For Such A Time as This July 23, 2020 – Rev. Kathryn Kleinhans

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,

Joys and Concerns

If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me.  If you would like it included in our Sunday Worship sharing and prayer time, please share it with me that week by Friday morning.

Thank You: 

To all who call others to check in on them and share our emails and devotions.

Today’s Devotion:

I am thankful to Jeff Clouser for sharing this devotion with us.  This devotion was written by Rev. Kathryn A. Kleinhans, Ph.D., Dean, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, OH, where Jeff has been working on his Master of Arts in Church Music degree. It is being shared with her permission and blessings.

If you wish to respond to Rev Kleinhans you may do so through Jeff. His email address is jclouser@palmyracob.org .

Shalom, Dennis

Scripture – Isaiah 55:12 (NRSV)

For you shall go out in joy,
   and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
   shall burst into song,
   and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Thoughts from Jeff

Good Day to All of You,

This devotion was shared by the dean of the seminary I attend.  I found it to speak well to the current climate of our world today.  I share it with you now in hope that it speaks to you too.  I encourage you to listen to an arrangement of the song at the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QmwXPtr6L8.

Thoughts from Rev. Kathryn A. Kleinhans – Light Dawns on a Weary World

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

We sang Mary Louise Bringle’s hymn “Light Dawns on a Weary World” in one of the online worship services I attended on Sunday:

Light dawns on a weary world

When eyes begin to see all people’s dignity.

Light dawns on a weary world:

The promised day of justice comes.

“Weary world” is such an apt descriptor for the times we live in. We are a world weary of the ongoing pandemic; weary of mounting infection and death counts; weary of adjusting our daily lives to mitigate health risks; weary of uncertainty. We are a world weary of systemic racism; weary of ongoing injustice; weary of unnecessary deaths; weary of hate. And, as people of faith, many of us are weary of constant debates about the value of individual freedoms compared to the call to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Dr. Bringle’s hymn names our weariness and also interrupts it with images of a better, brighter reality: 

Light dawns on a weary world …                     

Love grows in a weary world …

Hope blooms in a weary world …

Just as our weariness is tangible, something we experience bodily, so the vision of the future God intends for us is also tangible, bodily:

The trees shall clap their hands; 

The dry lands, gush with springs;

The hills and mountains shall break forth with singing!

We shall go out in joy,

And be led forth in peace,

As all the world in wonder echoes shalom.

For me, singing these words is already the beginning of the dawning light. Song summons us out of our weariness, out of our isolation, into community. Of course, Bringle’s hymn is not the only song to express this. James Weldon Johnson captured the movement from weariness and loss into renewed life and community in his hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” especially in the powerful phrases, “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way …”

The light that dawns on our weary world is Jesus Christ, who said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). And that same Jesus said to his followers, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). Even in our weariness, we are called both to trust in the Light and to reflect and shine that light in the world around us.

Prayer

Dear God, in these times of uncertainty, grant us your light, that we may look to tomorrow with hope.  Amen.