Lord God,

we turn our eyes to the heavens

  and there against the “black-drop” of space

  are the stars which you have established

  telling us of your dream

  that life/creation would just go on and multiply world without end.

Unfortunately we have understood that to mean

  that “we” should go on and multiply

  until we have outgrown both our place and our role

  and brought harm to your creation along the way.

Draw us under "thy holy wings, Dear Savior"

  (if necessary “make us willing to be so drawn”);

  save us from our adversaries and from ourselves.

I believe that I/we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

My heart takes courage; I wait for you.

 

 

 Bonus  -  A Reading from Joel and a collect for St Urho’s Day!

Listen, you leaders and everyone else in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened before?
Tell our children!
Let it be told to our grandchildren and their children too.

Swarm after swarm of locusts has attacked our crops,

eating everything in sight.
Sober up, you drunkards!
Cry long and loud; your wine supply is gone.
A powerful nation with countless troops has invaded our land.
They have the teeth and jaws of powerful lions.
Our grapevines and fig trees are stripped bare; only naked branches remain.

Grieve like a young woman mourning for the man she was to marry.
Offerings of grain and wine are no longer brought to the Lord's temple.
His servants, the priests, are deep in sorrow.
Barren fields mourn; 

grain, grapes, and olives are scorched and shriveled.

Mourn for our farms and our vineyards!
There's no wheat or barley growing in our fields.
Grapevines have dried up and so has every tree—

figs and pomegranates, date palms and apples.
All happiness has faded away.
 

Then the Lord said:
It isn't too late.  You can still return to me with all your heart.
Start crying and mourning! Go without eating.
Don't rip your clothes to show your sorrow.
Instead, turn back to me with broken hearts.
I am merciful, kind, and caring.
I don't easily lose my temper, and I don't like to punish.

I am the Lord your God.
Perhaps I will change my mind and treat you with mercy.
Then you will be blessed with enough grain and wine for offering sacrifices to me.

Later, I will give my Spirit to everyone.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will have dreams,
and your young men will see visions.
In those days I will even give
my Spirit to my servants, both men and women.

                                                                                     - Joel 1,2  selected verses

 

A Prayer for St Urho's Day -

 God of us all, and of all creatures great and small;
Thank you for grain from the field,
  milled and baked into loaves it shall be for us “bread,
  blessed by the Lord, broken and shared, life for the world.”
Thank you for grapes from the vine,
  crushed and aged they shall be for us “wine,
  love freely poured, all of us one in the Lord.”
And this day of all days,
thank you for those who watch over the harvest and keep it safe
  from fire and frost,
  from drought and flood,
  and hoppers!
Grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil
Uffda.  Amen.

 

 

                                          Sculpture of St. Urho in Menahga, Minnesota