Oh God, this text, this gift you give,
Is mine to mine and open wide,
Explain, explore, illuminate, apply:
Share life-giving breath.
Oh Father, whose very Word,
Enshrined in flesh, enfleshed to live,
To die, to rise and so to save and reign:
Find solidity in me just now.
Oh Son, whose words,
healed, restored, redeemed and reconciled
the blind, lame, sin-sick and even dead:
Speak again through me.
Oh Spirit, whose presence
presided over and resided in
priests, kings, prophets and scribes of old:
Stand guard, abide with me this day.
Oh God, who promised dried bones might live,
Whose words could calm a raging storm,
Whose voice melts mountains and brings kings to naught:
Keep these men and women wakeful, for half an hour, as I speak.
Oh Lord, who sees and judges the inner mind of all,
Who understands what psychologists fear to ask,
Who unravels the mysteries of the human heart:
Grant some truth might penetrate these lives and stick.
Oh Blessed Trinity, who chose text to speak to all the nations,
Who wrought truth in ink by faltering human hands,
Who brought forth light, through words, in fractured human history:
Use my human voice and speak to Your people now.
Oh Eternal Father, Son and Spirit,
You who do not fail nor fade,
Take me, in my unwilling duplicity, and speak Your truth:
Transform these dusty sinners into radiant saints.
© Andy Shudall (May 2013)
