Prayer for Life

(Rev. Dr. Hallett Llewellyn)

Birthing God
from the womb of your desire
you breathed life into the dust of our being
and
the earth journey
of
your passion in and for us
began
Soil and Soul
a fusion of water, and sinewy earth
connected for life
to all
in wondrous, covenanting
love
and to your beholding heavenly
eye
you said it was all
good.
In time
we wandered from Your goodness
and with
bewildering arrogance
lost Your Way
enslaving the self
in distortions of
your image within us
Pandemics of greed
overwhelmed
the earth and sea and sky
and
nature’s pain
cries out in viral
display of
death and severed
relations.
Redeeming God
to open our ears and eyes,
to cleanse the senses of our being
You came
enfleshed
in
prophetic, poetic, gentle and raging
ones
and we glimpsed your presence
in
fiery bush
a woman’s defiant laughter
dens where lions roar
a whale upon the water
a young maiden’s song of protest
a Palestinian Peasant
in
shared bread and wine
And
when the world with crucifying means
said No
with the revolt of resurrection
you said Yes
and
death gave way to life
despair relinquished to hope
hatred was overcome with love
there was joy
in the heavens above
and the promise of
peace upon the earth
And so
now, redeeming and saving God,
with Easter resolve
we rise again to face
the scourges
of
our exilic condition
knowing that
when your kindom comes
the crooked shall be made straight
the rough places plain
the proud scattered
the mighty dethroned
the rich sent empty away
and the hungry filled with good things
And we shall
all see it
together.