Holy Week Prayer
by Walter Brueggemann
This day of dread and betrayal and denial
causes a pause in our busyness.
Who would have thought that you would take
this eighth son of Jesse
to become the pivot of hope in our ancient memory?
Who would have thought that you would take
this uncredentialed
Galilean rabbi
to become the pivot of newness in the world?
Who would have thought that you-
God of gods and Lord of lords-
would fasten on such small, innocuous agents
whom the world scorns
to turn your creation toward your newness?
As we are dazzled,
give us the freedom to re-situate our lives in modest,
uncredentialed, vulnerable places.
We ask for freedom and courage to move out from our nicely
arranged patterns of security
into dangerous places of newness where we fear to go.
Cross us by the cross, that we may be Easter marked.
Amen.
May you take time this Holy Week to be with Jesus as he moves from the tender fellowship of the Last Supper to the agony of Crucifixion to the glory of Resurrection. And may you be stretched and challenged and blessed as you do so.