Web - Morning Prayer 3/22/2020

This version of the Morning Prayer is adapted from the Episcopal Book of Prayer and the Ionia Prayerbook.

This is the same text, absent the lectionary reading, I use when I lead Morning Services at a Convention. 

There are references to "reader," "leader," and " people" within the text    this is for when the services are done "in person."   You are invited to read aloud those portions if you wish.

(OPENING RESPONSES)

leader: The world belongs to God

all:      The earth and all its people

leader: How good it is, how wonderful,

all:      To live together in unity

leader: Love and faith come together,

all:      Justice and peace join hands

leader: If Christ's disciples keep silent

all:      These stones would shout aloud

leader: Open our lips, O God,

all:      And our mouths shall proclaim your praise

Leader: Holy God, Maker of all

all:      Have mercy on us

Leader: Jesus Christ, Servant of the poor

all:      Have mercy on us

leader: Holy Spirit, Breath of life

all:      Have Mercy on us

leader: Let us in silence confess our faults and admit our frailty

(A BRIEF PERIOD OF SILENCE IS KEPT)

Leader: Before God, with the people of God,

            I confess to my brokenness:

            to the ways I wound my life,

            the lives of others,

            and the life of the world.

ALL:    May God forgive you, Christ renew you,

            and the Spirit enable you to grow in love

Leader: Amen.

All:      Before God, with the people of God,

            we confess to our brokenness:

            to the ways we wound our lives,

            the lives of others,

            and the life of the world

Leader: May God forgive us, Christ Renew us,

            and the Spirit enable us to grow in love.

All:      Amen

(PRAYER FOR GOD'S HELP)

Leader: Move among us, O God; give us life:

All:      Let your people rejoice in you

Leader: Make our hearts clean within us:

All:      Renew us in mind and spirit.

Leader: Give us again the joy of your help:

All:      With your spirit of freedom sustain us.

Leader: And now, as Jesus taught us, we say:

ALL:    Our Father in heaven,

            Hallowed by Your name,

            Your Kingdom come,

            Your will be done on earth as in heaven,

            Give us today our daily bread,

            Forgive us our sins

            As we forgive those who sin against us,

            Save us in the time of trial

            And deliver us from evil,

            For the kingdom, the power

            And the glory are yours,

            Now and for ever. Amen.

(AFFIRMATION)

Leader: With the whole church

All:      We affirm

            That we are made in God's image,

            befriended by Christ, empowered by the Spirit.

Leader: With people everywhere

All:      We affirm

            God's goodness at the heart of humanity,

            Planted more deeply than all that is wrong.

Leader: With all creation

All:      We celebrate

            The miracle and wonder of life;

            The unfolding purposes of God,

            Forever at work in ourselves and the world.

(PSALM: said responsively - by one of the worshipers)

67 Deus misereatur

1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.

7 May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.

(Old Testament: Read by one of the worshipers)

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Epistle 

---

Romans 8:11-25

¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ^* from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through^* his Spirit that dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers and sisters,^* we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!^* Father!’ ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness^* with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; ²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in^* hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes^* for what is seen? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

 (READING FOR THE DAY)

Leader: This morning's  reading comes from the Gospel of John.

            Listen now for the Word of God.

John 6:27-40

²⁷Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.’ ²⁸Then they said to him, ‘What must we do to perform the works of God?’ ²⁹Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ ³⁰So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? ³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” ’ ³²Then Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven[CRM1] . ³³For the bread of God is that which^* comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ ³⁴They said to him, ‘Sir, give us this bread always.’
35 Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. ³⁷Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; ³⁸for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. ⁴⁰This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’

The Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

(a period of silence is kept)

Leader: For the Word of God in Scripture,

            for the Word of God among us,

            for the Word of God within us

ALL:    Thanks be to God.

(Homily by leader)

(PRAYERS OF GRATITUDE AND CONCERN)

Leader. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;

All:      Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.

Leader: Create in us clean hearts, O God;

All:      And sustain us with your Holy Spirit.

