As we stride ever onward, now into a summer that promises to be one like we have never experienced before, we continue to take a moment each day with music. Throughout these next few months, look for some more offbeat choices, many more of your own community selections and comments, and as ever, a little injection of faith, hope, and love into your day.
Got a song you just love? Email musicwppc@gmail.com to tell Jeff about it!
Read...
I’ve been helping Dustin the last few days with a sermon he’s giving for another church. He based it around Disney’s Pocahontas, a movie that, while certainly problematic by any standard, still has a lot of value to it. In case he has the opportunity to share it at WPPC one day, I won’t say much more. Suffice it to say that lyricist Stephen Schwartz, a white man, went far out of his way to write material that was not only respectful and honoring the ways of the Virginia Algonquin people, but celebrating their way of life, to the point that the screenwriters enlisted him to be the go-between and cultural authority on the matter. Perhaps not enough, but something. At the very least, his lyrics are gorgeous and invoke the spirit of the people and of the earth. Dustin centers his sermon on a different song from this movie, but the one I share today is the most emblematic of this spirit, “Colors of the Wind.” Let’s spend a little time connecting to the earth through music today. You think I'm an ignorant savage And you've been so many places I guess it must be so But still I cannot see If the savage one is me How can there be so much that you don't know You don't know You think you own whatever land you land on The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim But I know every rock and tree and creature Has a life, has a spirit, has a name You think the only people who are people Are the people who look and think like you But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain Can you paint with all the colors of the wind Can you paint with all the colors of the wind Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest Come taste the sun sweet berries of the Earth Come roll in all the riches all around you And for once, never wonder what they're worth The rainstorm and the river are my brothers The heron and the otter are my friends And we are all connected to each other In a circle, in a hoop that never ends How high does the sycamore grow? If you cut it down, then you'll never know And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon For whether we are white or copper skinned We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain We need to paint with all the colors of the wind You can own the Earth and still All you'll own is Earth until You can paint with all the colors of the wind
Listen...
Pray...
Holy Mother, Teach me to paint with all the colors of the wind.
We also lift up the following prayers shared during last Sunday's worship service:
For everyone affected by the building collapse in Florida.
For continual transformation in people's lives across the world and movement towards justice.
Even in our separation, God, help us to feel the deep delight of your love for all. Amen.