People's Prayers

Monday, June 16, 2025

Prayers of the People: Put it on the Mirror ~ 2nd Sunday after Pentecost WLWC* ‘25 Yr C

For Sunday, June 1, 2025; Readings: Isaiah 8:1-8, Psalm 34:11-22, 1 John 3:1-3,

Luke 9:38-48

Now the Inscrutable God said to me: “Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it… ‘For Maher Shalal Hash Baz (meaning Swiftly Savaged, Rapidly Ravaged)…So I went to the prophetess and she conceived and she gave birth to a child. Then the Fount of Wisdom said to me, “Name the child Maher Shalal Hash Baz. For before the child knows how to call ‘My mother’ or ‘My father,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried off by the ruler of Assyria. [Isaiah 8:1-8]

Come children, listen to me; I will teach you the reverence of She Who is Majesty…Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the All-Seeing God are upon the righteous, and her ears are open to their cry… [Psalm 34:11, 13, -15]

See what kind of love has our Maker given to us, that we should be called Children of God and we are…Beloved, now we are God’s children and it has not yet been revealed what we will be. [1 John 3:1, 2a]

Now there are arose a debate among them, which one of them was the greatest. But Jesus knowing the debate in their hearts, took a little child and put the child next to him. And Jesus said to them, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among you all is the greatest. [Luke 9:46-48]

I want to begin with a reminder, that the Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church [WLWC] texts used here are generally not those used in the Revised Common Lectionary [see more below]. Dr. Wilda Gafney as translator uses expansive titles for God and a perspective using feminine titles and pronouns of which some will appear in the prayers below. I cannot provide you with her full readings due to copyright issues. However, the context of these readings have not changed and can be found in whichever translation you prefer. That said, we begin with a passage from Isaiah 8…

A warning of the overthrow of Syria and Israel centers on the prophet fathering a child with the prophetess. While all the translations I looked at used prophetess, the meaning of it in several commentaries I also viewed, is as the wife of the prophet. However, Dr. Gafney explains in her text notes for this Sunday’s readings, the female prophet is articulated as a prophet (masc. sing.) without the feminine suffix in the Great Isaiah Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection making a number of interpretations possible, including the lack of distinction between prophets based on gender.

At the moment of time for this passage, approximately early 8^th century BCE, war and invasion are imminent. Judah is the continuing people of God and Israel, with the remnant of northern monarchy allied with the Arameans and planning to invade Judah, essentially a civil war. The passage discusses the gentle waters of the Shiloah (later known as the “Pool of Siloam”) and then that God will use the Euphrates to flood everyone “up to neck” and “fill the width of your land.” The underlying message from God to the prophet is that the people may be too focused on anger and threats of violence and the “water” reference is not literal but rather that their lands will be inundated with a flood of violence.

This section of Psalm 34 is fairly self-explanatory. It is God’s presence that restores and preserves us while the absence of God in one’s life is the true cause of destruction. That, then, takes on the appearance of God’s wrath, when it is one’s own inner wrath and lack of faith that is the cause of the presumption of God’s absence. God doesn’t leave ~ we do when we’re angry or judgmental, or worse.

From 1 John 3 we have this peaceful moment to breathe in deeply the words of how God loves us. A gentle comforting respite in the midst of everyday life. It calls out ~ at least to me at this moment ~ to be printed and posted on the refrigerator or the bathroom mirror!

And the Gospel brings us to Jesus encountering a man whose son is possessed by a demonic spirit. This is based on Mark 9:14-29 although the author of Luke leaves out details from the other. Jesus heals the boy and “all were amazed at the greatness of God.” In the midst of the awe of those present, Jesus gives another prediction of his coming passion to the confusion of the disciples. They were then debating which one of them was the greatest and Jesus swiftly and artfully de-thrones their egos.

War, threats of violence, a shrieking demonic presence, punctuated with the reminders of God’s love and constant presence make for quite an arc of emotions in this group of seemingly disparate readings. Yet the true message is sudden, with utmost clarity, and at the very end when Jesus says ~ “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me; for the least among you all is the greatest. As we are all Children of God no matter our age, gender, ethnicity, race, health, wealth, etc., Jesus takes us immediately back to: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…’ [and] ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Too often we do love God and our neighbor the same way we love ourselves but haven’t recognized it as such.

