the resurrection. And because of their courage, hope and sacrifice, others wanted to know about the God who inspired them. We wish we could be like them. We want to be like them. Or, do we? At the least, we aspire to be like that. And, so, if this does get bad, we ask that You fill us with Your Spirit so that Your Church will become known for its courage, hope, and self-sacrifice. What a story that would be… So, in the end, we long for more than a lack of fear, Lord. We pray for hope, faith, courage, conviction, perspective, and compassion so we can be people who authentically bear witness to a larger, more beautiful story than the current story that is presently gripping our world. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.