PRAYER FOR RUDOLF BULTMANN

PRAYER OF GRATEFULNESS

FOR RUDOLF BULTMANN

IN A DARK AMERICAN TIME

     for Peter Marty
Not apparatus, but illumined condition.

Such necessary brightness, denoting us.

Old scholar, cause and source of my liberation,

exquisite confrontation carrying me

through burned-out deserts of pews,

they said they suffered under your light,

that your brightness dimmed their own.

They wouldn't call it theirs.

In my time they dismissed you all-together.

A footnote to rebuild! Simpler? No.

What could be simpler than, Aha!

Oh no! I'm in for it now! Living now,

how could one ever do it alone?

The Word dresses me out, cadaver-like.

Jim Bodeen

All Souls Day, 2019