2023 October 01

Prayers of the People #

Spirit of God, descend on us, inhabit us and stand us on our feet1. Make from us a joyful noise2, a hymning rabble3 before the glory of God that is like the look of the rainbow that is in the clouds on a day of rain4. We join, Brother God, as You have taught in common prayer and we bless Your Holy Name, filled with the promise of your kinship. This is the day that God has wrought up out of welter and waste and we rejoice and are glad on it.5

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our prayer.

John Brown and the Rev. Dr. King lie a’mouldering in their graves6 and where, oh God, is justice? Where is the Prophet, locked in rictus on his side, the sins of Israel piled up there7? Where is the Sister, who danced and sang of salvation8 long, long before Saul cast his first spear9 at the boy who was true king? Where is the Baptizer, he who was not worthy to even untie the strap of a sandal and yet could baptized the sinless10? Where, oh God, is justice and those that wrenched it up out of jaundice11 in ancient days? Bless the children among us, inheritors of a squandered inheritance. Have we handed them the scroll of a book writ with dirges, laments and woe only12? Maybe, maybe. And what should we do? Take up our plowshares and beat them into swords13, spill yet more blood upon the ground, joining it to the vast choir of Abel that cries out to You there already14? No! God, in Your mercy, forbid it. There is no drop of blood in all the world that is our to claim, nor any mouth full of teeth that will not be smashed should You sally forth to smash it15. What tongue can wag if You have cleaved it to the palate16? Our loins are girded17, oh God, but what can we do? And You say that this is my mother and my brother and my sister18 and all are welcome at this table and beneath these roof beams19. Friendship You say, abundance as community blessing. Bless and keep our communion, these ties of friendship and kinship, deliver us from the councils of the wicked20 and the works of the Slanderer21, for what is the Church if it is not Your body and what is Your body if it is not love that pervades and binds? You speak kinship of all and with all, speak your speech through our mouths, work your works through our hands even as we raise up to you now aloud or in our hearts those that are at work in the world for You. Friends, siblings, for who do we pray this day?

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our prayer.

Where is that unfired brick, incised with the image of Jerusalem, besieged in miniature, iron pan for iron wall, the Prophet rolling forth the play sized siege towers by his own hand22? What other bricks are there, what other cities envisioned and for whose sight? What is mighty aside from You, what is everlasting if it is not You? And yet we, the span of our days are brief23 and what is seems as if it has been and will be forever and ever. We grieve in our hearts the change of days, not always, but enough, for the change of days it the changing of our days. Friends are called away for greater service and we miss them24. Friends find new homes in far places and we miss them25. Friends even are called to sleep in Your embrace for a spell and we miss them. All that changes seems strange and unwholesome for what is right is surely what has been. But that is not the Truth of the Gospel, for what is is not what will be. Only You endure and we worship You and that worship, in all its forms, familiar and alien, invented and instructed, that worship is a chain unbroken that stretches back and back and forward and forward among all those that love God. Do You not see us all? Who has Your gaze failed to find? And we say that there is none26. And do you not see Abraham offering You and Your companions fine bread27 just as fresh and vivid as You see we who now pray? Look on us kindly, oh God, especially those of us who ail, who suffer in their minds or their bodies, even unto death. Heal, we pray, if it is Your will, those who we name now either aloud or in our hearts. Friends, for who do we pray?

God in Your Mercy,
Receive our prayer.

God, You are a shelter and a strength28 for us, a help readily found. When mountains collapse into the sea and waters roil and rage we do not fear for You are in our midst. Nations roar and collapse but You, Lord of Hosts, loom among nations and You, Mary’s Son, loom upon the earth. We behold Your acts, see the desolations made on the Earth, see the bow that You have broken and the spear that You have splintered, see the chariot You have set as kindling. You, oh God, are a mighty fortress and our trust dwells in You.