Leader: For each of our prayers, please add, aloud or silently,

             your own concerns

Leader: Give guidance and care for the needs of the world at large,

            and for the life of Your church

            God, in your mercy,

All:      Hear our prayer

Leader: For the concerns of our cities, towns and nations,

            give guidance to our leaders and care for their people

            God, in Your mercy,

All:      Hear our prayer

Leader: For the concerns and comfort of those of us here, our families,

            for those absent or those who are ill,

            and in remembrance of those who are gone,

            God in your mercy,

All:      Hear our prayer.

Leader: Remember all those the world has forgotten,

            Those without family, or those on the streets,

            Those who are damaged by drugs, alcohol or their own minds.

            Remember the unemployed, the widow, the orphan,

            and the prisoner.

            God in your mercy,

All:      Hear our prayer.

Leader: Living God, may we not fail you,

All:      Nor we fail them

Leader: O God, set Your blessing on us

            as we begin this day together.

            Confirm us in the truth by which we rightly live;

            confront us with the truth from which we wrongly turn.

            We ask not for what we want,

            but for what You know we need,

            as we offer this day and ourselves for You and to You,

            Through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

ALL:    Amen

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

(CLOSING)

Leader: This is the day that God has made;

All:      We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Leader: We will not offer to God

All:      Offerings that cost us nothing.

Leader: Go in peace to love and to serve;

All:      We will seek peace and pursue it.

Leader: In the name of the Trinity of Love,

All:      God in community, holy and One.

            Amen

---

 [CRM1]

TL:DR - Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas Are Lying Through Their Teeth

Recently the US Supreme Court decided to decline hearing two cases involving state attempts to spuriously deny access of low-income patients to health care provided by Planned Parenthood, by denying certification of Planned Parenthood’s eligibility to receive reimbursement for Medicaid services. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented in the denial of the grant of certiorari. Justice Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion


The legal thesis that has brought the cases to SCOTUS is whether or not a private entity has the ability to bring suit over a State’s decision in administration of Medicaid services, in this case, whether or not the State can deny certification to a provider without being subject to review by a non-governmental entity.  The non-governmental review is a right of action by Medicaid recipients to receive services from any qualified entity that agrees to do so, and that is also willing to accept Medicaid reimbursements to do so.

The denial of certiorari means that the rulings of lower courts in these two cases are allowed to stand, and that Planned Parenthood and its clients can pursue a lawsuit challenging the decertifications, and that the Medicaid reimbursements for services can continue.

Of particular concern to me are two avenues: in the first point, the states of Kansas and Louisiana decided to terminate eligibility of Planned Parenthood providers in their respective states in response to spurious claims by the “Center for Medical Progress” that Planned Parenthood and it’s affiliates were harvesting and selling fetal body parts for profit. Claims and films that were shown to be b spurious and deceptively edited.   Every State that has investigated has found these claims to be false. 

Of note Is that no clinic in the States of Kansas or Louisiana were accused of this practice by The Center For Medical Progress, and that Medicaid funds, by law, cannot be used for abortion services. An inspection by the State of Kansas did not show any finding that the Planned Parenthood clinics in that State had engaged in the sale of fetal tissue.

But, even though all investigations have shown no basis for the claim of selling fetal body parts for profit, these two states have persisted in attempts to disqualify Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements

The second avenue that I find disturbing, is that, even though Justice Thomas, in his dissent, tries to claim that the case is really about a private party’s ability to second-guess a States decision in regards to Medicaid services, his dissent nonetheless introduces the spurious charges claimed by The Center For Medical Progress.

To my view, and bear in mind I am not a lawyer, what is really the reason that Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch want to see these cases before SCOTUS is to close off avenues of redress to arbitrary decisions by State agencies.

The dissenting opinion is here (PDF)

It Begins Small

On a recent FaceBook thread, someone commented that calling the “alt-right” and the myriad Trump supporters “Nazis” was uncalled for, and an insult to those murdered during the Holocaust.

