Ash Wednesday (Year C, 2022): Litany for Reconciling to God

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See also Litany for Ash Wednesday (2016)

This Ash Wednesday, we find ourselves in the midst of yet another tricky, dangerous global situation. It’s nothing new. There’s always a war somewhere. I began writing litanies in 2013 because I couldn’t find congregational prayers that addressed the war in Syria. I’ve written litanies about wars and tragedies more than just about anything else. Par for the course. I wish I could stop helping people pray about war (not whining, just saying). 

But I can’t. It’s here and we need to keep consciously aligning (reconciling) ourselves with God about it. So we keep praying, and I keep writing. 

Still, when the Psalmist pleads with God to “Have mercy on me!” we feel that in a different way from the brink of major global conflict, don’t we? Our nearness to dust, to death, is that much more in our awareness. 

When St. Paul entreats us to “On behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God!” we can pray that same intention: Russian aggressors, be reconciled to God! Heads of state, be reconciled to God! Military leaders, be reconciled to God! Arms manufacturers, be reconciled to God! And so on. 

So this year, we start our Lenten practice with this intention, and we commit to buckling down and praying through the storm of war and bloodshed, and doing as much justice and mercy as we can; and over and over, reconciling ourselves to God within us. 

God, on this Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season, we seek to reconcile ourselves to you .
We want the whole earth to be aligned with your goodness, 
Such that all violence and war ceases, 
All the needy are nourished and cared-for,
All oppression ends,
And every person is filled with joy and gladness ….


An Interfaith Litany for Trans Day of Remembrance

The Human Rights Campaign reports that 2021 has been the most deadly year on record so far for our Transgender siblings in the USA. This year 45 Transgender people have been murdered as a result of anti-trans violence. November 13-19 is Trans Awareness week, and November 20 will mark the 22nd annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. Read about Transgender Day of Remembrance here. 

I have written this litany for interfaith gatherings happening this week. And my particular hope is that Christians will wake up to the plight of our Trans siblings, made in the image of God, and lend their collective weight to the effort of creating a safe world for them. 

Also, I write this prayer to be read aloud among gatherings of people, most of whom I assume will not be trans. Where noted, please us alternative “we/our” pronouns in place of “they/their” if that makes more sense for your group. I could not figure a way to pray for and about my trans siblings without it feeling at least somewhat “othering” toward them - toward you my beloved human family. It is not my intention to other, but to embrace. If I have misstepped in any of the language in this prayer, I sincerely ask for correction. 

It is with great joy that we celebrate our transgender siblings (1), 
And great grief that we mourn the violence done to them.
We give thanks for each of our trans kindred 
Who embody the uncategorizable and boundary-defining nature of the Divine. 
Like all of humanity, they* too are made in the Divine image, 
Reflecting the Divine imprint. 

We remember our trans siblings who have been lost to violence, 
Unjustly sacrificed on the altar of society’s hatred and intolerance. 
[We confess our society’s indifference and un-love, 
And our own complicity in allowing these tragedies to continue. 
We ask that forgiveness and justice bear fruit in us. 
We are sorry. ] (1)
We honor them and send love to their spirits,
With prayers for their peace and well-being.

We set the intention to do better:
Provide safety and care, 
Nourishment and acceptance, 
To the most unique and vulnerable among us, 
And to normalize their* place in our communities, 
Cherishing the ways they* teach us (2) about goodness and love. 

We ask for wisdom in going about creating a world 
That is safe and welcoming for humans of all kinds, 
Knowing that when the world is safe for trans people, 
It is safer for all of Earth’s children. 

We ask that the minds and hearts of all people on Earth
Will be open to practicing kindness, hospitality, friendship, and love
Toward those among us who bear the Divine image in uncommon or surprising ways;
And that our governments and systems will work for their protection, 
Undoing patterns of oppression and violence,
Fostering liberation and joy for every human being. 

May our transgender family be safe, healed, provisioned, and happy, 
Sharing in the abundance of Earth,
The blessings of nature, joy, community, and freedom, 
And the blessing of home. 

May it be so. 

