Music Info
All Creatures Lament
By The Porter's Gate
Climate Vigil Songs | The Porter's Gate Worship Project (Used with permission)
Creation Song
By Josh Garrels
Peace to All Who Enter Here | Musicbed (Used with a license)
Script
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Today is Sunday the 11th of September, beginning the 24th week of Ordinary time.
Molly Parden and Fernando Ortega sing ‘All Creatures Lament’.
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voices; let them ring
Fill the earth with lamentation!
Cry out abuses of our pow'r
Tell what we lose with every hour
To our greed and depredation
Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy!
All creatures winging in the air
Cry out the failures of our care
Fill the sky with lamentation!
Shout through the clouds of smoke and ash
Choked with the fumes of poison gas
Tell us of our degradation
Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy!
All creatures hidden in the seas
Lift up your anguished prayers and pleas
Fill the sea with lamentation!
Teach us to see your wonders now
Help us to make a holy vow
Here to halt your devastation
Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy!
All creatures dwelling on the land
Join as we lift each heart and hand
Fill the world with lamentation!
Mourn the destruction of our home
Weep with the fear of worse to come
Hear the groans of all creation
Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy!
Today’s reading is from the book of Exodus.
Exodus 32:7-11,12-14
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ’ The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’
But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, ‘O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, “It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth”? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, “I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.” ’ And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
‘They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it.’ Looking at your own life, can you think of a time you turned aside from the Lord’s commandment? What image did you cast for yourself?
The Lord’s wrath is hot against the people because they have turned away from him. How does this make you feel?
As you listen to the reading again, notice that in spite of his anger, the Lord wants to make of you a great nation. The Lord changes his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people. Hear these words addressed to you.
God is with you now, so speak to him about how you want to live your life, completely focused and given to God alone.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.