So, yeah, the piece from 1 John 3: See what kind of love has our Maker given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and we are. Put it on the mirror for the days when your Grrrrowl is louder than your Grrrrateful and Grrrrace.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Loving God, keep your eyes upon us and your ears open to our cries. Stay near to the broken-hearted and save all whose spirits are crushed. As we take our hope and refuge in you, strengthen our hearts, deliver us from all evil, and preserve us in your everlasting love.

Compassionate One

RESPONSE: Turn us to do good, to seek peace and pursue it

~ Loving God, You are our strength as we stand before the rulers and regimes on this Earth, in our Nation, and in our Community. Hasten to help us in pressing for leaders to turn from governance for power and self-greatness, to walk a better way toward mercy, justice, and peace for all. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Compassionate One

Turn us to do good, to seek peace and pursue it

~ Loving God, shelter the hearts, minds, and bodies of those tormented by the demons of chronic pain, addictions, or mental illness, and sustain the love and patience of all who give them care. We now join our hearts to pray for those in need… add your own petitions

Compassionate One

Turn us to do good, to seek peace and pursue it

~ Loving God, ease the burden of grief for all whose loved ones now awaken to the bliss of life ever after, in the peace of Jesus, our Christ. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Compassionate One

Turn us to do good, to seek peace and pursue it

~ Loving God, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently… add your own petitions

Compassionate One

Turn us to do good, to seek peace and pursue it

~ Loving God, we raise up before you all those chosen to lead us in your Church, who baptize us as Christ’s own forever, who bring us your Word and Sacraments, and who teach us to proclaim all that you, our Triune God, have done for us, in us, and through us. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Compassionate One

Turn us to do good, to seek peace and pursue it

The Celebrant adds: All-Seeing God, She Who is Majesty, keep us ever mindful that the through the strength of love you have given to us, we are called as your children. Guide us to truly welcome children of all ages, colors, ethnicities, and genders in the name of Jesus, to become the way we welcome you; for the least among us all are the greatest. We ask through the redeeming love of Christ, our Savior; the comforting wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who together with You are our One God, now and forever. Amen.

*Readings for our Parish in this Year C are from The Rev. Dr. Wilda [Wil] Gafney, Womanist biblical scholar, and the Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. She is the author of A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church Yr C, and others in her series, and translator of its biblical selections. I definitely commend her book for the complete readings, to Clergy and Laity, for her Text Notes, and “Preaching Prompts” whether or not you will use them in your Liturgies/Services/Preaching. There is much to learn from her work to inform every facet of our lives in Christ. To learn more about her and her work, see her website:

https://www.wilgafney.com/

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Prayers of the People: No Swimming Required ~ 2nd Sunday after Pentecost RCL Yr C

For Sunday, June 22, 2025; Readings: Isaiah 65:1-9, Psalm 22:18-27, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 8:26-39

I was ready to be…found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am…to a nation that did not call on my name. I held out my hands to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices. [Isaiah 65:1-2]

Be not far away, O Lord; you are my strength; hasten to help me. [Psalm 22:18]

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. [Galatians 3:28-29]

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. [Luke 8:32-33]

Why is there never a herd of scape-pigs around when you need one? Well, of course they really are all over as it's so very easy to jump on the closest group of "THEM" to blame for whatever demon(s) or demonic activities one believes of another individual or group. Also, of course, if Jesus were to cast the demons into the swine today, he would be overwhelmed with a huge backlash from bacon addicts. Of course, in the time of Jesus, as is still today with strict Judaism and other faith traditions, pork was a forbidden food, although the swineherds then as now would have other customers.

When this Gospel appeared as a previous Year C reading, it was just after the horrible tragedy in the nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which itself, was just a year after the jolting tragedy in a Church Bible Study Group in Charleston, South Carolina. Would that we could point to all being much improved in the world, in this country ~ how do we count the times and ways of horror-filled and hate-filled events just since then? Just in the last month? This past weekend? All too soon again? How do we move always forward, standing faithful and strong in the face of such ongoing fear-filled times?

The Lectionary, the table of appointed readings, offers an Old Testament reading from 1st Kings 19:1-4(5-7), 8-15a from about the mid-9^th century BCE and Psalm 42 for this Sunday. Those differ from the second option of the Third Isaiah passage which dates from about the early 8^th century BCE, and Psalm 22 that I’m using here, although the Epistle and Gospel are the same. I commend Psalm 42 to your reading. In that, the psalmist is in lament, depressed, mocked, and yet for all his despairing he is still speaking to God, in memory of a time when God felt closer. He also speaks in hope as if feeling and knowing somehow ~ by faith? ~ that the time will come when he will be able to give thanksgiving to God once again. This time, in Psalm 22, although the opening is also a lament, we are beginning with the later part in which the Psalmist, still beset by fear of anguish to come (aren’t we all?), is filled with the hope of God’s nearness and, as a guide to worship, gives us reasons to praise the God who answers prayer and cares for all who turn in God’s direction. We, too, must turn toward God when all is frightening, yet also, when things are good and joyful to give thanks ~ how easy it is to forget in the better times.

