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There is much talk today about “rebranding.”  When a product or image isn’t working we “rebrand” it, trying to refresh it so that it becomes vibrant and alive once again.  Today’s poem from Walter Brueggemann takes this idea of rebranding and expands it, connecting it in a much  more meaningful and significant way to what happens for us when we are baptized.  

Rebrand Us

You mark us with your water,
You scar us with your name,
You brand us with your vision,
    and we ponder our baptism, your water,
            your name,
            your vision.
While we ponder, we are otherwise branded.
    Our imagination is consumed by other brands,
-    winning with Nike
-    pausing with Coca-Cola
-    knowing and controlling with Microsoft.
Rebrand us,
    transform our minds,
        renew our imagination,
    that we may be more fully who we are marked and hoped to be,
    we pray with candor and courage.  Amen.


(Poem from: Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, Edited by Edwin Searcy, Fortress Press Minneapolis 2003. page 88.)

May God’s blessing be upon you today,
Dianne

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash