Litany for Laws

The Lectionary readings for this week (Proper 22, Year A) include the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus, Paul's account of his view of his own righteousness in Philippians, and a parable given by Christ as a warning to some self-righteous Pharisee's. Laws and law-abiders.

God, we have all kinds of reasons to feel smug:
We follow the laws;
We donate to charitable organizations;
We pay our taxes;
We go to church on Sundays;
We don’t cheat, steal, or murder.

We have a lot of self-righteousness,
And only a little humility.

See: we’ve forgotten that behind the letter of the law
There is the spirit;
That behind the commandments,
There is “Love God. Love Neighbor.”

We can follow every law
And obey every commandment
And it won’t change our hearts
Or fill us with your spirit.

Don’t let us do all this work to maintain appearances
And never have our hearts opened.
We need to go beyond the law, to the inner person,
And be renewed in our inmost being.
We need our laws to be reflections of our loves:
For you, God, and for our neighbors.
What we need is deep, heart-and-soul healing;
We need the presence of Christ in us.

Straighten us out, God.
We need your help.

Amen

Litany for Emptying

This prayer is taken from the Lectionary readings for October 1, 2017 (Year A).

God, your ways are unfathomably fair:
You take no pleasure in death (1).
You dole out mercy after mercy,
Chance after chance;
To turn from iniquity,
And deny wickedness.

Trouble is, we tend to project our ideas onto you
Of what fairness is,
Of who should receive punishment,
Of where grace should go.

Generations of people have grumbled against you
Accusing you of unfairness
Calling your generosity and patience into question
And confusing vengeance with justice.

We have done this.
Forgive us, Oh God.

As Christ emptied himself
Taking the form of a slave (2)
He humbled himself
And trusted God to exalt him. (3)
Christ exercised his most profound power,
Which we all share:
The power of Emptying --
The power of Forgiveness.

Give us a new heart
And a new spirit (4)
Empty of selfish ambition and vengeance (5)
Full of humility and trust.

Amen.


1) Ezekiel 18:32
2) Philippians 2:7
3) Philippians 2:9
4) Ezekiel 18:31
5) Philippians 2:3

Litany for Scarcity

As I contemplated this week’s Lectionary readings, I noticed the themes of scarcity and provision. In the Exodus 16, the Israelites are sure they are going to starve, complaining about their empty bellies, and God rains down meat and bread from heaven. In the passage from Jonah, Jonah grumbles because he doesn’t like God’s idea of retribution, which is that God gives mercy. He also grumbles because God grows a miraculous bush to shade him, and it only lasts a day. In the Matthew passage, some farm workers agree to work for a daily wage, then are angry when others receive the same wage despite working fewer hours.

I can identify with that feeling of desperate craving and need; or with that frustration when I feel that fairness hasn’t been dealt; or that someone else has received more than me. Someone else has perhaps worked less and received greater notoriety. That jealousy. That feeling that I had a good thing and it was taken away and I want it back and now I want to die (Jonah says this in 4:9 - he is angry enough about the bush to die).

If we’re being honest, God’s generosity often makes us mad. God gives to people we don’t think deserve it. God is merciful toward those we believe should be punished. God is way nicer than we think God should be. We want God to adopt our ideas of fairness and equality. Because we think there isn’t enough to go around. We think the goodness of God is a limited commodity.

God, we admit that we spend a lot of time resisting your generosity,
Especially when it’s toward other people and we feel left out.
We bemoan the loss of things we did nothing to create (1).
We cry over the end of comforts (2).
We concern ourselves with equal distribution and retribution.
We complain about fair and unfair.

Who are we to decide the fate of a worker or a nation (3)?
Who are we to tell you what justice is?

When the sun shines on both the evil and the good
Is that fair?
When the rain falls on the just and the unjust (4),
Is that just?
When a worker who works an hour is paid the same as one who works ten (5),
Is that righteous?
When a wicked nation is saved from ruin by the mercy of God (6)
Is that goodness?

This abundance,
This generosity,
This nonjudgmental giving,
These endless means,
Are things we can’t wrap our minds around.
We are conditioned for scarcity.
It is a great lie
We’ve all believed it.

The world says: give equally
You say: give generously.
The world says: give just enough
You say: give as if goodness will never run out.

Because it won’t:
Your goodness will never run out.
Help us to live as if love and mercy and provision are unlimited.
Help us to live in the abundance of God.

