Proper 29, Year A (Reign of Christ): Litany for Pandemic Response

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This week’s litany is specifically focused on the pandemic, as is the attention of most of the U.S. with 247,000 dead, and over 1000 per day losing their lives to uncontrolled COVID-19. When I hear the words of Christ here in Matthew 25 saying, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me..,” all I can hear is the pleas of doctors and nurses to please wear a mask, don’t go to gatherings or bars, keep your distance. These are small acts of love that, lamentably, so many people who say they follow Christ are neglecting.

This parable is a powerful critique on this moment. On how we are responding collectively to this crisis and those most in danger of harm from it. On how willing or unwilling we are to do concrete but simple acts of love.

Honestly, I can’t get it out of my head. I have trouble understanding the world right now. It’s hard to write liturgy for these times, y’all.

God, help us to see that even the tiniest actions we do or don’t do
Can be a testament to love:
Wearing a mask,
Staying home instead,
Visiting outdoors at a few paces distance,
Taking measured precautions…

Proper 28 (Year A, 2020): Litany for God's Mercy

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I have deep grief this week for the American Church and what I personally perceive as its rampant complicity with evil. I grieve even as I am elated to have the first woman elected to high federal office, for this momentous thing to happen in my lifetime, for my daughters and I to witness.

This litany follows along with the Lectionary readings for this week, but is a cry of my own heart. Much of the language is taken directly from the scriptures. Perhaps you can echo it.

Oh God, look upon us now
And have mercy.
For our society’s dysfunctions are set before you,
Our secret sins revealed in the light of your countenance (1).

Proper 27 (Year A, 2020): Litany for Lady Wisdom

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Well, I just had to; Lady Wisdom is too beautiful and compelling not to address. So here is another litany for this week, Proper 27, Year A, based in the account of Lady Wisdom as told in the Wisdom of Solomon.

God, we are looking the one who makes Herself found by seekers:
Lady Wisdom (1).
We fix our thoughts on her
And she graciously appears (2).

Proper 26 (Year A, 2020): Litany for Mirroring

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In this week’s Lectionary selections, the prophet Micah calls out those who lead God’s “people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths” (Micah 3;5).

And Christ, in an echo of Micah’s fiery whistleblowing, calls out the scribes and Pharisees of his day: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:4)

As we finish out this election cycle over the next week, it makes sense to become reflective about our society. How do we treat those who “put nothing in their mouths,” the hungry, poor, houseless? What burdens do we lay on the shoulders of the disabled, the least politically powerful, the least upwardly mobile, the sick? And how might we become willing to move them? These are, in part, what we are voting about. But they are also an invitation to reflect on our own lives and practice. And we know from these sacred scriptures, that God is silence and shadow toward the unjust (Micah 3: 6,7); that God humbles the exalted and exalts the humble (Matthew 23:12).

Are we listening to and voting in solidarity with the most marginalized people in society? Are we listening to Black women, Women of Color, LGBTQ voices, the perspectives of the Disabled, the unjustly incarcerated, the under-resourced? This is what we have the opportunity to reflect on now, that we are invited into both by this Lectionary and by this cultural and historic moment.

God, you invite us to hold the scriptures up
LIke a mirror ,
To perceive ourselves in their plane,
To reflect upon our works, policies, and actions….

Proper 25 (Year A, 2020): Litany for Love Your Neighbor

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(Litany for Hatred is also for Proper 25 of Year A)

This litany is based in the teachings of Christ in Matthew 22. "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

God we ask for help in loving our neighbors (1) -
Those who are different from us,
Those whose ethnicity or nation of origin is different from ours,
Those whose race is different from ours,
Those whose political affiliation is different from ours,
Those whose religious practices are different from ours…



Proper 24 (Year A): Litany for the Imprint of God

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(Note: here is an alternative litany for Proper 24 of Year A)

In Matthew 22, Jesus demonstrates a startling lesson to any of us who might be confused about the separation of church and state. The Pharisee are trying to entrap him into some treasonous statement for which they might turn him in and be rid of his unsettling influence on the people and his undermining of their religious power. First they try to butter him up with flattery: “we know you don’t show partiality…” (It’s true. He doesn’t.) And then they hit him with a tax question (tricky in any age).

