prayer of dependence

I'm planning a different kind of prayer for our evening prayer next week, in response, I guess, to the independence day celebrations around us today. I call it "prayer of dependence":


Banner ( listen here; these first four songs by the psalters)

(Farsi) "God you are my Beloved;
no matter what happens I want nothing more than to stand next to You"

Broken bodies lie soaking ashen ground,
empires within and out crushing the refugees
No one is left to fight for them but you and me,
and the One we say we love is with them
bleeding red that ground

The armies of evil we made are now surrounding
and so we run to hide ourselves and leave the bleeding,
saving ourselves we leave the Saviour of refugees.
Run back to Him run back to those struggling.

Banner wave high for the lowly, wave the suffering Chi Rho
Stand with your Love of long ago,
Run with Him to fight the shallows we all know

Banner You are all the lowly and for those mourning you alone are Home
We stand with You as the armies crush Thee,
Run to You as Your Blood covers even these

Banner wave high for the lowly, wave the suffering Chi Rho,
Stand with your Love of long ago
Run to those suffering
If you Love Him then worship Him there that is where He is found....
He's the Home for refugees

Opening prayer

Agnus Dei ( listen here)

"Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world have mercy on us" (twice) "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world grant us peace, grant us peace"

Silence (concluding with Ps 146.3-10; Heb 11.8-10,13)

Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no help. When his breath departs he returns to his earth; on that very day his plans perish. Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith for ever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the sojourners, he upholds the widow and the fatherless; but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The LORD will reign for ever, thy God, O Zion, to all generations. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. ...These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Refugee ( listen here)

Revolution come free us, Holy Brother us desert wanderers have no place to call home Physician come heal us Holy Mender us blind ol' lepers can not find our way home Refugee just like me please don't leave You're our only... Home, Home, Home, Home... Compassion come save us Holy Lover us warmongers ruined this place we call home Refugee just like me please don't leave You're our only... Home, Home, Home, Home...

Gospel: John 15.13,17-20

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ...This I command you, to love one another. "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also."

Ol' Glory ( listen here)

The killing fields are striped with red, white lies in between While on a placid blue they float like islands safe from all they sowed beneath High above that poor man's toil they lay in sacred isolation Safely placed in rows they are stars of self-preservation And on good Friday, (and all that glory,) and on good Friday... In that corner sea serene fifty stars line up against you Flying high but they will sink with the weight of a heavy millstone No man is an island, no one can run from all they've done In that deep blue they'll sink, fifty stars never to see the sun And on good Friday those red stripes are carved into your back And on good Friday those stars spangled your body blue and black And on good Friday the stars and stripes were torn in two And all that glory, all that ol' glory belongs alone to You

Your prayers

(Taizé song, in Latin: "O Jesus Christ, in you I trust.")

Closing prayer We shall walk through the valley (African American spiritual, with drums)

We shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death We shall walk through the valley in peace And if Jesus himself will be our leader We shall walk through the valley in peace There will be no sor-rowing there There will be no sor-rowing there And if Jesus himself will be our leader We shall walk through the valley in peace (hum) And if Jesus himself will be our leader We shall walk through the valley in peace