This Is My Body
"You gave us these bodies. And You called them good." This message, from our song, “These Bodies,” is at the heart of this liturgy experience we developed called This Is My Body. This liturgy is designed to help us reclaim God’s love for our bodies and refute the voices that would have us living in shame, constantly trying to make our bodies acceptable. We believe to love our bodies as God loves them is a radical act and a redemptive one. And every time we’ve walked with people through this liturgy it has been a source of deep healing for all of us.
Over the winter 2018, at rehearsals for The Many, we began talking about how we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" but how often we walk around trying to shrink or hide. And about messages in our culture that tell us we are too dark, too queer, too different. How our society profits from our self-doubt and how truly loving our bodies is an act of resistance. And we talked about that time when Jesus said, "This is my body..." without shame, without apology. We began to brainstorm about songs and liturgy that might help us live into the truth that we are God’s beloved creation and our bodies are good.
We first wrote a song, These Bodies. And premiered it at the Progressive Youth Ministry Conference in March. By the summer, at the Wild Goose Festival, we were able to introduce the complete liturgy in a late night gathering – an experience that brought together music, spoken word, visual elements, and movement in a journey through lament and confession, culminating by reclaiming our bodies through the celebration of communion.
Now we’re making all the music and text and ritual ideas available to you. We hope you will take our work and make it your own. We hope it will inspire you and help you to pray. And we hope it will help you and your community honor, respect and celebrate all bodies. Please keep in touch. We would love to hear how you’re using these resources in your community.
