Sunday, February 6, 2011

A Prayer For Super Bowl Sunday


The world of fast money, 
        and loud talk,
        and much hyp is upon us.  
        We praise huge men whose names will linger only briefly.


We will eat and drink, 
         and gamble and laugh,
         and cheer and hiss, 
         and marvel and then yawn.

We show up, most of us, for such a circus,
                  and such an indulgence.
          Loud clashing bodies, 
          violence within rules,
          and money and merchandise and music

And you - today like every day - 
           you govern and watch and summon;
           you glad when there is joy in the earth, 
           But you notice our liturgies of disregard and
                     our litanies of selves made too big, 
                     our fascination with machismo power, 
                            and lust for bodies and big bucks.

And around you gather today, as everyday,
       elsewhere uninvited, but noticed acutely by you,
            those disabled and gone feeble,
            those alone and failed,
            those uninvited and shamed.
And you whose gift is more than "super,"
            overflowing, abundant, adequate, all sufficient.

The day of preoccupation with creature comforts writ large.
We pause to be mindful of our creatureliness,
      our commomality with all hat is small and vulnerable exposed,
      your creatures called to obedience and praise

Give us some distance from the nice,
      some reserve about the loud success of the day,
      that we may remember that our life consists
                not in the things we consume
                but in the neigbors we embrace.  

Be our good neighbor that we may practice
     your neighborly generosity all through our needy
                       neighborhood.

Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People 

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