Proper 25 (Year B, 2021): Litany for Consolation

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Psalm 126 gets me in my feelings. “May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy,” it says. 

These ancient words can give us solace if we let them - thousands of years of humans looking at the world saying: “yep this looks bad right now, but even so, we can perceive a Divine force in the world that is good and full of love and creativity; and even though we and our fellow humans have made a bunch of bad choices, we trust that force for good.”

My foremothers and forefathers in faith trusted the Divine to console them, even in suffering and hardship - Job, Bartimaeus, and many others. And the Christ gives us a story of overcoming the worst of humanity’s bloodthirstiness, of grace and mercy amidst cruelty, and of life and compassion enduring and renewing against all odds. 

This is some of the best stuff that Christianity has to offer, in concert with its ancestor Judaism. This tenacious clinging to hope even when the world is burning or collapsing around it. This steadfast trust in a loving, Divine Source who is both within us and at work in the world. This stubborn hold on goodness. It’s good medicine for us today. May we have soft hearts to receive it. 


God, each of us in our lives have endured suffering, 
None of us immune to loss or hardship; 
Most of us are acquainted with grief. 
Pain is part of our experience here...

Proper 22 (Year B 2021): Litany for Inheriting All Things

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I took a few days off this week . Then this morning was reminded of the hymn _How Can I Keep From Singing_. Here are the traditional lyrics (although Audrey Assad has a lovely expanded version). But this stanza catches me: 

The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
a fountain ever springing!
All things are mine since I am his!
How can I keep from singing? 

These lyrics were already in my mind as I approached this week’s texts, and I see their echo and resonance in them. Particular places stand out in light of this idea:

  • Job in great suffering saying, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?" (Job 2:10). 

  • The Psalmist “singing aloud a song of thanksgiving, and telling all your wondrous deeds” (Psalm 26:7).

  • The Psalmic prayer: “You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet…” (Psalm 8:6).

  • Christ, “whom GOD appointed heir of all things, through whom GOD also created the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2).

  • Christ’s words: “it is to such as these [little children] that the kingdom of God belongs” (Mark 10:14).

All things are mine since I am in Christ. All things are mine since I am part of God’s divine whole, my “true self, hidden with Christ in God.” All things are mine, since Christ is heir of all things and so, therefore am I.  All things are mine because I am the little child to whom the kingdom belongs. 

I am more and more convinced that the lesson here is to learn to live as though this is true. If I, as a person who claims follower-ship (followship, ha!) of Christ, believe this, then I cease to live in scarcity. I adopt a reality of Kin-dom abundance. And I, with even my small weight, shift the balance of power in the world by way of this non-grasping, generous, fulfilled posture. 


God, How can we keep from singing?
How can we keep our voices from echoing gratitude and wonder,
Or our hands from creating beauty and art,
Once we have come awake to your goodness; 
Which encompasses all things, 
Folding us in amongst the bounty of Christ’s riches …

Proper 15 (Year B, 2021): Litany for Going Out and Coming In

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In this week’s reading from 1 Kings 2, Solomon speaks to God in a dream. God asks Solomon what he wants, and Solomon explains that he is (or feels like he is?) “only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in…” and asks for “an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil…” 

Scholars believe that Solomon was only 12 when he became king of Israel; a young child faced with a vast responsibility. I read that frank admission of young Solomon’s: I’m just a whippersnapper who doesn’t know hardly anything; and I feel such resonance with him. 

Especially in Covid days, when cases are increasing and ICU’s are at capacity in the area where I live. Especially when I consider that my kids are starting school in a red zone in which the local authorities have left us with virtually no ways to ensure their protection. Especially on weeks when the UN releases a devastating climate report calling it a “code red” for humanity.  Especially when the political divide is a veritable chasm of difference.

I am disheartened. And I am praying to God: I am a little child. I don’t even know how to go out or come in. I need wisdom for how to do life in a way that makes any sense in these trying days. 

So this week, in light of these scriptures and this life situation, I’m translating that prayer into something I hope will be useful congregationally. If this more raw version is not up your alley for this week, I invite you to check out Litany for Wisdom, which I wrote for Proper 15 in 2018. 


God, in this time of pandemic, 
Political extremes, 
And global unrest, 
We are overwhelmed….


Proper 14 (Year B 2021): Litany for Re-Training Ourselves

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In the First Testament readings, we glimpse Elijah and David in unique moments of deep grief. David weeps for the loss of his son Absalom. Elijah is in despair, such that he longs for death, and running for his life into the wilderness, where receives miraculous provision: bread.

