Today, I offered the opening prayer at two Zoom meetings. Each time, I shared a prayer from Walter Brueggemann's Prayers for a Privileged People entitled "Waiting and Longing," on reading Daniel.
I guess it works "on reading Daniel." But for my money, it's a pretty solid Advent prayer. Especially in this time of pandemic. I share it here (I hope legally) and include a plug to buy the book for someone you love this Christmas. It's filled with other excellent prayers by a very good pray-er.
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Waiting and Longing
God of the seasons,
God of the years,
God of the eons,
Alpha and Omega,
before us and after us.
You promise and we wait:
we wait with eager longing,
we wait amid doubt and anxiety,
we wait with patience thin
and then doubt,
and then we take life into our
own hands.
We wait because you are the one and only one.
We wait for your peace and your mercy,
for your justice and your good rule.
Give us your Spirit that we may wait
obediently and with discernment,
caringly and without passivity,
trustingly and without cynicism,
honestly and without utopianism.
Grant that our wait may be appropriate to your coming
soon and very soon,
soon and not late,
late but not too late.
We wait while the world groans in eager longing.
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