3rd Week of Lent: Blessed Are the Saints among Us
We’ve released worship music videos with lyrics for each song on the “Speak Boldly” album by Jenny LaJoye. You can find these worship music videos on our Juniper Formation YouTube Channel, and more easily in this “Speak Boldly” YouTube Playlist.
Each week during our Lenten journey we will highlight a worship video and offer accompanying ritual, scripture, and prayer for you to engage at home by yourself, with your household, or in congregational worship.
Artist’s Songwriting Reflection
"Blessed Are" is the first song I wrote while serving Evergreen Christian Church (DOC) in partnership with Juniper Formation. The lectionary reading that week was Luke 6:17-26 (the beatitudes). I wanted to use this popular set of blessings to remind this congregation that though they be worried, though they be exhausted, though they have uncertainty about their future as a church...their roots and tradition and belovedness run much deeper than they know.
Scripture: Luke 6:17-26
Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear Jesus and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch Jesus, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:
Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kin-dom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Humankind. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
“Blessed Are” Lyrics
Our veins run much further and deeper than we know
In the soil by the stream
And when the heat comes to melt all that casts a shadow
We’ll be seen
Our voices are louder and older than we are
Spoken into everything
And when the wind comes to blow away all the static
We will sing
Blessed are the weeping
Blessed are the hated ones
Blessed are the worried
Blessed are the shunned
Blessed are,
Blessed ones, your time will come
Our roots are much deeper and stronger than we know
Woven into every seam
And when the snow freezes all but the fabric of things
We’ll be free
Blessed are the weeping
Blessed are the hated ones
Blessed are the worried
Blessed are the shunned
Blessed are,
Blessed ones, your time will come
Ritual: Connecting with the Saints among Us
As we come to the one-year mark of the COVID-19 Pandemic, where 1 in 3 U.S.-Americans have lost someone to the virus (NY Times), we are reminded of the ritual need to remember and connect to the saints among us. Those loved ones who have died, who have come before us, and who live among us, while physically distant from our presence and warm embrace still remain with us.
It is a time for us to center the margins of this pandemic—those who have died of COVID, elders who were forgotten and sacrificed, the 30% of U.S. Americans who have had the virus and many who will suffer long-term health consequences, those immunocompromised who live in fear while their neighbors refuse to wear masks, the inequity of vaccine accessibility and distribution that continues to systemically sacrifice the health and lives of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to the evil of white supremacy, and Asian-Americans who remain targets of bigoted abuse.
As we center the margins, may be remember that our blessedness is rooted in our ancestors—our divine humanness, including the complications of these people and histories.
As we center the margins, may we remember that we also have the freedom to also choose ancestors. To choose to venerate those people with whom we share strength, unconditional love, courage, and witness to one another’s full belovedness.
As we center the margins, may we be grounded by the saints among us, living and deceased, and invite them to be present and among us.
Ritual: As you listen to “Blessed Are” (see video above) we invite you to choose from two options for ritual remembrance and connection with the saints among us:
Pouring Libations
In many iterations of Africana Christian worship, the act of “pouring libations” is a way to honor ancestors. A libation is a small amount of liquid (usually water) that is poured out in memory of ancestors, departed saints, and respected members of the community. Libations are never meant as worship but as a gesture of inclusion, respect and remembrance. The symbolism of water poured in libation suggests that though the ancestors are physically absent from us in the assembly, they are still part of us and, as such, a portion of what we have has been reserved for them as though they were present. -- Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgeman Davis, The Africana Worship Book
You can choose to pour libations into a bowl, into the roots of a tree/shrub where you feel grounded, a house plant that brings life, at the foot of a meaningful statue or memorial site, or anywhere that you find meaning in remembering and restoring the memories, presence, and power of the ancestors in your life and ministry.
If you chose to offer libations, we invite you to use the following liturgy adapted from The Africana Worship Book by Minister Javon Bracy, member of the Juniper Formation Leadership Team:
We honor the ancestors whose lives call us forward to become who we are
We remember the cloud of witnesses, the faithful of the ages and the ages to come
Saints and sinners alike, who nurtured and challenged us
We honor the ancestors we know by name, and the names lost to history
We honor the ancestors whose voices are in our throats
We honor the ancestors who accomplished mighty things for God
We honor the ancestors who, by the Spirit, received a promise and lived into it
We honor the ancestors and give thanks for their faith and love
We honor the ancestors who cooked the meal, taught Sunday School, led songs in choirs, became community activists, visited the sick, and preached the Gospel
We honor the greatest of our ancestors, our eldest brother, Jesus Christ who gives us a spirit of wisdom and enlightenment and fills us and all things
We honor our ancestors and God who blessed us with them
And now let us speak aloud the names of the faithful who we desire to honor in this space...
Connect with Living Saints
We invite you to reach out to those living saints in your life by phone, video call, email, or letter. Absence and distance during this pandemic has highlighted for us the value of our relationships to one another, and the blessing of being present with one another. While many of us have been in the practice of reaching out to check-in on one another, we invite you to tweak this practice a little bit.
Our invitation is to reach out and offer a blessing to someone(s) in your life who you consider a living saint, by letting them know how you feel about them. Share with them a story about how they have impacted your life, how they have modeled Christ’s love, how you have and continue to learn from them, how their presence in your life has made all the difference.
At times like these, it is too easy to be reminded of our collective failings, mistrust, abuse, and fear of one another.
May you be reminded of the joy, fellowship, and faithfulness that others bring to you in your life and ministry, and may you bless one another by reminding each other of who and whose they are.
Reflective Invitation
We invite you to journey through Lent by drawing closer to God and one another by deepening your spiritual practices and awareness.
- What roots and relationships do you need to water and grow this spring?
- What roots and relationships do you need to cut loose?
For both your release and your invitation, may it be so.
Blessing
Beloved, your veins run much further and deeper than you know.
Beloved, your voice is louder and older than you are—spoken into everything.
Beloved, your roots are much deeper and stronger than you know.
Blessed one, your time has come to be free.
Amen.
Support the artist and buy the “Speak Boldly” album online, here.
We invite you to make an offering today. An offering is a way we share with one another in support of the whole, and as a loving act of co-creating a new way of being together and with God as we prophetically reimagine the Church.
For all of the ways you give your spirit, heart, gifts, talents, and resources, we thank you.
