God of Light and Matter: Prayer in the Season of Lent

God of light and matter,

Gazing into fierce dark energy,
here on earth, not that which makes up space,
Gazing into all that darkness, spongy and close,

Piecing out gravitational pulls on us, it's time
to sort what makes and breaks us. Watching
for Doppler shift, in that vast vacuum, seeking
what brings light from so far away-why it comes
to us, here now, in the midst of our nighttime?

Seeking grace, and escape, like solar winds,
breaking loose to find that which is way out there,
while You? You reside within and among,
hard for us earthbound to grasp your incarnation,
Your presence housed in something akin to ours,
a body shared and broken in the midst of a vast vision
for humanity, while we seek comfort, and not the wide
expanse to which You call us, not the vastness to which
you whisper, "Come!"

As the earth circles the sun again this season,
as Lent sprawls out through this universe, hither
and yon, may it rest in me, may it remake me:
new energy, new matter, new purpose:

*To orbit Truth like a satellite, to remember
home, how far I've come, how far I have yet
to go.

*To remember the One whose voice
echoes through the light years, calling me,
and all.

*To recall what was noise to one, proved the origin
of the universe to another, in the story of static
and the cosmic microwave background.

*To sort sonance and sounds, to finally tune in to Your
"I am."

Selah.

(This prayer first appeared in the National Council of Churches Lenten "Expansive Language" Prayer Collection "Words Matter" on March 6, 2012. It is part of the on-going work of The Justice for Women Working Group of the National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA, which has worked to address the topic of inclusive and expansive language within the Church.)