The Threat Upon Us

A Prayer by Walter Brueggemann (C) - slightly adapted for our circumstances from "Prayers for a Privileged People"

Springtime . . . when the living is easy.

We take our ease, even amid terrorism. The threat is mostly remote, and the war in Iraq (or Afghanistan or Sudan or . . . ) scarcely calls us in our privilege to attention.

And then, right in the middle of our easy living, the news breaks: an influenza outbreak.
There is sickness, death and it continues to spread.

We experience a sinking sense that the world is not safe, that our life is not free of threat, and we wonder where and when next will come assault on our well-arranged lives.

We turn to you, partly out of need, partly out of habit, partly out of trust.

We know you to be Creator, who maintains order, Redeemer, who loves us more than we love ourselves. But we are so self-sufficient, we do not easily turn from our ways to yours.

And so amid our trust in you comes our fated self-confidence, our urge to manage, our wish for self-sufficiency.

So we, unsettled in deep ways, want to believe more than we do. But even now we believe enough to know that your good way does not depend on our trust.

So be our God—yet again— this time, and we will be honest in our double-mindedness as we turn to you in our fear. Amen.