There's Still Hope Here

Friday, January 28, 2022

Ezra Keats, The Snowy Day (1962)

---

INVOCATION

All is very still and very quiet, Spirit. We are listening. 

---

EPIPHANY

It’s nine degrees outside. And this is an improvement from earlier this morning when the thermometer read negative four. But I have loved living in Chicago again. In contrast, my previous life in Austin, Texas (with all that sunshine and its constant supply of warm and sizzling hot weather) might have disguised the dark periods of life.

Our life in Texas was lined with trees, fully-clothed with leaves and flowers every season. Farmer’s markets, outdoor dining, and swimming were gifts that kept on giving year-round. And though the scorching summer heat would slow you down, it never shut the whole world down like cold winter winds do. Every January of every year we lived in Texas, I would become homesick for the bitter cold and icy snow that gave everyone a reason to live as hermits, content to be alone and stay inside. 

It’s good to be back to sweet home Chicago. 

The thin gauzy cape of snow draped around our neighborhood reminds me that though it has grown darker and colder, good work is being sown beneath the hardened soil. The liveliness of the hydrangea bushes, the rose trellises, the Gingko trees and Japanese maples, no longer dazzle us as we walk our dog. But the stripped branches and crystallized, ice-shingled gardens give us some kind of solace. They are at rest, and so we should be as well. They seem to shush all our hustle and worry, as if to say: “Quiet. Let there be no distractions. It’s hard work to rest. And hope needs a lot of quiet to bloom and flourish. Tread quietly. Come springtime, we’ll make merry again. There’s still hope here.” 

---

INTERCESSION

Winter Prayer by Reverend Kate Wilkinson

Let us huddle together this morning,
our community a place of warmth in our lives
as we share the flame of hope and connection.

Let us allow the frost of isolation and bitterness to melt away
as we open ourselves to a sense of peace and spirit.

We extend our thoughts to all those who are cold this morning,
lacking shelter or love to keep them warm.

Let us wrap our prayers around them and each other like scarves,
and wish each other safe journeys through the storm.

May we be insulated from fear as the earth is insulated by the snow,
And, like bulbs, may we continue to grow and open inside, despite the cold,
Ready for the spring, to stretch and grow towards justice.

Amen

---

CHANT 

Light of the world.
Light of the world.
The winter sun burns a radiant fire
to warm our hope. 
Light of the world. 

---

BENEDICTION

Lines for Winter by Mark Strand 

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.