We are almost at the end of our Lent journey of praying for the World, Church, Nation, Social Order, Natural Order, and Family as suggested by prayers at the end of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (BCP) and the Episcopal Church’s 2021 Lent curriculum: Life Transformed: The Way of Love in Lent, which is exploring the seven disciplines of the Way of Love.
Today we will think about how our Worship and our work for
Social Justice are linked. The song Start Right Here by Casting Crowns speaks
of the ways we can ‘do’ church but asks are we really? The lyrics say, “We
want our blessings in our pockets/ We keep our missions overseas/ But for the
hurting in our cities/ Would we even cross the street?... What if the church on
Sunday/ Was still the church on Monday too/ What if we came down from our
towers/ And walked a mile in someone's shoes?”
In the Lent curriculum reading for this week (Zephaniah 3:12-20), “we are called let go of our fears so that we might truly WORSHIP God. In a world beset by violence, hunger, exploitation, and oppression, this is no easy task…Do not fear, O Zion … he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love. (Zephaniah 3:16-17) Here we see that God intends to turn all our fear into rejoicing, which means our worship should well up as an overwhelming act of gratitude.”
It can be easy to Worship joyfully and without fear when
everything is going smoothly. This last year has been anything but smooth.
We have been assaulted by pandemic, social unrest, political wrangling and
rhetoric, economic challenges, and the recognition of much injustice in our
society. Fear has lurked in the background, ready to pounce, as we read or
watch the news. Even our regular Worship has been interrupted. We have had to
find new ways of worshipping and of gathering and of working together.
The Lent curriculum notes that it was much the same for the
disciples, “by the time Jesus’ life is ending, when faced with the possibility
of following him to the cross, the disciples are once again filled with fear.” It
was only on Easter, “when they are reunited with the resurrected Jesus, the
doors of a new future are flung open and they return to a stance of gratitude
and worship. Their fear of eternal death, as well as our own, has been buried
in the empty tomb. We are invited to rejoice and let our gratitude for the gift
of new life draw us to worship God.”
Easter this year may still not be within the walls of our
churches, but we can still rejoice in God’s love. This year of challenges has
made many of us aware of the hidden depths of injustice and inequality still to
be faced. How can we use our worship to prepare us to do the work we are called
to in the Baptismal covenant?
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God
in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your
neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and
respect the dignity of every human being?
We respond to each of these “I will, with God's help.” How
then do we live? Where do we find hope to conquer our fears? In what ways can
we actively proclaim the Good News, love our neighbors, and work for justice
and peace?
The Casting Crowns song says, “if we want to see a
change in the world out there/ It's got to start right here/ It's got to start
right now.”
For me, it starts by being grounded in God and finding
things to be grateful for, even in the pandemic and turmoil. Things like
family, friends, sunshine, and even technology that keeps us connected. The
Lent curriculum suggests, “write down at least five things every day for which
you are grateful. They can be very small, but they should be things that make
you appreciate the gift of life we have from God. At the end of the week, bring
this list to worship and place it in the offering plate as an act of grateful
worship.”
When we can turn from fear and truly Worship, then we will be
freed to reach out to those who need to know the touch of God, the touch of
Christ. We can be that touch, we can build bridges and find common ground. We
can walk what Presiding Bishop Curry calls the Way of Love as Beloved
Community.
The closing prayer from the Lent curriculum calls us to love
and service:
O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore:
Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess
and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 124)
The Prayer for Social Justice on page 823 of the BCP calls
us to the same work:
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may
so move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the people of this
land], that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and
hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and
peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may want to pray these two prayers throughout the week
as you think about how our fearless worship and action might transform us and
those around us.
Next week is Palm Sunday. We'll finish our series with prayers for our families and the imperative to 'Go'.
