Ears but do not hear

Ears but do not hear

  The idols have ears but do not hear …

    so unlike you, for all your hearing …

    so like us, ears but do not hear.

  You have endlessly summoned us: shema,

                       listen,

                       listen up,

                       pay attention,

                       heed,

                       obey,

                       turn …

  We mostly do not … in our narcissism,

               in our recalcitrance,

               in our departure from you.

  So we pray for ears, open, unwaxed,

             attentive, circumcised.

  Call us by name … so that we know,

  Call us to you … so that we live,

  Call us into the world … so that we care,

  Call us to risk … so that we trust

             beyond ourselves.

  You speak / we listen / and comes life,

               abundant,

               beyond all that we ask or think …

  Our ears to hear your word of life.

  Amen.

* A prayer based on reading Jeremiah 10:1–16. 

Walter Brueggemann, (2003). Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (E. Searcy, Ed.;(. Fortress Press.

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