Sunday Prayers
of fear and rage
I Don’t Have the Right Words So I Made One Up: FRAGE
The amount of fear and rage (FRAGE?) that is surging through my body right now is making it difficult to get anything done.
So this morning I wondered if I added a different ingredient to that FRAGE, would it create an emotional alchemy of sorts and turn into something else?
I know it is counterintuitive but stay with me here;
To my FRAGE I am adding prayers of gratitude-not for the SCOTUS rulings, but for everything that that the SCOTUS rulings seeks to destroy.
A Prayer for Sunday June 26th, 2022
Dear God,
The world has sought endlessly to quiet, hem in, shame and control this body, nevertheless, I persist in praising you that I was born a woman.
And I thank you for the generations of other women whose well of wisdom, and defiance, and beauty, and creativity I have drunk from; the waters of which have sustained me and set my shoulders back.
Thank you for our ancestors in the faith who knew their dignity originated in you and not in the whims of those who sought to dominate them. Help me draw not upon the power of doom-scrolling but upon the power of Mary’s song, and Jael’s hammer, and Shiphrah & Puah’s sneakiness, the Syrophoenician woman’s sass.
Thank you for the anger surging through this body that has conceived three and birthed two.
Bless that anger, God, and direct it.
And if there is any left over, let it not destroy me or those I love, but burn it off with the heat of pleasure, and desire.
And if the road ahead is long, Lord - and I fear it will be,
may there be belly laughing
may there be mutual consolation
may there be rest
may there be song
and I am serious about this one, God –
may there be snacks.
For this and that for I have no words - I thank you.
May these prayers of gratitude turn my fear into faith and my rage into purpose.
Amen.
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Others have perhaps already mentioned this, but “Frage” in German means “question”, which also seems apt. This is NOT settled. It’s still very much an open question. Not over. Not decided.
Also, at the ELCA church I attended this morning in the Twin Cities, the pastor led with a message of grief, outrage & solidarity about the SCOTUS decision, talked about the official position of the ELCA & the statement of the presiding bishop, & condemned what he called the version of Christianity that led to the decision. Later, the Prayers of Intercession included this petition: “Lord, when your church is in need of rebuke, rebuke it.”
Amen.
Thank you. I walked into my ELCA church this morning wondering if this topic was going to be broached. Thankfully, I heard words like, -we are not called to be the moral compass of the world. And it is never the right time to impose our religious beliefs on others. That, my Bishop offering to do pro bono same sex marriages, and this post give me hope.