In this week’s gospel text from John 6, Jesus continues his thoughts on being bread. I’m particularly struck (again) by him saying: “whoever believes has eternal life.” It’s so radical! It’s not “whoever behaves.” It’s not “whoever gives assent to this list of theological doctrines.” It’s whoever believes. In other words, whoever is willing to assume the consciousness of eternal life, eternity, the eternal NOW… whoever is convinced that God’s Community (Kingdom, Kin-dom) is right now. Whoever can perceive their own self in light of Love. Whoever knows in their bones that they have, they ARE, the bread!

The whole gamut of human emotions is present in this week’s texts, and here is Jesus saying (my paraphrase, obviously): Don’t complain. I’m the living bread and so are you. Be satisfied and live as though it is so. Live in this eternal satisfaction.

It's safe to say I get pretty jazzed about this. It’s safe to say my understanding of these kinds of statements made by The Christ has come a LONG way. Here is Jesus understanding his own true identity: God in flesh, the character of God made tangible here in 3D; and offering that shared identity, inheritance, belonging, to anyone willing to take it on too.

The text from Ephesians gives us a glimpse into how Paul imagines people who have taken on this consciousness might behave: truthful, able to be angry yet self-controlled, kind, tenderhearted, forgiving, focused on and magnetizing beauty rather than evil. It’s a really lovely vision of how to live that we get here from him.

What if we could re-train how we think about ourselves? What if we could learn to live as though we have access to everything that Christ has access to? I think the world would inevitably be different and better. I think we would come into spiritual power that would spill over into all aspects of our lives. We would start to live Saint Paul’s glorious and lovely description of us as “imitators of God.”


God, we want so much to be able to shift our consciousness
Into the consciousness that Christ shares:
But our beliefs about ourselves so often hold us back.
We have trouble remembering Christ in us….

Proper 12 (Year B): Litany for Everything We Need

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I love Paul’s poetic language in this week’s epistle from Ephesians 3. These phrases live in my head:
...Rooted and grounded in love...
...Strengthened in your inner being...
...Love of Christ that surpasses knowledge...
...Riches of God’s glory...
...Abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…

What a blessing, drawing on the abundance of Spirit! The Psalm repeats the theme: The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season… satisfying the desire of every living thing. The message: all is provided. Nothing is scarce. Abundance is our birthright.

The theme is again reinforced in the stories of Jesus feeding the five thousand, and of Elisha feeding a hundred people with a few loaves of bread. They provide something from near-to-nothing. What’s necessary is brought forth by their connection to Spirit.

I think a lot about how we might re-connect ourselves to the abundance of Spirit at this level. How we might steward our attention, so that abundance is the ground from which we live. Even inside of experiences that seem to prove scarcity, and in light of lived experiences that may have caused us trauma.

This is a prayer to that end.

God, we are learning not to be distracted by scarcity,
And led by it into fear and worry
Into anxiety and defensiveness;
Ultimately into conflict with ourselves and others…

Proper 10, Year B: Litany for the Called

In the First Testament reading from Amos 7, we encounter Amos - a “herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees” turned prophet, as he’s being rebuked by the king’s priests for prophesying doom upon the nation. They don’t want to hear it. Go away and prophesy somewhere else, they say (Amos 7:12). And Amos explains: he didn’t ask for this job. He just woke up one day and it was there for him to do. He remembered his calling; God reminded him.

In this week’s Gospel reading from Mark 6 we get the story of how John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod, at the request of his mistress. Another prophet down, another truth-teller silenced - John, who had been awake to his calling for much of his life.

Remember in last week’s gospel, when Jesus comments poignantly on the way prophets are routinely dishonored by their own communities? If we needed more evidence of this, here it is in these readings.

I’m thinking about us: people who are called to bring a message to the world, or a work of healing, some art, or to hold a particular space. I tend to think we are all here for a reason, that our special presence on the earth is necessary, and that part of our work here is to realize our true selves (hidden with Christ in God) and wake up to our calling. That’s my personal belief, so take it as you will.

This litany is for us. The ones who are awakening to our particular calling and authentic selves. 

(If you would rather utilize a different prayer this week, here is Litany for Dancing, written for Proper 10 in 2018. )



God, we know that living an authentic life, 
Realizing our calling 
Awakening to our True Selves, 
Is risky business. …


Proper 8 (Year B): Litany for Absolute Love

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Here is my litany for Proper 8, Year B from 2018: Litany for What Ails Us

The First Testament reading in this week’s Lectionary is David’s lament for the passing of Saul and Jonathan. In David’s relationship with Jonathan, he experiences something new to him, a new frontier of love. He says of Jonathan, “your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” Blowing past what he’d previously experienced. Hm. 

The Psalms and Lamentations texts are meditations on the “steadfast love” of God, even in the midst of life’s most difficult experiences. St. Paul extols the generous nature of Christ’s Love in the epistle. And Christ himself epitomizes the healing and restorative nature of Love in the gospel text. 

