Now thank we all our God

“At Calw, the pastor saw a woman gnawing the raw flesh off a dead horse on which a hungry dog and some ravens were also feeding... Acorns, goats' skins, grass, were all cooked in Alsace; cats, dogs, and rats were sold in the market at Worms....”

Cicely Veronica Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War is loaded with passages like this one. Between 1618 and 1648, political and religious hatred teamed up to create a war in which the Austrians and Swedes and just about anyone else looking for power on the continent took turns thrashing the life out of the German people and countryside. Thousands deserted farms and homes for protection in the old walled-in cities and soon enough, there was no room.

“The living shut their windows to death groans outside”, Wedgewood writes. In winter, people stepped over the dead bodies all over the streets. Finally, when the city knew it could do no more, the magistrates threw out 35,000 refugees to terror and death outside the walls. Plagues swarmed through the streets.

Sometime during the final years of that war, Martin Rinkart, a preacher in Saxony, found himself in the heart of all that horror. He held funerals for up to fifty people per day. One day, that number came to include his own wife. Shortly after that, Rinkart sat down and wrote a hymn that thousands of churches in hundreds of different countries sing. It’s a magnificent tribute to the God Rinkart loved and worshiped, even though the world around him had seemingly descended into madness.

Thanksgiving—imagine that. Thanksgiving in the middle of all that death. “Now thank we all our God,” Rinkart wrote. Despite the horror, he was still counting his blessings and offering thanks. Some stories must be told and retold again. Then again, some simply have to be sung.

Pastor Tuula, from the October issue of LIFE @ St. Philip's

Here's what he wrote:

Now Thank We All Our God

Now thank we all our God with hearts and hands and voices,

who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices;

who, from our mothers' arms, has blest us on our way

with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

 

Oh, may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,

with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,

and keep us all in grace, and guide us when perplexed,

and free us from all harm in this world and the next.

 

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given,

the Son, and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven,

the one eternal God, whom earth and heav'n adore;

for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

  

Text: Martin Rinkhart, 1586-1649

Pivoting

We are pivoting again.

It was March 2020 when we closed the doors at St. Philip's to in-person worship.  Since then, the sanctuary has seen parts of the service recorded, livestream of worship service with 10 or fewer people in attendance, baptisms and funerals.  For 18 months, the church has been open online but physically closed to congregational worship. 

We pivoted in how we prepare for worship.  We pivoted in how we present the music, how readers share the Word, how we lead prayer, and how we send into the world.  These parts of worship were lead by participants from coast to coast, and in other countries as well.  Pastor Tuula and Chris, the music director, prepared and recocorded their key parts.  And Dave put it all together.  And then the pivot for the kids was the creation of "The Bible Bunch" by Meranda - a video series welcomed by all ages - which included our youngest members.  We became a global congregation.  The pivot brought many wonderful blessings.

And now we pivot again.  September 12, 2021 will see the doors open for in-person worship. To do this, there are many changes:  sign in, wear a mask, keep physically distanced, humming not singing, individual communion cups, not passing the offering plate, and no coffee hour.  We can make this pivot.  And we will share this worship live via Zoom and online through a recording.  We will have safe and accessible options.

We will continue to include people in the worship who cannot attend in person.  We have new audio-visual capabilities.  We can do new things, new ways.

The pandemic has changed many things and we need to pivot again to try these new things and new ways.  Through this though, there are constants: our relationship to God and others (and self) are important.  Our connection to neighbours and living our vision remained strong while it too pivoted.  We can pivot.  God will be in relationship with us whether we sing or hum.

A home for all?

Each year, the Season of Creation challenges us to focus on our common home: the earth. The 2021 theme is A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God.

The Psalmist proclaims “the Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” There are two statements of faith at the heart of this song. The first is that every creature belongs to the Earth community. The second is that the entire community belongs to the Creator. A Greek word for this Earth community is oikos. Oikos is the root of the word oikoumene, or ecumenical, which describes our ‘common home’, [...]. Our common home, the Earth belongs to God, and each beloved creature belongs to this common oikos. [...] (It points) to the integral web of relationships that sustain the well-being of the Earth.

