{"id":6951,"date":"2026-03-31T21:19:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?p=6951"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:09:47","slug":"liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[1] I was invited to ponder the following questions for this essay:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What might be the contours of a Lutheran liturgical ethic that shapes our civic engagement?<\/li>\n<li>How do worship or prayer equip Lutherans to re-define political power?<\/li>\n<li>What roles do liturgy, prayer, and preaching play in fostering, strengthening, or supporting justice and democracy?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have decided to merge my answers into a single essay about the sort of people our Lutheran liturgical practices might form and why this matters in the public\/political sphere.<\/p>\n<p>[2] The overarching point of this paper is that what we do \u2013 in worship, in our liturgy, in our communal and private prayers, in our classrooms, in our homes, in public spaces \u2013 matters.\u00a0 Even if and even when it feels like an uphill and pointless enterprise.<\/p>\n<p>[3]\u00a0 I\u2019m going to start with some of the reasons it may not feel like our \u2013 the ELCA\u2019s &#8212; public church presence is making the difference we \u2013 those of us embedded in and perhaps even enamored of \u2013 our Lutheran inheritance imagine we should.<\/p>\n<p>[4] In his Substack, \u201cHow Big is the Political Divide Between Mainline Clergy and Laity?\u201d<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[1]<\/a> Ryan Burge provides the following graph:<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-6951 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-full'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/partisanship-graph\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"529\" height=\"595\" src=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/partisanship-graph.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/partisanship-graph.png 529w, https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/partisanship-graph-267x300.png 267w, https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/partisanship-graph-258x290.png 258w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[5] When we focus attention on the ELCA line, ELCA rostered leaders (pastors and deacons) are 59% registered Democrats compared to 7% registered Republicans (with 34% being Independent or \u201cother\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0 In other words, ELCA rostered leaders are 8 times more likely to be Democrats than they are Republicans.\u00a0 Laity who attend ELCA congregations, however, are an almost even split with 46% registered as Democrats and 45% registered as Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>[6] In a contentious, divided social, cultural, and political landscape, this means the majority of ELCA pastors are serving congregations whose partisan political affiliation does not match their own.\u00a0 Or, to flip that, half of ELCA members attend a church where their spiritual leader\u2019s partisan political affiliation is not their own.<\/p>\n<p>[7] In addition to this, the Pew Research group has tracked educational data related to religious traditions.\u00a0 In the ELCA, only 39% of adult members have received a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher.<a href=\"#_edn2\" name=\"_ednref2\">[2]<\/a>\u00a0 At the same time \u2013 with recent changes in the Deacon roster \u2013 almost all rostered leaders in the ELCA now have an advanced degree; our clergy have\u00a0 disproportionately more academic education than the average adult in an ELCA congregation. This connects in nuanced ways to the data that correlates to the difference in clergy and laity partisan political preferences.<\/p>\n<p>[8] In the United States the laity of the Latter-Day Saints, Roman Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, and historically Black Protestant Churches have a smaller percentage of a bachelor degree or higher than the laity of the ELCA.\u00a0 These denominations are predominantly politically conservative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seven Mountain Mandate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[9] The \u201cseven mountain mandate\u201d is the teaching that there are seven spheres of influence in society and the world where Christians should aim to establish God\u2019s Kingdom here on earth.<a href=\"#_edn3\" name=\"_ednref3\">[3]<\/a> These spheres are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Family<\/li>\n<li>Religion\u00a0(or\u00a0Faith)<\/li>\n<li>Education<\/li>\n<li>Media<\/li>\n<li>Arts\u00a0and\u00a0Entertainment<\/li>\n<li>Business\u00a0(or\u00a0Economics)<\/li>\n<li>Government<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>[10] You may be unfamiliar with the language of the seven mountain mandate, but you are, I am sure, familiar with its popular forms.\u00a0 Think, for instance, of Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk.\u00a0 Christians who teach and preach the seven mountain mandate believe that it is OUR job as Christians to bring God\u2019s kingdom to earth here and now.