Worship as One Body
LITURGY AND ANTI-RACISM: TURNING ROUTINE INTO LIBERATION
Far too often we move through the liturgy of a worship service waiting for an anthem, a hymn or a sermon to address our needs for spiritual nourishment. We forget that the service of worship is structured to incorporate our true self into the nurturing relationship with the God who created us in the Divine image.
When we seek to participate in anti-racism ministry, we need to revitalize our participation in the parts of worship that can give us courage and vision.
Here are some samples to stimulate your imagination.
Prelude and Call to Worship
Both the prelude and the Call to Worship invite us to leave daily routine behind and renew our relationship with God, who created us and loves us into a future reflecting God’s intention for all creation. Jesus often refers to this as the Kingdom of God.
Frequently, we pray the Lord’s Prayer and petition God that “God’s Kingdom Come and God’s WILL BE DONE ON EARTH as it is in Heaven.” For a brief period of time, we are to focus our attention and our whole being on participation in God’s answer to that prayer. While it is not the only focus, it would be good if the pastor occasionally structured the Call to Worship to draw attention to the anti-racism aspect of our spiritual journey. What does it mean for us to focus on God’s will with respect to the consequences of racism in God’s beloved world?
Prayers of Praise
Our Prayers of Praise offer us to step beyond the finite and often damaged reality of our world. Here we can affirm the rich diversity of our world that is a mirror reflecting God’s infinite love. The last five Psalms, with slight adaptation, are a rich resource to stimulate our imagination. They speak of snow, grass, hills, fruit trees, monsters, birds, stars, trumpets, and clanging symbols. It
The Psalms also speak of people who are brokenhearted, prisoners, strangers, orphans, and all who are bowed down. As we let a spark of eternity into our lives, the diversity of God’s creation can reflect God’s beauty.
Our acts of praise are a challenge to the division, prejudice, and systemic oppression that distort God’s image in creation.
Here is my attempt to offer some corporate prayers for our worship services. You have my permission to copy or adapt them. Allow these samples to spark your imagination and allow the Spirit to work.
Sample Call to Worship
Adapted from Psalms 140-142
Leader: We call upon you, O Lord. Let our prayers be counted as incense before you. (Psalm 141:1-2)
People: Do not turn our hearts to any evil that separates us from the beauty of your diverse humanity.
Leader: Bring us out of the prison of racism so that we may give thanks to your name. (Psalm 142:7)
People: Let us join you in maintaining the cause of the needy and executing justice for the poor. (Psalm 140:12)
Confession and Forgiveness
How would our prayers of confession be different if we tried to reflect the united Body of Christ in our prayers? Our faith suggests that Jesus bore the sins of the world for our sake. So, as a Body of Christ, what if we confess our ancestors’ sins and our neighbors’ sins as well as our sins?
With respect to racism, for example, can we earnestly and sincerely confess the racism of our church’s history as well as the sins of our neighbors in our church and other churches? Trusting in the power of grace to help us to own the sins of our community, past and present, and be liberated by God’s love for a better future.
What if our prayers of confession were like this:
“God, we gather in your gracious presence. Probe our souls and lift up any thoughts where any of us have felt superior to others because of race, economic status, educational levels, gender, etc. (pause for 10 seconds for each to reflect) God examine this church and identify any misuse of power, attitude, or status in the past or the present that has distorted the diversity that reflects your love for us. (Pause 15 seconds). Lord, help us to release personal and community judgments and liberate in each of us the capacity to reflect the sacrificial love you offer to flow out from this community into your hurting world. Trusting Christ as our savior, enable us to be the loving community that offers hope and healing as a reflection of your image.”
The very contrast between what reflects God’s beautiful love and the narrow fears, greed, and oppression that we accept in our lives moves us toward a confession. For those involved in addressing racism in our society, it is accepted that we who are White experience advantages in our society that are structured against Blacks and other People of Color. This is not because we are mean or evil, but because we are humans who have advantages because of our color. Too often, when we hear that expressed, we become defensive or paralyzed by guilt.
Our worship provides us with an alternative direction in our journey. We participate in a faith that enables us to confess our guilt because we know through Christ and the experience of the disciples that by honestly confessing, God offers us forgiveness that enables us to grow in our faith. If you are aware of Alcoholics Anonymous, you witness an example.
The opportunity to grow into wholeness begins with the confession, “I am an alcoholic.” Imagine that same redeeming and healing power being present as we confess, “I am a racist.” Again, a pastor could structure such an invitation into prayers of confession in our worship services.
Prayers of confession are not opportunities to wallow in guilt but to open ourselves to the astonishing grace that liberates us to reflect the power of God’s love. This Divine love gives us birth and continues to give birth to the diversity of creation. Each prayer of confession is like a small version of Israel’s ritual of the scapegoat. Each year they would load their sins on the goat and drive it into the wilderness. They were liberated to start fresh to relate to the universe in all its beauty and freshness.
Imagine the release of creative energy that the forgiven worshipper could spread over God’s universe.
