And then you

Walter Brueggemann Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth

We arrange our lives as best we can,

                To keep your holiness at by,

                                With our pieties,

                                                Our doctrines,

                                                Our liturgies,

                                                Our moralities,

                                                Our secret ideologies,

Safe, virtuous, settled.

And then you –

                You and your dreams,

                You and your visions,

                You and your purposes,

                You and your commands,

                You and our neighbours.

We find your holiness not at bay,

                But probing, pervading,

                                Insisting, demanding,

And we yield, sometimes gladly,

                                Sometimes resentfully,

                                Sometimes later…or soon.

We yield because you, beyond us, are our God.

                We are your creatures met by your holiness,

                                By your holiness made our true selves.

                And we yield. Amen.

Praying as you prepare services, aware that you are working round online, in limited person, live stream, recorded conundrums that there would be room for God to show up and do it differently.

Praying that you would make room for God to meet you and your congregation on His not your terms. That your doctrines and liturgies do not replace the living God and His ways.

Praying you would encounter God in His holiness this week as you encounter His word and His people.

Praying that in that meeting with God you can enter this season of Advent afresh, with hope and peace that pass understanding.