\u00a0 And they have the faith formation programming that makes Christian nationalism (the 7<sup>th<\/sup> mountain) a logical outcome.\u00a0 And they have clear political agendas that include support for particular partisan issues.<\/p>\n<p>[11] I don\u2019t really want us to focus on the seven mountain mandate.\u00a0 But I do want us to see that what we DO \u2013 and particularly how we preach (subtext, our theology) \u2013 shapes our discipleship in VERY public and political ways.\u00a0 And there is a significant contingent of Christian brothers and sisters whose theology \u2013 and thus their understanding of discipleship \u2013 is vastly different from the teachings of the ELCA.<\/p>\n<p>[12] Importantly\u00a0 the folks in ELCA pews aren\u2019t siloed\u2026 they have friends and family who worship in seven mountain mandate communities \u2013 they listen to Christian radio that is shaped by this agenda.\u00a0 And they may think it makes perfect sense and is the faithful, \u201cright\u201d way to be Christian, even if they have never heard of this seven mountain mandate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Importance of Practices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[13] The key claim I am going to make in this essay is that we become \u2013 to some extent &#8211; what we do.\u00a0 So, what we do really matters.\u00a0 When I teach classes on faith formation I often ask who the student-athletes in my class are.\u00a0 I then pick a football player (I <em>always <\/em>have football players in class!) to help me.\u00a0 When he agrees, I ask what position he plays.\u00a0 This year\u2019s conversation then went something like this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: What position do you play?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Offensive line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: Great!\u00a0 Make me an offensive lineperson.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: (confused laughter)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: Seriously.\u00a0 I want to be an offensive lineperson and I need your help.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Well, first, you\u2019re gonna need to put on some pounds.\u00a0 And maybe increase your protein intake.\u00a0 And you\u2019re definitely gonna need to start lifting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: Great! Then I can be a football player.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: (laughing)\u00a0 Something like that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: That wasn\u2019t compelling.\u00a0 Help me; what do I need to do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Well, first you need to work on fast feet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: I can be fast.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Can I stand up? And show you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: Please do!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Pretend there\u2019s a ladder here; now do this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>He shows me some fancy footwork which I copy.\u00a0 He seems genuinely impressed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: That\u2019s not bad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: Now what.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Well now you\u2019re gonna sink down into position.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>He models a stance for me; I comply. <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: Now, run!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>I run in place<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: Now what?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Student: You \u2018bout to get hit!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Me: I want a refund.\u00a0 No one said anything about getting hit.<\/p>\n<p>When I ask the whole class if I really became a football player, they said I lacked the size but mostly the hours \u2013 years \u2013 of good coaching and intentional practice.\u00a0 These are the things that had made my student a football player.<\/p>\n<p>[14] Let me give another example about the importance of formation.\u00a0 I love birds.\u00a0 Had I not become a theologian, I might have been an ornithologist. In fact, apparently when I was two I wanted to <em>be <\/em>a bird when I grew up.\u00a0 I am fortunate, now, to be able to spend a lot of time with my two grandsons: Lucas and Hayes. Lucas is three, Hayes is 15 months.\u00a0 Lucas spends a lot of time with me in the garden, and he has learned to love to garden. He has also learned to love \u2013 and name \u2013 the birds we see regularly.\u00a0 Well before his third birthday he could identify cardinals, robins, hawks, great blue herons, crows, mockingbirds, blue jays, bluebirds, and woodpeckers.\u00a0 Maybe more.<\/p>\n<p>[15] He was able to do this not because it is normal in the life of a 2-year-old to know birds by name, but because I adore him and he, in return, adores me and wants to spend time with me in the garden where I\u2019ve taught him everything has a name and we should take the time to learn their names.