A Post-Election Liturgy

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Context: A few years ago, because of some heavy grief and life circumstances, I got to the point where I couldn’t do the evangelical thing of manufacturing my own prayers anymore. God felt distant and the grief just felt too heavy to bear. It’s during this time that I doubled down on liturgical prayer - a mode of prayer used by the people of God for thousands of years before we started praying our own individualistic prayers.

In light of the election results in the US Presidential and Congressional elections last night where grief seems heavy and prayers feel impossible, I thought I could put a liturgy of lament and introspection together that you all could pray with me.

Scripture Reading

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles in Babylon

29 These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ² This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. ³ The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: ⁴ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. ⁷ But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. ⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to your dreams that you dream, ⁹ for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord.

¹⁰ For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. ¹² Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. ¹³ When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, ¹⁴ I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Reflection: The best way to resist the despair of Empire is to lean into the life that Jesus liberated us for - life to the fullest. Like bullies, nothing infuriates oppressors more than watching the people they seek to oppress flourish. What does it look like for us to resist the American Empire over the next four years by “building houses to live in them” and “planting gardens to eat what they produce”?

Gospel Reading

Matthew 5: 3-12

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (or justice), for they will be filled.

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness (or justice), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A Collect for Post-Election Peace and Comfort

For our neighbors who are hurting, grieving, and mourning today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For our neighbors who are fearful for themselves and their communities today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For our neighbors who are rejoicing today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For our neighbors who fail to understand how their votes in America can help or harm their poor and oppressed neighbors in the Global South today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For the people who prioritized their own liberation over the liberation of their less privileged neighbors on the margins today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For the children who will continue to suffer in Gaza because of the apathy of the American Empire towards their lives;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For those who feel hopeless and in despair today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For those who are struggling to see God today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For those trying to live as peacemakers today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For those who are inclined to choose violence in word or in deed today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For those who feel inclined to cancel their neighbor because of how they grieve today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

For my neighbors who I find myself disappointed with today;
Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Psalm 139

The Inescapable God

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
³ You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and night wraps itself around me,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
¹⁵     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.
¹⁷ How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end—I am still with you.

¹⁹ O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
    and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
²⁰ those who speak of you maliciously
    and lift themselves up against you for evil!
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²² I hate them with perfect hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any wicked way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.