And he says: whose face is on this coin? Caesar’s? Then it must be a thing born out of a Cesarous imagination… (Matthew 22:20).

Whose face is on your DNA? Whose image are you made in? Whose image is the natural world made in? Whose image do you bear? Then to whom do you belong, and to what Kin-dom Community? And to whom will you give what you are, your gifts?

God, show us your ways (1),
So that we might know The One Whose Image We Bear (2),
The one whose stamp is on us,
Whose imagination brought us the natural world
Whose creativity begot the beauties of nature and humanity
Whose invites us into alignment with Love….



Proper 23 (Year A, 2020): Litany for the Banquet

This week's litany centers around the text from Matthew 22, the story of the banquet, and Psalm 23 - two invitations into "green pastures and still waters," and into celebration of life amidst all the turmoil. 

(Here is the litany for the same lectionary selections from Year A which I wrote in 2017: Litany for Rescue. )

God, let your peace find every crack possible (1)
Through which to seep into our hearts;
Let it have the persistence of water
To soften every hardened place within us. 

Proper 22 (Year A): Litany for Vineyards

Here is a link to a previous litany I wrote for Proper 22, Year A: Litany for Laws 

This week’s Lectionary readings circle around a central agricultural metaphor - of vineyards: what goes on in them, what grows in them, what happens when people misuse them. Three of the texts for this week, Isaiah 5, Psalm 80, and Matthew 21, all utilize this theme. This litany is an exploration of the vineyard, and the lessons we receive from these texts. 

God, we know that you created the world,
And it was good. It is good.
Humankind has, in many ways, misused and mistreated it,
And each other. 

Proper 19 (Year A): Litany for Reassurance

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The times are chaotic, and I hope this litany, referencing Psalm 103, Romans 14, and Matthew 18, can make way for the Divine to offer some reassurance to your community this week. 

God, we come to this day in need of reassurance.
We know we have been at fault.
We know we have been complicit in various ways.
We become discouraged and hopeless.
We become cynical and apathetic.
We need assurance of your unfailing love…



Proper 18 (Year A): Litany for Conflict Resolution

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This litany is inspired by Christ’s teaching on conflict resolution and unity as recorded in Matthew 18, the Lectionary Gospel text for this week.

God, we want to live in good conscience.
We want our actions to match our words.We want our relationships to reflect our love.
We want our lives to reflect the beauty of Christ. 

Proper 17 (Year A): Litany for Suffering

(Note: this litany goes along with the First Testament reading for this week. )

In Matthew 16, this week’s Lectionary Gospel reading, Jesus is clear with his followers about what’s ahead: great suffering. Peter can’t stand the thought. He thinks everything must be wrong if suffering is involved. Jesus rebukes him strongly for this. 

Because he knows and points out that suffering is part of this journey here. Just because there’s suffering doesn’t mean he’s on the wrong path. He won’t be exempt from the human condition, from an experience of suffering, loss, death, betrayal, pain. He doesn’t seek it out, but he knows it will find him. 

I never want to glorify suffering, nor insist upon it. I never want to cause or sanctify it. Rather I want to acknowledge it when it comes, and work to remedy it. I want a world in which suffering is no more. 

God, we are suffering. Our siblings are suffering.
Suffering from the effects of systemic injustice,
Brutality and violence,
Racism and inequity,
Political polarization and environmental abuse,
Greed and oppression.

Proper 16 (Year A): Litany for Renewing the Mind

This litany follows the Lectionary texts for Proper 16 of Ordinary time in Year A. I added references to 1 Corinthians 2 and, as ever, Luke 1.  I would also like to call attention to the story of the Hebrew Midwives in Exodus 1, which is also part of this week's readings, and for which I have an accompanying litany - it happens to be one of my favorite I've ever written: Litany for the Midwives. 