*Exchange they/their pronouns for we/our pronouns if the group praying the prayer is made up of primarily Trans people.
1) Exchange “our transgender siblings” for “our community” if the group praying the prayer is made up of primarily Trans people.
2)Omit the bracketed section if the group praying the prayer is made up of primarily Trans people.
3) Exchange us for “the world” if the group praying the prayer is made up of primarily Trans people.








Proper 24 (Year B 2021): Litany for Power in Service

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See also “Litany for the Greatness of God” which I wrote for these texts in 2018.

This year my attention is pulled in a different direction by these selections, specifically to Jesus’ words in Mark 10, “"You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.

It’s a challenging, radical, upside down way to understand and embody power. It’s one of the colest things, in my opinion, that Jesus says. And one of the most defining characteristics of power as he demonstrates and lives it out. His kind of power comes alongside, stands rooted firmly in the ground rather than upon the backs of other people. This power leads by serving, demonstrates care and love by action and example. It is not militaristic, hyperbolic, nor imperial. It’s expansive rather than towering; winsome rather than manipulative; inviting rather than commanding.

And it comes with a healthy dose of ego-emptying.

The way Jesus imagines authority, leadership, and power, and then lives them out in the stories is honestly why I bother thinking about Jesus at all. This way is so compelling and countercultural; and it looks nothing like displays of political, governmental, and organizational power that I see happening in the world. It relieves me to know that such a way exists and finds resonance in so many spiritual traditions.

And it isn’t lost on me that the First Testament texts start off by extolling God - how high, how mighty, how solely responsible for all of creation, how far above. And then Jesus in the Gospel saying how true power comes from below, from servanthood rather than lordship. It’s a pretty stark shift in perspective, inviting us to hold two seemingly paradoxical truths in tension. Pretty juicy.


God, we have ideas about power.
Our culture teaches us that power comes from military might,
From how much wealth and resources we own,
From the number of people whose lives we control,
From what deals we make and how productive we are,
From our big guns and our big egos…

Litany for Afghanistan

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This is a prayer for Afghanistan as that nation is in the midst of great turmoil and fear, in light of the US withdrawal after 20 years of occupation and war, and the return of the rule of the Taliban.

God, we remember to you those suffering in Afghanistan:
Non-combatants in fear for their lives and livelihoods, 
Women and girls historically abused and oppressed by the Taliban, 
Troops and workers watching the dissolution of decades of work, 
Soldiers mourning lost comrades, 
All who have worked and hoped for a better future for Afghanistan. 

We don’t claim to understand everything about what’s happening there,
But we know pain and chaos when we see it. 
The people of Afghanistan are our family; 
When they hurt, we hurt. 

God, bring peace and comfort to the Afghan people. 
Let the land no longer be a place of war and conflict. 
Bring just government and leaders who are fair and upright. 
Let inequality and oppression be relics of the past. 
Upend the cause of the unjust and destroy the plans of the wicked.
Restore the nation of Afghanistan to its truest beauty, it’s sacred home.

Forgive us for ways we, our government, our military, have been complicit in the chaos there.
Guide our government and military authorities in the path of insight (1).
May they learn to wield power in ways that help and not harm, 
To prevent war rather than perpetuate it, 
To know when to intervene on behalf of the vulnerable,
And when to mind their own business. 

We pray, here and abroad, for people and governments
That act justly and love mercy, 
That work persistently for the good of all, 
That protect and serve the vulnerable,
That uplift the oppressed,
That root out injustice. 

May God’s good community, your Kin-dom family,
Come on earth as it is in heaven. 

Amen

1) Proverbs 9:6


Litany for a Nation Brutalized by Violence

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I have written this litany as an offering. Finding words for the depth and breadth of what the collective, and in particular the Black and Asian communities, are experiencing (and have for centuries) in terms of violence feels impossible. But I feel our communities need to speak aloud about this to God, together. Not for some hollow "unity." But for sacred lament and consciousness.

I have tried to articulate these far-reaching problems - gun violence, violence against Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian folks, school and mass shootings, and more in this prayer of lament. But the task feels monumental. It is imperfect, but something is better than nothing for putting words and action to this lament. .

It is my hope that we will be drawn in to peace, and toward a non-violent, equitable future, toward Heaven on Earth. All beings safe. All beings provided for. All beings held accountable to love. Amen. Amen. May it be so.



