Welcome

Eunji Salley Isabella Lee & Lydie Ngoie

Responsive Reading

Kirsten Trambley & Christopher Dwyer

All: This is at conflict with John Kelly at the Drew Forum.

Sung Response

“Christ Has Broken Down the Wall” by Mark Miller

Isaac Garrigues-Cortelyou

Christ has broken down the wall, Christ has broken down the wall.

Let us join our hearts as one, Christ has broken down the wall. We’re accepted as we are, we’re accepted as we are. Through God’s love all is reconciled, we’re accepted as we are.

Cast aside your doubts and fears, cast aside your doubts and fears. Peace and love, freely offered here; cast aside your doubts and fears.

We will tear down the walls! We will tear down every wall! God has called us one and all; Christ has broken down the wall!

Second Reading

Jeremiah 22:1-3

Sarah Williams

22 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2 and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.

Homily

Younghak Lee

Prayers of the People

Sarah Galo

One: Loving God, forgive us for claiming your blessing and favor for deeds we commit and omit.

Many: Not in your name, O God.

One: Forgive us for cherishing cheap grace, for loving prestige and rank more than staying true to our mission.

Many: Not in your name, O God.

One: Forgive us for our silence and our hesitance to speak to and against those in power.

Many: Not in your name, O God.

One: Merciful God, we ask for courage to receive costly grace. We ask for strength not only for ourselves but for the administration of Drew University and for those who seek to benefit from our protest.

Many: Not in our name, O God.

One: Suffering Christ, we reject cheap grace in your name. We reject forgiveness without repentance in your name. We reject Communion without confession in your name.

Many: Not in our name, O God.

One: Flaming Holy Spirit, we ask and demand the costly grace of God to be poured out on ourselves, our actions, our words, and our university. In the name of the one who suffers and weeps with us, Amen.

Closing Song

“We Resist”

Blessing

Alisyn Klock

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there idleness and complicity, compassion and understanding

Where there is despair, let us sow hope; where there is absence, let us be present;

Where there is racism, let us rise up for justice, Where there is incarceration, let us preach liberation. Where there is violence being inflicted, let us work towards healing

Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; and to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in disrupting evil that we are made agents of God’s grace, and it is in breaking down walls that we make room for the kin-dom of God on Earth.

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Worship Notes:

Prayers of the People: Inspired by and adapted from Dietrich Bonhoffer’s words on cheap grace in The Cost of Discipleship

Blessing: inspired by and adapted from the Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi