This post is written by Rev. Aaron Fuller. Pastor Fuller serves multi-vocationally as a chaplain in the Navy Reserve and Pastor at Our Father’s Lutheran Church, Rockford, MN.  His views expressed here are his own and do not represent the Department of Defense, Navy or Navy Chaplain Corps in an official capacity.

On November 11th the nation will observe Veterans Day. It is a day set aside to recognize veterans’ service in the Armed Forces, past and present. In recent years the day has been marked by recognition in the news and social media, encouraging people to “thank a veteran” or “support the troops.” It has also been marked by businesses offering benefits such as discounts and free meals to veterans, in recognition for their service.

Similarly, congregations across the ELCA have chosen to recognize veterans in worship. Others have chosen not to. Both choices are faithful expressions of people’s deepest convictions. I want to offer why all congregations should consider acknowledging veterans in their worship services around Veterans Day this year.

This year, September 11th marked two important realities in our collective history. The first was the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that led to the tragic loss of life here in the United States, and subsequent twenty years of war in the Middle East. The second reality was the shocking withdrawal and evacuation of the United States from Afghanistan. Also shocking was the sudden rise of the Taliban taking back the country, creating a massive refugee crisis and wiping out two decades’ worth of progress made with the Afghan people on human rights.

For many veterans there has been a significant investment made in Afghanistan and the Middle East the past twenty years. That investment is shown in the toil it has taken on their bodies and minds. They also bear inner conflict between what they have experienced and their fundamental values, often rooted in their religious faith. That inner conflict leads to hard questions: “What was the point of what I experienced?” “Was it all worth it?” “Am I good?” Left unanswered, those questions can become a matter of life or death.

This response to traumatic events is known as moral injury. Moral injury is defined as “perpetrating, failing to prevent, bearing witness to, or learning about acts that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.”¹ While moral injury shares some of the same signs of trauma as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, it is not the same.  Moral injury is distinct; it is a violation of what is right. It is feelings of betrayal towards justice. It is an injury of the soul, where human goodness is diminished to where we no longer see God’s light in ourselves or others.

As I listen to God’s people in both contexts I serve in as Pastor and Navy Chaplain, it is apparent to me we are all suffering from a collective moral injury, a result of the past twenty years and made manifest through the nation’s withdrawal from Afghanistan this past summer.  That injury has caused the division and disconnect we all are experiencing right now as we struggle to live in a world that feels less safe, less compassionate, and less just.  We need healing – collectively reconnecting to what is right, what is true, and what is good.

That healing starts by acknowledging those who are struggling with that moral injury the most: veterans. I can think of no better way to begin that healing than in our regular worship. God heals through Word and Sacrament, confession and absolution, and gathering and sending.  That is so necessary for veterans right now, and so necessary for us all.

1. Litz, B. T., Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, W. P., Silva, C., & Maguen, S. (2009). Moral injury and moral repair in war Veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 29(8), 695-706. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2009.07.003

A worship resource for Veterans Day includes prayers, hymn suggestions, and other ideas. Both PDF and Word versions are available at https://elca.org/Resources/Worship#Liturgy.

When the church gathers, we pray for the needs of the world. Like preaching that is both rooted in
scripture shared across time and space and attentive to the local assembly at the present moment, the sense of “praying for the world” is expansive but also attentive to a particular context.

Evangelical Lutheran Worship encourages that “The prayers [of intercession] are prepared locally for each occasion” (ELW. p. 105). How can this be done? What practices are useful? What resources can help? Listed below are several resources from ELCA Worship or Augsburg Fortress.

Downloadable Resources on ELCA.org/worship

How Do We Craft the Prayers of Intercession?  This newly added FAQ summarizes the task of preparing intercessions. A list of further resources that dig deeper into the task are included.

Here Other Intercessions May Be Offered.  This Sundays and Seasons essay offered by permission of Augsburg Fortress gives practical tips on what it means to pray contextually and gives concrete examples.