God, we bring to you our lament 
And our sorrow. 

We are a people undone, 
Brutalized by violence:
By gun violence, 
By police violence, 
By violence against Black and Brown people, 
By violence against Indigenous and Asian people. 

Our streets are blood-soaked, 
And our history tainted by supremacist evil. 
We are crying out in lament, 
And we know that you weep with us. 

We grieve every lost life. 
We grieve every orphaned child. 
We grieve alongside every mourning family. 
We grieve every trauma and tragedy. 

We reject every system that makes some of us safe at the expense of the lives of others. 
We reject white supremacy and police militarization.
We reject government-sanctioned execution. 
We reject systems of mass incarceration. 
We reject systems that prioritize whiteness over all other people.
We reject systems of poverty and inequity.  

We lament; and we gather our power. 
We combine our resources to re-imagine this world,
To abolish inequity.
To create a safe and harmonious reality for every person. 
We join with those who have been working for justice tirelessly for decades. 
We apply our energy, money, time, and voices to this work. 

May the government of this nation be moved to right action, 
May the churches of this nation be spurred to work for justice. 
May the local and community leaders of this nation create positive change. 
May the economic systems of this nation cease to reward evil.  
May those who remain asleep or apathetic to injustice become conscious participants for good.
May we as individuals hold our leaders, government, and ourselves accountable to the work.

Let the fire of justice burn in every heart
So that every mother’s child may live in peace and safety.

Amen. 


Palm Sunday, Year B (2021): Litany for the Humble Way

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In Jesus, all of our ideas about glory, royalty, exclusivity, and honor get up-ended. People project all kinds of notions onto him, and he just proceeds with his work healing and preaching his message.

One minute (in last week’s text) he’s talking about how it's time for him to be “glorified” - when what he means is not exactly our ideal glory: death. As opposed to, say, winning military battles or wearing fancy priest robes. And the next minute (in this week’s Palm Sunday text) he’s playing the people’s game, riding into the city on an unbroke donkey. I can imagine him sortof shrugging like, “guess we’re doing this now.”

See, based on his actions here I don’t get the idea that he feels like he needs to be worshipped. He’s trailed by a crowd due to the fact that he’s just raised Lazarus from the dead* but he’s not letting it go to his head or calling attention to himself. He chooses the most lowly of pack animals. He seems happy with paltry palm fronds for offerings. His ego doesn’t require trumpets. He’s the most willing to get down and dirty with lonely and sick people in the streets and byways. I hear his main message as “God’s community is right here for you to join up with” and not “worship me I’m the king of the world.”

And I wonder how often we are getting this wrong: thinking Jesus needs to be put on a pedestal and worshipped rather than learned from and followed. I wonder how often we are that crowd, projecting our need for a loud and rowdy to-do onto Jesus, rather than plugging into the new way of being that he’s embodying and trying to help us wake up to.


God, we witness Christ in the scriptures
Embodying healing love,
Preaching the nearness of God,
Walking along the Path of Peace….

Litany for Our Planet

I feel a great deal of urgency combined with hope. People, especially people who claim to follow the Christ - the Peacemaking, violence-ending, death-resurrecting Christ - need to wake up to the understanding that caring for creation = caring for the poor. This is my prayer that Spirit People will not wait to face this, that they will start now, make and push for change now. So that we can leave a legacy of a healthy planet to our children and grandchildren.


God, we ask for your help. 
Our planet, our mother, is suffering
Due to human neglect, apathy, and greed; 
Due to overconsumption, mass production, and pollution.…


Proper 26 (Year C): Litany for Societal Awakening

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I write this after returning from a moving and enlightening trip to the border town of El Paso TX / Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Our group was graciously educated on border realities by the staff of Abara Frontiers, an El Paso-based non-profit, and it’s sister organization Ciudad Nueva. I highly recommend this trip. Getting first-hand experience on the realities of the border situation is the best way I’ve found to begin understanding and foster more compassion for these complex systems and those caught in them. I am on a constant journey of awakening, and so are many of the folks I walk alongside. Many of us are awakening from the deep sleep of Whiteness and White Privilege. Many of us are awakening to ways we have been complicit in and propped up systems of evil, injustice, and greed. Collectively, at least among the circles I’m part of, we are doing deep, necessary shadow work. Some of us are uncovering deep emotions we’d buried long ago, and patterns of behavior that are now unhelpful.

