JUNE LOVELINESS SHATTERED-A PRAYER FOR THOSE KILLED IN CHARLESTON

This June--like every June---
    is a fine time to be alive:
  the sun is warm, but not yet too hot;
  the light stays longer and night comes later;
  the summer eases the schedule,
     and we are taken up
           in weddings and brides,
           in proms and graduations,
           in successes and endings,
           in exciting new beginnings.

We are among the many creatures of your creation,
        who luxuriate in long days
           ready for peaceable nights;
        a great serenity comes to us,
           in sure knowledge that you govern well
                  and care for us in generous ways.

Just at the cusp of night,
     for an instant the loveliness is shattered:
        there is a siren in its
               disruptive eeriness---
         happily not too close, but we do not know:
                a robbery,
                an assault,
                a heart attack,
                a scene of domestic violence,
                some shattering that sobers our ease.

We are reminded
   that the world is deep in instability,
   that the world is saturated with ready violence,
   that our ease is without full guarantee,
   and that death stalks close even to us.

We come to rest---torn between grateful ease
               and weariness at the edge.

Just as we fall into sleep or dream or nightmare,
         after the piercing siren,
              we hear a bird,
                  a curfew against our anxiety,
                  a trust affirmed,
                  a witness to your good governance.

We fall back not fully at ease,
     but confident enough to trust our
June night to your safekeeping.

We pray in the name of Jesus who walked into Saturday night
      and began again at daybreak.

Walter Brueggemann-Prayers for a Privileged People