Cory Talks Us to Life

Photo by Connor Gan on Unsplash

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You are the Word who calls the world into being.

You are the voice that stills the waters of chaos.

You are the speech that summons the demons to obey.

You are the utterance that makes all things new.

It is a mystery and a wonder that

we may echo your reality-summoning voice;

we also may speak words that summon new worlds of possibility.

There is so much toxic speech among us,

propaganda that distorts,

ideology that deceives,

flat-out lies told in high places,

all on the twisted tongues of lethal serpents who seek to talk us out of reality.

But then in the midst of such phoniness,

there is speech that rings true to the reality of our lives.

We thank you that we are a democracy of free speech.

We are grateful that there are among us yet reliable utterances,

sometimes in the media,

often in our public forums,

even in the church that claims to speak truthfully.

Just now we are grateful for Cory Booker,

for his long-running speech,

for his testimony to good governance,

for his integrity that does not flinch from truth-telling.

We ask that you give us bold tongues for truth-telling,

even when such truth tells against our ideologies,

even when such telling calls into question our habitual self-deception,

even when such truth-telling exposes our favorite illusions.

We ask that you give us open ears

to hear the truth when it is uttered,

to hear the weeping of the lost and the forgotten,

to heed the pleas of the needy who are left behind in our abundance.

Bold tongues and open ears:

the essentials for a viable neighborhood,

the requirements for a caring community,

the condition of a functioning economy.

Forgive us our silence;

rescue us from our deafness;

tune us in to the cadences of creaturely need;

dial us in to the wonder of creaturely gratitude;

give us steadfast courage to replicate your creative utterance

and call into being new public possibilities.

We pray as we relish your life-giving utterance.  Amen

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