In a simple liturgy I was able to participate in recently – a liturgy to open a meeting – there was a line that stood out to me because it conveyed a simple truth that I think we all need to grasp, especially those of us whose lives revolve around our involvement in some of the world’s issues.

Photo: Francis Ritchie. Bethlehem.

It came in the part of the liturgy devoted to prayers of intercession. After people were given the opportunity to name their particular concerns came this:

In these situations and others we have not named, we need you, God.
For we are not enough to save the world.

I like it for two reasons. Firstly it doesn’t run from involvement even though it recognises the issues are large. Too often, faced with the magnitude of the world’s problems right from the level of issues faced by individuals, through to global problems, people use the excuse of it being too big as a way to not do anything. Instead we often look the other way, going about our lives, placating our own desires because we’ve freed ourselves from any sense of having to do anything by saying we can’t fix it anyway, so why try. The above quote from that liturgy assumes a desire to be involved. It uses the words ‘In these situations.’ It presupposes that we are ‘in’ the problems.

I wonder if that involvement is enabled by the very understanding inherent in the reminder of the second line – ‘we are not enough to save the world.’ That’s the second thing I appreciate about the line; it says it’s not up to me. Saving the world simply isn’t something I can do as an individual.

Ironically it’s that understanding that we can’t do it that frees us up to truly be involved. No longer are we hamstrung by the fact that we can’t save the world so we just come to the table with who we are and what we have, understanding that we just need to be there, giving what we have with no preconceived notion of being the saviour for all that is wrong in the world.

To get to that place of being involved in such a freed way involves humility and letting go, but it also requires us being involved in the world’s problems so we can eventually see it. It takes a slaying of the ego that would want us to be the stars, the saviours the world recognises for all the good we do. Rather we come to understand that we’re only one part of the story and journey and that it doesn’t hinge on us, but rather on the Divine and the unity of all that is good in humanity working together towards a future hope that we partly get to realise in the present.

It’s not up to me, but I have the privilege of being part of it. I am involved but I need God, for it is God that saves, not me, thank God.

The liturgy was Worship to Open a Meeting from Dorothy McRae-McMahon Echoes of Our Journey (JBCE, 1993)