To Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of The Americans with Disabilities Act

To Commemorate the 30th Anniversary 

of 

The Americans with Disabilities Act

July 26, 2020  

Gathering Litany

Lord, as we gather in your word today, we join with your first followers—with paralytics, epileptics, the mentally ill—and commend to your care those who are sick and have various diseases.

You give the blind your vision to see.

You give the mute your voice to speak.

You speak in ways the deaf can hear.

You recognize the poor, the meek.

We, your disciples, repeatedly neglect children with disabilities even as their parents bring them for you to touch and bless. Help us remember You are always inviting them, recognizing their value, saying “Let the children come to me.”

You give the blind your vision to see.

You give the mute your voice to speak.

You speak in ways the deaf can hear.

You recognize the poor, the meek.

When we chain the developmentally disabled and mentally ill amid the caves and tombs, You sit with them, listen to them,  touch them, give wholeness, give a way to walk in your ways, and send them back into the world, to their home, to tell everyone what they have heard and seen.

You give the blind your vision to see.

You give the mute your voice to speak.

You speak in ways the deaf can hear.

You recognize the poor, the meek.

When people wonder whether You are the promised one, You tell them to report what is begun: The unclean are cleansed. The lame are given ways to walk. The blind receive your vision, and the poor hear good news proclaimed. Indeed, the dead are raised!

You give the blind your vision to see.

You give the mute your voice to speak.

You speak in ways the deaf can hear.

You recognize the poor, the meek.

We recognize that all policies of discrimination hide the needs of the disabled from us and contribute to them being ignored which creates a stigma of social death. We admit our care for people with disabilities is incomplete. The only jobs offered them are often demeaning and meaningless. We pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage and gain tax incentives from their labor, or we leave them underemployed and impoverished, without adequate healthcare protection, other essential services, and the ability to lead independent lives.

You give the blind your vision to see.

You give the mute your voice to speak.

You speak in ways the deaf can hear.

You recognize the poor, the meek.

Disabilities are often shame-filled epithets, uncaring and abusive: He is blind to others’ needs. She is deaf to the cries of the people. Their reasoning is lame. His actions are dumb. Their plans are short-sighted. She’s just such a spaz, and more. Forgive us, Lord, for these and other unthinking utterances of dishonoring shame. Help us to lift these conditions of life from the trash heap of dishonor. Then help us to see others as your children, not their disability.

You give the blind your vision to see.

You give the mute your voice to speak.

You speak in ways the deaf can hear.

You recognize the poor, the meek.

Today, on this thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we remember that we are not whole without all your children with us. In You, we individually are members one of another and that the gifts of all are needed if the Body of Christ is to be whole. We commit ourselves to learn more about the issues surrounding disabilities; to work for equity in employment and all aspects of life;  to learn the many gifts that people with disabilities have and long to share, that we might know the wholeness of Your beloved community with all the saints, to be your body for the sake of the world.

As we gather in these days

And walk in your new ways,

It is your name we praise

Reaching out, the dead to raise. Amen