This is hard work. We wake groggy and disoriented. But each step takes us closer to a rich, full vision of the Community of God, the Kin-dom That Can Be. Each layer we uncover gets us closer to the soul of it. Here’s a prayer for us, based in passages from this week's Lectionary.



God, so many of us are crying out for justice,
We are witnessing societal wrong-doing,
Awakening to the greed, evil, and injustice among us,
And crying out for change…

Proper 20 (Year C): Litany for Economies

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This week’s Gospel reading from Luke 16 is one of those head-scratcher texts. The kind you read and know immediately that you don’t already have whatever context you probably need to understand the dynamics of. What do we do with Jesus when he says “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” ? I had to read several commentaries on the passage to get a start.

I was especially enlightened by Dr. Mitzi J. Smith’s commentary on this passage, which frames it as a slave parable and assumes the character of the “manager” to be an enslaved and oppressed person. She sagely reminds us that “wealth is generally built upon the backs of the enslaved, women, the poor, and the oppressed; that wealth for one usually presumes poverty for many. The larger the wealth gap in favor of a few, the more people are impoverished” (via Working Preacher).

Dr. Barbara Rossing suggests that Jesus is critiquing the capitalistic practice of charging interest on loans in her commentary, pointing out that “Luke is making connections between debt structures, the urgency of impending judgment, and the idol of Mammon [Wealth]” (via Working Preacher).

I’ve incorporated these ideas in this litany, as well as the overall themes in Luke’s gospel regarding wealth, greed, and what keeps us from an authentic spirituality and true discipleship (See last week’s text in which Jesus states: “None of you can become my disciple in you do not give up all your possessions” Luke 14:33). And drawn also from Amos 8 and Matthew 23.

Oh God, give us courage to examine the ways our lifestyles and cultural habits
Exploit the poorest among us.
Give us wisdom to see the ways we are complicit
In “trampling on the needy, and bringing ruin to the poor.”




Proper 17 (Year C): Litany for Humble Hearts

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This litany is drawn from the Lectionary passages for Proper 17 of Ordinary Time, Year C. Specifically from Hebrews 13, Psalm 112, and Sirach 10.


God, we know that the beginning of human pride is to forsake you,
As when our hearts withdraw from our Creator.
You exalt the lowly,
And admire the humble …



Proper 16 (Year C): Litany for Societal Injustice

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I don’t always take the Bible literally. But when I do, it’s Isaiah 58.

This passage of scripture, when set alongside the life and priorities demonstrated by Christ in the gospels, shows us a detailed picture of a just and thriving society. A society in which corporate avarice and greed, and the priorities of for-profit special interest groups are not the driving force of government or political policy. Instead mercy is. Instead love is. Care for the poor and the removal of unjust “yokes” (think, unjustly imprisoning black and brown folks for minor crimes. Think, lack of access to decent food and education for children. Think, losing your entire life savings because you got sick.) are the hallmarks of this society.

I think there are a lot of ways we can start moving toward this God-imagined ideal. We mostly haven’t tried any of them. If I have ever advocated for “Biblical values” (which I don’t usually because I mostly think that term is misused), these are them. Read em for yourself. I didn’t come up with this. This isn’t “liberal” or “conservative.” This is old-testament Judeo-Christian Orthodoxy validated by the new-testament Christ-man. We’ve just been ignoring it all this time.

Here’s a place to start praying:

Oh God, we live in a society in deep need of reform,
And days of violence and avarice.

Rescue us, O God, from becoming the hand of the wicked,
From being the unjust and cruel (Psalm 71:4).
Rescue us, O God, from our own selfishness,
From our own ego obsessions…





Proper 15 (Year C): Litany for Fire

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“Is not my word like a fire, says the LORD, like a hammer that breaks rock in pieces?”

