Prayer & Praise

…On our own, we conclude:

that there is not enough to go around

we are going to run short

of money

of love

of grades

of publications

of sex

of beer

of members

of years

of life

we should seize the day…

seize the goods…

seize our neighbor’s goods

because there is not enough to go around

and in the midst of our perceived deficit;

You come

You come giving bread in the wilderness

You come giving children at the 11th hour

You come giving homes to the exiles

You come giving futures to the shut-down

You come giving Easter joy to the dead

You come … fleshed … in Jesus

And we watch while

the blind receive their sight

the lame walk

the lepers are cleansed

the deaf hear

the dead are raised

the poor dance and sing.

We watch … and we take

food we did not grow and

life we did not invent and

future that is gift and gift and gift and

families and neighbors who sustain us

when we do not deserve it.

It dawns on us, late rather than soon, that

You give food in due season

you open your hand

and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

By your giving,

break our cycles of imagined scarcity

override our presumed deficits

quiet our anxieties of lack

transform our perceptual field to see

the abundance…mercy upon mercy

blessing upon blessing.

Sink your generosity deep into our lives

that your much-ness may expose our false lack

that endlessly receiving, we may endlessly give,

so that the world may be made Easter new,

without greedy lack, but only wonder

without coercive need, but only love

without destructive greed, but only praise

without aggression and evasiveness…

all things Easter new…

all around us, toward us and by us

all things Easter new.

Finish your creation…

in wonder, love and praise. Amen.

Walter Brueggemann