A Template for the Prayers of Intercession. This  template prepared by Gail Ramshaw is an excerpt from Pray, Praise, and Give Thanks: A Collection of Litanies, Laments, and Thanksgivings at Font and Table. It is offered by permission to assist in the crafting of comprehensive intercessions.

For What Shall We Pray? This weekly post provided on the ELCA worship blog invites individuals, groups, and congregations to lift up our world in prayer. This resource is prepared by a variety of leaders in the ELCA and includes prayer prompts, upcoming events and observances, and prayer suggestions from existing denominational worship materials.

Prayer Ventures. These petitions, one for each day of the month, are offered as guides to prayer for the global, social and outreach ministries of the ELCA, as well as for the needs and circumstances of our neighbors, communities and world. While helpful for personal devotion, they could also be a helpful resource when preparing intercessions.

Resources available from Augsburg Fortress

Sundays and Seasons.  This annual worship planning guide available both in print and via an online subscription provides crafted intercessions for each Sunday and festival in the church year. Worshiping assemblies are encouraged to adapt as needed for local use. Sundays and Seasons also includes seasonal essays that included more general tips and suggestions.

Praying for the Whole World: A Handbook for Intercessors.  This concise handbook proposes seven steps, from Monday to Sunday, to assist in preparing the weekly intercessions.

The Sunday Assembly. This first supporting volume to Evangelical Lutheran Worship includes guidance on the role of intercessions in the Sunday assembly (pp. 167-172).

Leading Worship Matters: A Sourcebook for Preparing Worship Leaders.  A comprehensive guidebook, this resource devotes a chapter to preparing and leading intercessory prayer (pp. 69-94). Very practical helps such as a list of twelve tips for preparing the prayers and a sample letter of invitation to a training session for new intercessors,  among others, are included.

• Tips for Preparing the Prayers
• Sample Letter of Invitation

If you have not yet encouraged lay people to craft and lead prayer in your assembly, may these resources be an encouragement in that holy work. As noted in Leading Worship Matters, “The intercessions are best prayed in different voices, by a variety of people with divergent experiences of life, who not only can articulate their own perspectives on the needs of the world but can gather up the needs of those around them (p. 71).

Blessings on your work of encouraging, teaching, and most of all, praying.

“Mercy, we abide in you. Stir in us, we pray” (ACS 1077).

All Creation Sings includes several short songs that can be taught “paperlessly,” that is, singing together without printed or projected words or music for worship. This kind of singing can be led by one person or a small group with or without instrumental accompaniment and it is often ideal for small retreats or outdoor settings in addition to weekly worship. This post will help bring ACS “off the page” by guiding you to several audio-video resources.

Videos from Music that Makes Community

Music that Makes Community is a non-profit organization that develops and supports the practice of paperless singing. The ELCA has partnered with MMC over the past several years and you can find a wealth of information on their website. Below are links to several teaching videos provided by Music that Makes Community and other sources for songs included in All Creation Sings.

ACS 914 Jesus, the Light of the World

ACS 940 Come, Holy Spirit

ACS 978 God Welcomes All

ACS 989 Let Your Peace Rain Upon Us / Yarabba ssalami

ACS 1007 Khudaya, rahem kar

ACS 1057 What Does the Lord Require of You?

ACS 1079 Open My Heart

Additional teaching videos

ACS 903 Freedom Is Coming

ACS 928 Pave the Way with Branches

ACS 929 Blessed Is the One (audio only)

ACS 1003 For Such a Time as This

ACS 1009 Come, Bring Your Burdens to God / Woza nomthwalo wakho

Additional Augsburg Fortress Resources

The Accompaniment Edition of All Creation Sings includes helpful tips on leading these shorter songs on pp. 10-11, as well as a listing of topical suggestions suitable for Service of Word and Prayer (p. 8) and for services of lament (p. 10).

Several short songs in All Creation Sings were previously published in the collection, “Singing Our Prayer: A Companion to Holden Prayer Around the Cross.” An audio CD included with purchase of the Full Score Edition includes recordings of ACS #s 998, 1012, 1018, 1033, 1035, 1037, 1074, 1075, and 1083.