Paul reminds us, in his letter to the Galatians, that we are all one in Christ and also that we remain the children of Abraham. At the end of this week’s Gospel from Luke, Jesus tells the man freed of demons: Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you. Quite a contrast to the usual lament of Why have you [God] forgotten me? How, indeed, do we declare how much God has done for us in the midst of what has been done to so many in our midst?

Let us take the time to breathe, clinging to faith, to hope, and respect for one another. Although yet to come this week on Thursday as I write, hope and respect are especially necessary for the Federal Holiday of June 19^th, which commemorates the arrival of Union Army General Gordon Granger in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, to formally announce the end of slavery in Texas, 2 ½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.*

It seems a fitting reminder, as we remember the story of the demoniac, how those shackled in slavery struggled during their enslavement and for many, still today. If only all people’s demons and shackles could be easily released into a herd of scape-somethings and forever doomed.

For this moment and the ones to come, let us make moments throughout each day* to be still and listen for God in the silence of our souls. Let us open our hearts to smile with the giggles of children, and be alight with the joy of sunrise breaking through a long dark night. Let us continuously re-claim our faith, through prayer and by action ~ however tenuous in the difficult times ~ believing in the power of God to guide us through until we can at last praise the Lord, stand in awe, and give glory. Let us be released from those piggies of doubt, anger, hatred, fear, and greed, and send them off for an eternal swim! (Calm down, bacon lovers, I’m only speaking metaphorically!)

Most of all, let us always remember that we are marked as Christ's own forever in Baptism, either through water or desire. No swimming required.

*Recently, someone posted on a social media page that she and several friends have taken to put an alarm on their phones to remind them at Noon every day, to say a prayer for peace. I have now done the same and take that moment for some deep breathing and a petition for inner peace as well as a plea for peace of heart in everyone everywhere.

* For more Juneteenth information click link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Faithful Loving God, teach us, again, to always know Your Presence within us, that we are all Your children through faith in Christ Jesus, and heirs of Abraham according to Your Promise.

Jesus, Son of God

RESPONSE: Our Healer and Redeemer

~ Faithful Loving God, we call upon Your guidance as we stand before the rulers and regimes on this Earth, in our Nation, and in our Community. Hasten to help us in pressing for leaders to turn to honorable and principled governance for the good of all Your people, especially in the causes of Justice, Mercy, and Peace. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Jesus, Son of God

Our Healer and Redeemer

~ Faithful Loving God, in your loving-kindness make your face to shine upon those among us, those known to us, and those unknown, who suffer through chronic pain, addiction, or distress in spirit or in life, and grant refreshment to all who give them care. We now join our hearts together to pray for those in need… add your own petitions

Jesus, Son of God

Our Healer and Redeemer

~ Faithful Loving God, ease the hearts of all who grieve, as those loved in our living memory are now risen in the joy and glory of eternal life. We pray especially for… add your own petitions

Jesus, Son of God

Our Healer and Redeemer

~ Faithful Loving God, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials… add your own petitions

Jesus, Son of God

Our Healer and Redeemer

~ Faithful Loving God, grant special grace this day to all who are chosen and ordained to lead us in your Church. As they bring us your Word and Sacraments, they teach us how to declare all that you have done for us, in us, and through us. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Jesus, Son of God

Our Healer and Redeemer

The Celebrant adds: Most High God, Creator of All Humankind, on this auspicious date of Juneteenth, release us from any and all unholy possession that turns us away from You. Keep us mindful of the hope and freedom granted us through Christ, and fill us with the faith and compassion to proclaim Your Name by all that we are and all that we do. We ask through Jesus, our Teacher of Love in Action; and the Holy Spirit, the Spark that ignites our Souls; who together with You are One God forever and ever. Amen.

