Ruler of the Night
Guarantor of the Day
This day — a gift from you
This day — like none other you have
ever given or we have ever received
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already
Halfway home
Halfway back to committees and memos
Halfway back to calls and appointments
Halfway on to next Sunday
Halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant
Half turned toward you, half rather not.
This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday
but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes
We begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
Of failed hope and broken promises
Of forgotten children and frightened women.
We ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
We can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.
We are able to ponder our ashness with some confidence
Only because our every Wednesday of ashes anticipates your Easter victory over that dry,
flaky taste of death.
On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
You Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with mercy and justice and peace and generosity.
We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.
Walter Brueggemann is an American Protestant Old Testament scholar and theologian who is widely considered one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last several decades. Taken from his Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008)