Pentecost

Wind of God, keep on blowing.
Sail over the barriers that we build
to divide ourselves from each other.
Pick up your seeds of freedom and truth wherever they flourish,
carry them across frontiers to be planted in other soil,
to begin fresh growth and new forms.
Blow from the South
to the ears of northern peoples.
Blow away the blinkers
which keep our eyes focused only on the past,
repeating its violence, deepening its divisions
and adding to its despair.
Reveal the new future you have in mind for us.

Fire of God, keep on burning,
smoulder in the hearts of people
where oppression keeps them in chains,
where unemployment and poverty devalue their humanity
and where hunger weakens the spirit.
Burn in them, like Moses’ bush,
and do not let them be destroyed.

Tongue of God, keep on speaking
so that the peoples of earth
can speak your language to each other
and all can hear you in their own.

Speak peace where nations meet,
justice where ideas clash,
mercy where power reigns,
healing where minds and bodies hurt,
and love where churches seek your unity,
and wherever else Babel drowns out the sound of Pentecost.

– Graham Cook