The word ecology (oikologia) describes the relationships between animals, plants, non-sentient organisms and minerals that each play a vital role in maintaining the balance of this beloved community. Each creature is important and contributes to the health and resilience of the biodiverse ecosystem in which it lives. Humans belong in the right relationship within this Earth community. We are made from the same stuff of the Earth, and are cared for by our co-creatures and the land. Human relationships also have ecological significance. Economic (oikonomia), social and political relationships affect the balance of creation.

Everything that we fabricate, use and produce has its origin in the Earth, whether mineral, plant or animal based. Our habits of consuming energy and goods affect the resilience of planetary systems, and the capacity of the Earth to heal itself and sustain life. Economic and political relationships have direct effects on the human family and the more-than human members of God’s oikos. Genesis 2.15 reminds us that among our co-creatures, the Creator has given humans a special vocation to tend and keep the oikos of God.

Sustaining just ecological, social, economic and political relationships requires our faith, reason and wisdom. By faith, we join the Psalmist in remembering that we are not stewards of an inanimate creation, but caretakers within a dynamic and living community of creation. The Earth and all that is not a given, but a gift, held in trust. We are called not to dominate, but to safeguard. By reason, we discern how best to safeguard conditions for life, and create economic, technological and political architectures that are rooted in the ecological limits of our common home. Through wisdom we pay careful attention to natural systems and processes, to inherited and indigenous traditions, and to God’s revelation in word and Spirit. 8 For centuries, humans (anthropoi) have ordered our lives and economies according to the logic of markets rather than the limits of the Earth. This false logic exploits the oikos of God, and makes creation a means to economic or political ends. The current exploitation of land, plants, animals and minerals for profit results in the loss of habitats that are homes for millions of species, including humans whose homes are at risk due to climate conflict, loss and damage. Reason tells us that in this anthropocene age, ecological and social disintegration and exclusion cause the current climate crisis and accelerate ecological instability. Wisdom equips us to find the answers, and pathways to build green economies of life and just political systems that would sustain life for the planet and people.

Faith gives us trust that God’s Spirit is constantly renewing the face of the Earth. Within this horizon of hope, our baptismal call frees us to return to our human vocation to till and keep God’s garden. In Christ, God calls us to participate in renewing the whole inhabited Earth, safeguarding a place for every creature, and reform just relationships among all creation. During this liturgical Season of Creation, the ecumenical Christian family calls every household and society to repent and reshape our political, social and economic systems towards just, sustainable economies of life, which respect the life-giving ecological limits of our common home. We hope that this Season of Creation renews our ecumenical unity, in our baptismal call to care and sustain an ecological turning that will ensure all creatures can find their home to flourish, and participate in renewing the oikos of God.

From "Season of Creation" for 2021

Outdoor Worship - August 2021

The beginning of in-person worship!

Next outdoor service:  September 5th.

You're Invited

Jesus invites us to a meal. It is an extraordinary invitation to do an ordinary thing: form bonds of love and community through shared food and drink. Like Wisdom inviting us to the feast of insight (Prov. 9:1-6), Jesus’ invitation to share in the meal of his body and blood teaches us about the breadth and depth of God’s love and about God’s desire for us to abide in that love (John 6:56).

 

Jesus’ audience asks a reasonable question: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52). Jesus’ answer doesn’t really address the question; instead, he reiterates that he is the true bread from heaven, the true source of eternal life. This must have been off-putting to his listeners. Eat flesh? Drink blood?

And yet, here we find a profoundly grace-filled invitation—abide in me—and a promise: through this meal I abide in you. We are invited to not only join Jesus at the table, but to be at home in the love of God, knowing that Christ makes his home in our hearts and lives too. So come: eat, and get to know God.

From Sundays and Seasons