Epiphany 4 (Year C, 2022): Litany for Conduits of Love

In this week’s gospel reading from Luke 4, Jesus is speaking some hard truths that his audience doesn’t like to hear and it nearly gets him thrown off a cliff. And what is this message that is so offends the tender ears of his listeners? Simply put: you. aren’t. special. 

Mmm, they do not want to hear that Israel isn’t the primary (read: only) beneficiary of God’s love. They don’t want to hear that God healed a Syrian and fed a Sidonite while Israelites ailed and hungered. God is supposed to be their very own pet god, working solely on their behalf. 

And Jesus, as ever, points out instead the boundlessness of God’s love and regard, for humans of all nationalities. Not just Israelite Jews. And not just American Christians, either. 

Jesus is breathing fire here, and it is the fire of unconditional love. May we learn how to channel it too! Even though it might make the gatekeepers mad. 

(I’ve included elements from the other readings in this week’s Lectionary selection in this litany as well.)

God, we are working on knowing that you’re within us. 
We’re getting better at working with the power you share with us. 
Your power and energy are unlimited, 
But our humanity is a finite container;
So instead of being containers, 
We’re learning to be like pipes - conduits of love. 

Epiphany 2, Year B 2021: Litany for Truth-Tellers

The bulk of my work can be accessed via Patreon
Patreon helps me make this work sustainable.
Thanks for reading and subscribing.
You can find archived litanies here, and purchase my book here.
Attribution guidelines are here.

---

Y’all. I can’t make this up. This is the lectionary for this week.

Synopsis of 1 Samuel 3 and the preceding events:

Eli the priest has scoundrels for sons. His sons are, by their lineage, also priests; they are thieving and lying and raping - doing immeasurable damage to the priesthood and the nation - and Eli, though he pleads with them, cannot (will not?) control nor contain them. They are allowed to wreak havoc. A “man of God” gives Eli a message that his sons have doomed their whole family to destruction and penury.

Young Samuel is Eli’s acolyte. God isn’t often heard from, but one night Samuel hears a voice, which he and Eli figure out to be the voice of God. God gives Samuel a message: Eli’s family will be punished for the iniquity of the scoundrel sons - they’ll lose everything, confirming the other, earlier message.

Samuel is hesitant to tell his mentor the bad news - that injustice will and must be held accountable, if not by the priesthood, if not by the society, then by God; that the ones who have lied and thieved and assaulted WILL be held responsible. But he tells Eli the truth of the prophecy God has given him. Eli meets it with acceptance, and Samuel gains a reputation as a Truth-Teller.

Flip to the Gospel reading from John 1….

Jesus is in the process of gathering disciples. He’s got Philip, Andrew, and Peter. And from a distance he sees Nathanael. Jesus immediately identifies Nathanael as “an Israelite in whom there is no deceit,” as a Truth-Teller. Nathanael is a Truth-Teller and Jesus wants him.

Aaaand relate it to today...

Last week we had a mob, incited by the lies of political leaders and conspiracy theories, ransack the US Capitol, killing 5 humans, endangering countless others, and proving that years of lies and deceit are bearing evil fruit and that, like the sons of Eli, those responsible must be contained and held accountable lest they bring the whole country down into their eventual destruction. OK!

I wait to see what will be done. I pray that faith communities will awaken to their duty as Truth-Tellers. And that we, as individuals, will be those “in whom there is no deceit.” Our theology matters, and conflating the message and work of Christ with deceitful narratives of Christian Nationalism, Christo-fascism, White Supremacy, and violence is bad theology that leads to harm.

This litany is inspired by these texts, but I have thrown a lot of other references in.

God, we pray for our faith community,
As a whole and as individuals,
That we will have the courage to hold fast to truth,
Even when truth is inconvenient,
Even when truth convicts us,
Even when truth is difficult,
Even when truth is not what we’d hoped,
Even when truth is hard to tell …

Proper 9 (Year A): Litany for Welcoming the Prophets

The Lectionary gospel for this week is from the end of Matthew 10. “Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward...”

The prophet is never a comfortable guest. The prophet is the one who disturbs, stirs, unsettles, disarranges the accepted narrative. The prophet is the one we often want to ignore.

The prophet, with her anger and passion, her drive for change, her vehemence, her intolerance of equivocation, her blazing eyes, her piercing voice; is often unwelcome in polite society. Her behavior doesn’t suit the proper standards. She disrupts the norms. Her insistence grates our nerves. Her power threatens our egos... 

Or. Her silence condemns us. Her sullenness discomforts us. Her lack of agency convicts us. Her vulnerability repels us.... or some combination that causes us to not want to hear.

I notice prophets all around these days. Speaking to us of the snags in the fabric of our society, the holes in our safety nets, the injustice of our laws, the abuse of our leaders, the power-mongering of our enforcers, the idolatry of our obsessions, the disorder of our priorities...

Specifically, I’ve been thinking of various people groups who are prophets speaking to me in this time, such as:
Those murdered by police
The poor and uninsured,
The Indigenous/First Nations peoples
The 14% of the US population that is Black/African-American
The LGBTQIA+
The immigrants
The Dreamers
The houseless
The veterans of war
The victims of abuse and/or trauma
The planet herself
The imprisoned
The minimum wage workers
Those children orphaned or in foster care
Those children who are survivors of school shootings
… and more.

Are you listening? Who are the prophets you notice and what are they saying? Are you amplifying or stifling their voices?

God, we perceive the words of Christ:
Whoever welcomes us, welcomes Christ.
Whoever welcomes Christ, welcomes God.
In this, we embrace our Oneness with Christ, and with you. …

Proper 8 (Year A): Litany for God Who Sees

This week’s Lectionary Torah selection is from Genesis 21, the story of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, runaways from their oppressive masters.God saves Hagar and the child from death. But in writing for this moment, I have intuitively backed up in the chronology of the story, back to the moment when Hagar, in another runaway moment, meets the angel of God who encourages her. She becomes one of the first to give God a name, the God Who Sees Me. 

The story of Hagar is powerful in its themes of slavery and oppression, of marginalized peoples gaining a voice, of violence against women, and of the God Who Sees oppressed people. The God Who Pays Attention to the most vulnerable. The God Who Cares for the Needy. These themes of God’s heart are reinforced in other Lectionary passages for this week, particularly Psalm 86 & Jeremiah 20. 

I hope you’ll humor me in this deviation from the Lectionary text, but I think it's a worthwhile move, given the cultural and historic moment. 

God, more people are waking up to ways our society has failed,
Failed those in the minority,
Those experiencing economic scarcity,
Those imprisoned,
Those on the margins of the predominant culture,
Those who don’t live inside the status quo…

Proper 27 (Year C): Litany for Love's Story

This story comes from a reading of this week's Lectionary passages.

God, we know that the story you’re telling
The story the hills and the seas tell (1),
The story all creatures and all flesh are telling (2),
Is a story that never ends (3),
Never stops being told (4),
And can never be told enough.