Over the past months, I have become more and more familiar with how Lutherans do things. Over the past year-plus, Jeanne has become a licensed lay minister in a local Lutheran church. As she became more and more embedded with this parish, I accompanied her occasionally in support an occasional occurance that has become weekly except when I am leading a monthly discussion group at the Episcopal church with a group that has been together for fourteen years.
Lutherans worship with a liturgical format both recognizable and different when compared to how Episcopalians do things. They use the same cycle of lectionary readings, which is a good things since my book that is organized according to the yearly lectionary readings was just publiched (shameless plug!). The Lutheran approach to eucharist is similar to the Episcopalians, but a bit too informal for my individual tastes. But some of the Lutheran liturgical prayers are beautiful, expanding beyond the also beautiful Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.
This last Sunday was a perfect example. After opening sentences, Lutheran worship begins with Confession and Forgiveness. Here was the text a few days ago:
Mighty God, lover of justice,
you call us to life in community,
but we have served our own interests
at the expense of our neighbors.
We have sown deceit where honesty was needed.
We say the right words, but our hearts are far from you.
Turn us to seek your face.
Knit us together and give us the mind of Christ,
that we may do justice, love mercy,
and walk humbly with you, our God.
Amen.
This was uncomfortably close to home, particularly the part about serving our own interests at the expense of our neighbors (I am American, after all). The final question asking for justice, mercy, and humility reflects Micah 6:8, part of the lectionary reading from the Jewish scriptures for last Sunday. “He has showed you, o mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God?”
The word translated “mercy” or “kindness” is hesed, which actually means something even stronger–“unconditional love” (thanks to Pastor Dan for pointing this out in his homily last Sunday). So that’s all that God is asking of us: justice, unconditional love, and humility. Good luck with that 🙂
Even more problematic is that justice, unconditional love, and humility often seem incompatible. The version of Christianity that apparently is the foundation of Christian Nationalism, for instance, is big on justice, minimal on love, and apparently dimission of humility altogether. There’s a reason why such Christians tend to cherry pick scriptures from the Old Testament and ignore the New Testament when seeking to find a biblical foundation for their arguments. The OT God is often judgmental, angry, and retributive–that’s the place that many Christians like to channel, especially in service of their own narrow sense of what justice amounts to.
But the OT God is also loving and forgiving–divine humilty receives its ultimate expression in God’s choice to become human through the Incarnation which continues through the continuing divine choice to enter the world through human beings. Human love often is conditional and transactional, but coupled with humility–as demonstrated in the life of Jesus–unconditional love becomes a reality.
The Forgiveness part of Confession and Forgiveness reads as follows:
The former things have passed away,
and new things God now declares:
Like a spring of water that never fails,
God covers you in the righteousness of Christ,
and forgives your in in Jesus’ name.
May the Spirit give you strength to live for others,
and bless you with the gift of peace.
Last Sunday also included an infant baptism. The liturgy there was lovely as well, but the final line above is a great blessing for any life, whether at the beginning or toward the end. “May the Spirit give you strength to live for others, and bless you with the gift of peace.” Amen.
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