Riff on a Dave Gibbons Prayer

Thank you, God, that you've shown us what love is.
That it is a Word, something expressed and spoken, your Word, which has created all that exists; but it's not just something that is verbal, but alive and incarnate, like your Son, the Word made flesh.

We acknowledge that this love requires getting messy, dirty, and even bloody, and we often fall short of the glory that is this messy, dirty, bloody love.

We wonder what would happen, God, if we realized that surrendering to Jesus means we're going to be tested and be made uncomfortable. Lord, we lack the spirit for that. Give us that Spirit, and the new heart of courage that comes with it.

If we in the church could learn to see the beauty in chaos, because we're learning that the more chaos there is, the more it's about Jesus and not about us. Lord God of fractals, let your chaos map out beauty even when we can't yet see it.

If we could be a part of movements, events, conversations, and moments in which, if we don't exactly know what is going on, we can be content in just trying to keep up with what you might be doing instead of pressing our own agendas. We admit that even praying a prayer like this might be an expression of our own agenda, may especially be the expression of our own agenda. So Lord have mercy.

If we could learn to stop whining, stop trying to be in control, and lead simply with a contagious, abnormal joy. Yes, Lord, let us be completely abnormal in our joy.

If we could be able to live out the gospel in the settings where you place us, no matter how dark or uncomfortable. We may have the most difficulty in living out your gospel when everything around us seems plain and ordinary. Let us see how each moment and place is infused with your grace.

If, when we speak the gospel, our lives could make our words credible. If...

If we could play a part, the smallest of parts even, in helping this beautiful messy thing called the church discover new language, new symbols, and new forms, so she can reach this very new world we are all blessed to be living in.

For you have promised a new heaven and a new earth brought about by the new Adam, and our whole vision of new things now is transfigured by the new you have promised.

So we wait in hope.

Amen.