<a href=\"#_edn4\" name=\"_ednref4\">[4]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[16] All of this is to say, by 3, Lucas was a bit of an amateur ornithologist.\u00a0 He was also a really good gardener and herbalist.\u00a0 Not because it is in his DNA, not even because it is part of his environment \u2013 though these are of course both also true \u2013 but because he chooses to spend hours with me talking about plants and bugs and herbs and birds.\u00a0 The more he does these things the more he embodies them<\/p>\n<p>[17] Practice, coaching, formation&#8211;this is the point of worship.\u00a0 To embody who we already are.\u00a0 It is my one sentence summary of 1<sup>st<\/sup> Cor: You (y\u2019all) \u2013 because Paul spoke Southern Greek \u2013 y\u2019all are the body of Christ, darn it, act like it; be it.<\/p>\n<p>[18] Because we \u2013 ELCA Lutherans &#8211; believe salvation is God\u2019s work and God\u2019s work alone, we aren\u2019t trying to get people into heaven. And because we deny the theological validity of Christian nationalism and reject the notion behind the seven mountain mandate, we aren\u2019t trying to create the Kingdom of God in the United States.\u00a0 That is not who we are theologically.<\/p>\n<p>[19] And, think back to the political affiliation data \u2013 because we are the denomination of the deepest and most beautiful hue of purple \u2013 we pragmatically cannot tell the folks in our congregations what to think or how to vote \u2013 they are equally divided red\/blue. , Further they are \u2013 overall \u2013 more highly-educated than the laity in many other churches and do not depend on their pastors to tell them what to think.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Worship as Hope-Rehearsal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[20] Lutherans do worship well; it is who we are.\u00a0 Orthodoxy \u2013 a word we tend to use as a way of saying we are getting our beliefs straight (we reject Docetism or Gnosticism, for example) is really about how we worship.\u00a0 And, of course worship is about theology \u2013 it includes the things we believe, the words we say, but it is also about a disposition, an orientation, a way of standing (or kneeling) before the Almighty God.\u00a0 Orthodoxy literally means \u201cright praise\u201d.\u00a0 In our orthodoxy \u2013 in our right praise, our worship, what I think we do best is practice hope.<\/p>\n<p>[21] I recently read the book <em>The Midnight Library<\/em> by Matt Haig.\u00a0 The titular Midnight Library is something like purgatory; it is a place where not-yet-dead-but-no-longer-living souls go to explore the lives that could have been.\u00a0 Each book in the library is the story of the life the person would have lived if only a single different choice \u2013 big or little \u2013 had been made at any point in the \u201croot\u201d life.<\/p>\n<p>[22] Nora Seed is the main character.\u00a0 When she arrives at the midnight library, the librarian is explaining how the library works to her \u2013 parallel universes, infinite possibilities.\u00a0 She is understandably perplexed and asks: Is this real?\u00a0 The librarian responds: It is real; it just isn\u2019t reality as you know it.<\/p>\n<p>[23] Worship forms us to be a people of hope by teaching us to see what is real rather than merely accepting reality as we think we know it. Let me try to unpack this\u2026 how does worship do this?\u00a0 And why does it matter?<\/p>\n<p>[24] First, worship tells the truth about the world and refuses to despair. We begin our worship with confession; we make space for lament and intercessory prayer; we offer preaching that names the realities of sin, suffering, evil and injustice. But we also receive absolution; the proclamation of God\u2019s grace; we receive the sacrament of the table and a blessing and then we are sent out into the world, as living icons of this truth.<\/p>\n<p>[25] Second, worship re-narrates time. Imagine the pendulum on a grandfather clock. It moves rhythmically left and right. Left. Right.\u00a0 Hear the sounds of the clock: Tick.\u00a0 Tock.\u00a0 Tick.\u00a0 Tock.\u00a0 Now imagine that the \u201ctick\u201d holds our theologically memory \u2013 the memory of the cross and of the resurrection.\u00a0 Then, imagine the \u201ctock\u201d holds the promised future, the Parousia, Jesus coming back to wipe every tear from every eye.\u00a0 Between this \u201ctick\u201d and this \u201ctock\u201d there is a pregnant pause.\u00a0 That is us.\u00a0 We are temporally held in the gap between \u201ctick\u201d and \u201ctock\u201d, between resurrection and the promised Parousia.\u00a0 In our weekly rehearsal of the tick \u2013 remembering that every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection \u2013 we can learn to trust, to hope, that the time for the tock, for Jesus\u2019s promised return is, indeed, coming.<\/p>\n<p>[26] Third, worship shapes our imagination. Our narration of time requires the re-shaping of our imaginations. Why?\u00a0 Because resurrection does not make sense. Dead people stay dead.