I believe that the message of this week’s Lectionary, of the fire and hammer of God, which are mercy and restorative justice, is THE message our society needs in this moment. We are protecting the gun lobby over vulnerable school children. We are protecting agribusiness over the well-being of the planet and over and above human thriving.* We are protecting corporate profits and political interests to the detriment of the poor and powerless. We are protecting white supremacy and status over our God-given duty to regard every human life, every human black and brown body, as beloved and sacred. This is the story of our country right now. This is the legacy we are living. 

And the cure, the antidote, is the mercy and restorative justice of God. The Fire and the Hammer. The holy fire that Christ says he “came to bring ... to the earth,” and he says, “how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). 

This is a prayer of confession and contrition. This is where we begin. Opening our eyes to our communal complicity, and changing our minds (repenting) about how we will continue on. This is heart-centered work. This in inconvenient work. This is uncomfortable work. Standing in the midst of holy fire is bound to be difficult. 



God, as a society we have turned blind eyes 
And deaf ears to the poor.
We can hear the cries of the needy,
See the struggle of the lowly and destitute.
How the weak and the orphan long for justice!
How the defenseless are in need of rescue (1)!


We confess that we have centered our policies
On the success of profit-margins.
We confess that we have protected the interests of corporations and the wealthy
Over the well-being of Earth’s most vulnerable inhabitants.**
We confess that we have judged unjustly
And show partiality to the wicked (2).
We confess that much of our economy and material wealth
Is due to exploitation of human and natural resources.

We have not done our God-given duty of creation stewardship.
We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.
We have not upheld righteous standards.
We have not pursued justice and mercy for all. 

Forgive us, oh God, and lead us on the path of peace.
Restore us to your justice.
Bring us into the community of heaven.
Be merciful to us, oh God. 

For your word is like a fire,
Like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces (3). 
Break our hardened hearts;
Burn down our wicked ways.

Let the fire that Christ brings kindle in our hearts (4),
Igniting flames of justice and peace-making,
Of shifting old, unhelpful paradigms,
Of right-action and reform. 

Let the ethics and policies of heaven come to earth. 
Be merciful to us, oh God. Amen



*watch the documentary “Cowspiracy” for more info on this topic

**inhabitants, both human, animal, and plant-life

  1. Psalm 82:3,4

  2. Psalm 82:2

  3. Jeremiah 23:29

  4. Luke 12:49



Litany for Liberation

This week we celebrate Juneteenth, or Freedom Day. On June 19th 1865 the last remaining slaves were freed after the end of the Civil War. It’s a day in which we remember the suffering of enslaved Black people in this country, celebrate their emancipation, and also see afresh how far freedom has yet to go here. Police and vigilante brutality, the Prison-Industrial Complex, income and wealth inequality, maternal health outcomes for Black women - just a few of the markers by which we know that Shalom has not yet arrived in full. So we keep working.

Those slaves, and those unjustly imprisoned today were and are in overt bondage. But the powers that cause those bondages are subtler. And the ways those same forces have a stranglehold on society are subtler, and affect us all. We aren’t free until we’re all free.

This week’s Gospel selection is that of the Gerasene Demoniac, whom Jesus frees from a legion of demons who elect to go into a pack of pigs rather than into the void. As a result, the community loses a profitable asset and food source and are upset. Instead of celebrating the freedom of their brother, they are grumbling about the loss of their bottom line. Jesus offers them a new paradigm, a new value system in which Shalom might thrive, but they’re too affronted to see it. So they ask Jesus to go away; they don’t want his brand of freedom.

It strikes me how similar we are in U.S. society: unwilling to give up profit, comfort, security, predictability, etc. in order to reach a new level of liberation and Shalom for all. Willing to let a brother wither away in the tombs. Go away Jesus, we’d rather keep our addiction to fossil fuels, our cheap labor, and our corporate profits, than make sure the marginalized are cared for and the poor are fed and the prisoners are freed. We are the Gerasenes who send Jesus packing. Kyrie Eleison.

So that’s where I’m coming from with this litany. Thinking about the forces that subtly bind us, keeping us from God’s peace.


God, we realize we are bound in so many ways,
By powers and forces we can’t always see or touch,
But which pressure and confuse us anyway.
This world is full of prisons of humanity’s own making.

Christ, in his love, comes along willing to free us,
But we aren’t always willing to be freed. ..


