JULY 13, 2025

LITURGY FOR EMBRACING BOTH JOY & SORROW

Do not be distant, O Lord, lest I find this burden

of loss too heavy, and shrink from the

necessary experience of my grief.

Do not be distant, O Lord, lest I become so

mired in yesterday’s hurts, that I miss entirely

the living gifts this day might hold.

Let me neither ignore my pain, pretending all

is okay when it isn’t, nor coddle and magnify

my pain, so that I dull my capacity to experience

all that remains good in this life.

For joy that denies sorrow is neither hard-won,

nor true, nor eternal. It is not real joy at all.

And sorrow that refuses to make space

for the return of joy and hope, in the end

becomes nothing more than a temple

for the worship of my own woundedness.

So give me strength, O God, to feel this grief

deeply, never to hide my heart from it. And give

me also hope enough to remain open to

surprising encounters with joy,

as one on a woodland path might stumble

suddenly into dapplings of golden light.

Amidst the pain that lades these days,

give me courage, O Lord; courage to live them

fully, to love and to allow myself to be loved,

to remember, grieve, and honor what was,

to live with thanksgiving in what is, and

to invest in the hope of what will be.

Be at work gilding these long heartbreaks

with the advent of new joys, good friendships,

true fellowships, unexpected delights. Remind

me again and again of your goodness, your

presence, your promises.

For this is who we are: a people

of The Promise—a people shaped

in the image of the God whose

very being generates all joy

in the universe, yet who also

weeps and grieves its brokenness.

So we, your children, are also at liberty

to lament our losses, even as we

simultaneously rejoice in the hope

of their coming restoration.

Let me learn now, O Lord, to do this

as naturally as the inhale and exhale

of a single breath:

To breathe out sorrow,

to breathe in joy.

To breathe out lament,

to breathe in hope.

To breathe out pain,

to breathe in comfort.

To breathe out sorrow,

to breathe in joy.

In one hand I grasp the burden of my grief,

while with the other I reach

for the hope of grief ’s redemption.

And here, between the tension of the two,

between what was and what will be,

in the very is of now,

let my heart be surprised by, shaped by,

warmed by, remade by,

the same joy that forever wells within

and radiates from your heart, O God.

Amen.

KING OF KINGS

In the darkness we were waiting

Without hope without light

Till from Heaven You came running

There was mercy in Your eyes

To fulfil the law and prophets

To a virgin came the Word

From a throne of endless glory

To a cradle in the dirt

Praise the Father

Praise the Son

Praise the Spirit three in one

God of Glory

Majesty

Praise forever to the King of kings

To reveal the kingdom coming

And to reconcile the lost

To redeem the whole creation

You did not despise the cross

For even in Your suffering

You saw to the other side

Knowing this was our salvation

Jesus for our sake You died

CHORUS

And the morning that You rose

All of heaven held its breath

Till that stone was moved for good

For the Lamb had conquered death

And the dead rose from their tombs

And the angels stood in awe

For the souls of all who'd come

To the Father are restored

CHORUS

And the Church of Christ was born

Then the Spirit lit the flame

Now this Gospel truth of old

Shall not kneel shall not faint

By His blood and in His Name

In His freedom I am free

For the love of Jesus Christ

Who has resurrected me

CHORUS