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| Image by JLS Photography |
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A GREETING
How good it is to sing out to the Creator ---
because among the world's pleasures, praise is most beautiful of all.
(Psalm 147:1*)
A READING
It is the moon that marks the changing seasons, governing the times, their everlasting sign. From the moon comes the sign for festal days, a light that wanes when it completes its course. The new moon, as its name suggests, renews itself; how marvelous it is in this change, a beacon to the hosts on high, shining in the vault of the heavens!
(Sirach 43:6-8)
MUSIC
This collaboration among Moses Beaver, David Bouchard and Susan Aglukark is eleven minutes in length. The English lyrics are spoken first, then there is the sung version by Susan Aglukark. It is all recommended, but the song begins at minute 6:20.
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
You number all the stars and give each one a name, You are infinite, your reach beyond measure.
(Psalm 147:4*)
A POEM
nite
sinks down
upon the earth
turning
its face
from the sun
at last
people singing
applauding
and crying
as all the stars
co-operate
and come out shining.
–"Nite" by Wayne Keon,
found in Native Poetry in Canada: A Contemporary Anthology
ed. by Jeannette C. Armstrong and Lally Grauer
VERSE OF THE DAY
Respond to the Holy with thanksgiving;
sing out to the Creator with your harp.
(Psalm 147:7)
(All psalm translations by Pamela Greenberg from
The Complete Psalms: The Book of Prayer Songs in a New Translation)
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| "Moonlight" by Tom Thomson (1913-14) |
In the spoken text portion of today’s music, as written by David Bouchard, we hear the story of creation in a time when the creatures of the earth are hibernating and there is a winter moon. The story takes place before the white man and European settlement when, in the tradition of the Haudenausaunee (Iroquois), Jesus was reincarnated. He is named Peacemaker and brings peace. Jesus is both born in Bethlehem and born again among “true-hearted people”. The power of Jesus is that he lives anew wherever he is heard. His birth happens over and over in the ways that are needed to build the realm of God. One aspect of the creativity of God means that God’s story is always relevant, to anyone at any time. We cannot quite grasp how this may be so, but then we hear it anew. In this storytelling, Jesus is born into the good darkness of a time in which a people were themselves as they were created, alive and thriving, unexploited and unoppressed, without exposure to disease or abusive teaching and fully one with the land that was theirs. They are as they were made in the womb of the earth when the Creator formed them. This kind of darkness is a peaceful one, even if everything is asleep in wait and wonder. It is a darkness governed by a watchful moon which in the biblical story is always a sign of profound change. This darkness calls for one mystic flute and one hundred drums and the revelation of the child means a time of love and peace. The song holds the depth of love that a Christ child brings when it says, “From sea to sea all nations stood, they heard this song, they understood.” How can we serve this dream? How can we enter into that longed-for understanding among all nations, among Indigenous peoples and the other nations of creation? Perhaps we start by doing what we can to help restore the peaceful darkness of the song in our own community relationships with Indigenous peoples in our midst. How can we prepare ourselves to “bear witness to his only son, raise up your voices, sing as one” by reaching out in hope to form new relationships of trust and love?
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| Image by Carandoom |
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LC† Longing for Renewal is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Join us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and on Twitter. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year.
Thank you and peace be with you!
