Advent Peace Psalm by Edward Hays

This litany was read yesterday in a beautiful Advent worship service I attended at LaSalle Street Church in Chicago. I thought it provocatively captured the mission of humble but bold renewal that I was trying to articulate in Chapter 4.

(I assume the psalm is taken from this collection; to appease the copyright police, I'll post only a portion.)

Advent Peace Psalm
Edward Hays

O Prince of Peace, whose advent we seek in our lives,
Come this day and show us how to beat our swords into plowshares,

Tools of life instead of instruments of fear.

May your love strip us naked of all weapons
and strategies of conquest,
which are not the tools of lovers, wise ones, and God's children

Let us not lust for power but rather strive for the insight to be guided on the Way of Peace

...

Let us be Advent adventurers and peacemakers
hammering swords into shovels, filling holes and leveling peaks.


Let us be disarmed and vulnerable,

For only through such open hands and hearts will Emmanuel come.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.