A Note on “Indigenous People’s Celebration” Liturgy

When we used the “Indigenous People’s Celebration” liturgy last year for the first time, many people said how much they loved it. One person even commented that she’d never had her worldview so altered in one church service. I’m pleased that we will use it again this Sunday. I hope and pray that through it, you will be able to worship God powerfully and grow in your sense of kinship with native people.

Last year, the service highlighted the ELCA’s “Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.” I’m not going to focus on it as much this year but it is worth all of us revisiting, especially as we approach Thanksgiving. Read more about it here. And plan to stay after for the discussion described above.

My sermon will address the difference between responsibility and guilt. I will preach the good news that God’s mercy helps free us from the past and move forward toward a different kind of future.

Last week, I preached on the false dichotomy between prayer and action. I proclaimed faith that God hears prayers and is attentive to each one of us, and I drew out some models of prayer from the scriptures. I referenced this article, which included these lines of prayer:

[For] “A country that swells with an ocean of weapons. . . .
Strengthen the lungs of the living to cry out for change. . . .
May our own deep roar shake us from complacency,
until we may see, and we may say:
That no more, no more, no more shall perish.” Amen.

Listen to the sermon here.