SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER-THE NOISE OF POLITICS

We watch as the jets fly in
       with the power people and
       the money people,
       the suits, the budgets, the billions.

We wonder about monetary policy
        because we are among the haves,
 and about generosity
        because we care about the have-nots.

By slower modes we notice
     Lazarus and the poor arriving from Africa,
     and the beggars from Central Europe, and
     the throng of environmentalists
         with their vision of butterflies and oil
                       of flowers and tanks
                       of growing things and
                               killing fields.

We wonder about peace and war,
         about ecology and development,
         about hope and entitlement.

We listen beyond jeering protesters and
         souring jets and
     faintly we hear the mumbling of the crucified one,
     something about
         feeding the hungry
         and giving drink to the thirsty,
         about clothing the naked,
         and noticing the prisoners,
         more about the least and about holiness among them.

We are moved by the mumbles of the gospel,
     even while we are tenured in our privilege.

We are half ready to join the choir of hope,
            half afraid things might change,
                  and in a third half of our faith
                        turning to you,
                  and your outpouring love
                  that works justice and
                  that binds us each and all to one another.

So we pray amid jeering protesters
           and soaring jets.
       Come by here and make new,
           even at the risk to our entitlements.

Walter Brueggemann-Prayers for a Privileged People