One of the books on my “to be read” shelf is, Prayers for a Privileged People by Walter Brueggemann.  I believe I’ve told you previously that Walt was one of my Old Testament professors.  His prayers at the start of each class session were so rich and powerful that many of us took notes on them, because we didn’t want to lose the images and metaphors that flowed from his heart and over his lips and up into the presence of God.

          In the preface to this collection of his prayers, Walt begins with the premise that our context in life influences how we pray and what we pray.  Because most of us who inhabit Mainline churches like Central are fairly affluent by the standards of our country and the world, Walt believes that  privilege is the context in which our prayers are shaped.  Brueggemann is not trying to condemn folks for their place of privilege.  Rather, he is inviting us to see that other children of God exist in, and pray from, vastly different contexts:

          “When we think and notice and pray beyond ourselves, we are

          mindful of many others who do not participate with us in that

          privilege.  There are those all around us who live lives of deficit

          and need, who are cut off from power, denied access to the

          gains of our society, and who face daily vulnerability.  The are

          not automatically or everywhere a threat to our comfort and

          privilege.  But they are there, and they will not go away.  As we

          are haunted by them, so they inhabit our prayers.  We are wont

          to regard them as an inconvenience, if not a threat.  But we know,

          when we settle toward God’s rule, that they are sisters and brothers

          who share with us a common destiny and a common mercy from

          God.  We are not able, by our will or intellect, to disengage from

          them.  And so we pray for them and, when we are able, we pray

          alongside them” (p. xiv)

Here at the start of the busy and hot and beautiful month of      August, I want to share with you one of the prayers from     Prayers for a Privileged People:

“Waiting for Bread…..and for God’s Future”

We are strange mixtures of loss and hope.

As we are able, we submit our losses to you.

  We know about sickness and dying,

          about death and mortality,

          about failure and disappointment.

  And now for a moment we do our

          failing and our dying in your presence,

          you who attend to us in loss.

As we are able, we submit our hopes to you.

We know about self-focused fantasy

          and notions of control.

  But we also know that our futures

          are out beyond us,

            held in your good hand.

Our hopes are filled with promises of

          well-being, justice and mercy.

Move us this day beyond our fears and anxieties

          into our land of goodness.

             We wait for your coming,

             we pray for your kingdom.

          In the meantime, give us bread for the day.

See you in church this Sunday……

Pastor Bill