Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Walter Brueggemann prayer

We would as soon you were stable and reliable.
We would as soon you were predictable
and always the same toward us.
We would like to take the hammer of doctrine
and take the nails of piety
and nail your feet to the floor
and have you stay in one place.

And then we find you moving,
always surprising us,
always coming at us from new directions.
Always planting us
and uprooting us
and tearing all things down
and making all things new.
You are not the God we would have chosen
had we done the choosing,
but we are your people
and you have chosen us in freedom.
We pray for the great gift of freedom
that we may be free toward you
as you are in your world.

Amen.

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1 comment:

Shayna Willis said...

The part of this prayer that talks about God not being the God that we have chosen speaks to me. I was thinking the other day about Darwinists and how they'd rather believe that we are accidents than that God made us purposefully. I think we look at our lives and think, "Surely God couldn't have meant for this to happen." But He did. I heard someone speaking last night and they said, "We have to stop asking, 'God what can I do for you' and start asking 'God what are you doing and how can I best serve your purposes?'" A subtle but important nuance.