Prayer for the upside-down kingdom of God

Here is some liturgy that I prepared for today's meeting of the Barking Episcopal Area Team (credits at the end):

Opening reflection: “[Saint] Francis, at the time … when he disappeared into the prison or the dark cavern, underwent a reversal of a certain psychological kind … The man who went into the cave was not the man who came out again … He looked at the world as differently from other men as if he had come out of that dark hole walking on his hands … If a man saw the world hanging upside down, with all the trees and towers hanging head downwards as in a pool, one effect would be to emphasise the idea of dependence … It would make vivid the Scriptural text which says that God has hanged the world upon nothing.”

May we come out of our cave walking on our hands and see the world hanging upside down. May we understand dependence when we know the maker's hand. Amen.

Prayer of penitence: Jesus, you startle us as paradox, irony and surprise permeate your teachings flipping our expectations upside down: the least are the greatest; adults become like children; the religious miss the heavenly banquet; the immoral receive forgiveness and blessing. Things aren’t like we think they should be. We’re baffled and perplexed; uncertain whether to laugh or cry. Again and again, turning our world upside down, your kingdom surprises us and so we pray now to see your world and our lives as you see them.

It's a funny thing about humility as soon as you know you're being humble, you're no longer humble. It's a funny thing about life you've got to give up your life to be alive, you've got to suffer to know compassion, you can't want nothing if you want satisfaction.

Lord, forgive our knowingness, our grasping, our comfort and our self-satisfaction.

It's a funny thing about love the harder you try to be loved, the less lovable you are. It's a funny thing about pride, when you're being proud you should be ashamed. You find only pain if you seek after pleasure, you work like a slave if you seek after leisure.

Lord, forgive our attempts to be loved, our pride, our pleasure-seeking and our leisure-seeking. As we turn to you, turn our lives upside down and bless us with poverty, with grief, with meekness, with hunger, with mercy, with purity, with peacemaking, with persecution and with your upside down kingdom. Amen.

Bible reading: Luke 7. 36-50

Reflection

Prayers of intercession: God of Israel, the God of the Exodus, you hear the cry of slaves and deliver true liberation. New regimes which leave the old order in place, the bullies in power, the greedy with their unjust gains, and which have nothing to say to the oppressed are not good and are not news. Having heard the subversive nature of your kingdom announcement, we pray for an upside-down kingdom that will deliver true liberation.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.

It is the humble poor who know their need of you and those who have nothing who know they need everything. So we pray for those moments when we and others become poor in spirit, bereaved, meek, hungry, thirsty, and turn faces to you looking for salvation. Open doors in us and others that gain and comfort have locked tight.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.

The Gospel announcement, your salvation, is truly comprehensive, is truly for all, because it is offered to losers, by circumstance or choice. The poor have no means of becoming rich but the rich have within themselves the possibility of becoming poor. There is nothing that we don’t have that will bar our entry to this upside-down kingdom and so we pray to be rid of what we do have that your kingdom may truly come to all.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever. Amen.

Closing prayer: Let it break out like blisters on the skin of this city.
Let it cut to the heart like cardiac surgery.
Let it create more column inches than Idols or Big Brother.
Let it turn more heads in public than Brooklyn Beckham’s mother.

Let it blow in like a hurricane, like a river, like a fire.
Let it spread like a virus, like a rumour, like a war.
Like the raising of a curtain, like the roll of a drum,
let it come to us: let your kingdom come.

Let it hit the road more readily than Eddie Stobart’s trucks.
Let it show up in more suburbs than Blockbusters and Starbucks.
Let it overturn more social norms than Marge and Homer’s Bart.
Let it be driven to more victories than Tiger Woods’ golf cart.

Let it blow in like a hurricane, like a river, like a fire.
Let it spread like a virus, like a rumour, like a war.
Like the raising of a curtain, like the roll of a drum,
let it come to us: let your kingdom come. Amen.


Opening reflection – extract from G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi & adaptation of ‘The Cave’ by Mumford & Sons. Prayer of penitence – extracts from Donald Kraybill, The Upside Down Kingdom, ‘Trap Door’ by T. Bone Burnett & Matthew 5. 3-11. Prayers of intercession – adaptation of extract from Gerard Kelly, Humanifesto. Closing prayer - extracted from ‘Liturgy: Let your kingdom come’ by Gerard Kelly.

The reflection at the meeting came from Revd. Toni Smith and was the story of a child relating to a tramp in a restaurant where the acceptance of the child was profoundly moving for the tramp, in contrast to reaction of the adults in the restaurant towards him.

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Carolyn Arends - I Can Hear You.