Lindisfarne Island, Chris Combe from York, UK, CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia Commons
Come, Lord Jesus, Come as King. Rule in our hearts, Come as love. Rule in our minds, Come as peace. Rule in our actions, Come as power. Rule in our days, Come as joy. Rule in our darkness, Come as light. Rule in our bodies, Come as health. Rule in our labors, Come as hope. Thy Kingdom come Among us.
David Adam 1936-2020 British Anglican priest, served at Lindisfarne
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 1933-2025 American Old Testament theologian
I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
God of our times, our years, our days. You are the God of our work, of our rest, of our weariness. Our times are in your hands. We come to you now in our strength and in our weakness, in our hope and in our despair, in our buoyancy and in our disease. We come to pray for ourselves and for all like us who seek and yearn for life anew with you and from you and for you.
We pray to you this day, for ourselves and others like us in our greed We are among those who want more, more money, more power, more piety, more sex, more influence, more doctrine, more notice, more members, more students, more morality, more learning, more shoes. Be for us enough and more than enough, for we know about your self-giving generosity.
We pray to you this day; for ourselves and others like us in our disconsolation. We are not far removed from those without. without love. without home, without hope, without job, without health care. We are close enough to vision those who must check discarded butts to see if there is one more puff, who must rummage and scavenge for food. for their hungers are close to ours. Be among us the God who fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty.
We pray to you this day, for ourselves and others like us who are genuinely good people, who meditate on your Torah day and night. who are propelled by and for your best causes. who are on the right side of every issue, who wear ourselves out in obedience to you,
and sometimes wear others out with our good intentions.
Be among us ultimate enough
to make our passions penultimate,
valid but less than crucial.
We are your people. We wait for you to be more visibly
and palpably our God.
So we pray with our mothers and fathers, ” Come, Lord Jesus.”
We wait for your coming with all the graciousness we can muster.
Amen.
Walter Brueggemann, 1933 – 2025, American Protestant Old Testament theologian
prayer & verse 