God, we are in a time of upheaval:
Political,
Spiritual,
Religious,
Cultural,
Ecological.
Many suffer for lack of stability and resources
Support, care, and services…



Proper 15 (Year A): Litany for What Comes Out

n 2017, the litany I wrote for Proper 15 in Year A covered some of the First Testament texts for the week. This year I’m focusing on the gospel passage, Matthew 15. 

God we know that out of the mouth
The heart speaks.
It’s not how put-together we are on the outside that defines us -
Not how attractive or fancy or impressive we are -It’s the state of our hearts
And what proceeds from them.

Proper 14 (Year A): Litany for the Impossible

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This week’s Gospel reading is Matthew’s account of Jesus doing the impossible: walking on water. Peter asks to join him on the water, and when he looks down, sinks, Jesus says incredulously, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

(see also: Litany for Solitude)

Western civilization has overcivilized our imaginations. We are so stuck in our economic and political status quo that we consider - have been conditioned by powers that benefit from it to consider -  a better world to be impossible. Our apathy and lack of imagination are well on display in this current moment. 

Will we revise our expectations? Will we do the impossible? Will we bring the Commonwealth of Heaven, to which Jesus so often referred and on which he staked his reputation and actions, here to earth, following in his imaginative footsteps? 

God, we know that we are programmed and conditioned -
By society and culture,
By religion and expectation - 
To distinguish the possible from the impossible.

Proper 11 (Year A): Litany for Not Getting it Right

Hello friends, 

Quick housekeeping reminder: See this post for the correct way to attribute my work. I'm one human being striving to create solid liturgy for these times, and I appreciate your care in this matter. My hope is that I can keep doing this for the long run in a sustainable way, and the Patreon platform gets me closer to that goal. Thank you. 

Here is my Litany for Jacob's Ladder from 2017. Plus this year's offering based on the Psalms for this week, Proper 11. 

God, you have searched and known us,
You are acquainted with all our ways .
You know how often we misunderstand,
How prone we are to mistakes,
How limited our perspective,
How frequently we misjudge…

Proper 10 (Year A): Litany for the Word of Love

I'd like to call your attention to this litany from Year A in 2016, "Litany for Wheat and Weeds", that also follows this week's Lectionary selections.

Here is this year's offering, taken from Psalm 65, Psalm 119, and Isaiah 55.

God, your word is a lamp to our feet
And a light to our path.
Everywhere we look, the world is obscured
By the shadow of Not-love…



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…

Litany for Forgotten Hope (Ordinary Time, Year A)

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This litany references the Lectionary passage from Genesis 18 where Abraham and Sarah receive 3 visitors who tell them that God’s promise to them of a community of offspring (Genesis 17) will be fulfilled, and that Sarah will give birth to a son in her elder years. I imagine their hope for that new, future family was difficult to remember. Just as it is at various times difficult for us to remember our hope in the Commonwealth of God, the Kin-dom of God, and its nearness to us, just at the horizon of today. 

God, the times we live in are chaotic and divisive,
Revealing systemic injusticeAnd institutionalized inequity.
We feel the unrest of our nations.We feel the undercurrent of fear.
We feel the stress of uncertainty. 

Day of Pentecost (Year A): Litany for Holy Spirit Fire

I'll mostly let Frederick Buechner do the commenting this week. Except to say, the Lectionary is never the wrong thing for the moment.  And to say: Rest in peace George Floyd, who was murdered in a racist act of police brutality earlier this week.

“Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: "Can I believe it all again today?" No, better still, don't ask it till after you've read The New York Times, till after you've studied that daily record of the world's brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer's always Yes, then you probably don't know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you're human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that's choked with confession and tears and. . . great laughter.”

― Frederick Buechner

God, our world is rife with violence and evil
With cruelty, injustice, and materialism.
We need Holy Spirit’s fire
To burn away our unjust systems…