\u00a0 We know this to be true. But we also know a God who brings life out of death \u2013 meaning from suffering and loss \u2013 and a future from seeming dead-ends. Living into this reality takes imagination and practice.<\/p>\n<p>[27] Fourth, worship reminds us that God is the primary and ultimate actor. Salvation is God\u2019s work and God\u2019s work alone.\u00a0 Lutherans do not speak of the number of souls saved in any given worship experience or \u201cby\u201d any given human actor.\u00a0 God alone saves. We practice, daily, receiving faith as pure gift. And we learn that this does <em>not <\/em>call us to passivity, but to a new freedom to act on behalf of our neighbor.<\/p>\n<p>[28] Fifth, worship makes hope communal. We sing, pray, share the peace, hear the good news, receive the body and blood of Jesus, and learn to hope with and for one another.\u00a0 Again. And again. And again.\u00a0\u00a0 When I cannot pray, cannot hope, cannot profess the faith of the church \u2013 the church does this on my behalf.\u00a0 And, as a part of the communal body, I do this for others. We are inextricably woven together.\u00a0 This means our worship teaches us that it can never be about \u201cme and Jesus\u201d; though our faith may be intensely personal, it cannot be private.\u00a0 We take the Corinthian body very seriously.<\/p>\n<p>[29] Sixth, worship sends hope into the world. As embodied icons of hope, we are sent into the world: Go in peace, serve the Lord.<\/p>\n<p>[30] Lois Lowry\u2019s book <em>The Giver <\/em>is a dystopian novel set in a community that has managed nearly complete control of its environment.\u00a0 The memory of the past has been erased from the collective community to prevent guilt and greed.<\/p>\n<p>[31] In Lowry\u2019s dystopia, individuality has also been erased.\u00a0 It is a world of evenness and sameness.\u00a0 This sameness even extends to color.\u00a0 The people of the community only see black, white, and shades of gray. Jonas, the main character, is twelve years old. He and a friend of his are talking one day and his friend is absent-mindedly tossing an apple in the air and catching it.\u00a0 Jonas sees something.\u00a0 He is very disoriented by it.\u00a0 His friend tosses the apple again.\u00a0 Jonas sees it again.\u00a0 It makes him dizzy.\u00a0 Jonas later discovers that what he saw was called \u201cred.\u201d\u00a0 He had seen color for the first time.\u00a0 And once he saw it, he could never un-see it.<\/p>\n<p>[32] He began to see color everywhere \u2013 and not just red.\u00a0 He saw blue and green and yellow and purple and amber and puce and coral and sapphire and even burnt sienna.\u00a0 With so many colors in the rainbow, Jonas could never again see just one.<\/p>\n<p>[33] In worship, in our final blessing, we are sent out to fulfill our baptismal promises because we are shaped by our worship to \u201csee beyond\u201d what seems to be real to God\u2019s promises of what <em>is <\/em>real.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Baptismal Promises<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">[34] \u201cDo you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">to live among God\u2019s faithful people<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">to hear the word of God and share in the Lord\u2019s super<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cI do, and I ask God to help and guide me.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn5\" name=\"_ednref5\">[5]<\/a>\u00a0 (ELCA p 236)<\/p>\n<p>[35] Precisely because of the way we understand God to be and work in the world, our hope cannot look like the hope of those who work for the seven mountain mandate.\u00a0 Our hope is simultaneously more and less certain.\u00a0 It is ultimately more sure; penultimately, much less so. We do not have a 12-step plan for what striving for justice and peace in all the world looks like.<\/p>\n<p>[36] But what we do have is a safe rehearsal space.\u00a0 A space we can return to week after week to hear that justice and peace in all the world is God\u2019s will and that striving for this justice and peace is our vocation \u2013 but we also rehearse the limits of this vocation, remembering we are invited to participate in God\u2019s work, but it is, in fact, God\u2019s work. We are reminded we are not God. We are reminded that we are <em>simul justus et peccator<\/em>. And there are days when our peccator-hood is a mighty strong force.<\/p>\n<p>[37] We are reminded that we have an anthropology of grace; this is a gift we receive, but it is also the lens through which we see our neighbor, and thus it is a gift we offer. As such, we learn \u2013 in and through our worship \u2013 that we cannot use power to create the world we think we want to live in.\u00a0 Nor can we retreat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hope: the thing with feathers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">[38] Hope \u2013 the thing with feathers<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">That perches in the soul &#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">And sings the tune without the words &#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">And never stops &#8211; at all \u2013<a href=\"#_edn6\" name=\"_ednref6\">[6]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[39] I have a friend and colleague, a retired ELCA pastor, who baptized Dylan Roof.