A Prayer on Earth Day

Yours —we gladly attest—is the kingdom, the power,
and the glory.

Yours—we gladly assert—are the heavens and the earth.

It is you who made all that is,
sun, moon, stars,
rivers, forests, fish—
and us.
We say, “in your image.”

Yours the kingdom and the power and the glory—and then us.

You do not will us to be powerless either,
so you endow us with power to work
to rule
to govern.

We reflect you in our working
in our ruling
in our governing.

Ours is the chance for justice and/or injustice
for mercy and/or rigor
for peace and/or war.

We grow accustomed to our power,
sometimes absolutizing,
and then are interrupted by the
doxology on which we have bet everything:

Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. And we are glad.

{Walter Brueggemann’s prayer “On Creation” from Prayers for a Privileged People}

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