Thursday, September 8, 2011

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem // Insha'Allah

Today, worship in Goodson Chapel at Duke Divinity School was a time for us to commemorate 9/11. We didn't do anything flashy; it was a sober but hopeful reflection. Helping to design the service was an honor, and we ended up with not only English and Latin but also Hebrew and Arabic being spoken and/or sung in the service.

We invited Imam Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim Chaplain to Duke University, as well as Divinity School professor Ellen Davis, to offer reflections on 9/11. Antepli and Davis taught a class together last semester about Muslims and Christians in dialogue, and both our lector and our liturgist for the service had taken the course.

With an imam present and other Muslim students invited to the service, we wanted to be sensitive to that in how we crafted the service. We opened with a call to worship from Psalm 133 ("How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!") and the hymn "The God of Abraham Praise." The Divinity School chaplain, Sally Bates, thought that confession would be important to this service, so we incorporated this prayer adapted from the General Board of Discipleship's website:

God our hope and refuge, we confess that anger and hatred have held on to us. Healing has begun, but loss is still real. We are not in control. We do not like being vulnerable. We still want security or the illusion of it. We still want our enemies to be annihilated and for our lives to return to safety and shalom. Forgive us and heal us. Raise us to new life. Strengthen us in the way of compassion and justice. Fix our faith on you so we know that nothing can separate us from you. Amen.

For the words of assurance, we used Psalm 103: "as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us." The Scripture passages, on which Joy Moore preached, were Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 18:21-35. Between the Bible readings, the choir sang Allan Friedman's setting of Psalm 133, which included Hebrew, Latin and Arabic language. Dr. Moore preached about forgiveness, citing the 2006 Amish school shooting and the Amish community's instant, astonishing forgiveness. She reminded us that these people did not respond so readily with grace because they were convinced of it at that moment, but because they had over lifetimes and generations formed habits of forgiveness.

For Chaplain Bates' reflection on 9/11, she looked back to that day, when she was the associate pastor of a church in Raleigh. When asked by a reporter what they were going to do, she replied that they were going to do what the church always does: gather for prayer and worship. The reporter was disappointed she didn't have anything more newsworthy to say, but she insisted that in times of crisis, the church does what it has always done, and in this way we hold each other up.

Dr. Davis reflected on Psalm 122:6, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." She pointed out that this is the only time in the Psalms that there is direction to pray for something specific, so it must be important. She spoke of the sometimes shared, sometimes contested space that is the city of Jerusalem, of the one God worshipped by Jews, Christians and Muslims for centuries in that city. One quote I took away was this: she said that peace, or shalom, is not something that descends from on high; "Shalom is more like grass than like rain. ...It grows where we cultivate it." Peace is possible only when we work to make conditions on the ground conducive to its flourishing.

Imam Antepli referred to the story of Joseph, asking whether we too might be able one day to reconcile with brothers who had wronged us. He asked if we were better today than before 9/11, if we were stronger, more loving, more forgiving, and so on. His answer? Not yet; but he had hope. Over and over throughout his reflection, he repeated the Arabic invocation Insha'Allah, God willing, cementing his hope and belief that one day we would overcome the brokenness our nation has experienced since 9/11.

We closed by singing "For the Healing of the Nations." I don't know that today's service would qualify as interfaith worship, but it was still a unique and stirring testimony to hope within the walls of the Divinity School at least. I was honored to be a part of it.

0 comments:

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem // Insha'Allah

Today, worship in Goodson Chapel at Duke Divinity School was a time for us to commemorate 9/11. We didn't do anything flashy; it was a sober but hopeful reflection. Helping to design the service was an honor, and we ended up with not only English and Latin but also Hebrew and Arabic being spoken and/or sung in the service.

We invited Imam Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim Chaplain to Duke University, as well as Divinity School professor Ellen Davis, to offer reflections on 9/11. Antepli and Davis taught a class together last semester about Muslims and Christians in dialogue, and both our lector and our liturgist for the service had taken the course.

With an imam present and other Muslim students invited to the service, we wanted to be sensitive to that in how we crafted the service. We opened with a call to worship from Psalm 133 ("How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!") and the hymn "The God of Abraham Praise." The Divinity School chaplain, Sally Bates, thought that confession would be important to this service, so we incorporated this prayer adapted from the General Board of Discipleship's website:

God our hope and refuge, we confess that anger and hatred have held on to us. Healing has begun, but loss is still real. We are not in control. We do not like being vulnerable. We still want security or the illusion of it. We still want our enemies to be annihilated and for our lives to return to safety and shalom. Forgive us and heal us. Raise us to new life. Strengthen us in the way of compassion and justice. Fix our faith on you so we know that nothing can separate us from you. Amen.

For the words of assurance, we used Psalm 103: "as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us." The Scripture passages, on which Joy Moore preached, were Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 18:21-35. Between the Bible readings, the choir sang Allan Friedman's setting of Psalm 133, which included Hebrew, Latin and Arabic language. Dr. Moore preached about forgiveness, citing the 2006 Amish school shooting and the Amish community's instant, astonishing forgiveness. She reminded us that these people did not respond so readily with grace because they were convinced of it at that moment, but because they had over lifetimes and generations formed habits of forgiveness.

For Chaplain Bates' reflection on 9/11, she looked back to that day, when she was the associate pastor of a church in Raleigh. When asked by a reporter what they were going to do, she replied that they were going to do what the church always does: gather for prayer and worship. The reporter was disappointed she didn't have anything more newsworthy to say, but she insisted that in times of crisis, the church does what it has always done, and in this way we hold each other up.

Dr. Davis reflected on Psalm 122:6, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." She pointed out that this is the only time in the Psalms that there is direction to pray for something specific, so it must be important. She spoke of the sometimes shared, sometimes contested space that is the city of Jerusalem, of the one God worshipped by Jews, Christians and Muslims for centuries in that city. One quote I took away was this: she said that peace, or shalom, is not something that descends from on high; "Shalom is more like grass than like rain. ...It grows where we cultivate it." Peace is possible only when we work to make conditions on the ground conducive to its flourishing.

Imam Antepli referred to the story of Joseph, asking whether we too might be able one day to reconcile with brothers who had wronged us. He asked if we were better today than before 9/11, if we were stronger, more loving, more forgiving, and so on. His answer? Not yet; but he had hope. Over and over throughout his reflection, he repeated the Arabic invocation Insha'Allah, God willing, cementing his hope and belief that one day we would overcome the brokenness our nation has experienced since 9/11.

We closed by singing "For the Healing of the Nations." I don't know that today's service would qualify as interfaith worship, but it was still a unique and stirring testimony to hope within the walls of the Divinity School at least. I was honored to be a part of it.

0 comments:

 

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