\u00a0 Dylan Roof, the young man who killed 9 people at Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC on June 17, 2015.\u00a0 Roof\u2019s actions are evidence that our worship \u2013 our faith \u2013 is not an amulet.\u00a0 We believe that sin is real; and humans have agency.\u00a0 Real humans formed in real churches do real harm. All the best theology and worship in the world cannot guarantee we won\u2019t have another Dylan Roof.<\/p>\n<p>[40] All the time in the world spent in the garden with my grandchildren does not guarantee that they learn to love and care for God\u2019s good creation.\u00a0 But, our hope is not about controlling penultimate outcomes; it is about having faith in ultimate outcomes.\u00a0 This frees us to practice \u2013 to rehearse \u2013 becoming the body of the one who feeds us.<\/p>\n<p>[41] So, I want to come back to the sweetest 3-year-old ever. Back in October his daddy and I had been raking leaves for the boys to jump in.\u00a0 He stopped jumping and got a sandcastle toy from his toy bin.\u00a0 He first used this toy to make a leaf birthday cake and he sang \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to himself. Then, seemingly out of nowhere he took his leaf birthday cake to has daddy and very seriously handed him a leaf and quietly but certainly proclaimed, \u201cThe body of Christ given for you.\u201d\u00a0 Then he brought me a communion leaf.\u00a0 Finally, he communed his baby brother after which he yelled, \u201cAmen!\u201d and threw all the leaves in the air in celebration.<\/p>\n<p>[42] We \u2013 his grandparents, his parents, his god-parents, all those who love him &#8211; \u00a0have no way to control where he goes from here; what he does with his rehearsal time, with the time spent practicing good news and kindness and justice and peace in all the earth.\u00a0 But while he \u2013 and his little brother \u2013 are practicing hope, we will be too.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref1\" name=\"_edn1\">[1]<\/a> Ryan Burge, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.graphsaboutreligion.com\/p\/how-big-is-the-political-divide-between\">How Big is the Political Divide Between Mainline Clergy and Laity?<\/a> \u00a0(accessed 3\/2\/2026)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref2\" name=\"_edn2\">[2]<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2026\/02\/19\/which-us-religious-groups-are-most-highly-educated\/\">Which US religious groups are most highly educated? | Pew Research Center<\/a> (accessed 3\/2\/26)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref3\" name=\"_edn3\">[3]<\/a> For more on the Seven Mountain Mandate, see the Wikipedia page of the same name.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref4\" name=\"_edn4\">[4]<\/a> Except bushes \u2013 he refuses to accept that different bushes have names.\u00a0 I tried to teach him \u201cpyracantha\u201d and he said, \u201cThat\u2019s silly, Mimi, they\u2019re just bushes.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why that\u2019s his line in the sand, but it is. And he\u2019s right pyracantha are silly. And prickly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref5\" name=\"_edn5\">[5]<\/a> From the liturgy for the Affirmation of Baptism, <em>Evangelical Lutheran Worship, <\/em>Augsburg, 2006. (236)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref6\" name=\"_edn6\">[6]<\/a> Emily Dickenson, \u201cHope is the thing with feathers,\u201d in <em>The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson<\/em>, edited by Thomas H. Johnson. The Belknap Press; Cambridge, MA; 1983. (314)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[1] I was invited to ponder the following questions for this essay: What might be the contours of a Lutheran liturgical ethic that shapes our civic engagement? How do worship or prayer equip Lutherans to re-define political power? What roles do liturgy, prayer, and preaching play in fostering, strengthening, or supporting justice and democracy? I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,33,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-nationalism","category-government-civil","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0 - Journal of Lutheran Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0 - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[1] I was invited to ponder the following questions for this essay: What might be the contours of a Lutheran liturgical ethic that shapes our civic engagement? How do worship or prayer equip Lutherans to re-define political power? What roles do liturgy, prayer, and preaching play in fostering, strengthening, or supporting justice and democracy? I [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Lutheran Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T21:19:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T17:09:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/partisanship-graph.