Advent Year B, Week 2: Preparation & Promise

(Note: see also my Year B Advent offerings from 2017.)

This litany follows along with the Advent readings for Year B, Week 2. Themes of preparation: “prepare the way of the Lord; themes of a promise forthcoming : “we wait for new heavens and new earth, where righteousness is at home.” (2 Peter 3:13); and themes of comfort: “comfort my people (Isaiah 40:1). I have woven these themes into this week’s liturgy offering, in hopes of helping us live wholly in the difficult now and the longed-for not-yet.

In this year's Advent series, I'm using this phrase "There is a moment" as an opening line rather than the usual address of God. This is an intentional choice to help place us in the Now/Not Yet into which Advent invites us, and as a way to acknowledge the rumble of longing beneath our current reality.

I will post the remainder of this year's Advent series after December 1. 

There is a moment
Just before the promise of God -
The promise of goodness -
Comes to pass;
In which we prepare inside ourselves
Space for the Divine to be born.

Proper 12 (Year C): Litany for Prayerful Living

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This week I’m working on a sermon on the gospel Lectionary of Luke 11:1-13, Luke’s account of the Lord’s Prayer and Christ’s comments on prayer in general. My mind is going to the truth I learn over and over again: that prayer is formational, and not just intercessory. These days, the best definition of prayer I can come up with is this: living attentively to God. And this both forms us in our character and soul and gives us rapport with God so that we may ask for what we want and need. When the disciples ask him to teach them how to pray, he teaches them how to live. 

Oh God, teach us how to live attentively to you.
Teach us how to pray (1).
For by our attention to you,
We learn how to be in the world. 

Litany for Dancing (Year B, Proper 10)

This prayer is connected to the Lectionary passages for Proper 10, the 8th Sunday after Pentecost, Year B; specifically to the account in 2 Samuel where David accompanies the ark of the LORD into Jerusalem with dancing, music, and rejoicing.

God, we know that where your presence is
There is joy.
Where your glory dwells
There is joy.

As your servant David danced with all his might in the presence of the Ark (1),
So we embrace joy in the nearness of God;
You have not removed yourself from us,
Nor made yourself unavailable us.
We are your own people, whom you have blessed with every spiritual blessing (2)
Whom you love.

For surely you will speak peace to your people
When we turn to you in our hearts. (3)
Where you are, steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other. (4)

Oh God, grant that we may be so connected to your goodness,
And so aware of your presence,
That even when circumstances around us appear grim
We can have joy;
That even though we have all the facts (5),
We can rejoice;
That even though our dignity is suspect,
We can dance.

We carry your presence like arks within us,
Dancing as we go.
Amen

1. 2 Samuel 6:14

2) Ephesians 1:3

3) Psalm 85:8

4) Psalm 85:10

5) From Wendell Berry’s poem “Mad Farmer Liberation Front”: “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”