Here are some additional samples of prayers of confession:
Additional Prayers of Confession
1. God, we want to reflect your beautiful, diverse universe, with each part bearing a gift that reflects your loving image. We confess that we bear the racial sins of our ancestors and continue to accept the systemic divisions in both church and society. Whether from fear, greed, or ignorance, we fail to reflect the healing love that seeks to reconcile the world to yourself. Liberate us from our small vision of your will being done and set us free to strive for your kingdom coming on earth.
2. Lord, as white members, we confess to benefiting from advantages built into our society. Too often we are quiet when our neighbors suffer. As black members, we struggle with anger and despair when we either experience or witness discrimination. We are tempted to stay quiet because we want to fit in. Regardless of our racial origin, we find it difficult to sacrificially love our neighbor like Jesus loved us. We find it too easy to live in denial or quiet guilt. Forgive us Lord and put a right spirit in us.
3. God, we live in a society divided by race, economics, gender, and ego. You call us to be ambassadors of reconciliation, but we often fail to confront our divisions. We neglect our responsibilities as ambassadors of Christ to reconcile the world to God. By your Grace, help us learn from our failures and energize your healing spirit so that we might bear good news to a hurting world.
4. God, we gather as your diverse community. Too often we fail as ambassadors of reconciliation. Rather than investigating the causes of discrimination, we prefer to live in denial. We ask you for forgiveness. Too often, we focus our energies on seeking our daily bread rather than spreading forgiveness and trusting you for our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Move us by your spirit to reach out to one another as neighbors who need to experience reconciliation.
5. God, we gather in your gracious presence. Probe our souls and lift up any thoughts where any of us have felt superior to others because of race, economic status, educational levels, gender, etc. (pause for 15 seconds for each to reflect) God, examine this church and identify any misuse of power, attitude, or status in the past or the present that has distorted the diversity that reflects your love for us. (Pause 15 seconds). Lord, help us to challenge personal and community judgments that result in unjust communities. Liberate in each of us, a sacrificial love that can flow out from this community into your hurting world. Trusting Christ as our savior, enable us to be the loving community that offers hope and healing as a reflection of your image.”
6. God, we live in a fractured society divided by race and ethnicity, corrupted by greed and false egos. You call us to be ambassadors of reconciliation. We resist your invitation to confess that we are racist, greedy, or lust after our own comfort or pleasures. It frightens us to trust your grace will triumph over our sinful lives. Love us into a wholeness that can heal our divisions. Help us to imagine and seek after a Promised Land free of racism, greed, and false egos.
SCRIPTURE AND SERMON
The prayers of confession are frequently followed by stepping beyond the narrowness of our lives and being addressed by the Word of God proclaimed in the sermon. We are connected with something greater than our finite lives. We are liberated to reflect eternity, knowing that there is more to life and creation than we perceive. How do we invite members to trust that God has something to say to this congregation, and as they listen for the Spirit in this service and sermon, they can continually repeat, “What do you want me to hear as I listen to this sermon and service with these people?”
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
When we come to the prayers of thanksgiving and intercession, we have another opportunity to nurture our spiritual journey. When we offer thanksgiving to God, we are not saying, “I thank you God for recognizing that I am a superior person and rewarding my faithful activity,” as Jesus illustrated in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee. (Luke 18:9-14) The truth is the exact opposite. We are standing in wonder (or kneeling) and acknowledging a powerful experience of GRACE. We are witnessing to how grace has worked in our “sinful lives,” and how that displays how a Graceful God operates in our world.
Therefore, we dare to also petition God on behalf of other conditions in the world. This includes the toxic pattern of racism that destroys the beautiful rainbow of diversity that God offers us.
Offering
Too often, we respond to the opportunity with the mindset that this is a necessary practice that interrupts true worship because it helps fund the activities of the church. Yet the offering invites us to take an action that testifies to our relationship with the Divine reality and can affect grace even through small actions with grateful intentions. The act of giving releases one of the cores of our true self as we reflect the image of God from whom generous love flows. While it does help fund the activities of the church, that church is enabled to both act to nourish grace among members and reach out to display that grace in our larger community in the neighborhood and throughout the world. In effect, we are recognizing a Divine act of reparation.
Benediction
If you feel a little overwhelmed by all of this, stand and receive the benediction. This is the final blessing that petitions God to empower us through both big and small ways to live a life that reflects our faith that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self and not counting our sins against us. We are ready for the week ahead. These reflections on worship explore ways in which the corporate community can address racism, not just as individuals, but also as a faith community. It is important in our super- individualistic society that we both be reminded of and participate in the community of faith. As reflected in the Trinity, the divine creator of the universe is imaged in the diversity of creation. Like the Trinity, the parts are distinct, but the full beauty of the divine is reflected in a harmony that demonstrates Divine Love.
BEFORE YOU STOP THINKING, TAKE A PIECE OF PAPER;AND WRITE DOWN 7 SENTENCES, EACH REFERRING TO ONE CHANGE YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY IN YOUR WORSHIP SERVICE.