Amen

(1) Jonah 4:10
(2) Jonah 4:8
(3) Matthew 20:16, Jonah 4:11
(4) Matthew 5:45
(5) Matthew 20:12
(6) Jonah 3:10
 

Litany for Fools

This litany addresses the Lectionary text for the Feast of the Cross, focusing on the Corinthians passage.

God, where most people only see chaos and destruction
We see the helpers. (1)
Where most people only see wrath and anger,
We see unending love and patience.
Where most people only see torture on a cross,
We see a story of kindness lived out.
Where most people only see humanity destroying itself
We see the Kingdom near.

We admit it:
We are utter fools (2) --
Seeing beyond seeing,
Believing beyond seeing,
Imagining beyond believing,
Hoping beyond imagining.

Though the earth may give way
And the mountains fall into the sea,
We will not fear. (3)
We will not stop hoping in your love.

We are fools to believe in peace
Where peace seems impossible.
We are fools to believe in love
Where love seems implausible.
We are fools to hope in an eternal story behind the time-bound one,
When hope seems ridiculous.

But we are happy fools,
Alive in your life,
Alive in the foolishness of the cross of Christ,
Ready to offer hope to the wise. (4)
 

(1) Quote from Fred Rogers: ““When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
(2) 1 Corinthians 1:18
(3) Psalm 46:2
(4) 1 Corinthians 1:21

Litany for Burning Bushes

The Old Testament passage for this week's Lectionary reading is the account of Moses encountering the burning bush, from which God speaks to him, delivering a surprising and scary task he must fulfill. The task exposes Moses' deepest insecurities, dark tendencies, and frailties, even while making him one of scripture's most epic characters. I resonate so deeply with Moses' first response to God's presentation of the task, which is to immediately list out all the reasons why he thinks he can't do it.
 

For those of us who are having Burning Bush Moments
Lord hear our prayer.
For those whom it is taking every ounce of faith to believe that it’s actually You speaking to us,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who receive callings that will require courage and sacrifice
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who will lose friends, family or reputation as a cost of obedience
Lord hear our prayer.
For those for whom silence would be a great sin,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those whose feet burn from standing on holy ground.
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who, like Moses, think our insecurities our inadequacies disqualify us from your call,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who think God might have called the wrong number,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who have been doing one thing one way for so long that we can’t imagine doing another,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those whose callings will expose every hidden thing inside our hearts,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who might fail,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who are willing, however reluctantly, to go to the wilderness,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those to whom You must prove your faithfulness and love over and over and over again,
Lord hear our prayer.
For those whose shame and fear keeps us from the Promised Land.
Lord hear our prayer.
For those who are so angry and frustrated with the way things are that we can hardly contain it.
Lord hear our prayer.
For those to whom you speak face to face, as to a friend,
Lord hear our prayer.

Amen

Litany for the Midwives

This week’s Lectionary contains the story of Shiphrah and Puah, the two Hebrew midwives who creatively and subversively thwarted the pharaoh’s plans to kill all the boy babies of the enslaved Hebrew nation. It’s an exciting tale of how two valiant midwives changed the course of their people’s history.

Having given birth a couple times in the company of midwives, I feel qualified to point out a thing or two about them: they know the value of patience, and they know when a situation is untenable and must have intervention. They know when to apply a walk and a snack, and when to apply forceps (or for that matter, a trip to the ER). They wait and watch and care. They pay attention.

God, You have saved us by many creative means
Over the years of humanity’s existence.

You’ve saved your people by means of trumpets and shouts,
    by means of manna from heaven,
    by means of water from rocks,
    by means of the miraculous and the mundane.

And you’ve saved your people by means of valiant midwives.
Those women entrusted to usher the future into the world
In the midst of pain and travail,
With wisdom, experience, and alertness.

May we all be like the midwives,
Working in quiet devotion
Or in subversive creativity --
Those who care for those who carry,
Those who comfort and calm,
Those who shift breaches and unblock exits,
Those who urge us to PUSH when the time is right,
Those who know when to wait and when to cut,
Those who catch slippery bundles of goodness as they emerge,
Those who bind up wounds of effort.

May we have the vision of the midwives
Who could imagine a future beyond what they could see,
And were willing to risk their lives and reputations
To give it a chance to arrive.

We thank you for the Midwives,
For those who are as shrewd as serpents,
As innocent as doves (1),
Protecting the future as it is born.