Good Friday (Year C): Litany for Entering the Shadow

Hello! Today I’m making this year’s Good Friday litany publicly available. Most litanies appear in my Patreon for subscribers, but I try to make one or two per month available here. Please consider joining my Patreon, especially if you or your community are using my work regularly - by doing that you help make this work sustainable for me and my family. $1 - $3 is all it takes for your community to get access to my weekly offerings.

Hopefully you’ve been immersed in the journey of Lenten self-reflection. In Lent we clear space for exploring our inner selves, light and shadow, our complicities in systemic injustice, our addictions and unhelpful behaviors. This is all leading up to Good Friday, when Christ himself enters the shadow; when together we observe holy silence in following him on that journey.

I’m deriving this litany primarily from the John 19 narrative, which is the Lectionary prescription. But Pilate washes his hands in Matthew 27 and not in John 19.

God, today we remember the crucifixion of Christ,
His betrayal, suffering, death, and burial.
As we contemplate the narrative of Christ’s trial,
We imagine ourselves within it.

As we realize the ways we, like Peter, have denied the Christ,
In thought, in word, and in deed;
We observe a holy silence.

- Silence is kept -

As we observe the ways we, like Pilate, have washed our hands in pretense
But been complicit in evil’s unfolding;
We observe a holy silence.

- Silence is kept -

As we contemplate the ways we, like the mob, direct retribution toward one: a scapegoat,
And refusing personal responsibility,
e observe a holy silence.

- Silence is kept -

As Christ went down into darkness and shadow,
A breathless tomb, a soundless silence,
We follow faithfully, into shadowy places inside ourselves
We leave no stone unturned; no tomb unexamined.

We give way to the silence, and to conviction,
Waiting in hope of redemption.
We wait,
And we remember.

Amen



Lent 4 (Year C): Litany for Wandering

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Hey friends!
Before I get into the litany for this week, I want to say thank you thank you thank you for being on this journey with me. March has been the biggest month ever for me in terms of new patrons, and I am so stinking grateful. Welcome to new friends in this space! May it be a blessing to you! May it throw you a life-raft on a sinking day! May it jolt you with encouragement in a distressing moment! May it offer you sustenance when you're empty! Amen, Amen. Also, thanks for your patience while I was on vacation last week. After a rough month, I needed the break to stoke my curiosity and creativity, and hallelujah the LORD provides.

Ok, this week's Lectionary is juicy! The prodigal son. Psalm 32. The beautiful "new creation" language in 2 Corinthians 5. Week 1 we explored Weakness, week 2 Loneliness, week 3 Longing, and now Wandering. (preview: next week we're pondering "Wilderness.) So basically the hard parts of the life of faith. Which is what Lent is for - uncovering our blindness, exposing our need and vulnerability, urging us toward repentance. It's not supposed to be fun, but it is necessary for our growth.


God, like the prodigal son we have wandered far
From Love’s Center (1).
We are prodigal children,
All of us…

Also, if you’re unsure how to properly attribute a litany when you’re using it congregationally, please check out this post. And if you haven’t already snagged a copy for yourself, a minister, or a friend, you can purchase my book here. 

May you find more joy, peace, and love during your Lenten journey.
Fran


Litany for Addressing Racism

Hello, my name is Fran and I’m a racist.* I don’t intend to be a racist, and I don’t want to be a racist. I’m committed to uncovering and clearing it out from within myself. This may take my whole life. I know I can’t easily escape hundreds of years of cultural imprinting. This kind of deep principality can only come out by means of prayer, fasting, and long-term intention and work.

I’m less of a racist now than I used to be, I think. Which is good. But I’m nowhere near done with my transformation. I don’t have any degrees or credentials in the subject, nor have I read all the books (I’ve read some). My street cred as an advocate is next to nothing. I defer to folks who have done this work far longer and far better than my imperfect bumbling. And I defer to my sisters and brothers of color who have lived experience inside racist culture.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been pondering a few things related to current events and cultural programming. One is Thanksgiving - how the narrative taught to school children regarding the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving is largely inaccurate and whitewashed, as well as hurtful to Indigenous people.  Another is the tear-gassing of impoverished Brown people at the US border. Another is the result of recent elections, particularly those in Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi; all of which were influenced by racism against Black people (example).  

