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Common Prayer
A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
By Shane Claiborne Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove Enuma Okoro
ZONDERVAN
Copyright © 2010 The Simple Way and School for Conversion
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-310-32619-9
Chapter One
EVENING PRAYER Sunday Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked will I return.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. O God, come to my assistance:
O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Kneeling Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. Silence (or time to confess to God or to one another) Rebuke me, O Lord, but not in your anger, lest I come to nothing.
Rising Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen. A candle is lit during the following song Walk in the light, the beautiful light. Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright. Shine all around us by day and by night. Jesus, the light of the world. O gracious Light, pure brightness of the ever-living Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the evening light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life, your glory fills the whole world.
In word or song Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God, all creatures here below. Praise God above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Declaration of Faith We believe and trust in God the Father Almighty. We believe and trust in Jesus Christ, his Son. We believe and trust in the Holy Spirit. We believe and trust in the Three in One. Prayers for Others (following each request): Lord, hear our prayer. Our Father Magnificat (Mary's Song) My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. The Lord looks on me, a lowly servant; henceforth all ages will call me blessed. The Almighty works marvels for me. Holy is God's name! God's mercy is from age to age, on those who are faithful. God puts forth an arm in strength and scatters the proud- hearted — casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly. God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty, protecting Israel, God's servant, remembering mercy, the mercy promised to our ancestors, to Abraham, Sarah, and their children forever. Lord Jesus Christ, you have triumphed over the powers of death and prepared for us a place in the New Jerusalem. Grant that we, who have this day given thanks for your resurrection, may praise you in that city of which you are the light and where you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
May the Lord bless us and keep us from all harm, and may God lead us to eternal life. Amen. Monday Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked will I return.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. O God, come to my assistance:
O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Kneeling Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.
Chapter Two
MORNING PRAYER
DECEMBER
Marks of New Monasticism Locating Our Lives in the Abandoned Places of the Empire
Everything in our society teaches us to move away from suffering, to move out of neighborhoods where there is high crime, to move away from people who don't look like us. But the gospel calls us to something altogether different. We are to laugh at fear, to lean into suffering, to open ourselves to the stranger. Advent is the season when we remember how Jesus put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. God getting born in a barn reminds us that God shows up in the most forsaken corners of the earth.
Movements throughout church history have gone to the desert, to the slums, to the most difficult places on earth to follow Jesus. For some of us that means remaining in difficult neighborhoods that we were born into even though folks may think we are crazy for not moving out. For others it means returning to a difficult neighborhood after heading off to college or job training to acquire skills — choosing to bring those skills back to where we came from to help restore the broken streets. And for others it may mean relocating our lives from places of so-called privilege to an abandoned place to offer our gifts for God's kingdom.
Wherever we come from, Jesus teaches us that good can happen where we are, even if real-estate agents and politicians aren't interested in our neighborhoods. Jesus comes from Nazareth, a town from which folks said nothing good could come. He knew suffering from the moment he entered the world as a baby refugee born in the middle of a genocide. Jesus knew poverty and pain until he was tortured and executed on a Roman cross. This is the Jesus we are called to follow. With his coming we learn that the most dangerous place for Christians to be is in comfort and safety, detached from the suffering of others. Places that are physically safe can be spiritually deadly.
One of the best stories of community in the United States comes from the backwoods of Georgia. In the 1940s, long before the civil rights movement had begun to question the racial divisions in the South, white folks and black folks came together to start Koinonia Farm — a "demonstration plot" for the kingdom of God, as they called it. Koinonia survived attacks from the Ku Klux Klan in the '50s and '60s, tilling the soil and sowing seeds for God's movement in the least likely of places.
December 1
Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916)
While working in the North African desert after a dishonorable discharge from military ser vice, Charles de Foucauld was impressed by the piety of Muslims and experienced a dramatic recovery of his Christian faith. He spent a number of years in a Trappist monastery before hearing the call to a new monasticism among the working poor. "I no longer want a monastery which is too secure," he wrote. "I want a small monastery, like the house of a poor workman who is not sure if tomorrow he will find work and bread, who with all his being shares the suffering of the world." Though Foucauld died in solitude, the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, inspired by his life and witness, have started communities of ser vice among the poor and outcast around the world.
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Come, let us bow down and bend the knee: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Song "Servant Song"
May we cry the gospel from the rooftops: both with our words and with our lives.
Psalm 8:4–7 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers: the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is man that you should be mindful of him?: the son of man that you should seek him out? You have made him but little lower than the angels: you adorn him with glory and honor; you give him mastery over the works of your hands: you put all things under his feet.