In the name of the One who is and was and will be we pray,

Amen

  1. In Ezekiel 2:1-3 the prophet is told that he should stand so that God may speak to him, but it is a spirit that enters Ezekiel which stands him on his feet. ↩︎

  2. The opening to Psalm 100, a hymn of praise. I was raised on both the KJV which says “Make a joyful noise…” and the NIV which says “Make a joyful shout…”. One of the adults at my home church said matter of factly one day that good singing, bad singing all were welcome in service because we were called to make a joyful noise, not a beautiful one. That’s always stuck with me. ↩︎

  3. In the English of my time to call a group of people a “rabble” is a disparagement. The Middle English word ‘rabel’ originally denoted a swarm of animals or insects. It is my understanding that God is not the God of the mighty but the common, that to be common – or simple – is a gift. A rabbel is also associated with a din, a discordant noise. In the Gospel I see the promise that, even if we cannot hear it ourselves, the sound of all of us is as hymns to God. ↩︎

  4. Ezekiel 1:28 ↩︎

  5. A combination of Psalm 118:24 and Robert Alter’s evocotive phrasing from Genesis 1. ↩︎

  6. A reference to lyrics from “John Brown’s Body”. The abolitionist John Brown was an important figure in my childhoodeducation on the Civil War. Having grown up in Missouri in what had eventually become a pro-Union people, opposition to folks with sympathy for the Confederacy and the slaving it stood for was explicit. Brown advocated for and carried out violence against slavers and their sympathizers. Dr. Martin Luther King, of course, advocated for and carried out non-violent civil disobedience. Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” receives explicit mention in King’s autobiography. Thoreau also travelled around delivering “A Plea for Captain John Brown” before Brown’s execution. How we respond to grave injustice in the world is a pressing theme of the remainder of this prayer and especially this petition. ↩︎

  7. Ezekiel 4:4-8 ↩︎

  8. Exodus 15:20-21 ↩︎

  9. 1 Samuel 19:10-12 ↩︎

  10. Luke 3 is where my mind dwelt. ↩︎

  11. Following Robert Alter’s translation of Isaiah 5:7. ↩︎

  12. Ezekiel 2:10 ↩︎

  13. Powerfully Isaiah 2:3-4 prophesies a world where swords are beaten into plowshares, no longer being needed for killing. Joel 3:10 speaks the opposite. ↩︎

  14. Genesis 4:10 ↩︎

  15. A horrible image, repeated often in the Psalms. I thought of Psalm 58. ↩︎

  16. Ezekiel 3:26. A repeat image in the Old Testment, Psalm 137, Lamentations 4, Job 29 come to mind. Having the desire to speak but being unable to do so is a terrible trial. It is also, I think, a familiar one. ↩︎

  17. Job 38:3 and Job 40:7. To gird one’s loins is to tie or bind up the clothing to facilitate movement, especially for adult men. This is the context in God’s insistence to Job that he gird his loins to be ready for God’s response. ↩︎

  18. Mark 3:31-35 ↩︎

  19. Genesis 19:8 ↩︎

  20. Psalm 1:1 ↩︎

  21. David Bently Hart in his New Testament translation has a wonderful discussion on the word “devil”, as does Ruden in her Gospel translation. It is my belief that the understanding of the Devil as a red costumed man with a pitchfork drastically undersells the horror of the accuser, zigging and zagging over the face of the earth as he, Old Scratch, declares to God in Job 1. ↩︎

  22. Ezekiel 4:1-3. I recognize that siege towers are more commonly associated with the Romans but their use by Egyptian and Assyrian forces is attested to in reliefs. There is also something child-like in Ezekiel’s wargaming, although perhaps that’s an indication of the specific, inherent militarism of my culture than a universal statement about childhood. ↩︎

  23. A repeat theme of the Psalms. I had Psalm 103 in mind but now think also of Job 14 and Isaiah 40. ↩︎

  24. Foremost in my mind, University Lutheran Chapel’s head pastor Jeff Johnson was elected to the office of bishop September 17, 2023. Bishop Johnson is well loved by the community and the synod’s gain is the Chapel’s loss. It is a thing to be celebrated and mourned. The practice of Christianity is one of service and aiding the works of service. Yet, we will miss him. ↩︎

  25. The San Francisco Bay Area lacks homes for all its people. Many of us sleep rough, many of us sleep in rented homes we’re only a small number of months loss of income from losing. I don’t know one person, myself included, that has not had a beloved friend move away to seek a more stable situation. Or, many friends. ↩︎

  26. Among others, Job 34:21-22. ↩︎

  27. Genesis 18 ↩︎

  28. This petition is Psalm 46, rephrased only slightly. ↩︎

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