from A Christmas Carol by John Leech
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses
who yearn more than do we
and by those
who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for you coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edges of our finger tips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case
and make all things new.
Amen.
Walter Brueggemann, 1933 -, American Old Testament theologian and ethicist
_________________
Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him.
So shall it be! Amen.
prayer & verse 