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| Collapsed Permafrost Tundra on Alaska's Arctic CoastImage by the United States Geological Survey |
Melting Permafrost: 1
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A Greeting
Answer me when I call, O God!
Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.
(Psalm 4:1)
A Reading
They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’
(Mark 7:32-37)
Music
This video is an excerpt from the documentary "Touch the Sound",
about deaf composer and percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
"A Little Prayer" is composed by Glennie, who performs it here.
Meditative Verse
And he said, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"
(Mark 4:9)
A Poem
What is it like on the road of life
To meet with a stranger who opens his mouth --
And speaks out a line at a rapid pace;
And you can't understand the look in his face
Because it is new and you're lost in the race?
You have to be deaf to understand.
What is it like to comprehend
Some nimble fingers that paint the scene,
And make you smile and feel serene,
With the "spoken word" of the moving hand
That makes you part of the word at large?
You have to be deaf to understand.
What is it like to "hear" a hand?
Yes, you have to be deaf to understand.
- from "You have to be deaf to understand" by Willard J. Madsen
found on deafpoetry.com
Verse for the Day
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light;
and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
(Matthew 10:27)
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| Frozen Methane Bubbles United States Geological Survey |
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In today’s reading Jesus transforms a man living without hearing and speech. He is very physically engaged in the process: he puts his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting on his own hands touches the man’s tongue. In the Jesus era, saliva was believed to hold healing properties and was commonly used as a form of treatment. By healing in this way, Jesus is making it clear to the man that he is transforming him. In the New Testament, stories of Jesus’ healing often conclude with a request from Jesus that these acts of his be kept secret. But in their enthusiasm, the crowd is unable to keep from proclaiming what they have witnessed of his divine gifts. At other times he seems emphatically calling us to listen, as in the meditative verse above. Many scientists have been calling us to listen for decades to their deep concerns about the melting permafrost in the Arctic, which is caused when the frozen soil underneath the earth's surface begins to melt, causing depressions and gaps, and releasing stored carbon, including harmful methane gas, into the atmosphere, further adding to greenhouse gases there. The problem then exacerbates itself: as more gases are emitted from the methane and other hydrocarbons, the more the planet warms. In the video below, musician and environmental scientist Daniel Crawford describes the process of translating data on global warming into a string quartet. As the composition progresses through the years, we hear the sound rise gradually and then more rapidly. Elsewhere, Crawford tells us that this data-to-music mapping if progressed another ten years would take the sound beyond the range of human hearing. What will it take to open our own ears to what we don’t want to hear? Can we, like the man who cannot hear, beg to have our listening ears and hearts restored? How can we bring ourselves out of silence and into action?
A CREATIVE PROJECT
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LC† Reimagining Justice is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto,
supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
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