SILENCE:

Spend 2 minutes in silence, letting go of tension and distractions; being still and present before God.

SCRIPTURE READING: 

“Your love for one another will prove to the world you are my disciples.” —John 13:35

“For when I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked, you gave me clothing. I was sick, you cared for me. I was in prison, you visited me…. And the King will say, ‘ I tell you the truth, when you did to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”” —Matthew 25:35-36, 40

“... wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” —2 Corinthians 3:16-18

DEVOTIONAL:

“I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to the individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community.” —Bell Hooks

If your spirituality is a self-improvement plan, emptied of collective care and provision for the vulnerable, it’s time to question it. We don’t get freed alone.

Inhale: My practice is love

Exhale: We get freed together.

REFLECTION/APPLICATION:

What might your spirituality look like if it leaned into collective care and provision for the vulnerable? What new actions might God be inviting you into? How is it related to freedom? For you? For the vulnerable?

PRAYER:

God of Solidarity, 

Thank you for being a God who enters the suffering of the world— who doesn’t run from those in pain but rushes to the site of blood and tears. Release us from those empty cravings for unity that come at no cost to the oppressor. Lead us toward spaces of costly advocacy. We confess that in speaking up on behalf of the oppressed, we too soon become enamored with the sound of our own voices. Our egos spoil even our best intentions.

Show us when the voices of the vulnerable are being drowned out by the cacophony of the privileged. Make our presence and dignity known in a world that perpetually eclipses the voices of the marginalized. Guide us into a solidarity that demands something of us. Let us learn to risk ourselves on behalf of the vulnerable, believing that when one of us is harmed, we all are.

And God, keep us from those who will demonize the fight in us, who would prefer us complacent and far from one another. Secure in us the courage to resist, knowing that together we will restore what the world has tried to suffocate in us.

Amen. 

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Source: Cole Arthur Riley; Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human