PRAYERS FOR THE BAPTISMAL JOURNEY . . . .

 

 

 

Re-brand us

You mark us with your water,

You scar us with your name,

You brand us with your vision,

and we ponder our baptism,     your water,

your name,

your vision.

 

While we ponder, we are otherwise branded.

Our imagination is consumed by other brands,

— winning with Nike,

— pausing with Coca-Cola,

— knowing and controlling with Microsoft.

 

Re-brand us,

transform our minds,

renew our imagination,

that we may be more fully who we are marked

and hoped to be,

we pray with candor and courage.  Amen.

 

 

Yes

You are the God who is simple, direct, clear with us and for us.

You have committed yourself to us.

You have said yes to us in creation,

yes to us in our birth,

yes to us in our baptism,

yes to us in our awakening this day.

 

But we are of another kind,

more accustomed to “perhaps, maybe, we’ll see,”

left in wonderment and ambiguity.

 

We live our lives not back to your yes,

but out of our endless “perhaps.”

 

So we pray for your mercy this day that we may live yes back to you,

yes with our time,

yes with our money,

yes with our sexuality,

yes with our strength and with our weakness,

yes to our neighbor,

yes and no longer “perhaps.”

 

In the name of your enfleshed yes to us,

even Jesus who is our yes into your future.  Amen.

 

…. from  Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth — Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, Fortress Press/Minneapolis, 2003

(submitted by Edward L. Lee, Jr.)