Here’s a litany which focuses on the call of Jesus.
It was written by Roddy Hamilton, and posted on Mucky Paws.
Hamilton writes: “For four people reading from a
single microphone in the middle. As one finishes and moves away, another comes
in to pick up the story. One story, made up of each other’s stories.
There
are so many stories we could have used for this. This is but a pinhead’s
selection of people called to follow, to come from the darkness and shadows of
one life… and called to be fully alive in the world, for that is what Jesus
calls of us: not to be church members, or signatories to some doctrine, but to
he fully alive with the life God grants and set that free in the world.”
Litany of the Called
Voice 1 (Male):
“Come follow me,” he said as he walked towards us.
“Leave
the nets behind. Become nets yourself.
We
have an adventure to be part of.”
And
so we left with him not knowing what lay in front of us.
Voice 2: (Female):
In front of me was a crowd of Pharisees: all of them hypocrites.
They
knew what I had done and done it mainly with them,
yet
they were ready to stone me for it.
Jesus
called out,
“Let
him who is without sin cast the first stone,”
and
there was silence
and
one by one they left me with him
who
called me to go and find my humanity again,
and
so I went more alive than ever before.
Voice 3 (Female):
She was more alive than every before, my daughter.
When
her father left her to find Jesus
he
knew he’d never see her again, my poor daughter,
not
able to make it to womanhood.
But
Jesus never gave up hope.
We
left him with her
and
after what seemed an eternity he called for food,
‘Your
daughter is alive and hungry”
and
so we threw our sadness into celebration
that
she had been called back to life.
Voice 4 (Male):
I was called back to life.
I
was once dead,
not
the death of eternity, worse than that,
the
death of the living.
I
am a tax-collector.
My
death was the silence and hatred of others
until
I climbed a tree,
and
was invited back into my own home by Jesus
for
a meal through which I was reborn,
a
new person now called a friend of God.
I
was on my way.
Voice 1 (Male):
We were on our way, ten of us,
unclean
with bandaged limbs,
dirty
rags covering our hands and feet
that
leprosy was eating away.
Everyone
avoided us except Jesus who touched us,
befriended
us and called us back into community,
clean
once more and acceptable.
I
ran back to Jesus to thank him,
it
was all I could do.
Voice 2 (Female):
It was all I could do to say ‘Yes!’
Yes
to God asking me to be his handmaid:
mother
of a child who would be the salvation of the world,
who
harboured hope enough
to
bring down the oppressor and the tyrant
and
lift up the poor and hungry.
I
was called to be the mother of God
and
I said ‘Yes!’
Voice 3 (Female):
I said ‘yes’
but
it wasn’t in some biblical story.
It
was now.
I
said ‘yes!’ to God’s justice today,
God’s
hope now,
God’s
intent in me,
to
call out the life in me,
and
set it free in the world,
to
be a follower of adventures,
a
follower of dreams,
a
follower of love.
Voice 4 (Male):
Be a follower of love,
and
join the fishermen and the sinners,
the
women and the children,
the
sick and the poor,
the
needy and the hopeful:
called
to be fully alive in this world,
called
to be the hands and feet of heaven,
called
to be all we can be,
called
to follow.
