For Creation Time - Via Negativa
(Please feel free to use this prayer. Credit: Rev. Murray Speer.)
The prophet Jeremiah looked on the earth, O God of love,
and saw the undoing of creation.
What had been formless and fluid in the beginning,
called by you out of chaos and given form,
Jeremiah saw as once again an empty void.
Where in the beginning you had placed light in the heavens,
Jeremiah saw once again only darkness.
Where you had in the beginning made solid ground,
Jeremiah saw shaking mountains and quaking hills.
Where in the beginning you made the trees and flowers,
the birds and creatures,
Jeremiah saw nothing, nothing at all.
The prophet assumed that you were responsible for what he saw,
for who else could destroy the world that you created?
Who else could have the power to undo life, and unleash chaos?
The prophet didn’t know, O God of love,
what we would one day be capable of.
The fall of the great forests.
The melting of cities in an instant.
The release of 800 million litres of crude oil into the ocean.
The loss of biodiversity through habitat destruction.
Help us to believe that this future is not set.
For if we believe that it is, then we will be set.
Set in our ways; set in stone; set for destruction.
Help us to turn aside from the path that Jeremiah saw.
Lead us, more and more each day,
to move ourselves out of the centre of our worldview.
Through your word all things were made.
It is your word that is the centre of creation.
Send your word to cleanse our hearts,
and renew our faithful relationships
with your creation. Amen.
(Please feel free to use this prayer. Credit: Rev. Murray Speer.)
Jeremiah 4:23-28
I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above grow black; for I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn back.
The prophet Jeremiah looked on the earth, O God of love,
and saw the undoing of creation.
What had been formless and fluid in the beginning,
called by you out of chaos and given form,
Jeremiah saw as once again an empty void.
Where in the beginning you had placed light in the heavens,
Jeremiah saw once again only darkness.
Where you had in the beginning made solid ground,
Jeremiah saw shaking mountains and quaking hills.
Where in the beginning you made the trees and flowers,
the birds and creatures,
Jeremiah saw nothing, nothing at all.
The prophet assumed that you were responsible for what he saw,
for who else could destroy the world that you created?
Who else could have the power to undo life, and unleash chaos?
The prophet didn’t know, O God of love,
what we would one day be capable of.
The fall of the great forests.
The melting of cities in an instant.
The release of 800 million litres of crude oil into the ocean.
The loss of biodiversity through habitat destruction.
Help us to believe that this future is not set.
For if we believe that it is, then we will be set.
Set in our ways; set in stone; set for destruction.
Help us to turn aside from the path that Jeremiah saw.
Lead us, more and more each day,
to move ourselves out of the centre of our worldview.
Through your word all things were made.
It is your word that is the centre of creation.
Send your word to cleanse our hearts,
and renew our faithful relationships
with your creation. Amen.
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