People of color have been seeing racism all along - they bear its effects in their family histories, their bodies, their bank accounts. This is not new. It’s us white folks who have waking up to do. It’s up to us to pray with humility and educate ourselves. Also: not enough white pastors are preaching about it. So this litany is for us; for white individuals and congregations who want to pray into this deep-rooted system of injustice, and posture ourselves to work for the liberation and restoration of our siblings; and who want to uncover racism where it lies hidden in our own hearts.

Oh God, we are gradually waking up
To the knowledge of our deep and hidden sins;
Most particularly, to the sin of racism
Which has affected our culture, psyche, and practice.

We thought we could say, “Oh, those racist generations have passed on. The civil rights movement already happened.”
We thought we had leveled the playing field.
We thought we could ignore Whiteness.
We thought we didn’t have to see color.
But we know that we have more work to do,
To cleanse, heal and establish justice.

We quit before the work was finished.
We were wrong.

Help us to see what we couldn’t see before.
Help us to examine everything:
Every custom and system,
Every group dynamic and assumption,
To leave no stone unturned in our mission
To rout out injustice;
To take every thought captive (1)
To the loving ethic of Christ.

This work is messy.
We feel sensitive about it.**
We feel overwhelmed and ashamed.
Help us not to minimize or shirk,
Nor capitulate to our fragile egos,
Nor be blinded by our privilege.
Give us robust hearts,
Willing to take an unflinching look at the racism within us.

And as we sift through our habits, culture and customs,
Examining them with a new sensitivity to injustice,
Help us to embody hope,
Peacemaking,
Restoration,
And above all, love for our neighbors.

Make us aligned to the Community of Heaven,
Diligently working for liberation.

Amen

1) 2 Corinthians 10:5

*If you are a white person of privilege and you say you aren’t a racist, well, you’re probably wrong and it’s best to just face it. Read more here.

**Our feelings of sensitivity as white people are small compared to the feelings of people of color who experience oppression and fear for their lives. But that doesn’t mean the feelings don’t get in our way regardless.


Litany for Revealing

Last week’s news about large-scale sexual abuse of children by clergy in a Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has shaken and sickened a lot of people, myself included. It’s another example of the great revealing (apocalypse) that is happening in these days. Hidden things are coming to light. #metoo and #churchtoo are happening. White supremacy and racism are coming to the forefront of the collective consciousness in a new way. Motives and deep-seated sins, what the scriptures call “powers, principalities, and spiritual forces,” are being revealed. Evils that have gone unacknowledged (in a mainstream way) are coming into light.

I believe this is the Community of Heaven breaking in. And our task is not to resist it, but to become contemplative, to listen and examine our complicities, to search our own hearts; to “get our people,” as my Black teachers say - by which they mean we should be speaking to our own tribes and inner circles and helping them get on board and understand.

Whenever I think of what’s been happening the last couple of years*, I get the image in my mind of a glacier moving over a land mass, slowly slowly, leaving behind a mess of rubble and fertile soil and reshaped landscape. Our first step is admitting our landscape needs reshaping, which we can’t see unless we step back far enough to get a good view. The evidence is in every school shooting, every Black life ended by police, every Nazi rally, every sexual abuse scandal, every Latinx child separated from her parents at the border, every executed prisoner, and on and on. Without a doubt, our landscape needs reshaping.

And it’s coming. Millimeter by millimeter. Breath by breath. Prayer by prayer. Awakening by awakening. It’s coming and is happening now. The kingdom of God is at hand. The Community of Heaven has work to do. We shirk and deny and resist and cling to the past at our own risk. Help or get out of the way.

 

God, forces are at work in our world,
Which are at odds with your goals:
Death and destruction,
Injustice and abuse,
Apathy and self-centeredness,
Violence and hatred,
Status quo and inertia,
Distraction and disregard.

Evil is being revealed,
And hidden sins brought to light.
But ahead we can see,
Your kingdom coming,
Your people awakening,
Your glory shining.

We can see how today’s messy revealing
Is tomorrow’s hope,
How the rubble of today’s destroyed systems
Is tomorrow’s fertile soil.

