| Here is what the liturgy offers us within our faithful story telling - again Walter Brueggemann. The liturgy provides a script for a season of counterbehavior. The first aspect of counterbehavior is the public voicing of pain: "The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them." (Exodus 2:23-25) The world of Pharaoh produced great pain, but it was silenced pain in which brick-producing slaves were to accept their suffering and abuse as appropriate to their condition. The public voicing of pain is the refusal to accept suffering in docility and to resist the status of slave and the abuse that comes with that status. The very first utterance in the liturgy makes available that which Egypt forcibly denied. The world of pain is the world of reality. It is not a world that runs according to the script provided by those who want the vision of the world to follow the lead of the powerful. Nice, clean worship that gives us nothing more than a reflection of the values and desires of any empire may inspire many people. And yet, to what are they being inspired - to be just like the world as it is. I don't think we do ourselves any good when we cannot tell the truth in the face of all who want to keep living in the slavery of Egypt. The liturgy must bring us a light that we exposes what is actually the condition of life around us and a voice that reminds us of those who are not able to lift every voice and sing. Praising God is not an end in itself. We praise the God who hears of our pain and responds and sees our suffering and bends down to touch. So prior to praise - in the midst of praise - and when praise is coming to an end: let us be honest with ourselves and hold our lives before the Lord, God. It is there that liturgical voicing of pain becomes a healing balm and a life-giving reminder of whose we are and who we to become. Connection: Listen to the liturgy - do you hear that honest voice of pain in the midst of our words of praise and thanksgiving? That is a full story. You expect to hear our pains and sorrows, O God. Free up our tongues so that we may share our whole lives with you as we trust that they are in your hands and ready to be shaped and healed and given new life. Amen. |
No comments:
Post a Comment