Praying the News

February 16, 2013

In our prayers, we thank God for the wonders of creation, pray for those parts of creation that need repair and healing because of our carelessness, and ask for the wisdom, will, and courage to preserve and protect the biosphere that makes human life both possible and rich.

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect For the Conservation of Natural Resources (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 827)

Please pray for:

Relief from the ongoing drought on the Great Plains.  This week’s US Drought Monitor report shows some improvement in this part of the country, but as their map shows, most of Nebraska remains in extreme or exceptional drought conditions. Coupling prayers for seasonable weather with prayers of repentance for our part in creating the greater issue of climate change might help us find our way forward.

The Arctic sea ice and eyes to see and minds to understand the significance of the loss of ice. The UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) has confirmed earlier estimates of a collapse of the sea ice in the Arctic. Total sea ice volume in the Arctic is one-fifth what it was in 1980. Analyst Andy Lee Robinson has put the data in graphic form that shows the spiraling collapse of the sea ice:

From http://haveland.com/share/arctic-death-spiral-1979-201301.png

 People in Washington, DC, for Sunday’s Forward on Climate rally. Thousands of people are expected to rally in Washington tomorrow to ask President Obama to lead on addressing climate change, beginning with denying a permit to complete the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Several Nebraskans will be part of this, carrying with them our concerns about the this pipeline that would cross Nebraska. Pray for protection as they travel and rally, for peaceful hearts and effective voices, and for wise leadership from our President and other leaders; and offer prayers of thanksgiving for these people willing to speak with their voices and their presence at this gathering.

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer In Times of Conflict (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 824)

O God, our heavenly Father, you have blessed us and given us dominion over all the earth: Increase our reverence before the mystery of life; and give us new insight into your purposes for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in making provision for its future in accordance with your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer For the Future of the Human Race (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 828)

As we pray for others, we might also pray for our own hearts to be open so we can see the needs in the world around us and gladly respond to those needs:

O heavenly Father, who has filled the world with beauty; Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that, rejoicing in your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer for Joy in God’s Creation (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 814)

Keeping Lent

The Presiding Bishop’s Lent message for 2013 encourages us “to pray, to fast, to act in solidarity with those who go without. Learn more, give alms, share what you have. Be conscious about what you eat.”

Awareness of worldwide hunger and how addressing that is tied together with our own spiritual healing is the theme of Episcopal Relief and Development’s Lenten meditations. The meditations are available as daily e-mails or in booklet form.

Awareness of what we eat, of how it is produced, packaged, and transported is intertwined with all sorts of environmental issues, and hunger around the world is exacerbated by the increase in extreme weather events resulting from climate change.

The Gospel teaches that the way we treat those in the greatest need is the way we treat Christ; our relationship with Christ is tied to our relationship with the hungry, the poor, and all those who are marginalized.  And even the most perfunctory Lenten disciplines – meatless Fridays or giving up sweets – are taken on with some sort of awareness of a relationship between our spiritual well-being and what we eat.

We are spiritually healthy when we are in good relationship with God, one another, and God’s creation. Being conscious about what we eat – or being intentional about just about any part of life – helps us become more aware of the web of connections in which we live. That awareness helps us see that when we desire to grow in our relationship in Christ, we can’t approach life as if our daily decisions affected no one but ourselves. That’s why stewardship, including environmental stewardship, is an essential piece of discipleship.

Robert Herrick wrote “To Keep a True Lent” in the 17^th century, but the core idea of the poem is very much in keeping with what Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Episcopal Relief and Development say to us as we begin Lent in 2013.

TO KEEP A TRUE LENT.
by Robert Herrick

Is this a fast, to keep
                The larder lean ?
                            And clean
From fat of veals and sheep ?

Is it to quit the dish
                Of flesh, yet still
                            To fill
The platter high with fish ?

Is it to fast an hour,
                Or ragg’d to go,
                            Or show
A downcast look and sour ?

No ;  ‘tis a fast to dole
                Thy sheaf of wheat,
                            And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.

It is to fast from strife,
                From old debate
                            And hate ;
To circumcise thy life.

To show a heart grief-rent ;
                To starve thy sin,
                            Not bin ;
And that’s to keep thy Lent. 

Joy: Twelfth Day of Christmas

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

Today’s joys included two sights that seemed just right for the last day of Christmas and the day before Epiphany.

At Christmas we talk about the true light coming into the world, and at Epiphany we talk about that light being manifested to the whole world. There have been several striking sunrises and sunsets during these twelve days of Christmas, and this morning’s sunrise seemed to be all about the light:

Right before Christmas I made a batch of date-nut cookies, cutting them into star shapes. When I took one of the sheets of cookies out of the oven, three of them fell onto the floor. While they were still warm, I poked holes in them to hang them by string for the birds and squirrels. The two stars that had been hanging from a birdfeeder disappeared, though I never saw who had eaten them or if they had simply fallen. Late this morning, though, a squirrel climbed up a trellis where I’d hung the third star and carefully removed it. Then, carrying it in his mouth, he ran up into a tree for a Twelfth Night feast.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Eleventh Day of Christmas

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

The image of living water is familiar to us from Scripture. There is something about a flowing stream of water that we connect with life and abundance. In the darkest part of the winter, when parts of rivers, streams, and lakes are covered with ice, the sight of water flowing evokes a feeling of joy.

Some of these streams and rivers would be completely frozen most Januaries. An interesting thing we humans do is to welcome abnormally warmer weather this time of year but bemoan it in the summer. Seeing partially frozen streams on sunny days with temperatures around 30 degrees is familiar to us, even if we might more usually see this a few weeks later. It doesn't seem as “abnormal” to us as similarly unseasonably warm weather trends seem in July or August, when the heat hits a less familiar range. So even when we know in a more abstract way that our warmer, later winter may ultimately not be a cause of joy, the sight of running water in January feels like a sign of life and hope to us. It evokes deep-rooted images and archetypes formed when the climate was more stable. And it remains true in this part of the country that the sight of a gently flowing stream is always a gift.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Tenth Day of Christmas

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

The prayer garden at St. Stephen’s hasn’t been used since the cold weather came in. The fountain is drained and covered for winter, and snow has blown in and covered the space.

More accurately, though, we might say that humans haven’t used the prayer garden since the cold weather came in. Obviously there’s been a visitor who came in through  or over the gate, walked the length of the courtyard, and then left. It may have been a cat sheltering in the corner from chilly winds, looking for something to eat, or simply sensing that this was a safe place. There’s joy in knowing that we are not alone, and that other creatures share this space that we have set aside to help bring us closer to God.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Ninth Day of Christmas

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

Joy today came in the form of signs of life on a wintry January day: occasional bird songs, tracks of rabbits and birds in the snow, and a squirrel digging through the snow to get to food buried this fall.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Eighth Day of Christmas

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

The sky this evening was lovely. Clear skies and cold temperatures brought beautiful sunrises and sunsets to many Nebraskans today.

The joy of seeing this evening sky was deepened by the recollection of the words of the Phos hilaron that help articulate the spiritual experience of seeing such a sky:

O gracious Light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 118)

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.