Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church

Call to Action Liturgy 2009

Source: “God’s Renewed Creation: Call to Hope and Action” from the Bishops of the United Methodist Church

November 4, 2009

We cannot be instruments of God’s renewing Spirit in the world if we continue to deny the wounds of creation. Therefore, let us join in a lament for God’s people and planet:
 
Leader: We see waters polluted, species destroyed, forests ablaze, and land abused. We see weapons and waste littering the earth. We see people, created in the very image of God, suffering from famine and disease, burying their children, and living in hatred and fear. We know the farmers who cannot plant their fields because they are infested by land mines. We know the nations that build and make plans to use weapons of mass destruction in the vain pursuit of security.
 
People: We lament the wounds on our beautiful planet.
 
Leader: We see people overwhelmed by fear and anxiety; people who find the wounds of the world too deep to address; people who see the challenges to health and well-being for all as too great to overcome. We know the workers who can no longer provide for their families and the activists exhausted by the struggle for justice.
 
People: We grieve for our world, filled with pain.
 
Leader: We see communities without basic health care and clean water; communities stripped of natural resources and denied access to land; communities torn apart by intolerance, religious extremism and ethnic hatred. We know the refugee who risks death and capture searching for a safe place to live.
 
People: We weep for communities in crisis.
 
Leader: We see a world where some live opulently while others barely survive; a world where the innocent suffer and the corrupt profit; a world where too many still find their opportunities and freedom limited by skin color, gender, or birthplace. We know the boy who is caught in the snare of drugs and violence and the girl who is raped or forced into prostitution.
 
People: We mourn a world of inequality and injustice.
 
Leader: God sees the creation’s wounds. God hears our lament. And God calls us to accountability. We cannot be instruments of God’s renewal if we deny our complicity in pandemic poverty and disease, environmental degradation, and proliferation of weapons and violence.
 
Pastor: We, the bishops of the United Methodist Church, confess our failure to lead our members to care for God’s planet and people. We do not always maintain the bond and balance between personal and social holiness that marks our Wesleyan heritage. We sometimes focus on internal church matters and neglect creation’s daunting needs. We allow concerns about agreement and church growth to stifle our prophetic voice. We do not consistently provide the courageous leadership for peace and justice requested by our people. And too often we overlook expertise and gifts for leadership among our people.
We ask now that you join us in common confession, saying together:
 
All: As United Methodists, we confess our failure to embody the image of God. We rationalize our sin; satisfy our own desires; and exercise our freedom at the expense of the common good. We know that we should live within sustainable boundaries but we struggle to summon the moral will to change. As individuals and communities of faith, we have not been the stewards and caretakers that God created us to be.
 
Pastor: As your bishops, we encourage you to find solace and strength in the knowledge that God’s creative work continues. This gracious and loving God still calls us forth and prepares us to care for one another and the planet. With John Wesley, let us all affirm the “unceasing presence of God, the loving, pardoning God, manifested to the heart, and perceived by faith,” and turn to God offering “up all the thoughts of our hearts, all the words of our tongues, and all the works of our hands, all our body, soul, and spirit, to be an holy sacrifice, acceptable unto God in Christ Jesus.”  We pray for the wisdom and courage to change the ways we live and work, relate to one another and the earth, and allow our nations to be governed. Through God’s grace, we renew our minds, reorient our wills, and recommit ourselves to faithful discipleship as instruments of God’s renewing Spirit. We rededicate ourselves faithfully to follow the One who came into the world to reconcile us to God and to one another.