What is below was used as part of closing liturgy for the recent Money, Mission, and Media Seminar, a collaborative and ecumenical conversation among ministry leaders in the PCUSA, ELCA, and more. Details here. Other Resources here.
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Voice 1: Creator and
Sustainer of us all, you made goodness out of nothingness, breathed life into
what was once dust, and invited us into your creative work of caring for and
nurturing all creation. This story of collaborative care, creativity, and holy
possibility binds us one to another.
Voice 2: Alongside the
invitation you have extended over and over, you continue to call, equip, and
empower us to tell the story of your love for all creation, in word, in image,
in action.
All: May we respond to your invitation with courage
and imagination. May we respond to your generosity with generosity, giving of
ourselves and our resources freely and without conditions.
Voice 3: In the midst of
frequent narratives of scarcity and perceived limitations, remind us of your
call to abundant life and gratitude. Where we are shaken by despair and tempted
to pursue self-preservation and isolation, turn our eyes and ears, open our
hearts, to the concerns of our neighbors.
Voice 4: Re-frame how we
understand money, investments, and invitations to give so we and those we lead can
fully live into our call to serve with imagination and love. Where our
imagination fails us, show us how all we have can be transformed into
resurrection hope alongside our congregations and communities.
All: May we be faithful stewards as we work within
economic systems, contextual leaders as we equip others to give in new and old
ways, and creative collaborators with new and existing partners for ministry.
Voice 5: Inclusive and
loving Christ, you broke conventional understandings of who is in and who is
out. You viewed every place and each person as a channel of God’s grace and
redemption. Help us to do the same.
Voice 6: In our own time
and place, enable us to see local businesses, digital platforms, social
networks, community parks, and various places beyond the walls of our church buildings
as cathedrals in its fullest definition: sacred spaces for conversation and
community-building.
All: May we be faithful servants to our neighbors
outside the church walls: those in our neighborhoods, main streets, work places,
schools, and all the “third places” in our midst.
Voice 7: Holy Spirit, you
dwell within each of us and send us to be both a gathered and scattered people.
When we limit your mission only to worship and not community engagement, reduce
the gospel to well-crafted theological statements, and become comfortable with
variations of privilege and power, confront our conscience and call us back to
the vision you have for the world, for the Church, for us. .
Voice 8: Make us
cultivators of community and gardeners of justice. Empower us to be agents of
welcome and hosts of the stranger. Stir our hearts and minds to ask faithful questions
as we extend solidarity alongside our local and distant neighbors.
All: May we listen to and uplift voices long
silenced and those who have been marginalized for far too long. May we link
arms and join the cause of those labeled least and last among us.
Voice 9: God who includes,
who provides, who loves, who guides, who challenges, may our understanding of
who you are and how you relate to us frame how we view and relate to one
another.
Voice 10: Unify us amidst
the divisiveness of both church and world, and guard us against confusing sameness
with oneness.
All: May we be faithful stewards and caretakers of
the varied gifts and stories, histories and cultures, ministry dreamers, and
community leaders in our congregations and communities. May we listen and may
we tell the story of how you are at work in the world with imagination and joy.
Voice 11: May we be
faithful stewards of our money. Remind us that everything we have is a gift
from you. Our money does not own us. Quiet the voices of scarcity and remind us
of all the times you have provide for us. Give us the courage to practice
unclenching our fists and give our money in ways that are creative, daring, and
enlivening. Bless our gifts, multiply them, so that all may know your love for
them and this world.
Voice 12: May we be
faithful stewards of media. Remind us that the Good News is a story, a Story you
have been writing since creation, a story of love, redemption, and
reconciliation. Give us the skills or send us the right people to help us tell
that story in word and in images, across contexts and platforms, with
authenticity and love.
All: May we be faithful stewards of God’s mission
in and for the world God so loves. May we encourage God’s people to live into
their call as disciples who extend love and tell the story of the Gospel. Amen.
Written and Developed by Rev. Greg
Klimovitz and Rev. Rebecca Blake, 2016