Rabbi … Teacher … Master,
We are both amazed by your knowledge
and intimidated by it.
Your wisdom is greater than the universe,
and nothing can compare with it.
We listen,
and it troubles us.
We cannot fully comprehend
your radical ways,
nor can we reconcile the gentle Jesus we were taught to love
and the judging Jesus we were taught to fear
with the passionate Jesus who shakes the very foundations
of what we believe.
Teach us again, we pray.
Open our minds to a new way of being.
Commissioner … Administrator … Director,
You send us out
like sheep among wolves
with this muddled understanding
of who we are
and what we are called to do.
You anoint us with power
and authority
we feel ill-equipped to handle,
and you tell us to travel lightly, and
to trust that you will provide.
In our insecurity, we reach for the tools we have always used
to get us through challenging times,
but they are not necessarily useful
or productive
or wise.
Open our minds to a new understanding of our call.
Leader … Healer … Lord,
We repeatedly come up against resistance
to the very idea that hope and love
can win.
Sometimes that resistance is within us.
Sometimes it is around us.
Either way, we find it difficult
to navigate.
Give us strength to persist,
and courage to be faithful,
regardless of the cost.
Help us to face the uncertainty of the future
with wisdom and decisiveness.
Open our minds to a greater perspective than our finitude can provide,
and lead us to love even as you love us.
Julie Gvillo is Commissioned Pastor (PCUSA) and Founder and Creative Executive Director of A Place of Grace. Julie shares liturgy written on RCL passages each week on her blog, Point of Contact: Where Life and Worship Intersect.
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“In our insecurity, we reach for the tools we have always used
to get us through challenging times,
but they are not necessarily useful
or productive
or wise.”
My ministry with traumatized people reveals that this one of the hardest things for folks to experience. Coping tools have reached their limits and just when you are desperate for something familiar and trustworthy, you have to learn new tools and figure out which ones will work the best and it all feels so clumsy. But new tools are also a liberation and a new portal into our lives. Thank you for inviting us to pray about this as we move toward the new reality post-pandemic.
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