weakness

Bring us to Bethlehem, House of Bread

/ Eric Mathews / 3 Comments
Manger, by ​Greyson Joralemon via Unsplash
 
Thank you,
Scandalous God,
For giving yourself to the world,
Not in the powerful and extraordinary,
But in weakness and the familiar:
In a baby; in bread and wine.

Thank you
For offering, at journey’s end, a new beginning;
For setting, in the poverty of a stable,
The richest jewel of your love;
For revealing, in a particular place,
Your light for all nations.

Thank you
For bringing us to Bethlehem, House of Bread,
Where the empty are filled,
And the filled are emptied;
Where the poor find riches,
And the rich recognize their poverty;
Where all who kneel and hold out their hands
Are unstintingly fed.

Kate Compston, English author
 
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John 7:42

Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants
    and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?
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Why do you think God chose the insignificant town of Bethlehem to be the birthplace of his only begotten son?
How does the humble beginning of the Son of God relate to your own story?

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yearning for your Coming

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​Redentor Over Clouds, Donatas Dabravolskas, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
 
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
 
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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.

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We come to pray for ourselves…

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Photo by Chris Zhang on Unsplash

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 
 
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Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, 
    that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Jesus, fight for me against Satan

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Lord Jehovah,
judge my cause and fight for me against Satan and his host.
Lay the strong one low!
 
I have cast off his yoke, and renounced his cursed power.
He doubly hates this, and longs to seize me as his prey.
 
I flee to you and to your cross for help.
He would win if you did not deliver me – but you have already defeated him.
 
Do not let him conquer me! Put him to shame, O Lord my God! 
Give me victory!
 
It is not strength that wins; my weakness is my shield.
In lowly trust we fight the fight, and weakness wins the battle.
 
So give me a lowly heart, and cast away each prideful thought.
Let gentleness and love come in instead, and abide in my life.
 
Your will, not mine, be done. I resist my selfish desires.
Let me ever and always be your servant only.
 
Jesus, I flee to you. I cling to your cross.
Save me from Satan’s hellish power and pluck me from his grasp.
 
So I will praise you, Lord, and adore your great name.
With Father and Spirit one, forever and ever, amen.
 
Ephrem the Syrian, c.306-373, Syrian hymn writer and theologian
 
____________________________
 
 
Be sober-minded; be watchful. 
Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 
Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering 
   are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, 
    who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, 
    will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 
To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 

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Come Holy Spirit

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Pentecost Light by Lawrence OP via flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
 
Come, oh come, most gracious comforter of afflicted souls
    and helper in tribulations.
Come, cleanser of sins and healer of wounds.
Come, strengthener of the weak,
    comforter of the downtrodden.
Come, teacher of the humble
    and destroyer of the proud.
Come, devoted father of the orphan,
    gentle protector of widows.
Come, hope of the poor, reviver of the sick.
Come, stay of the navigator,
    post of refuge for the shipwrecked.
Come, singular glory of those who live,
    singular salvation of those who die.
 
Come, most Holy Spirit, come,
    and have mercy on me.
Make me fit for you.
And graciously reach down to me 
    so that my insignificance 
    may be pleasing to your greatness,
    my weakness to your strength,
    according to the multitude of your mercies
through Jesus Christ my Savior
who lives with the Father in unity 
and reigns forever and ever. 
Amen.
 
Anselm of Canterbury, c. 1033-1109, Benedictine monk and archbishop
 
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If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, 
    how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

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O come, faithful God

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Photo by RDNE Stock project via Pexels
 
O come, faithful God,
   who empowers the weak,
   who encourages the fearful,
   who enlightens the blind,
   who intones the deaf,
   who energizes the lame,
   who emancipates the speechless,
   who enriches the poor,
   who invigorates the dead;

O come, faithful God,
come and enable us, right now,
to worship you and work for your Kingdom,
filled with your strength,
   your hope,
   your vision,
   your melody,  
   your motivation,
   your Word,
   your inheritance,
   your Life!