Amen

(1) Matthew 10:16

 

Litany for Unity

This week's Lectionary litany draws on the passages from Genesis 45, as well as Psalm 133 and Isaiah 56.

God, sometimes your commands are baffling! You seem to expect absurd things from us,
Things which go against our grain:
To love our enemies,
To forgive our betrayers,
To provide for our oppressors,
To eat at a table with sinners,
To support sick and poor people,
To renounce violence,
To welcome foreigners
To embrace outcasts (1).

Your paradigm is so different from ours --
Your sacrificial love. Our self-absorbed defense --
We can hardly wrap our minds around it,
And yet it is the most compelling thing we’ve ever heard.

When Joseph saw his brothers after so many years
Who had sold him into slavery and ruined his life,
He wept
And welcomed them.

How very good and pleasant it is
For kindred to live together in unity! (2)

Help us to remember in the midst of conflict and dispute:
We are one.
We are the betrayer,
And we are the betrayed.
We are the poor,
And we are the oppressor.
We are the sinner,
And we are the sinned against.
We are the weepers,
And we are the wept upon. (3)

You, God, have welcomed all to your table; every human being, your own child.
Let us dwell together in unity.

Amen

(1) Isaiah 56:8
(2) Psalm 133:1
(3) Gen 45:14, 15
 

Litany for Solitude

As I read this week's Lectionary passages, a couple of moments jumped out into my awareness:

This:

He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. (1 Kings 19:11-12)

and this:

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. (Matthew 14:23-25)
 

God was in the "sheer silence." And Jesus was alone before he walked on water. Take those for what you will, but I think they are pretty deep.

Beloved,
Oneness of All Things.
We know we must withdraw
Into silence
Into solitude
And yet we resist…

Because if no one is around then there is no one to validate us;
No one to reassure us that we are acceptable.
No one to reflect our fears back to us.
No one to ask for an opinion.
No one to distract us from our shadows.
No one but you and sheer silence (1).

It is only in solitude, which is to say, oneness with you
That we learn that we can walk on water (2).
Or heal sick people.
Or feed multitudes.
Or be raised from death.
Or bring heaven to earth.
In solitude we learn who we are.
In oneness with you we learn to be with others.

Help us to resist the pull of other things:
Responsibilities and possessions,
Noise and distractions,
Achievements and reputations,
Entertainments and addictions -
Things that lie to us, telling us they are more important.

Help us to draw ever deeper
Into the Center of All Things,
Into the Peace that Passes Understanding,(3)
Into the Love That Knows No Bounds.

Amen
 

(1) 1 Kings 19:12
(2) Matthew 14:23-25
(3) Philippians 4:7
 

Litany for Wrestling

This week's Lectionary selection includes the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel of God, and coming out with a limp.


To the Spirit of YHWH (God) we pray *
We speak from our deepest selves:

There is much to wrestle with in this life on earth:
Vocations
Human Relationships
Money
Reputations
Losses
Discernments
Not to mention, evil.

Most of us come out battered at worst, bruised at best. Certainly bearing scars.
None of us are exempt from trouble.
But there is a holiness to wrestling:
The worst is when we choose to not to engage.
From that we emerge unharmed,
But unchanged and unnamed (1).

So whatever you’ve given us to wrestle,
We will wrestle.
Help us to learn every lesson the first time, thoroughly.
Help us to go deep, without fear.
We will not let you go,
Until you’ve given us your blessing (2).

And whatever ways we must limp along after
We will know: we are better off than before.
For we have seen God face to face
And yet our lives are preserved (3).

Amen

 

1) Gen 32:28
2) Gen 32:26
3) Gen 32:30
*substitute the term of address for God that suits your community best. I like Yahweh, or YHWH. I also like Creator. But if God is most comfortable for you, use that.

Poem for Leah and Rachel

The Lectionary for July 30 includes the story of Leah and Rachel and Jacob. This is a hard story for me to engage with; the patriarchy and polygamy, the treatment of these two women is sometimes more than I can see past. There is much to learn from the story, but as a (modern, feminist) woman I must acknowledge the elephant there: two young powerless women being traded by their father for field labor, without their consent, determining the course of their lives. It arouses my own sorrow for the continuing plight of women in the world.

There are times when I can engage with a difficult text seamlessly. And sometimes not. This one was a not this week. So instead, I wrote a poem. Because, as a friend of mine who is a priest says, "If you can't make it happy, make it beautiful."
 

