Happy Father’s Day! The prelude this morning is Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father,” played by Countryside Jazz for their Jazz on the Stream concert. If you missed Jazz on the Stream, you can view it by clicking here. Be sure to join us this Friday, June 26th at 7pm for a Broadway Showcase with Tyler Gruttemeyer and Friends!
Strong Gentle Children – Daniel Damon
The voice of our youth and children as a catalyst for social change has been a theme in the services for the last two weeks, and remains so today. This hymn speaks to that wisdom, leadership, and thirst for change that defines younger generations voices.
Strong, gentle children, God made you beautiful,
gave you the wisdom and power you need;
speak in the stillness all you are looking for;
live out your calling to love and to lead.
Strong, hurting children, angry and terrified,
fear not the secrets your life has concealed;
though you are wounded, know you are not to blame;
cry out your story till truth is revealed.
Strong, knowing children, utter your cry aloud,
honor the wisdom God gave you at birth;
speak to your elders till they have heard your voice;
sing out your vision of healing on earth.
We Gotta Pray – Alicia Keys
Released in 2014 in conjunction with the decision of a New York grand jury not to indict the police officer who murdered Eric Garner, We Gotta Pray is a response to police brutality and the urgency for justice.
Andrew R. Chow of The New York Times described the composition as having a “hymnal quality” that the song features “declarations of uplift and self-affirmation” such as “We are extraordinary people / Living ordinary lives”. Justin Davis of Complex wrote that “We Gotta Pray” is a song that “brings attention to the troubling social issues we live in today”. As described by Vibe, Keys encourages to “keep the faith and continue on a righteous path in life” and “spreads the message of prayer to the world”.
According to Keys, “the most important thing is that we look at each other and see these magnificent beings that can create the changes and movements we dream of.”
We gotta pray, pray for the world tonight
We gotta save, somebody save somebody tonight
Fire in the air, what the Hell goin’ on?
Sirens everywhere, singin’ that street song
Violence everywhere, barely holdin’ on
What the Hell goin’ on? Do you know who you are?
Do you know who we are?
We, we’re extraordinary people livin’ an ordinary life,
one extraordinary question: are we gonna run or fight?
So we gotta pray, pray for the love tonight
End of the day, pray for another try
Smoke is in the sky, what the Hell goin’ on?
Bullets gonna fly, hot right from the gun
Tryin’ not to cry, barely holdin’ on
We, we’re extraordinary people livin’ an ordinary life,
one extraordinary question: are we gonna live or die?
So we gotta pray
In the River – Raye Zaragoza
The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests at Standing Rock in 2016 are a unique example of sacred activism, where environmentalists, clergy, black lives matter activists, and military veterans came to standing rock to stand with the indigenous protestors against the threats to their tribal sovereinty, ancestral homelands, sacred sites, way of life, and drinking water, as well as the aggressive police violence used against the protestors.
Like many of the most dangerous energy infrastructure projects, the Dakota Access Pipeline was constructed through impoverished and indigenous communities – those who didn’t wield political power. Originally routed to the north of Bismarck, North Dakota, when the >90% white community complained the Army Corps of Engineers, the pipeline was promptly re-routed through the Standing Rock Reservation.
The project placed corporate profits above tribal sovereignty and human rights, and even the Obama administration looked the other way until it was too late. Though the protests were not ultimately successful in stoping its construction, there was a court victory in March that has required a new environmental study, and a fairly strong possibility that they may prevail in the end.
From Raye Zaragoza: “What inspired me most was listening to different testimonials of the Standing Rock Sioux people. Hearing them speak of their concern for their children and the generations to come. The more and more I read about what is happening in North Dakota, the more it breaks my heart. I am Native myself, Pima, and will do whatever I can to support the Standing Rock Sioux. Any threat to water is a threat to all of us. I wanted to see what I could do to help, and this video is a start.”
“I truly believe that music can be the voice of change, the voice of a generation. So many musicians in history have been a part of civil rights movements, and have helped huge changes in history. The vibrations of music have the power to hold someone’s attention, and if you use that to get the word out about important issues – it can be so powerful. I hope people will like my song, and through that – listen to the message. And support the cause.”
There’s got to be some hope, there’s got to be some way
For you to send your dogs away and to leave the land alone*
It’s got to be a crime somewhere in your heart you’ll find
We’re fighting for our right to keep our future bright
And protect the ones we love
In the river is our sisters and our brothers, we are camping out for each other
We are stronger when we band together and we’re standing up for the water
Don’t poison the future away
You’ve got to have a soul, Mother Earth protects us all
If you treat her with disrespect
Then what message have you left for your children and their home
In the river is our sisters and our brothers, we are camping out for each other
We are stronger when we band together and we’re standing up for the water
Don’t poison the future away
How can you take, take, take and not appreciate the soil
Don’t let this black snake contaminate our drinking water
This is for our sons and daughters
In the river is our sisters and our brothers, we are camping out for each other
We are stronger when we band together and we’re standing up for the water
Don’t poison the future away
*The corporation that ran the pipeline project, Energy Transfer Partners, hired private security forces that applied high levels of violence and used attack dogs on the protestors.
When the Poor Ones
Influenced by Latin American liberation theology and folk music;, “Cuando el Pobre” speaks to the plight of the poor and marginalized and how God is on the journey with all people – the oppressed, the liberators, and those seeking to promote peace and justice.
Hymnologist Diana Sanchez writes: “The first stanza speaks of the generosity of those who have very little and, in doing so, their becoming the hands and feet of Christ. The second stanza centers more on the possible outcomes of suffering that is staunched by fellow Christians—comfort, hope and love. When suffering is ceased, there is comfort. Suffering is a state of not accepting what is, and either the situation changes or the mindset changes in order to find comfort. This stanza shows the choice we can make to live in suffering or comfort, hopelessness or hope, hate or love, and when we choose the positive state, we choose God.
The third and fourth stanzas are increasingly more positive in nature as the author addresses joy, truth, and simplicity as ways of journeying with God. What started as a hymn about suffering and oppression ends with a statement of assurance and peace, a peace that allows us to imagine home and even include in that home strangers, all because we know that God journeys with us through all of it!”
When the poor ones, who have nothing, still are giving;
When the thirsty pass the cup, water to share;
When the wounded offer others strength and healing:
We see God, here by our side, walking our way;
When compassion gives the suff’ring consolation;
When expecting brings to birth hope that was lost;
When we choose love, not that hatred, all around us:
We see God, here by our side, walking our way;
When our spirits, like a chalice, brim with gladness;
When our voices, full and clear, sing out the truth;
When our longings, free from envy, seek the humble:
We see God, here by our side, walking our way;
When the goodness poured from heaven fills our dwellings;
When the nations work to change war into peace;
When the stranger is accepted as our neighbor:
We see God, here by our side, walking our way;