Invocation from Nate's Ordination

My beloved colleague Nate Dannison asked me to write an invocation for his ordination service, which happened earlier today. He said I could say whatever I wanted. Here's what I wrote:

Triune God, we call you to this place and moment-
knowing that you were herre before us,
and that you will be after we are gone-
but knowing that our hearts find strength
when we call out to you:

By the name of God the Mother and Father
who brings us to birth and to rebirth
who remembers every child,
who feeds every spark of liberation
and mourns every tear of oppression

By the Holy Spirit
who hovers over our lives
pulling us through distraction and despair
pulling us over the even-now-crumbling walls of empire
dismantling our sinful hierarchies

And by our brother the Risen Lord Jesus
who danced with us, even unto death,
who walks to the margins of the crowd
and snaps open his plastic case,
and takes out the world's rattiest
two dollar fiddle
and begins to play:
And when we hear his song
it is so familiar, so new; so bold and humble
so warm and troubling and romantic
that what can we do but
join his foolish dance eternal?

In the name of these three, and in the name
of the Beloved Communion of Saints,
who watch with us in joyful anticipation,
and in laughing certainty:

Come, Triune God,
and be present in this place and moment.

Amen.

Michigan to Palestine

Friends:

Many of you know Nate Dannison, or, as my mom calls him, "your friend who rides the train." Nate is a friend, brother, and CTS colleague, and he's doing an FTE summer ministry program in Palestine this summer. He's about a week into his Palestine time, and he's posting some pretty incredible stuff over on his blog, http://michigantopalestine.blogspot.com/

He was originally planning to build a playground while he's there, and he's still going to that, but he's added studying Arabic, investigating the architecture of the church of the nativity, and serving as an emt with the Red Crescent. (True to form, Dannison, true to form.)

Check it out, and keep him and his new friends in your prayers.