A Prayer for the Sojourner
I recently wrote a prayer for a TAPP event where people from all different places in life will be once again exposed to the realities of the AIDS pandemic and the different worlds that exist because of these structures. I thought it wouldn't hurt to post it on here either. Hope it is worthwhile.
Friend.
I pray that as you leave today, you continue your journey to be a person rooted in energizing memories and summoned by a radical hope in a God that does not see AIDS as a fact of life, but a reality that can be affected by our choices.
When the statistics are overwhelming and the problems are many…I pray that you hope in a God that is bringing heaven to earth and calling us to be participants in that transformation.
When keeping your eyes open to suffering next door and across the globe makes you weary, I pray that you are comforted by true peace and given strength to continue the good journey.
Like the prophet’s vision of the true fast, may your light break forth like the dawn when you share your bread with the hungry.
May you keep close to you the stories of a love so pure that the empire put him on a cross, a life born into a poor family in a poor neighborhood that shook the foundations of power and deeply threatened the present order. Remember this Christ that inaugurated a new Kingdom, a new culture.
And remember now the stories of those in Uganda who may seem so far from you while their stories now feel so close. Remember the ways they have taught you how powerful love can be. It is by these energizing memories that I pray you become a person summoned by radical hopes and a stirred imagination that takes small, patient, thoughtful steps to become a curiosity to a world that so desperately needs love.
And now may the Word that became flesh walk with you always. May you always see Christ in those you meet, and may others experience the life of Christ in you.
May you, my friend, choose Hope.
Amen
Friend.
I pray that as you leave today, you continue your journey to be a person rooted in energizing memories and summoned by a radical hope in a God that does not see AIDS as a fact of life, but a reality that can be affected by our choices.
When the statistics are overwhelming and the problems are many…I pray that you hope in a God that is bringing heaven to earth and calling us to be participants in that transformation.
When keeping your eyes open to suffering next door and across the globe makes you weary, I pray that you are comforted by true peace and given strength to continue the good journey.
Like the prophet’s vision of the true fast, may your light break forth like the dawn when you share your bread with the hungry.
May you keep close to you the stories of a love so pure that the empire put him on a cross, a life born into a poor family in a poor neighborhood that shook the foundations of power and deeply threatened the present order. Remember this Christ that inaugurated a new Kingdom, a new culture.
And remember now the stories of those in Uganda who may seem so far from you while their stories now feel so close. Remember the ways they have taught you how powerful love can be. It is by these energizing memories that I pray you become a person summoned by radical hopes and a stirred imagination that takes small, patient, thoughtful steps to become a curiosity to a world that so desperately needs love.
And now may the Word that became flesh walk with you always. May you always see Christ in those you meet, and may others experience the life of Christ in you.
May you, my friend, choose Hope.
Amen
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© 2009 Created by Kevin Doyle on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
To think that the Word became flesh in the context of all I experienced in Uganda makes so much more sense now... when Paul talks of the Word being made flesh, he talks of Jesus of Nazareth... But I never thought to look at this language in a new sense... to realize, that now...Jesus Christ, the body, the church... the people of God, are to make the Word flesh, to dwell amongst us and to change us...
This is a beautiful picture...