Our recent Roundtable Worship focused its conversation on “righteous anger.” While the Bible attributes this emotion to God throughout Israel’s record and it is referenced many times in the Christian writings, both Jesus and Paul, as well as others, caution us from assuming that our anger is righteous or that it even is good for our souls.
Since most of us feel a good deal of anger these days, we had some deep conversation about how we should deal with it, both in extinguishing and in constructively channeling it. Here’s our liturgy from that gathering that disposed us to our conversation:
Call to the Table (antiphonal)
Out of the angry storm of wounded hearts,
You call us to the quiet river of your peace.
Away from numbing noise and blinding lights,
You lead us to the conversation of your love.
In rocky soils of our despair
You plant a forest of your promise.
In a world of blind hostility
You set a table of your mercy.
We come to your table,
Your table of peace.
ALL: Amen. Amin. Ameyn.
Remembrance (Unison)
In our beginning hands reached out with nurturing fruits.
In our frenzy to control our world the hand became a fist.
Over ages promises were made and sealed, only to be broken.
In the gift of your forgiveness, we walked forward hand in hand.
In the promises of prophets we were led by stars unknown.
In a faithful mother’s labors we were born to life anew.
In a death fomented by the rage of our rebellion,
You revealed a life eternally renewed by love.
Amen. Amin. Ameyn.
Thanksgiving (Unison)
O loving source of all creation,
For each day in which we breathe from your unending life, we give you thanks. For each gift of love sustaining earthly hope we give you hearty thanks. For your forgiveness that releases us from crushing guilt and dark despair our hearts are filled with gratitude. For the fellowship of table conversation our lips sing out your praise.