Beloved community, let us draw the circle wide!
And draw it wider still.
We come — laden with doubts, fears, resentments —
to worship the God who gives us faith, courage, renewal.
We come — overwhelmed with remorse,
or struggling with what it means to forgive —
to worship the God who teaches us true restoration.
We come — with identities varied as the colors of the rainbow —
to worship the God who weaves our many threads into one tapestry.
We come, and the circle is drawn wide — and wider — and wider still!
Not by our strength, not by our merit, but through God’s grace.
OPENING PRAYER
God the Gatherer,
God the Grafter,
God the Weaver of our many threads into a colorful whole —
In which no color drowns out any other, and all have their role in the tapestry —
Open us to your presence today, now!
Pour like rain into the cracked soil of our parched spirits;
Seep into our dreams and set us alight with grand new visions of You.
Nourishing rain in desert places,
Night’s relief among sun-burned sands,
Revitalize us so we can worship you
With the joy and wholeheartedness you deserve.
Amen.
I wrote this for a virtual service on August 16, 2020 (15A Proper), a service that centered around themes of reconciliation and interdependence. I preached on Genesis 45:1-15, exploring Joseph’s gender nonconformity as a source for the brothers’ violence against Joseph; how Joseph was brought from suffering into thriving and was celebrated for the very gifts that the brothers had hated; and how Joseph as the wronged party got to choose how and when reconciliation would take place.
Meanwhile, I wove that theme of reconciliation into my liturgy alongside our need for community and to draw the circles of our community ever wider, drawing from the alternative reading Isaiah 56:1-8. This is why the above liturgy is all about expanding our community and God’s gathering of all persons.
Binary-Breaking Worship 