Monday, June 9, 2025

Prayers of the People: One for All and All are One ~ Trinity Sunday, 1st Sunday after Pentecost WLWC* Yr C

For Sunday, June 15, 2025; Readings: Hosea 11:1-4, Psalm 130:5-8, Psalm 131:1-3;

2 Peter 1:16-18, Matthew 26:16-20

When Israel was a child, I loved them, and out of Egypt I called my child…I led them with human ties and bonds of love…I bent down and fed them. [Hosea 11:1, 4a,c]

I wait for the Womb of Creation, my soul waits, and in her word I hope. My soul keeps watch for the Creator, more than those who watch for the morning…hope in the Mother of Creation! For with the Creator of All there is faithful love and with her is abundant redemption. [Psalm 130:5-7]

Womb of Life, my heart is not lifted up, nor my eyes exalted. Rather I have soothed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with her mother…hope in the Wellspring of Life… [Psalm 131:1a, 2-3]

For Christ from God the Sovereign received honor and glory, a voice came from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. [2 Peter 1:17]

Then Jesus came and said to them saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. [Matthew 28:19-20]

One part of the human condition is the occasionally obsessive need to be rational about the irrational, that is to make sense of out of what we don't understand so that we can find something of value or at least usable in it. Great thinkers and ponderers, researchers and scientific minds alike, seek to grasp the ungraspable and define the indefinable. We often strive to know what is unknowable and explain the unexplainable, or at least contain the concept in some easy mortal definition. And there is nothing more irrational, indefinable, or ungraspable than the theologically and intellectually mysterious Christian concept of The Trinity, One God in Three Persons. All manner of councils, creeds, arguments, and conjectures have sought to develop a workable, understandable, useful definition out of a non-scriptural but closely held doctrine of many Christian faith communities to which some simply choose to discount because it cannot be contained in a comfortable box. As Dr. Gafney reminds us, those of us who have realized and those who might not have realized, that the concept of the traditional Father, Son, and Holy Spirit nomenclature, allows men and boys to hear themselves and their pronouns identified with God to the exclusion and invisibility of women and girls and nonbinary persons. She says further that, “This exclusion is formative for men and boys casting gender hierarchy from which they benefit in divine terms…in the language of the Church… trinitarian language…remain[s] a sanctified proclamation of male divinity.”

While recognizing that the traditional language will always have a place in the liturgical lexicon, one of Dr. Gafney’s Lectionary project’s goals is to offer more ways to name God drawn from her own translations of the Scriptures while using expanded and often more feminine titles for God. A few of her suggestions for the Trinity are: Sovereign, Savior, and Shelter; Majesty, Mercy, and Mystery; Creator, Christ, and Companion; Potter, Vessel, and Holy Fire; Life, Liberation, and Love.

One of my absolute favorite thoughts about this same idea comes from Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, I.H.M., a renowned New Testament Scholar and Professor, writing in U.S. Catholic magazine for May 1, 1990 in her article: God is More Than Two Men and a Bird.

This is the Sunday which sends many practiced and learnéd preachers [who have told me this], running for the list of available surrogates to fill in so as to dodge unanswerable questions. With the millions of pages of commentaries, books, treatises, etc., available on Google, wiki-places, and untold thousands of websites, and the innumerable hours of sermons we've attempted to listen to (or write), 2 millennia later, we're still trying to put the pieces and Persons of the Trinity together in a way that helps us to explain to ourselves, let alone others, just what is it that we believe. Step back, take a breath, some things are simply not simple. Mystery is just that. Faith is a mystery ~ outside of any and all types of boxes ~ as is the Peace that passes all understanding. Our Trinity: Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier is truly One for All and All are One. AMEN. Alleluia! Thanks be to our God.

One of my favorite ways to attempt a somewhat workable sense of the Trinity – gender language aside – is through a portion of a 7th century creed from Dublin known as Tírechán’s Creed from his biography of St. Patrick ~ when speaking of God it says:

He has a Son who is co-eternal with himself;

and similar in all respects to himself;
and neither is the Son younger than the Father,
nor is the Father older than the Son;
and the Holy Spirit breathes in them.
And the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are inseparable.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ O Womb of Creation, most Holy God, lift our hearts as we awaken each day to know that your presence is always within us, if we but seek to find you. Exalt the eyes of our minds to see that our morning watch is constantly fulfilled, as through your faithful love you soothe and quiet our souls.

Wellspring of Life

RESPONSE: In you is our hope and our redemption

~ O Womb of Creation, feed the consciousness and consciences of all those who choose to govern in our World, in our Country, and in our Community. Fill them with an intensity of desire, to remember the human ties and bonds of love bestowed by you for the sacred benefit of humankind, including themselves. Restore that desire in each of us as we walk together in the life you have given us to live. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Wellspring of Life