We made you work for it
But we were worth it.
You didn’t get exactly what you wanted at first
But in the end, you were happy.

We didn’t control our fate.
We had no say in whether, or when, we were given to you.

You obviously had a favorite.
Everyone knows that.
But we served you well
For little reward.
And you did the work. You agreed to the plan.
Because we were so valuable to you.

Plan A didn’t work out -
You were given second best;
A saboteur got the better of you,
While you, in your lust, weren’t paying attention.
Plan B got you your beloved,
Who was barren for the longest,
But beautiful and graceful
And resentful.

None of this was perfect. None ideal.
But you became rich anyway, a father of many.
We were jewels among your hoard,
Breeders among your flock.
Your 14 years of labor
Paid your penance.

Who is Jacob
To complain about his inheritance?
 

Litany for Jacob’s Ladder

The account of Jacob's dream of a ladder to heaven with angels ascending and descending it, and the words of God to Jacob, is part of the Lectionary for July 23.

God, in our dreams we see you;
Even in our sleep you speak to us.
Oh, that we would be so conscious in our waking,
So aware of you in our daily lives!

We dream of angels.
We dream of heaven.
We dream of ascending.
We dream of your kingdom coming down.

You were always with us,
Even when we didn’t realize.
The house of God is here,
The gate of heaven is here (1).

Let the blessing that began with Jacob (2).
Continue in us:
That you are with us, and will keep us wherever we go,
Always bringing us home to you;
That promises of your goodness
Will be fulfilled in us;
And that we will bless the world
By our presence in it (2).

1) Gen 28:17
2) Gen 28:14

Litany for Wheat and Weeds

This week's litany comes from the Parable of the Weeds in Matthew 13, part of the Lectionary readings for July 23.

Here we are, God,
Waiting among weeds;
Trying our best to bear fruit,
Though many forces seek to choke us out.

Send your angels to us
To help and guide us.
Give us your protection
And let us rest in your goodness.

When all is said and done
We’ll be even closer to you:
Our wounds healed
Our hearts made whole;
Our trials will finally make sense,
Our lessons will reap a harvest of wisdom.

For you have sown good seed
Even though we’ve been confused sometimes.
Your goodness has stretched out long over your creation,
And you’ve patiently spared us time and again.
We’ll shine like the sun
Reflecting your light.

Amen

Litany for Jacob and Esau

The story of Jacob and Esau is part of this week's Lectionary reading. The heartbreaking story of brothers who opposed one another and competed from the beginning, who only made peace after a lifetime of heartache and pain.

Before we were born, we were poised to be enemies;
We were taught to hate.
Before we were born we fought and tussled;
We were expected to compete.
Before we were born there was already bad blood between us
We were initiated into heirarchy.

We come from a long history of war-mongers,
Peace-breakers,
Persecuters and persecuted,
Slaveholders and slaves.
We never expected another way but to rule or be ruled.
We have never known anything different.

This way continued for a long time:
We perpetuated it because we couldn't imagine anything else
Until the Christ came
And blew our minds open with a new gospel.

He gave us a new paradigm for living:
To love our enemies
To bless those who persecute us
To turn our cheeks to violence
To lead by serving
To share from abundant hearts
To make love the greatest virtue
To forgive and be forgiven
To care for the weakest among us
To regard God, not as enemy, but as friend.

It has taken many centuries for these ideas to sink into our consciousness
But, hallelujah! We are progressing
Christ has reinvented living,
The old ways are passing away.
And may the power of the new idea, the good news, the new paradigm of Christ
Give us hope for the future.

Amen

Litany for Unburdening

This week's Old Testament story is the account of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. God stops him, and gives him a ram to sacrifice instead. Abraham had already experienced quite a few miracles up until this point, but I still wonder if he was surprised. Did he feel a weight of dread lift from his shoulders? Did he feel unburdened when he realized he no longer had to prove his obedience to God, that God was merciful?

Creator and Lover of our Souls, you have done a mighty work:
We are free, Hallelujah!
Sacrifice and burnt offerings you haven’t required of us (1)
We don’t have to save ourselves.
You claimed the burden of proof in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ:
We don’t have anything more to prove!

We were slaves to our material lives
Slaves to our reputations and success
Slaves to our own selfish limitations
Slaves to earning and hoarding
Slaves to fear and retaliation
Slaves to shame and darkness.

