Waiting in Gratitude: Prayers for Joy

By Walter Brueggemann

This collection of prayers by noted Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann can be used in both public worship and private devotion.These prayers run the gamut from particular days in the church year to special moments in the lives of worshiping communities to events playing out on the world stage. In all cases, the prayers show us how God accompanies us through all the moments and stages of our life, bringing us the joys of life even amid a broken and hurting world and especially offering a joyous calling in Christ to serve that world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Release date: Jan 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9781646983667

Walter Brueggemann

Walter Brueggemann is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he is the author of dozens of books, including Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now, Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out, and Truth and Hope: Essays for a Perilous Age.

Book preview

Waiting

in Gratitude

COLLECTED PRAYERS OF WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

Acting in the Wake: Prayers for Justice

Following into Risky Obedience: Prayers along the Journey

Waiting in Gratitude: Prayers of Joy

Waiting

in Gratitude

Prayers of Joy

COLLECTED PRAYERS OF

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, VOLUME 3

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

WITH BARBARA DICK

© 2024 Walter Brueggemann

Foreword © 2024 Westminster John Knox Press

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com.

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All other biblical quotations are the author’s paraphrase or translation.

Excerpts from O Lord My God, How Great Thou Art, words by Stuart K.Hine, © 1949, 1953 The Stuart Hine Trust CIO. All rights in the USA its territories and possessions, except print rights, administered by Capitol CMG Publishing. USA, North and Central American print rights and all Canadian and South American rights administered by Hope Publishing Company. All other North and Central American rights administered by The Stuart Hine Trust CIO. Rest of the world rights administered by Integrity Music Europe. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Book design by Drew Stevens

Cover design by Mary Ann Smith

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brueggemann, Walter, author. | Dick, Barbara A., other.

Title: Waiting in gratitude : prayers of joy / Walter Brueggemann ; with Barbara Dick.

Description: First edition. | Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, [2024] | Series: Collected prayers of Walter Brueggemann ; volume 3 | Includes index. | Summary: The prayers in this book show us how God accompanies us through all the moments and stages of our life, bringing us the joys of life even amid a broken and hurting world and especially offering a joyous calling in Christ to serve that world— Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023043776 (print) | LCCN 2023043777 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664268282 (paperback) | ISBN 9781646983667 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Prayer—Christianity. | Joy in the Bible.

Classification: LCC BV210.3 .B775 2024 (print) | LCC BV210.3 (ebook) | DDC 248.3/2—dc23/eng/20231127

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023043776

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023043777

Most Westminster John Knox Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups. For more information, please e-mail [e-mail].

CONTENTS

Foreword by Deborah Krause

Preface to Volume 3

ONE: PRAYERS OF JOY IN LIFE

For the Family

Emilia’s Confirmation

For Shannon and Jonathan (On the Occasion of Their Wedding)

Corinne and Jim . . . from Their Mothers’ Arms (Wedding Day!)

Love Lived Forward (For Nina and Marius)

For Jeff Crittenden

For Tad and His Tribe of Healers (Dr. James Tad Wilson Jr.)

Remembrance of Bob Hanson

Invocation

At Installation (For the Installation of Elizabeth Rechter as Rector)

At Installation (On the Installation of David Stabenfeldt and David Schnepf)

Called . . . and Kept in Goodness

Charge to Stacy Midge (Jeremiah 20:7–13)

Risking Our Secrets

Mike’s Last Saturday at Timberridge

Thanksgiving for Charlie . . . after Fifty Years!

On Considering Gunkel

Our Interpretive Task

Many Singing Saints

Weeping until Dawn (On Reading Psalm 30)

Waiting in Gratitude

Prayers of the People

For the Sake of the World

The Nominating Speech (On Reading Psalm 146)

Prayer of Thanksgiving at the Table

On Our Way Rejoicing

TWO: PRAYERS OF JOY IN CHRIST

Earth’s Scarred Yearning (Luke 24:36–43)

On Reading Exodus 7–12

Poor Pluto

On Reading 1 Samuel 5

One More Day in Our Birth Process

On Reading Isaiah 4:2–6

Jesus Loves Me, and Us, and All the Little Children

Joy amid Hurt

Before We Eat

Invocation at the Eucharist

On Reading Jeremiah 31:31–34 (DMin Day 8)

All Things Hold Together

On Reading Isaiah 6

For Your Reliabilities in Our Lives

From Parsimony to Abundance (Genesis 12–50)

On Generosity (A Chapel Prayer)

Loaves Abound!

Easter Tuesday

Full of Grace and Truth

Marveling at Your Sovereign Goodness

Overwhelmed by Promise

On Reading Psalms 96; 107

Awed in Gratitude

TGIF!

Soon!

On Reading Samuel

On Priestly Legislation

Beginning with Jeremiah

Unlike Us!

Gathered in Astonishment (On Reading Acts 10:44–48)

Scripture Index

Excerpt from Acting in the Wake: Prayers for Justice, by Walter Brueggemann

FOREWORD

The saying attributed to Augustine, Luther, and John Wesley that to sing is to pray twice has another application among theological educators—that is, to pray before class is to lecture ten times. As privileged students of Walter Brueggemann and his colleagues at places like Eden Theological Seminary and Columbia Theological Seminary, we would hang on the prayers of our teachers. Their practice of prayer before lectures and seminars and for special and ordinary occasions would inflame and inform our imaginations to be bold before the throne of grace. Among none has this been more true than for Professor Brueggemann.

For most of us the exercise was a powerful performance that would astound and convict, and for a few it played its intended role of vocational formation. A dear colleague and onetime student of Professor Brueggemann, the Rev. Dr. Martha Robertson, now emerita professor of contextual education at Eden Theological Seminary, continues, with renowned skill, to hone the craft of prayer learned from her seminary professors. Once I asked her how she did it. How are her prayers so vivid, honest, present, gorgeous, and arresting? I practice paying attention, she said. "I keep notes on experiences, language,