Liturgy of Community

So here is the last liturgy in our September series praying through our values.  A fitting prayer for a Sunday where our community celebrated 2 years (Brooklyn campus) & 9 years (Manhattan campus).

This is an original piece by Lancelot Schaubert, a writer & blogger who moved from Joplin to be a part of our Brooklyn community recently.  You can follow his work here.

The Liturgy of Community

Holy Father, Loving Son, Ever-present and Joyful Spirit

You, God, live in eternal community.
You, Father, send
You, Son, send 
You, Spirit, draw all men to
You, Father of Heavenly Lights, quiver over the waters at creation through
You, Spirit, miraculously conceived in Mary 
You, Son, can do nothing without
You, Father God.

But we confess we live unlike you.

You made us in your image, male and female, to live in eternal community.
You made us to love.
You made us to submit to one another.
You made us to prostrate ourselves in service to one another.
You made us to defer to the other like you.

But we defer to our selves.

Spirit, lead us spouses towards community by helping us to love the one on the other side of this, your bedroom. 
Father, lead us family members to love the ones on the other side of this, your table.
Son, lead us neighbors to love the ones on the other side of this, your hall.
on the other side of this, your street.
on the other side of this, your neighborhood.
on the other side of these, your train tracks.
on the other side of this, your city.
on the other side of this, your river.
on the other side of this, your county.
on the other side of this, your forest.
on the other side of this, your state.
on the other side of this, your country.
on the other side of these borders.
on the other side of this, your continent
on the other side of this, your sea
on the other side of this, your world
and one day, on the other side of this, your galaxy.

We confess that we destroy community through our ideals of community.
Help us to love one another like you. We know the moment that we love because you first loved us, we create our common union.

Thank you, Father, for loving us enough to send your Son.
Thank you, Son, for loving us enough to send your Spirit.
Thank you, Spirit, for loving us enough to send the Son in Mary.
Thank you, Son, for loving us enough to bring us into the Father's presence.
Thank you, Spirit, for teaching us about the Father of Lights and giving us the fruits of his virtue.
Thank you, Father, for sustaining all things by your Holy Spirit of Life for we know that if you removed the loving attention of your spirit from any given thing, it would cease to be.

Help us to become that attentive not to self, but to the other as we follow you – the Holy One, the most Other of all who dwells in unapproachable light on the other side of this, your cosmos.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen

* Photo credit: Shawn Willis