All this we pray,
   through him who came to be our Savior,
   who lives to be our Lord,
   who will return and fully make all things new;

In Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
 
Peter L. Haynes, 1956-2020, American pastor
 
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And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
 for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

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forgiveness that recreates

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image, Rebecca Kennison, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
 
 
Jesus’ prayer was, ‘Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do.’
A prayer born in death, writhing with pain.
A prayer risking faith, facing the sorrow.
A prayer living in hope, seeing the future.
 
My prayer was, ‘God, how can I forgive them?
They do know what they did.’
A prayer saying, ‘ It still hurts.’
A prayer wanting vengeance.
A prayer seeking direction.
 
My prayer became, ‘God, help me forgive them;
they know what they did.’
A prayer saying, ‘They were wrong.
A prayer wanting reconciliation.
A prayer seeing courage.
 
My prayer became, ‘God, forgive them;
they know what they did.’
A prayer that wrestled with injustice.
A prayer that acknowledges weakness.
A prayer that found hope in God’s love.
 
My prayer remains, ‘God, forgive them;
they know what they did.’
Because forgiveness recreates life from death.
Because forgiveness cleanses the healing wound.
Because forgiveness builds the bridge of freedom.
 
Jared P. Pingleton, Christian psychologist, author, and speaker
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Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, 
    and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, 
    it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

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our feeble reality

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image by Ray ZHUANG via Unsplash
 
Lord God, the strongest and brightest of us 
    are as fragile as a floating bubble,
    unsteady as a newborn kitten on a waxed kitchen floor.
If we keep our footing in the shaky space 
    between our arrival and departure from this world
  we owe our survival – not to mention our success – to many other people
    who held us up and helped us crawl or fly or muck our way through
    and to You, God, who keeps breathing life into our lungs
        the way a child keeps puffing air into a leaking balloon.
    We take our every step in the energy of mercy . . . 
    We see each flower, taste each drop of water,
        sense the presence of each person around us,
            through your gift of consciousness.
For all this may we be grateful.
 
Lewis Smedes, 1921 – 2002, American ethicist and author in the Reformed tradition
Prayers for Today, slightly modified
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Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power.
    He will rule with a powerful arm.
    See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
    He will carry the lambs in his arms,
holding them close to his heart.
    He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.

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to see what joins us together

/ Eric Mathews / Leave a comment
photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
 
 
Lord Christ, help us to see what it is
    that joins us together, 
    not what separates us.
For when we see only what it is that makes us different,
    we too often become aware
    of what is wrong with others.
We see only their faults and weaknesses,
    interpreting their actions as flowing from
    malice or hatred 
    rather than fear.
Even when confronted with evil, Lord,
    you forgave and sacrificed yourself
    rather than sought revenge.
Teach us to do the same
    by the power of your Spirit.
 
William Breault, SJ, 1926-2015
 
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Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, 
    if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, 
    if any tenderness and compassion, 
then make my joy complete by being like-minded, 
    having the same love, 
    being one in spirit and of one mind. 
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. 
Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 
    not looking to your own interests 
    but each of you to the interests of the others.

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from “perhaps” to “Yes”

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Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

 

You are the God who is simple, direct, clear with us and for us.
You have committed yourself to us.
You have said yes to us in creation,
                        yes to us in our birth,
                        yes to us in our awakening this day.
But we are of another kind,
    more accustomed to “perhaps, maybe, we’ll see,”
    left in wonderment and ambiguity.
We live our lives not back to your yes,
    but out of our endless “perhaps.”
Se we pray for your mercy this day that we may live yes back to you,
                        yes with our time,
                        yes with our money,
                        yes with our sexuality,
                        yes with our strength and with our weakness,
                        yes to our neighbor,
                        yes and no longer “perhaps.”
In the name of your enfleshed yes to us,
    even Jesus who is our yes into your future. Amen.

Walter Brueggemann, 1933 -,  American Protestant Old Testament theologian
Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth
 
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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, 
    for he who promised is faithful.
 

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