Church musician and composer Tom Witt gives examples of teaching short songs as part of the All Creation Sings Liturgy Webinar. That webinar and additional webinars, teaching videos, and blog posts related to All Creation Sings are available at www.augsburgfortress.org/AllCreationSings.

In the Easter season our “Alleluias” are bold. Many of the hymns and songs chosen for Easter have a majestic and joyful quality to them. Bells, brass, and drums often enhance organ, piano, or guitar. Yet we know that even though we are a resurrection people, we can’t always shout our praise or exude joy. “Christ has risen while earth slumbers,” a new hymn in All Creation Sings, announces the promise of resurrection while acknowledging the complexity of human experience. In the words of stanza three: 

Christ has risen to companion former friends who fear the night,
sensing loss and limitation where their faith had once burned bright.
They bemoan what is no longer, they expect no hopeful sign
till Christ ends their conversation, breaking bread and sharing wine. (ACS #938)

Drawing on imagery from the Emmaus story in Luke’s gospel, Christ comes among us as he did to those confused, fearful, and grieving disciples. This hymn’s author, John Bell of the Iona Community, is a Scottish Presbyterian pastor who writes and leads songs that often challenge our understanding and experience. He has written several books and articles about why and how we sing in community and how song shapes our witness in the world. You might enjoy listening to this 2019 interview with Bell in which he talks about some other songs of his in both ELW and ACS as well as core beliefs that shape his ministry. 

Bell’s text written in the late 1980s is paired in All Creation Sings with the tune ST.HELENA. The tune by Calvin Hampton (1938–1984) was published in 1977 without a text. It was first associated with “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” (ELW #587). The Advent hymn “Unexpected and mysterious” was written by Jeannette Lindholm especially for this tune (ELW #258). Like both of those texts, the editors of ACS sensed that the melodic spaciousness of ST.HELENA paired well with the sense of breadth and transformation in Bell’s text. 

In the 2019 interview noted above, John Bell remarked: “The church at its best has a pastoral song which relates the pain of people as well as the joy of people.” “Christ has risen” includes the words “Christ has risen and forever lives to challenge and to change all whose lives are messed or mangled, all who find religion strange” (st. 4). Perhaps this is the only hymn we’ll encounter with the word “mangled,” but it is an honest, direct descriptor of so much of what we experience. 

Into both our joy and our pain, into our messes and challenges, Christ’s new life flows. Especially in this Easter when the pain, grief, and isolation of this year are ever palpable, this new hymn can renew our trust in the One whose Spirit dwells among us always. 

Christ is risen, Christ is present making us what he has been:
evidence of transformation in which God is known and seen. (st. 4) 

To learn more about All Creation sings, visit www.augsburgfortress.org/AllCreationSings.

Christ Has Risen While Earth Slumbers
Text: John L. Bell, b. 1949
Music: Calvin Hampton, 1938–1984
Text © 1988 WGRG, Iona Community, admin. GIA Publications, Inc.
Music © 1977 GIA Publications, Inc.
Permission required for further use. 

Image: Sundays and Seasons

Today’s post was written by Denise Rector, a PhD student at the  Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago focusing on womanist theology, race, and history. Denise was a member of the Liturgy Working Group for  All Creation Sings  and author of this lament. *

“Lamenting Racism” in All Creation Sings offers an entry point to the complexities of racism, making space to consider and mourn the effects of racism. 

Why lament? 

Why a lament, as opposed to a prayer or litany? This lament is intended as an action that acknowledges what has been broken in our relationship with our neighbor – the neighbor that we as the ELCA are called to love as we love ourselves. Specifically this lament is a way to recognize points of brokenness in the relationship between the ELCA and African Americans. 

However, even after lamenting, there is still work to do. The other theological work of lament is that it invites contemplation of confession and forgiveness, reparation, and reconciliation. As members of the ELCA, we can lament racial inequity as a reflection of a societal problem, and then work to make the church and society more equitable. We are freed in Christ to serve our neighbor by actively remediating inequity.  