We might read these texts with questions in mind: what is Love? What is the nature of Love? Where is Love found? Where does Love come from? 

It is such a big idea that it is unsayable. Unwriteable. But we get these hints: relationality, restoration, healing, generosity, unceasing, steadfast, eternal, abundant. 

And this: whatever we *think* love is, it is more. 

I have more hunches about Love: that it is the sum of everything. That it is the “ground of being.” That it’s that elusive thing our physicists dance around when they’re trying to figure out dark matter and dark energy. Anyway, that’s why I’m still writing prayers about it - because as trite as it might sound, I think it’s the most important thing, and in fact, it’s everything. It’s God. It’s us. It’s life. I’ll never be done writing and thinking about it. 


God, we are learning about Love,
Setting aside all our old assumptions about it, 
Practicing and playing with it, 
And re-imagining ourselves in light of it.


Proper 6 (Year B): Litany for Perceiving Beyond Appearance



As I read through this week’s Lectionary passages, I’m reflecting on God’s advice to Samuel as he has to pick yet another king for the fractious Hebrew nation, after Saul’s kingship turns disastrous: "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7).

This theme of perceiving beyond appearance is reinforced in the Ezekiel: “I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree…” and in the 2 Corinthians: “we regard no one from a human point of view”. And finally it’s there in the words of Christ in Mark 4 regarding the Mustard Seed: “smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs…”

Jesus says in the beatitudes: don’t judge. These texts bring us back to that non-judgement, that call to humility. Remember: you have no idea what you’re looking at. You have no idea the true nature of the person you’re talking to, beyond the fact that they are innately beloved and part of the Imago Dei. You have no idea what this seed can become. You have no idea what diamonds lie behind these wounds.

God, we look at tiny seeds,
Which appear insignificant, easily lost,
With no notion of the potential they hold, or what they might become,
Given the right nurturing:
Soil, water, sunlight,
A recipe for greatness (1).

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…




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. 

Litany for Compassion Fatigue (Proper 11, Year B)

In this week's Gospel reading, we see a tired Christ surrounded by tired disciples, looking for some rest and respite from their work. But they can't find it, even when they get on a boat and sail away to an empty place. Crowds of the sick and needy still find them there. And Christ sees the crowd and Mark's gospel says "he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."

If you are suffering from compassion fatigue in these times, you're not alone. Maybe this litany will be helpful to you.

 

God, we bear witness to Christ:
In scripture,
In spirit,
And in our own experience.

We see the times when he and his disciples were exhausted
By the constant cries of distressed people,
By exerting themselves in service
By crowds and noise and need.

We have felt those same feelings,
And needed similar rest.

Help us not to grow irritable or resistant
To the needs of human beings;
But to have compassion for your people,
The sheep of your pasture.
For we are among them,
Hungry and in need of healing;
Hoping to touch the fringe of Christ’s cloak (Mark 6:56),
Hoping for miracles.

Help us to find respite from noise and distraction
And find connection with you,
Life with you,
Nourishment with you,
Peace with you,
Rest with you.

As as we daily enter the quiet place of restoration,
May we find you there.
And when we must go a little farther, pour out a little more,
May we receive our strength from you.
Amen

Ordinary Time (Year B): Litany for Crazy ol' Jesus

The Lectionary passages for Proper 5 (Year B) contain the story of the time Jesus' family thought he had gone crazy. His ideas and practices were so far outside of their comfort zone that they thought he'd gone nuts. The text says: “When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind" (Mark 3:21).

This is what I love about him. Unexpected, unconventional, challenger of expectations and assumption; dumping old paradigms for what's sane and respectable and inventing new ones made out of entirely different stuff.

 

Christ, you arrived on earth with a lot of harebrained ideas.
People thought you were crazy
For your unconventional brand of kindness,
For breaking rules,
For making unexplainable miracles happen,
For re-interpreting scripture,
For rejecting violent means ,
For consorting with sinners,
For re-defining family (1);
For giving unexpected advice:
     Like, love your enemies
     Be humble
     Pray for those who persecute you
     Don’t judge
     Consider the poor
     Make peace.

You baffled everybody you met, from the time you were a child.
You’re still astounding us now.

It’s this same unpredictable grace,
This dazzling mercy,
This lively Love
This upside-down agenda,
That captures our imaginations many years after you last walked the earth in flesh.
We are captivated by you.

Look, here are our hearts:
Put your own heart in us.
Look, here are our minds:
Awaken them.
Look, here are our hands:
Show us the work to do.
Look, here are our voices:
Teach us to speak mercy.

You, crazy old Jesus! You ineffable Force of Love:
You’re the one we want to follow.

Amen
 

1) Mark 3:35

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.

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