Sunday: The Praise of Creation

This morning's post is taken from Earth Gospel, A Guide to Prayer for God's Creation by Sam Hamilton - Poore.  On a morning when the power of creation has literally taken the power out of our human systems, we place ourselves in the depth, beauty, and wildness of God's world that surrounds us.  While St. John's cannot worship as community in the church, we can worship in a community of shared prayer and praise.



Opening based on Isaiah 42: 10-11
Sing God a new song!
The sea with its creatures,
the coastlands and its peoples,
the deserts and the mountains:
let them sing God's praise.

Hymn from "Acclaim with Jubilation" by Brian Wren, 1990
Acclaim with jubilation
and sing in harmony
with nature's old, evolving, unfolding symphony,
the blazing of the comet, the greening of the planet,
are songs without a voice, that bid us all rejoice.

The shrieking of the storm-wind,
the surging of the seas, the awestruck alleluias that whisper through the trees,
the rushing, booming surf-beat, the thumping, pulsing heart-beat,
resounding through the blood and bone to praise the Holy One.

Acclaim with jubilation
the Singer and the Song.
Come out of isolation to sing is to belong.
To God, whose mighty singing sets all creation ringing,
lift heart and soul and voice,
be thankful and rejoice!

Scripture Psalm 96 from The Saint Helena Psalter
Sing to God a new song; sing to God all the whole earth.

Sing and bless God's holy Name; proclaim the good news of salvation from day to day.

Declare God's glory among the nations, God's wonders among the peoples.

For God is great and greatly to be praised, more to be feared than all gods.

As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols, but it is God who made the heavens.

Oh, the majesty and the magnificence of God's presence!
Oh, the power and splendor of God's sanctuary!

Ascribe to God you families of the peoples, ascribe to God honor and power.

Ascribe due honor to God's holy Name; bring offerings and come into God's courts.

Worship the Most High in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before God.

Tell it out among the nations that God reigns!
God has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved, and will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the seas thunder and all that is in it;
let the field by joyful and all that is therein.

Then shall all the trees of wood shout for joy before God, who will come;
who will come to judge the earth.

God will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with truth.

A pause for meditation & prayer upon the scripture...


Another Voice Helen Camara (1909-1999)
The psalms teach us to lend our voice to all creatures: to the mountains and the waters; to the trees
and the birds; to the light that comes from above and for the earth that provides for us; to the creatures of the sea, from the tiniest fish to the whale...Ah, but would you like to have seen the splendor of the act of creation? Then just think, creation is made anew, instant by instant, at God's hand.

Prayer Thomas Ken (1709) adapted
Praise God,
from whom all blessings flow;
praise God, all creatures here below;
praise God above, all heavenly host;
Creator, Christ, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.

Blessing
May you hear today
the song of God's grace unfolding,
the music of the world becoming,
the beating of Christ's own heart
in, with, and under all creation.