Using this lament 

Please include this prayer in your worship planning. You may want to add it to worship during Black History Month or for the commemoration of the Emanuel Nine (June 17), or in vigils or healing services. But please know that this lament is not limited to a certain commemoration, church season, type of worship service, or time of year.  

This lament can be a way to begin: 

• Bible studies
• Book club discussions
• Adult education hour
• Online events
• Staff meetings

The most obvious connection may be to use this lament in situations that deal with racial or racist themes. But in reality, race – even White race – is always an issue. Therefore this lament can be used any time, for many various purposes. Be creative! You could: 

• Use as part of a personal prayer or meditation practice, changing the “we” to “I” 
• Focus on the prayer during a national time of ethnic recognition/celebration (African Descent; American Indian and Alaska Native; Indigenous Peoples within Canada; Arab and Middle Eastern; Asian and Pacific Islander; and Latinx community Heritage months) 
• Lead a discussion / plan a lesson about the lament for confirmation, adult education, etc. 

The very word “racism” engenders emotional response. And that’s OK. Some people are more comfortable than others in talking about race. Consider how some of the above could work for you or in your congregation to begin hard but necessary conversations. 

*sections adapted from Rector, Denise, The Gift of Lament: Moving from Diversity to Racial Equity in the ELCA, M.Div thesis, Wartburg Theological Seminary, 2018.

To learn more about All Creation Sings, visit www.augsburgfortress.org/AllCreationSings.

As congregations and worship leaders prepare for Ash Wednesday in this most challenging year, the ELCA Worship team offers this set of reflections by those serving the church as scholars, pastors, and bishops. Our hope is that their perspectives will provide thinking points as you reflect and prepare worship in your context.

Repentance is at the core of Christian living (the first of Luther’s 95 Theses). During the season of Lent, we all become a “penitent” with ashes on the forehead, looking toward to the cross as a sign of God’s reconciliation with all creation (with the absolution on Maundy Thursday). Ashes appear throughout the Hebrew Bible as a sign of mourning and repentance, but Isaiah reminds us that such practices point to the larger call for justice (Isa. 58:5-6). These ashes are at the very beginning (“dust” in Genesis 3:19) and connect each of us to all of creation and to our own mortality.

Ash Wednesday reflection has taken on new meaning because of the coronavirus. Some may argue that a specific day or season is not necessary since signs of impending death are all around us as the pandemic continues to claim thousands of lives and impacts millions more. But the coronavirus is not only a reminder of mortality but also the result of sins. Let me be clear here – I do not mean that the pandemic is punishment for sin, but rather that the spread of the pandemic has been aided by the sins of “neglect of human need and suffering” and “our lack of concern for those who come after us.”

The popularity of ashes-on-the-go highlights that Ash Wednesday can be commemorated outside the church building. For the sake of safety, the imposition of ashes should only take place with those in the household. Congregations could provide ashes (traditionally made from burning last year’s palm branches), or households could make their own – even all-wood charcoal would work.

When participating in digital worship, those in the household could impose ashes on each other during the appointed time in the liturgy. Those worshiping at home could use the litany of confession as a conversation guide, discussing (and then acting on) how to live into the disciplines of Lent: “self-examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love.” It is not enough to just remember that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return.” As ones marked as Christ’s own children, we heed the call to repent, to ‘turn around.’

Prof. Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero is Steck-Miller Assistant Professor of Worship and Liturgy at United Lutheran Seminary. Prof. Schiefelbein-Guerrero explores “Living the Liturgical Year in Pandemic Times” in a new video series. Look for an entry about  Ash Wednesday in the coming weeks.

The power of receiving the cross on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday is in the layering: there is a sign of sin and death traced and layered on top of the tracing in water and oil of the promise of life, rebirth, and liberation from sin and death. On Ash Wednesday, we feel the full weight of the ashy tracing. It does not negate or obliterate the liberating sign it is layered with, but it is a suitably tangible reminder of the reality of grief, loss, and death.