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"heatherdean\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"heatherdean\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"15 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"heatherdean\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/person\/4493166c38ac3d4ed054c77e294df9fe\"},\"headline\":\"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-31T21:19:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-01T17:09:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\"},\"wordCount\":3268,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Christian Nationalism\",\"Government (Civil)\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\",\"name\":\"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0 - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-31T21:19:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-01T17:09:47+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/\",\"name\":\"Journal of Lutheran Ethics\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization\",\"name\":\"ELCA - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/Journal_of_Lutheran_Ethics_Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/Journal_of_Lutheran_Ethics_Logo.jpg\",\"width\":250,\"height\":250,\"caption\":\"ELCA - Journal of Lutheran Ethics\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/person\/4493166c38ac3d4ed054c77e294df9fe\",\"name\":\"heatherdean\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d3e5eff554ddaea495a274433db560cd82b346d68d3aeeb680955be3e7aa504?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d3e5eff554ddaea495a274433db560cd82b346d68d3aeeb680955be3e7aa504?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d3e5eff554ddaea495a274433db560cd82b346d68d3aeeb680955be3e7aa504?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"heatherdean\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/author\/hdean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0 - Journal of Lutheran Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0 - Journal of Lutheran Ethics","og_description":"[1] I was invited to ponder the following questions for this essay: What might be the contours of a Lutheran liturgical ethic that shapes our civic engagement? How do worship or prayer equip Lutherans to re-define political power? What roles do liturgy, prayer, and preaching play in fostering, strengthening, or supporting justice and democracy? I [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/","og_site_name":"Journal of Lutheran Ethics","article_published_time":"2026-03-31T21:19:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-01T17:09:47+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/03\/partisanship-graph.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"heatherdean","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"heatherdean","Est. reading time":"15 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/"},"author":{"name":"heatherdean","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/person\/4493166c38ac3d4ed054c77e294df9fe"},"headline":"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0","datePublished":"2026-03-31T21:19:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-01T17:09:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/"},"wordCount":3268,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Christian Nationalism","Government (Civil)","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/","url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/","name":"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0 - Journal of Lutheran Ethics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-03-31T21:19:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-01T17:09:47+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/liturgy-prayer-power-and-the-public-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Liturgy, Prayer, Power, and the Public Church\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#website","url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/","name":"Journal of Lutheran Ethics","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#organization","name":"ELCA - Journal of Lutheran Ethics","url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/Journal_of_Lutheran_Ethics_Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/01\/Journal_of_Lutheran_Ethics_Logo.jpg","width":250,"height":250,"caption":"ELCA - Journal of Lutheran Ethics"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/#\/schema\/person\/4493166c38ac3d4ed054c77e294df9fe","name":"heatherdean","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d3e5eff554ddaea495a274433db560cd82b346d68d3aeeb680955be3e7aa504?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d3e5eff554ddaea495a274433db560cd82b346d68d3aeeb680955be3e7aa504?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1d3e5eff554ddaea495a274433db560cd82b346d68d3aeeb680955be3e7aa504?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"heatherdean"},"url":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/author\/hdean\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6951"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6972,"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6951\/revisions\/6972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}