Today is Memorial Day and in many ways, I will just being doing the things I usually do - walking with a friend, playing pickleball, maybe a cookout with family. I don't know.
But I am aware of the meaning and importance of this day. Yesterday in church I did the pastoral prayer and mentioned prayers for those who are serving, for those who gave their lives, for those who were wounded and came back changed, for the families that support and are affected by war.
A couple of years ago I thought about the fact that my Uncle Harry - who I never met - died in World War 2 and I wondered what changed in my mother losing her only brother. What changed in my Grandmother, losing her only son. I am aware of several men who came home from Vietnam changed and men and women who have been greatly affected by their time in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Those who serve are so easily forgotten and those years can have an impact - not just on their lives - but on their families. I know I live in an ideal world - believing that somehow the values of Christ could actually work in this broken world. Regardless, I pray for the peacemakers and for the work of diplomats who seek to help us to avoid the perils of war.
So on this memorial day I pray for all who have been affected by war and pray for a time when we really can live in peace.
When the World Spins Crazy
By Walter Brueggemann
When the world spins crazy,
spins wild and out of control
spins toward rage and hate and violence,
spins beyond our wisdom and nearly beyond our faith,
When the world spins in chaos as it does now among us…
We are glad for sobering roots that provide ballast in the storm.
So we thank you for our rootage in communities of faith,
for our many fathers and mothers who have believed and trusted as firm witnesses to us,
for their many stories of wonder, awe, and healing.
We are glad this night in this company
for the rootage of the text,
for the daring testimony,
for its deep commands,
for its exuberant tales.
Because we know that as we probe deep into this text…
clear to its bottom,
we will find you hiding there,
we will find you showing yourself there,
speaking as you do,
governing,
healing,
judging.
And when we meet you hiddenly,
we find the spin not so unnerving,
because from you the world again has a chance
for life and sense and wholeness.
We pray midst the spinning, not yet unnerved,
but waiting and watching and listening,
for you are the truth that contains all our spin. Amen.
From Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann. Prayed at the Lay School of the Pentateuch on September 17, 2001.
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