Here is my (edited) response :
-----------------------
There are those who are really determined to try to minimize the perception of the evil that Trump and followers want to perpetrate.

We have these measures, either in place or publicly proposed by the Trump administration:

• - Advocate for murder of those who are “the wrong kind”
• - Propose concentration camps
• - Separate children from families as soon as they are in detention
• - Forced labor of those in detention
• - Callousness toward documented abuses
• - Calling for forced exclusion based on religion
• - Demonizing the free press
• - Build a private army (the mercenaries that Xi wants to put in place)
• - Rigging elections by disenfranchising voters
• - Agitating trumped up criminal charges against political opponents
• - Make the private industrialists more dependent on his largess
• - Purposelessly denying critical disaster recovery resources because those caught by the disaster are the “wrong kind”
• - Calling for entire fields of study in science be defunded and discredited, solely on political grounds
• - Attempting to install a de facto, if not de jure, state religion based on an extreme sect
• - Fostering a personality cult to protect their leader from scrutiny
• - Nurturing and encouraging violent extremists.
• - Skewing the courts to deny redress by, and protection for, those without wealth and privilege
•  

Yet you want to minimize recognition of these evils, as there appears more and more public approval, as those adherents of this darkness see more tolerance for, and even encouragement of, their beliefs and aspirations.

So, yes, there is all the more reason to stem the tide now, by identifying it, and recognizing it, and denouncing it for what it is

The Nazi presence in Germany and Austria did not appear, as a fully formed Athena from the brow of Zeus, without preamble.

The population knew of this canker, and if not publicly embraced at the start, was approved of and supported, in private. When the hate was publicly displayed, it was not immediately denounced.

So the movement grew and was embraced by enough of those of power and influence that it led their nation.

And to claim, as some have done, that this current crop of racists, bigots, and fascists do not “deserve” the appellation of “Nazi” is both disingenuous and itself belittling of the people this new incarnation has as its targets.

And we must act now, lest we be ridiculed in future generations for saying "we didn't know" or "I didn't participate," or "I was just a good American."

He Just Doesn’t Get It

What a lot of people don’t realize is that Trump, fundamentally, has no actual idea of what the job of being the leader of a country is. 

Even after more than a year in the position he doesn’t get it. 

It’s not being the head of some services company where, if he screws up and damages a client he can get away with it either by bribes or threatening to cost millions in legal fees. 

It’s not some TV show where he has full rein to be as offensive as he wants and can thrill to forcing multiple people to perform pointless and humiliating tasks

It’s not some company that, when he inevitably mismanages it, he can drop it into bankruptcy and pass all the pain onto the employees, investors, vendors and taxpayers. (I mean, we *are* talking about the guy who failed to make money selling booze, steaks and gambling to American men)

It’s not some public relations scheme where he can self-promote himself with blatant, serial, contradictory lies and force anybody else involved to keep silent under threat of lawsuit 

He is, in the end, someone who has *never* had to be accountable for his actions, because he has, until now, never actually had to be accountable, because he could always, again, bribe, outright or through legal settlements, or abuse the process of litigation

The actions he takes, as the head of a country, have real and profound consequences.   And those consequences cannot be hidden behind a legal settlement or an NDA or by habitually telling falsehoods. And he isn’t even aware, after over a year in the job, that he can neither run, nor hide. 

And this is shown, with amazing clarity, with his very public announcement that, on his own initiative and whim, he lied about matters of state, to *another* head of state, the leader of a nation that, up until now, has had long standing and strong ties of mutual support with the United States. 

And then, completely demolishing any chance of restoring trust by either admitting he was mistaken, or telling the white lie that he had been “misinformed,” publicly *bragged* about fabricating information about matters of mutual state security. 

When heads of state directly negotiate, rather than work through intermediaries, it is almost always as a last resort on matters of vital national importance.  And those negotiations rely on trust between all parties, that at least some level of honesty and gravity are present. 

