SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER: PRAISE IN THE GREAT CONGREGATION

We are bold, as your creatures, to praise you.
We praise you for the gift of life,
    and for the gift of new life in Easter.
We praise you for the mystery of creation,
    as we stand in awe alongside
        all your creatures---
                   zebras,
                   cabbages,
                   sharks,
                   all the birds of the air,
                   all the fish of the sea,
                   all the beasts of the field.
We praise you alongside all our human cousins
        of the single family of humanity:
            Hispanics and Koreans,
            homeboys and immigrants,
            our good friends, our fearful enemies.
We praise you with full throat and glad hearts.
We praise you on this glad day.

Around the edge of our doxology are other brothers and sisters
     with whom we stand in solidarity.
      So we name them for your attention:
            the war-wounded and amputees;
            the mothers whose sons are gone but not forgotten;
            the dying who lack health care;
            the poor who eat less than we eat;
            the prisoners who have not had smart lawyers.
We look up to your in exuberance.
We look around at them and our praise is muted,
    because we wonder some about your mercy;
         we are not completely sure of your generosity.
    Our praise turns to plea:
          look upon us in our common need
             and give us life again.
             give new life and we will recover
                   our voice of praise.

Until then, we will watch with eager longing
   and voice muted, hopeful but with those in need;
   we pray toward you but are marked by hints of absence...
           and we wait.

Walter Brueggemann