Monday, June 28, 2010

It's all good

I wrote this "Creation Rhythm Poem" a few years ago. It has been used in a number of different churches, and other settings. It has been published, but I think I still own the rights to it, so I am putting it on this blog. In a day or two I hope to add a link to a soundfile of the poem being "performed" in worship this past Sunday. I used it as part of a Sunday School recognition service that had the theme of nurturing growth.

In the beginning... There was quiet.
Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh.
There’d never been sound.
Shh. Shh. Shh. Shh

God said, “Light!”
Light. Light. Light. Light.
God said “Day” God said, “Night”.
Day. Night. Day. Night.

God made the Sky. The sky was high.
Sky High Sky High
God said, “Wet.” God said, “Dry”
Wet Dry Wet Dry

God made the sea. God made the land.
Wet Sea. Dry Land
Wind Water Waves Sand
God made a beach. God made rhythm.

Day Night Day Night
Wet Dry Wet Dry
Earth Sky Earth Sky
God said, “It’s good”

Good Good Good Good

God made things grow.
Plants Trees Plants Trees
Bark Leaves Bark Leaves
Fruit Seeds Fruit Seeds
Growing is good.

Good Good Good Good

Then God made stars. And God made time
God made rhythm. God made rhyme.
Stars Time Rhythm Rhyme
And it was good.

Good Good Good Good

God made the Sun God made the Moon.
God made midnight. God made noon.

God made fish, and birds and whales
God made fins and wings and tails.
God made swallows and guppies and eggs.
God made beaks and feathers and legs.
God told them to go, and grow, and thrive.
God said the word, and the world came alive.

Then it got really good.

Good Good Good Good

God made cows, and frogs
God made gerbils and dogs.
God made weasels and mosquitoes and camels and beavers and lions and spiders,
And God just kept making and making and making.
God made more insects and fish and birds and animals
and microbes and other living creatures than we could ever count.

And they’re all good.

Good Good Good Good

God made people to care for the earth
The birds and bananas and the bees and the dirt,
The dolphins and the weasels and the frogs and the trees.
The pandas and the kittens and the chimpanzees.

God made you. God made me
God made our friends. And our family
God made us to sing, and play and pray
To dream at night and work in the day.

Dream Play Night Day

Rhythm to life.
Music in our heart.
Work to be done.
We each have a part.

And it’s all good.

Good Good Good Good

God says it’s good.
Good Good Good Good

(Thanks everyone, you did good!)

Monday, June 21, 2010

Daddy and Mamma Mia

the fifth page for Monday, June 21, 2010

We are all children of God. On Sunday, I stepped out of the worship service to spend time with the children of our congregation. It was Father’s Day. I asked them to repeat after me the words of the Lord’s Prayer. I also talked about the enormous significance of Jesus teaching people to call God, the mysterious maker of the universe, “Father”. Many scholars have pointed out that the Aramaic word that the Gospels record Jesus as saying was actually “Abba”, which is more like “Daddy” than “Father”.

For people of my generation it is hard to hear the word “Abba” without thinking of a Swedish super-group from the 1970’s.(Mamma mia!) If we can get past that, it is wonderful to think that Jesus taught people to say “Dear Daddy” when addressing God.

My own kids are old enough, now, that they sometimes choose the less intimate “Dad”. (This is often when they think I am being tough on them, or being goofy, and the word is pronounced with extra vowels “Daaaaaad!”) But when they call me “Daddy” it feels like it has come straight from the heart, and that is where it goes, straight to my heart.

This leaves me hoping and praying, and holding to the faith that what Jesus was telling us is true, that when we pray, it is a heart-to-heart communication. We sang the following hymn at the beginning of our Father’s Day service:

Come, let us sing of a wonderful love,
tender and true, tender and true,
out of the heart of the Father above,
streaming to me and to you:
wonderful love, wonderful love
dwells in the heart of the Father above.

Jesus the Saviour this gospel to tell
joyfully came, joyfully came,
came with the helpless and hopeless to dwell,
sharing their sorrow and shame,
seeking the lost, seeking the lost,
saving, redeeming at measureless cost.

Jesus is seeking the wanderers yet;
why do they roam? why do they roam?
Love only waits to forgive and forget;
home, weary wanderers, home!
Wonderful love, wonderful love
dwells in the heart of the Father above.

Come to my heart, O thou wonderful love!
Come and abide, come and abide,
lifting my life till it rises above
envy and falsehood and pride:
seeking to be, seeking to be
lowly and humble, a learner of thee.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Time Out

I spent the last week in residence with the Jubilee Program for Spiritual Formation and Direction. This was the final gathering of our group, which has been on a journey together since the spring of 2008. It was a rich time of learning, and celebration, and saying goodbye.

My plan is to "get back" to regular posting on this blog,in the coming week.