Call a Solemn Assembly

In the reading from Joel (2:1-2;12-17) appointed for Ash Wednesday, God entreats God’s people to come together for worship and prayer, to literally drop everything and gather together to offer their liturgy – the work of the people. As we enter into our Lenten journey, we are reminded that this is a journey we take together because our faith is communal as well as individual. 

As Americans, I believe, we often put too much emphasis on the individualistic nature of our faith and forget that someone brought us to the faith.  We want to believe that our redemption is achieved through our own merit and not dependent on another’s actions or inaction. I also believe, however, that our redemption has already been accomplished by Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, BUT our SALVATION is something we as a community must work out together in community.  [I am eternally grateful to The Rev. Gerry Skillacorn and his work on this concept.]

It is true that each of us must accept that we are indeed worthy of redemption.  In many ways, that is the easy part, if we truly believe we are inherently worthy because God created us through God’s love. The much harder part is sharing that love and actively loving our neighbors, believing in their own worthiness, even when their actions differ, even violate, our most closely held beliefs and values. As Rev. Skillacorn writes, “We are first set free by God in our redemption, and then we set others free as we work out our salvation. We must be clear. The freedom we experience in our redemption is not our salvation. Redemption provides us with the freedom we need to work out our salvation, which is fulfilled by healing the broken relationships we have with one another.”

Rev. Skillacorn offers his vision of Inclusive Salvation, which he defines as, “Our oneness with God is realized in our oneness with one another.” We know the Great Commandment is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Inclusive Salvation offers, and I wholeheartedly agree, that to love God is to love our neighbors and to love our neighbors is to love God. It is through living into this commandment that we are “saved.” And the only way to do that is with each other, in community.

And that is, of course, where things get messy.  It would be so much easier if we only had to rely on ourselves. But that is not what Jesus taught us. We are made to be in relationship with others, which is a vulnerable place to be.  We cannot control what the other person does (nor do we have to approve of their actions), but we are called to respond in love, which includes rebuking unjust or unloving behavior, as such behavior does not follow our Baptismal Covenant. But we don’t act in order to affirm our own ego (I’m right and you’re wrong). We do it to be in right relationship and share in our salvation.

This Sunday we will begin our worship with the Great Litany.  For some history of this practice, I invite you to read this short post. I love that the form we use today is very similar to what was originally written by Thomas Cranmer in 1544 (even if the words are different!). Most importantly, the Great Litany offers the community of the Church to gather together and offer our common repentance of not living and loving as we should.  As we offer each petition, don’t think of only the individual implications, but what we as God’s children do to each other every day, perhaps in the guise of entertainment or politics.  As the saying goes, we if are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.  So let our prayer be the first step in offering ourselves in love, by working out our salvation together.

Happy Lent.

In Christ,

Rev. Valerie+