Proper 17 (Year B, 2021): Litany for True Religion

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In addition to this new litany below, I’d like to point you toward my Litany for the Heart, which I wrote for Proper 17 of Year B in 2018, and still like a lot.

In this week’s Lectionary scriptures there is a distinct theme: DEFILEMENT. James is translated as using words like “sordidness” and “rank growth of wickedness,” along with an exhortation for “keep yourself unstained by the world.”

Mark tells a story of some Pharisees criticizing followers of Jesus for eating with “defiled” (unwashed) hands, which prompts Jesus to reflect on what *actually* might cause a person to be defiled or otherwise considered unclean.

James (according to translators) and Jesus (according to Mark, according to translators) don’t seem to agree on the particulars: James says that true religion is to care for orphans and widows (that would have been the poor and marginalized of his time and place) and stresses the importance of “keep[ing] oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). But Jesus says there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." Holy Moses! A contradiction!

Regardless of what we do with this seeming contradiction, I can accept James’ advice to be a “doer” not just a “hearer” of good news, and to turn my religion from abstract thought to concrete action (like, say, wearing a mask in a global pandemic). And I can accept Jesus’ counsel to give attention to my heart, my inner being, so that what comes out of me - what I DO - is good and just. True religion.

God, in this challenging and overwhelming time on earth,
We know that we must tend ourselves and our resources well.
We don’t want to get bogged down in frivolous disputes
Or distracted by what isn’t ours to manage.

Proper 7, Year B: Litany for Hearts Wide Open

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You can find archived litanies here, and purchase my book here.
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Here is my previous litany from 2018, Year B, Proper 7: Litany for the Desperate

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we are remembering. Re-membering. Putting the body of knowledge back together again. Becoming conscious members once again of a Community. We forget that we are part of the body of God. We forget that our true selves are “hidden with Christ in God.” And that DOESN’T MEAN that our true selves are hidden from us or inaccessible to us. It means we are enfolded in God, God being all around everywhere available. Waiting to be remembered.

(I’m using words to try to express a fairly profound spiritual truth, which is always tricky business.)

My point is: I’m thinking (and learning from many spiritual teachers) that it is our work here to re-member ourselves as parts of Christ/God on earth. And then to live out that essential truth in our thoughts, words, and actions.

And then Saint Paul speaks so beautifully about the paradoxes we are muddling through here on earth, and how we are learning to recognize our true selves among all this contrast. He says: “Our hearts are wide open.” Which I take as a shorthand way of expressing that our hearts are mirroring God’s heart as part of God’s heart. We assume the wide-open-hearted posture of God toward all beings, toward ourselves, toward each other. When we can do this, we’ve come home to our true nature and the world will reverberate with our home-coming.

God, we are here in this realm of contrast, relativity, and duality,
Learning to recognize ourselves -
You in us, us in you.
You flung open your heart to us!

Litany for the Heart (Proper 17, Year B)

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This week’s Gospel reading comes from Mark 7, where Jesus is challenged by some Pharisees as to why his disciples don’t follow all the rules they ought to. And Christ seems to think they are focusing on the wrong things, that the inward state of the heart is more worth working on.

God, the current of your love is flowing to us;
We don’t want anything to get in the way of it -
Not anything outside of us,
Or anything inside our own hearts.

We are beginning to understand that evil
Is whatever impedes love.
So help us, God; and don’t let us get caught in the trap
Of following rules,
Of observing tradition,
Of controlling behavior,
Of managing appearances,
And ignoring the state of our hearts.

We know we must be transformed from the inside out
That we must do inner work to become aligned with love:*
Disconnecting from judgement,
Releasing resentment,
Clearing hostility,
Relinquishing pride,
Cultivating compassion,
Creating peace.

And we know that we must allow love to work on us, removing impediments,
Restoring us to our truest nature:
God-children,
Love-centered,
Heart-open,
Christ-conscious,
Creative beings,
Reflecting your heart in ours.

Let our hearts, like beacons, point the way to yours,
Shining Love’s illumination. Amen

*I actually believe we ARE aligned with love, we just have to wake up and realize it, and clear out all the stuff that keeps us from seeing it. But for the purposes of the flow of this prayer, I’m using this wording.