{"id":2370,"date":"2020-06-22T14:51:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T18:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/food-faith\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:17:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T16:17:06","slug":"litany-of-lament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/food-faith\/lament-litany\/","title":{"rendered":"Litany of Lament"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, PHP
\nCross-posted from PHP’s Eco-Justice blog<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"TheLast week I sat on the steps of my front porch, listened to the sound of police helicopters overhead and watched on a friend\u2019s Facebook live as a protest in honor of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman murdered in her home by local police, unfolded.<\/em><\/p>\n

My heart hurt. My soul was grieving. My shoulders sagged in defeat.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I tried to process what I was experiencing something clicked into place for me.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite having grown up in a poor white rural family that struggles with the concept, I acknowledge the privilege that has been afforded to me. One of those privileges is access to education and opportunities\u00a0 that allowed me to\u00a0 travel around the world.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In many of those places, even as I saw the individuals with my eyes, there\u2019s been some unspoken thing that my spirit has seen interweaving these far distanced stories.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen it in mothers in Mozambique who cried as they explained how civil war left them with no milk for their babies. I\u2019ve seen it in garment workers in Bangladesh as they share the names of friends and families that they lost due to unsafe working conditions.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen it in fathers in Palestine when they talk about how their families were forced into refugee camps in their own country. <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the thing that causes my heart to cry out and want to rail against the injustice<\/a>. It\u2019s the thing that not everyone perceives despite what they\u2019ve seen. It is the missing piece of the story that results in an\u00a0 incomplete narrative taken home.<\/em><\/p>\n

This often unspoken thing, the thing I\u2019ve seen in the people I\u2019ve known, the thing I felt last week on my porch, the thing that ties us together as humans, even as we experience it very differently, is the lament born of the evil of oppression.<\/em><\/p>\n

The oppression of injustice, inequality, insecurity, racism and denial of basic human rights. The oppression of erasing identities, of land grabbing, and of police brutality.<\/em><\/p>\n

Too often this lament feels uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. It\u2019s easier to try and keep it at arms length, but as people of faith we have a Biblical call to lament what has divided us in order to understand what we need to do to live out the beloved community of God.<\/em><\/p>\n

God make us brave enough to enter into lament.<\/em><\/p>\n

Litany of Lament*<\/strong><\/p>\n

L<\/strong>eader: Let us pray<\/p>\n

L: The God of love opens our eyes to see the suffering of all our sisters and brothers<\/p>\n

P<\/strong>eople: And we will see<\/p>\n

L: The God of justice opens our ears to hear those who cry out<\/p>\n

P: And we will hear<\/p>\n

L: The God of healing opens our hearts to acknowledge and share our own pain<\/p>\n

P: And we will bear it together<\/p>\n

L: In the power of the Spirit we will know the truth<\/p>\n

P: And the truth will set us free<\/p>\n

L: Let us pray together<\/p>\n

All: O God, You who created us all in Your image, who knew us all before we were born, affirm in us the value Your love has unquestionably given to us.\u00a0 As we embody our core identity found in you, may those who are dehumanized, either by the oppression of others or by their own actions of hate, be granted the permission to live in the freedom you offer\u2014By Your compassion grant us what we need\u2014the courage necessary to love boldly, the vulnerability necessary to trust, the submission necessary to heal, the conviction necessary to repent. We belong to You.<\/p>\n

Scripture<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A selection from the Book of Habakkuk, written by a prophet of God while living in the midst of sin and destruction within God\u2019s people.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>1<\/strong>\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0O Lord, how long shall we cry for help, and you not listen? Or cry to you \u201cViolence!\u201d and you will not save?
\n3<\/sup>\u00a0Why do you make us see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before us; strife and contention arise.
\n4<\/sup>\u00a0So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous\u2014therefore judgment is perverted.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>Are you not from of old, O Lord my God, my Holy One? You shall not die. O Lord, O Rock, you have marked injustice for judgment.
\n13<\/sup>\u00a0Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; so why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Our God and Parent, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who is Ours,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Let us not rush to the language of healing, before understanding the fullness of the injury and the depth of the wound.
\nLet us not speak of reconciliation without speaking of reparations and restoration, or how we can repair the breach and how we can restore the loss
\nLet us not value property over people; let us not protect material objects while human lives hang in the balance.
\nLet us not value a false peace over a righteous justice.
\nLet us not be afraid to sit with the ugliness, the messiness, and the pain that is life in community together.
\nLet us not offer cliches to the grieving, those whose hearts are being torn asunder.<\/p>\n

Instead\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us mourn black and brown men and women, whose lives and bodies are too often devalued and discarded by a nation whose sins have been too quickly forgotten.
\nLet us lament the loss of lives by those tasked with protecting and serving the communities they police.
\nLet us weep at a criminal justice system, which is often neither blind nor just.
\nLet us be men and women willing to mourn and rend our garments of privilege and ease, and sit in the ashes of this nation\u2019s original sin.
\nLet us be silent when we don\u2019t know what to say.
\nLet us be humble and listen to the pain, rage, and grief pouring from the lips of our neighbors and friends.<\/p>\n

God, in your mercy\u2026
\nShow us our own complicity in injustice.
\nConvict us for our indifference.
\nForgive us for when we have remained silent.
\nEquip us with a zeal for righteousness.
\nNever let us grow accustomed or acclimated to unrighteousness.
\nAmen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leader: O God, in your mercy\u2026<\/strong>
\nPeople: Lord, Hear our Prayer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

* From A Service of Lament and Hope on 5\/29\/2020 written by William Mack, Pastor of Grace Community Covenant Church<\/a>, Louisville, KY, adapted from liturgy written by Paul Burkhart.<\/p>\n

\n

PHP understands that ending hunger and poverty can only happen by creating just economic policies and healthy, equitable food and farming systems. We believe that dismantling systemic racism is a central component of this work.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacial Justice Resources,\u201d\u00a0 a one-page list of resources to help bring about racial justice in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the wider world, is now available. Click here<\/a>\u00a0to view what\u2019s currently offered. The list of resources will grow as more resources are developed.<\/p>\n

\n

The work of the Presbyterian Hunger Program is possible thanks to your gifts to <\/em>One Great Hour of Sharing<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, PHP Cross-posted from PHP’s Eco-Justice blog. Last week I sat on the steps of my front porch, listened to the sound of police helicopters overhead and watched on a friend\u2019s Facebook live as a protest in honor of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman… Read more »<\/a>","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":2371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3678],"tags":[3371,3372,3373,3374,3375],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racial-justice","tag-compassion-peace-and-justice","tag-eco-faith-journey","tag-lament","tag-liturgy","tag-worship"],"yoast_head":"\nLitany of Lament - Food and Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/food-faith\/lament-litany\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Litany of Lament\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, PHP Cross-posted from PHP’s Eco-Justice blog. 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