And now we are free, Hallelujah! (2)
Free to speak peace into being (3).
Free to bend swords into plowshares (4)
Free to offer mercy and serve grace.
Free to share generously from your abundance.
Free to embrace joy.

The mystery of your plan and the goodness of your heart
Are all that consumes us now.
We walk along, singing
Because you have dealt bountifully with us. (5)

Amen

1) Psalm 40:6
2) Romans 6:17,18
3) Jeremiah 28:9
4) Isaiah 2:4
5) Psalm 13:6

Litany for Hagar

This week's Old Testament Lectionary passage is the story of Hagar, whom Abraham cast out into the desert along with her son. But God sneakily rescued her; even though she was a slave and a woman, the lowliest of the low, God valued her and protected her.

Creator, Protector of the Lowly
Defender of the Weak:
You do not despise the needy;
You do not cast out those without status.
Your eye is always on the underdog,
And you care for those on the margins.

You rescued the lowly servant girl Hagar
Who had no power, no authority to choose a life for herself.
She served Abraham to the utmost, even bearing him a child.
Abraham cast her out; but you, God, rescued her.
You gave her water in the desert and preserved her life.
Her child grew into a father of nations. (1)

Your ways are not our ways:
     Social Status
     Breeding or family line
     Material wealth
     Race
     Gender
The world categorizes and assigns value to people according to these things,
But you, God, see beyond, to the inner person.

(All:) Hallelujah!

Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
For I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life,
For I am devoted to you;
Save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God. (2)

Amen

(1) Genesis 21:8-21
(2) Psalm 86:1,2

Pentecost 3 (Year A): Litany for Wonders

The Old Testament text for this third week of Pentecost is Genesis 18, the account of messengers coming to Abraham and Sarah and informing them that Sarah will give birth to a child in her old age. When Sarah hears this, she sees the irony and humor of it - Now? After I’m old and gray and spent my youth hoping and praying for a child? Now? I imagine she laughed for joy and irony and disbelief and the ignorance of men. I imagine if she’d been texting her sister in that moment she’d be like IDK IF THESE OLD DUDES KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WOMEN. WE ARE NOT ETERNALLY FERTILE. LOL!

But the Lord responds: Is anything too wonderful for me?

And so, old Sarah gets knocked up, gives birth, and names her kid “Laughter.” Wonders never cease.

 

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? (1)
Nothing is too wonderful for you.
You make wonders bloom from your hands,
And from your imagination spring amazing things.

Your wonders will never cease.
Your wonders will never cease.

Old women bear children. (2)
Trees bear fruit out of season.
Rocks give forth springs of water. (3)
Seas part. (4)
Storms are stilled. (5)
Sickness and disease are cured. (6)
Whole nations are brought out of bondage. (7)
Crowds are fed from your hand. (8)
Dry bones are enlivened. (9)
The dead are raised to life. (10)

Your wonders will never cease.
Your wonders will never cease.

We enter your presence with thanksgiving,
And your courts with praise.
We give thanks to you,
We bless your name.
For you are good; your steadfast love endures forever,
and your faithfulness to all generations. (11)

Amen

(1) Genesis 18:14
(2) Genesis 21:2
(3) Numbers 20:11
(4) Exodus 14:21
(5) Matthew 8, Mark 4
(6) Matthew 10:8
(7) Exodus 20
(8) Matthew 14, 15, John 6, Mark 8
(9) Ezekiel 37
(10) John 11, Mark 5, Luke 8, 1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 4, and many more
(11) Psalm 100:4,5

Trinity Sunday (Year A): Litany for Holy Trinities

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
The love of Yahweh,
And the communion of the Holy Spirit
Surround us. (1)

On all sides we are surrounded
By a trinity of grace, mercy and love.
Just as Creator, Son, and Spirit
Live in harmony together.
So do Truth, Beauty, and Righteousness
Live in harmony together.

Things we never thought could come together
Have joined in communion.
    Body and Blood have allied with Healing.
    Pain and Brokenness have become Teachers.
    Love and Mercy have fulfilled Justice.
    Servanthood and Kindness have completed Authority.
    Last and First have re-imagined Heirarchy.
    Questions and Freedom have informed Certainty.
    Dirt and Spit have alchemized Life.
    Body and Mind have been enlivened by Spirit.
    Light and Darkness have given shape to Vision.
    Resurrection and Ascension have made way for Presence.
   