And Trump has shown, for at least the remainder of his term of office, and likely for a good while beyond, that that trust and honesty will not be any part of negotiations between the United States and any other nation. 

And he doesn’t get it. 

At all

#metoo

For about the last week, everybody in our corner on Facebook has been seeing the “Me too” posts about sexual assault and harassment.

Someone, I don't know who,  started a challenge: if all the people who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me Too." as a status, we might give those paying attention a sense of the magnitude of this problem.

The response has been an epidemic.   It's not surprising.  But saying "at least 50% to 60% of all women in the United States have been sexually assaulted or harassed" is one thing.   To see just about every female voice in one's  Facebook feed say "Me Too" is entirely something else. 

I’ve got another challenge for you.

Think back to to what you have done.

Have you been one of those who made the “Me too” happen?

Who pushed too far in a bar?

Who hinted the raise might get granted?

Who insisted on giving that massage?

Who decided that “No” really meant “Maybe?"

Who decided that “No” really meant “Sure, I’m just being coy?”

Who simply ignored the “No?”

Are you “that person?”

Be honest

Forget about “not all men,” or “I would never!” or “Ask anyone, that’s not *me!*”

I’m not saying to post “me too”

I’m saying, think about what you have done.

Is that “in the past” really “in the past?”

There’s a reason this is so prevalent. It’s because we, as a society, *let* it be prevalent.

It’s because we make excuses when it’s someone we know.

It’s because we say “What was she doing there?”

It’s because we say “Oh, they’re just having buyer’s remorse.”

It’s because we decide that “it was just their imagination.”

I’m saying, now, “what are you going to do, from now on?”

Are you going to keep letting the rape jokes slide?

Are you still going to say “He’ll make a good roommate for ‘Big Bubba’ when he gets to prison?”

Are you still going to say “she only got that promotion because she slept with him?”

Are you going to keep on being “that guy” that either does it or makes that behavior “normal,” that says “it’s just locker room talk?”

What are you going to do, now?

Don’t tell me.

Tell yourself.

And don’t lie.

Even Staying Home Is A Choice

I'm of an age that I remember the Omega symbols at protests on Boston Common.

I remember waiting for the draft numbers in the lottery.

I remember the boys who didn't come back.

I remember the people who went to Canada, even though they were in no danger from the draft , because the United States wasn't the home they had before.

I remember waking up in the middle of one night, turning on the radio for music so I could sleep, and hearing the breathless chaos in a ballroom where another tower of Camelot had fallen.

I've seen my dreams fall into the abyss of systematic bigotry, public indifference, organized greed and deceit and also saw them transform into nightmares of petty violence, corruption and a wholesale theft of the public weal not seen since Tammany Hall, all under the guise of "protection" from "big government.".

I have seen first hand, in my own person, and in the lives of those I've known and loved, the effects of discrimination and prejudice.

I despaired of where my nation would go.

But now I have to force myself to dream again. With four children and a granddaughter I have no choice.

I saw the campaign of the man I wanted, who was the mirror of my dreams of youth, fall apart from misguided zealotry and manipulation.

I've seen the campaign of a woman who is qualified, but with the baggage of decades of being the subject of right-wing hatred and lies, and as a not-so-close second choice be the one who could win.

I look at what the likes of Scalia, Alito and Thomas have done to our civil rights, and I fear mightily what would be the result of three or more of their ilk added to the Supreme Court.

And there are those who declare that they will vote third-party or write-in or not at all, and I want to take their faces and shove them into the mud and slime that were the results of "protest votes" that gave us and Bush II and wars that have surpassed in length even the times of occupation after World War II.

This election will be a turning point for our country.

We can choose either a deeply flawed Camelot or The Handmaid's Tale.

I've already been told I'm not a "real Progressive" for saying to vote for reality instead of a mirage of a Miracle of Rare Device.

I know what future I will choose with my vote.

With four children and a granddaughter I have no choice.

What will be yours?