The God Pause from The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Sunday, 8 July 2018 - "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service," ELW 712

The God Pause from The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States for Sunday, 8 July 2018 - "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service," ELW 712
"Lord, whose love through humble service" Author: Albert F. Bayly (1961)
1. Lord, whose love in humble service
Bore the weight of human need,
Who upon the cross, forsaken,
Worked Your mercy’s perfect deed:
We, Your servants, bring the worship
Not of voice alone, but heart;
Consecrating to Your purpose
Every gift which You impart.
2. Still Your children wander homeless;
Still the hungry cry for bread;
Still the captives long for freedom;
Still in grief we mourn our dead.
As you, Lord, in deep compassion
Healed the sick and freed the soul,
By Your Spirit send Your power
To our world to make it whole.
3. As we worship, grant us vision,
Till your love’s revealing light
In its height and depth and greatness
Dawns upon our quickened sight,
Making known the needs and burdens
Your compassion bids us bear,
Stirring us to ardent service,
Your abundant life to share.
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Still your children wander homeless: and so often they are just children, the most vulnerable of any society in the world, and so often the most invisible.
Still the hungry cry for bread: bread of the body, but also the Bread of Life. Preaching your word of forgiveness and grace is so hard when we're not wearing a collar. But people are starving without it.
Still the captives long for freedom: the United States holds a grossly disproportionate amount of prisoners compared to the rest of the entire world. And a grossly disproportionate amount of those prisoners are people of color. How are we to hear their cries of longing? How are we at all able to free them?
Still, still, still. Still God calls us into the world to our brothers and sisters who need us--and, whether we realize it or not, to those we ourselves so desperately need.
Lord, the need of your hungry, captive, grieving children is so great. And I am so small. Remind me that it is not I who help, but you working through me; and then point me where we should begin together. Amen.
Rachel Wrenn, '11
PhD student in Hebrew Bible at Emory University, Marietta, GA
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