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Women's and Caring Ministries
I’ve been thinking a lot in this season about Courage and Hope. It seems
to me that fear and despair are having a moment in the public discourse.
I’m tempted to give in to it. Every day. But Jesus didn’t!
There is nothing I could write about this that has not been written
before: So I’m going to share a prayer/poem by Walter Brueggemann,
written after reading Jeremiah 23, on October 29, 2001.
Ours is a SeducedWorld
God of all truth, we give thanks for your faithful utterance of reality.
In your truthfulness, you have called the world ‘very good.’
In your truthfulness, you have promised
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
In your truthfulness, you have assured
“This is my beloved Son.”
In your truthfulness, you have voiced, “Fear not, I am with you.”
In your truthfulness, you have guaranteed that
“Nothing shall separate us from your love in Jesus Christ.”
It is by your truthfulness that we love.
And yet, we live in a world phony down deep
in which we participate at a slant.
Ours is a seduced world,
where we call evil good and good evil,
where we put darkness for light and light for darkness,
where we call bitter sweet and sweet bitter (Isa. 5:20)
where we call war peace and peace war,
So that we rarely see the truth of the matter.
Give us courage to depart the pretend world of euphemism,
to call things by their right name,
to use things for their right use,
to love our neighbor as you love us.
Overwhelm our fearful need to distort,
that we may fall back into your truth-telling about us,
that we may be tellers of truth and practitioners of truth.
We pray in the name of the One whom you have filled.
with “grace and truth.” Amen.
In Joyful anticipation~
Pastor Brandi Drake
Associate Pastor of Caring & Women’s Ministries
My Lord God, give me once more the courage to hope; merciful God,
let me hope once again, fructify my barren and infertile mind.
~Søren Kierkegaard
I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured,
deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience
difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.
~ Jesus, in John 16:33 (MSG translation)
