Liturgy for a Moral March

I wrote, or more accurately compiled, the following liturgical call and response for Shaw University Divinity School's preparatory gathering for the February 14 Moral March to the Capital.  If it is helpful for your own preparation feel free to use it.

I had some difficulty figuring out how to post the formatted text in the blog.  So I took a picture of it to add to the post.  The picture (JPG format) has text that is too small, but I can't make the posted text have an appropriate format.  So somewhere between the two, I hope you will find this readable.

Liturgy for a Moral March

Leader: O God, you are our God, we seek you, Our souls thirst for you;

People:   Our flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

               How long, O Lord, shall we cry out to you?

Leader: Have you not known?  Have you not heard?

People:   We have known.  We have heard. 

               You are the everlasting God,

               The Creator of the ends of the earth,

               Who does not faint or grow weary.

Leader: I am the light of the world.

               Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

People:   Lord, what is the way you are going?

Leader:  Let us love one another.

               This is the commandment, just as you have heard it from the beginning.

People:   We will walk in the way of love.

               We will worship the God of love in spirit and in truth.

Leader: What worship does God choose?

People:   To loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke;

               To let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke;

               To share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house;

               To cover the naked, and not to hide yourself from your own people.”

All:        The Spirit of the Lord is upon us and has anointed us to proclaim this good news.

People:   Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;

               You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;

               You shall be called the repairer of the breach,

               The restorer of streets to live in.

Leader: To whom shall we cry out?

               Cry out to the public servants to fulfill their constitutional calling: 

People:   Beneficent provision for the poor, the unfortunate,

               and the orphan is one of the first duties of a civilized and a Christian state.

Leader: Cry out to the ministers of the gospel to fulfill their ecclesiastical calling: 

People:   Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 

               Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Leader: Cry out to the brokenhearted and downtrodden: 

People:   Stand up, take your mat and walk.

               Because you give power to the faint, will walk and not faint.

Leader: Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.

People:   We will walk and not faint.

Leader: Whoever obeys Jesus’ word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection.  

               By this we may be sure that we are in Christ:

               whoever says, “I abide in Christ,” ought to walk just as Jesus walked.

People:   We will walk, and not faint.

Leader: Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.

               If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.

               While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.

People:   Here we are.  Send us. 

All:        Because you give power to the faint, we will walk and not faint.