May we cry the gospel from the rooftops: both with our words and with our lives.
Isaiah 1:1–9 Luke 20:1–8
May we cry the gospel from the rooftops: both with our words and with our lives.
Charles de Foucauld prayed, "Father, I abandon myself into your hands, do with me what you will. For whatever you may do, I thank you. I am ready for all, I accept all, let only your will be done in me, as in all your creatures."
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Sometimes, Lord, it takes witnessing another person's commitment for us to realize our own lack of faith. Open our eyes to learn, even from strangers who inhabit other faith traditions, what it means to be committed to you. Amen.
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
December 2
In 1980 Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan were murdered by officers of the Salvadoran military. Missionaries serving among the poor during El Salvador's civil war, these women knew, as Ita Ford said the night before she died, that "one who is committed to the poor must risk the same fate as the poor." Their deaths affected the North American church deeply, galvanizing opposition to US support for the Salvadoran government's repression of its people.
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Come, let us bow down and bend the knee: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Song "Were You There?"
O Lord, listen to the song: of your saints who cry, "How long?"
Psalm 12:1–5 Help me, Lord, for there is no godly one left: the faithful have vanished from among us. Everyone speaks falsely with his neighbor: with a smooth tongue they speak from a double heart. Oh, that the Lord would cut off all smooth tongues: and close the lips that utter proud boasts! Those who say, "With our tongue will we prevail: our lips are our own; who is lord over us?" "Because the needy are oppressed, and the poor cry out in misery: I will rise up," says the Lord, "and give them the help they long for."
O Lord, listen to the song: of your saints who cry, "How long?"
Isaiah 1:10–20 Luke 20:9–18
O Lord, listen to the song: of your saints who cry, "How long?"
Ita Ford wrote, "The reasons why so many people are being killed are quite complicated, yet there are some clear, simple strands. One is that people have found a meaning to live, to sacrifice, struggle, and even die. And whether their life spans sixteen years, sixty, or ninety, for them their life has had a purpose. In many ways, they are fortunate people."
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Lord, it was not enough for you to care for the poor. You chose to become one of them by descending as you did. Keep us free from fear and selfish preoccupations that we may walk as you walked among the poor, sick, and dying in body and spirit. Amen.
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
December 3
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Come, let us bow down and bend the knee: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
O come, O come, Emmanuel: and ransom captive Israel.
Psalm 18:3–7 I will call upon the Lord: and so shall I be saved from my enemies. The breakers of death rolled over me: and the torrents of oblivion made me afraid. The cords of hell entangled me: and the snares of death were set for me. I called upon the Lord in my distress: and cried out to my God for help. He heard my voice from his heavenly dwelling: my cry of anguish came to his ears.
O come, O come, Emmanuel: and ransom captive Israel.
Isaiah 1:21–31 Luke 20:19–26
O come, O come, Emmanuel: and ransom captive Israel.
Justin the Martyr wrote in the second century, "He called Abraham and commanded him to go out from the country where he was living. With this call he has roused us all, and now we have renounced all the things the world offers, even unto death."
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Hound us, Lord, with affection and conviction until we renounce all lesser things to follow you. Help us see that in giving up the fool's gold of the world, we open ourselves to heavenly treasure that lasts forever. Amen.
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
December 4
O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the day rises to meet the sun.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Come, let us sing to the Lord: let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Song "Magnificat"
Praise to you who lift up the poor: and fill the hungry with good things.
Psalm 22:22–25 Praise the Lord, you that fear him: stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel; all you of Jacob's line, give glory. For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither does he hide his face from them: but when they cry to him he hears them. My praise is of him in the great assembly: I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: "May your heart live for ever!"
Praise to you who lift up the poor: and fill the hungry with good things.
Isaiah 2:1–11 Luke 20:27–40
Praise to you who lift up the poor: and fill the hungry with good things.
Commenting on the activities of the early church, Roman Emperor Julian said, "The godless Galileans feed our poor in addition to their own."
Prayers for Others
Our Father
Lord, keep us from trying to distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving poor. Help us work to alleviate suffering and injustice wherever we find it, trusting that the rest is up to you. Amen.
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you; may he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm; may he bring you home rejoicing: at the wonders he has shown you; may he bring you home rejoicing: once again into our doors.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Common Prayer by Shane Claiborne Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove Enuma Okoro Copyright © 2010 by The Simple Way and School for Conversion. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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