On reading 1 Samuel 16:1-13 on Maundy Thursday, Walter Brueggeman writes:
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 creation toward your newness?
As we are dazzled,
give us the freedom to restate 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.
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 creation toward your newness?
As we are dazzled,
give us the freedom to restate 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.