The questions that have helped guide my reflections and exploration of Ash Wednesday this year have been basic: What is Ash Wednesday? What does it do? I’ve found help in the ELW Pattern for Worship (Pew Edition, p. 248; Leader’s Desk Edition, p. 612.) That led me to Welcome to Baptism (ELW Pew Edition, p. 232; Leader’s Desk Edition, p. 592), which led me to conversation with Episcopalian and Roman Catholic folks involved in the ecumenical catechumenate. Michael Marchal, a Roman Catholic writer and educator, and I talked about the ancient origins of Ash Wednesday (more focused on penitence) and creative possibilities for adapting the rite this year. We found common ground in a focus on baptism and the cross. The cross we trace on each other within our households or on ourselves is an embodied reminder that God is where we’d least expect an all-powerful being to be; a connection to both the reality of sin and death as well as to the promise of baptism.

Blessings on your caring and creative approaches to Ash Wednesday this year. It will be different; things are different this year. Christ will meet you there.

Bishop Anne Edison-Albright is Bishop of the East-Central Synod of Wisconsin. An expanded version of this reflection is found on Bishop Edison-Albright’s blog.

Most of my personal study and continuing education for the last several months has been focused on trauma-informed care, recognizing that living through the varied events of the last year affects not only our spirit but also our mind and body, and requires adaptations honoring this challenging new space. A best practice for trauma-informed care is to remember that significant stress and trauma are not just intellectual exercises. Our bodies respond to and reflect the events of the day. It may be using prayer beads or a finger labyrinth to make home worship feel more real or wrapping myself in a favorite sweater or soft blanket when I miss the comforting hugs of family and friends. Being mindful of how my body responds to grief and loss and finding ways to care for and comfort it has been both personally and professionally beneficial.

Ash Wednesday is such a powerful experience because we experience it physically. Even when our minds are not fully able to understand the scope of what is to come, when our spirits reject the pain of Jesus’ last days, our bodies remember. Wearing the cross of ashes as a bodily exercise is Jesus meeting us in our body’s anxiety and sadness and being with us there. As an Ash Wednesday discipline, I am encouraging my parishioners to consider ways their body can hold the day’s realities. What rituals, symbols, or actions can help us confront the fragile beauty of these brief, powerful moments of life? How can we remember that we are called to journey with Jesus and pray with him over the next 40 days, knowing what is to come? Our minds may not have the answer, but our bodies carry ancient wisdom.

The Rev. Carla S. Christopher Wilson is Assistant to the Bishop in Charge of Justice Ministries for Lower Susquehanna Synod, ELCA and Associate Pastor of Faith Formation and Outreach at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a journey when we remember Jesus’ ministry, his ability to heal and care for humanity, and at the same time, his passion, death, and overall, his glorious resurrection. In a “typical” year it might seem too soon to even talk about Easter on Ash Wednesday. However, I don’t know if that’s the case for 2021.

We have been in a sort of Ash Wednesday and Lenten journey for so long already. We have been on a journey in which we have witnessed pain, suffering, and even death. More and more people dying due to COVID-19, political upheaval in the nation, racism, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, violence, injustice, poverty, and many other issues seem endless. We yearn for that Easter moment.

Before Easter happened two millennia ago there was suffering, pain, anguish, uncertainty, fear, and death. Although pain and suffering are not God’s desire for us, they are an inevitable reality in this human life both then and now.

We say or hear on Ash Wednesday the remarkable phrase: “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” This year it can be an invitation for us to talk and grieve with our communities about how awfully painful these days are. We are invited to do so, however, while keeping the other real fact in mind: Those words are said and heard on a day in which we also know that, even in the midst of suffering and death, Easter is also our reality.

May your Ash Wednesday proclamation and celebration this year be a glimpse of realistic hope that will help us to face together these excruciating and painful times. We know that Easter will come. Though tomorrow is uncertain, we do know that Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!

The Rev. Alejandro Mejia is Chaplain Resident at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Image Credits: Pearls of Life. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Ugandan Risen Christ, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.