I don’t know about you, but for the last two years, I feel like I have been living in the twilight zone. Between the pandemic, the social and political landscape, and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it feels like we are spinning out of control. It’s hard to even keep up when we are so mentally and emotionally fatigued.

It’s times like this that I am so grateful for our scriptures. They ground me and help me to know that at the end of the day, at the end of it all, God is in control and love will win. I pray that within their pages, you find this comfort, too. May this prayer by theologian and scholar Walter Brueggemann, written in the days after September 11, 2001, speak to you of the firm foundation we have in scripture.

When the world spins crazy

When the world spins crazy

spins wild and out of control

spins toward rage and hate and violence,

spins beyond our wisdom and nearly

beyond our faith,

When the world spins to chaos as it does now among us…

We are glad for the sobering roots that provide ballast in the storm.

So we thank you for your rootage in communities of faith,

for many mothers and fathers

who believed and trusted

as firm witnesses to us,

for their many stories of wonder, awe, and healing.

We are glad this night in this company

for the rootage of this text,

for its daring testimony,

for its deep commands,

for its exuberant tales.

Because we know that as we probe deep into this text…

clear to its bottom,

we will find you hiding there,

we will find you showing yourself there,

speaking as you do,

governing,

healing,

judging.

And when we meet you hiddenly,

we find the spin not so unnverving,

because from you the world again has a chance

for life and sense and wholeness.

We pray midst the spinning, not yet unnverved,

but waiting and watching and listening,

for you are the truth that contains all our spin. Amen.