So we trust,
And we follow,
And we stay awake
And we keep watch.
And we don’t shirk our work,
And we don’t deny our complicity,
And we don’t disempower the prophets,
And we don’t silence the marginalized.
And we don’t surround ourselves with so much noise that we can’t hear your voice.
And we don’t allow ourselves to despair.

We beat our swords into ploughshares.
We set our tables and open our doors.
We make way for the Community of God.
We prepare the way of the Lord.

Help us to humbly accept all the change that must happen,
In our society and in our own hearts,
To work together for new life and for good,
And to walk the peaceful way of Christ. Amen

 

*Really, what's been happening has been happening for a couple millenia, with various movements and intensities. I'm taking a micro-within-a-macro view here. With lots of gratitude and appreciation for the saints who have gone before me.
 

Litany for Embracing Race

As I have been getting an education on race, and as injustices and harm continue to happen, and as our society's inherent racism continues to be revealed; I feel compelled to write about race. I write as a white person primarily to white people. I write as a pastor, sometimes preacher, friend, and as an ally of People of Color. If you need a place to start your education, I recommend Austin Channing-Brown's _I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness_.


God, we can get an education in injustice,
If we are open to receiving it.
Soften our hearts, oh God,
That we may be willing to learn.

We acknowledge that the structures that make up our society have advantaged whiteness,
And disadvantaged People of Color.
We acknowledge that our Black and Brown siblings suffer in the same institutions and circumstances
In which whiteness finds comfort.
We acknowledge that privilege has suffering as its underbelly,
And oppression as its hidden cost.

We know that the time has come for our collective blindness to be revoked,
For the comfort of whiteness to lose priority,
For the weight of institutional injustice to be lifted,
For us to confront our pride,
For humility to become our prized virtue,
For listening to characterize our conversations.

Thank you for sending us the Christ
To show us a vision of a New Society
     A New City
     A New Era
     A New Government
     A New Law:
Where humanity is seen and valued;
Where privilege is a thing to be shared;
Where deference and gentleness are our best conventions;
Where institutions care for the disadvantaged;
Where race is not only tolerated, but embraced and admired;
Where diversity is beauty;
Where we are able to look beyond basic equality,
     toward Abundant Life and thriving for all (1).

And we are thankful, Oh God, for that institution begun by Christ -
The Church, the Body of Christ on Earth -
In which we re-imagine human relationships in light of Christ’s priorities;
And for this life you give us, which is love’s proving ground.

Amen

1) John 10:10

Ordinary Time (Year B): Litany for the Desperate

This week's Lectionary passages contain such amazing stories and David and Goliath and Christ stilling the sea, but also a deep sense of God's care for the afflicted and desperate.

 

God, it’s mostly by our own collective blindness
That we have the poor among us.
This is the pit we have made and fallen into;
This is the net that has caught us (1):
We favored the rich
And disregarded the needy.

But, by your mercy, the needy won’t always be forgotten;
Nor the hope of the poor perish (2).

Over and over in the scriptures, we read stories of people who miraculously overcome great obstacles:
     Boys who slay giants with stones (3),
     Women who defeat armies with tent pegs (4),
     Full jars of oil and grain despite famine (5),
     Desperate fathers whose daughters rise from deathbeds (6),
     Locked prison doors flying open (7),
     Dangerous seas calmed at a word (8),
     Crucified Christ resurrected (9).
From these stories, and many more
We take hope.

For in our deepest desperation,
You meet us.
In our poverty of spirit,
You meet us.
In our blindness and apathy,
You meet us.

Things don’t always turn out the way we want them to in this life,
But your eye is always on the afflicted.
Come to us now, Holy One, in our desperation and need;
Still our storms;
Bring us all to a place of rest,
And make us glad in the quiet. (10) Amen.*


*I recommend including a pause for silence here.

  1. Psalm 9:15

  2. Psalm 9:18

  3. 1 Samuel 17:49

  4. Judges 4:21

  5. 2 Kings 4:1-7

  6. Mark 5:23

  7. Acts 16:26

  8. Mark 4:39

  9. Mark 16:6

  10. Psalm 107:30