A Prayer from Walter Brueggemann

This prayer is called “You with ears bent close to our lips.” It comes from Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 12. I include it here without comment. It needs none.

You, you are the one we address,
always you,
only you… who has given us life,
who waits for us to answer.
We, toward you, speak and remain tongue-tied,
for we lack words that are honest enough,
and dangerous enough,
and fierce enough to match you.
We do not speak first, but after our mothers and fathers,
who knew cadences of honesty about our troubles,
who knew cadences of danger about your presence,
who knew cadences of fierceness to fit our rage and loss.
So we speak to you words that we have always spoken:
words of praise and adoration:
…into your gates with thanksgiving
into your courts with praise…
words of confession and remorse:
…against you and only you have we sinned…
words of thanks and astonishment:
…you have turned our mourning into dancing…
words of rage unabated:
…dash their heads against the rocks.
So many words we need to speak
to you from whom no secret can be hid,
you beyond us, you with us, you for us,
you with ears bent close to our lips,
You…and our woes turned toward you, always you, only you,
yet again you.
Amen.