Seemingly unrelated, incomplete ideas have been made whole
Holy Trinities abound on this earth, doing good work:
    Bad made good
    Last made first,
    Servant made ruler
    Poor made rich.
    Ordinary made sacred;
In the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks be to God
For the Gift of the Spirit
Which completes and gives life to all things:
Thanks be to God.

Amen

(1) 2 Corinthians 13:!3

 

Ascension Day: Litany for Spiritual Power

This Sunday is Ascension Day, in which we remember the ascension of Christ into heaven. The week's Lectionary reading contained the word "power" 6 times. The word stuck out to me, and I was thinking about how the church calendar and Lectionary selections are leading up to the next BIG DAY, which is Pentecost. And about how mostly we go around completely forgetful that we have any access to spiritual power at all, that we have been shared power to change things, move mountains, bring healing and peace, offer forgiveness. Seems like a first step to tapping into that might be simply acknowledging it. Just speaking the word aloud seems to bring with it a new energy. So I invite you to pray this prayer with me, as we raise your awareness of our inheritance.

Sing praises, all the earth, sing praises!
Clap your hands, dance for joy, all you people! (1)
For the Holy One is ruler over all,
Overseeing with majesty, wisdom and love. (2)

The Christ has risen from the dead.
He has scoured hell and overcome it.
The Christ has appeared in life,
Proving himself and his word
The Resurrection and the Life, the Christ,
Has ascended into heaven and is seated at Yahweh’s right hand.
We, who look to Christ as our example and our teacher,
Wait upon his promise of power.

And indeed it has been given to us:
A spirit of wisdom and revelation as we come to know Christ (3)
That the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened
That we may know the hope to which we are called
And the riches of our glorious inheritance,
The immeasurable greatness of his power. (4)

Christ, Help us to know
Help us to listen and understand;
Give us courage to walk in the fullness
Of the power of Christ in us.

Amen

1. Psalm 47:1

2. Psalm 93:1

3. Eph 1:17

4. Eph 1:18-19
   
   
   
   
    

Easter 6 (Year A): Litany for Abiding Love

The Lectionary passages for the sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A) include Acts 17, John 14, and Psalm 66. I've been contemplating what it might mean to be powered by love, as if divine love were a battery that fuels us. Or as if, when we take the bread and the cup of Eucharist, we ingest love, it becomes part of us, and fuels our activity in the world. How might we train ourselves to run on love rather than on ego? How can we learn to operate on a new system? What spiritual practices might form that pathway in us?

Eternal Divine Love,
Creator and Parent of all,
Ruler of Heaven and Earth
We are your children, your offspring. (1)

You give to all mortals life and breath
And all things.
You allot the times of our existence
And the boundaries of our places. (2)

We confess our blindness to your presence.
Make us aware of you.
We confess the smallness of our concept of you.
Enlarge our knowing.
We confess our ego-driven tendencies.
Power us instead with Love.

We have searched and groped for you
Though you are not far from each one of us. (3)
We cried aloud to you
And you have heard our prayer. (4)
We bless you,
For you have not rejected us nor removed your steadfast Love from us. (5)

Help us to keep your commandments (6)
And to abide in your Love .(7)

Amen

(1) Acts 17:28
(2) Acts 17:25,26
(3) Acts 17:27
(4) Psalm 66:17,19
(5) Psalm 66:20
(6) John 14:15
(7) John 14:21

Easter 5 (Year A): Litany for Looking at Christ

Here are the Lectionary passages for this Sunday, May 14, Year A. I have utilized the 1 Peter 2 and John 14 passages.
 

Eternal Christ, Out-poured Heart of God,
Merciful One,
Originator of Forgiveness,
Author of Peace:

It is to you that we can look
When we want to see God.
It is to you that we can draw near
When we want to be close to God.
It is you that we can imagine
When we want to understand God.
It is to you that we can turn
When we need to take refuge in God.
It is through you we can go;
You’re a direct route to God. (1)

You were with us all along,
But we kept on rejecting you. (2)
Now, just in the nick of time,
We are wrapping our arms around you. (3)

We rely upon your gracious promise:
That if we ask for anything in your name, you’ll do it. (4)
We ask to join you,
To be part of that divine communion --
You in God, God in you, (5)
Us, dancing and working along with you.
Where you are,
There may we be also (6)

Amen

(1) John 14:6
(2) 1 Pet 2:7
(3) 1 Pet 2:10
(4) John 14:13
(5) John 14:10
(6) John 14:3