DAY 12

Mariana Fruit Dove. Image by Laura Wolf.

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doves / pigeons / mariana fruit dove

A GREETING
From the end of the earth I call to you.
(Psalm 61:2a)

A READING
Immediately after Jesus had been baptized and was coming up out of the water, the sky suddenly opened up and Jesus saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and hovering over him. With that, a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Own, my Beloved, on whom my favor rests.”
(Matthew 3:16-17)

MUSIC
How can we remember that all of us are a part of Creation?
How can we rewild ourselves?


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
O my little bird...
Talk to me; let me hear the joy of your voice.
Oh, it’s sweet, your voice is, like the voice of the dove.
(Songs 2:14)

A REFLECTION
I sat one summer evening and watched a great blue heron make his descent from the top of the hill into the valley. He came down at a measured deliberate pace, stately as always, like a dignitary going down a stair. And then, at a point I judged to be midway over the river, without at all varying his wingbeat he did a backward turn in the air, a loop-the-loop. It could only have been a gesture of pure exuberance, of joy – a speaking of his sense of the evening, the day’s fulfillment, his descent homeward. He made just the one slow turn, and then flew on out of sight in the direction of a slew farther down in the bottom. The movement was incredibly beautiful, at once exultant and stately, a benediction on the evening and on the river and on me. It seemed so perfectly to confirm the presence of a free nonhuman joy in the world – a joy I feel a great need to believe in.
- from The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

VERSE OF THE DAY
In your tent I will make my home forever,
and take shelter under the cover of your wings.
(Psalm 61:4)
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Image by Quinn Daedal

As we close this series, we return once again to the bird most sacrificed and most revered in all of scripture. The dove marks some of the most significant moments in Jesus' life. A dove appears at his baptism by John the Baptist and it is the table of the dovesellers that Jesus overturns in the temple. The "spirit from heaven" descending like a dove that is named in John 1 becomes the image of the Holy Spirit - and enduringly that image has become iconic in the secular world, representing peaceful times.

In the Inclusive Bible translation of the overturning of the tables, we hear "pigeon" instead of the "dove" that appears in most other translations. Pigeons are very closely allied with doves in Scripture and in some translations the words are used interchangeably. However, they are clearly being distinguished from each other in the biblical texts, most often in relation to size and age. "Two doves or a young pigeon" was the sin offering for the very poor (see Leviticus) or as a substitute for another specificed animal that could not be provided. Pigeons were the very first birds ever to be domesticated and their capacity to "home" made them invaluable as family property. They were allowed inside and were treated like members of the family. They bred all year long and wild pigeons occupied caves, plains and forests alike which meant there was never a shortage. Translators in all eras have sometimes preferred "dove" to "pigeon" -- even where the text says otherwise -- because the cultural attitude towards pigeons in subsequent centuries would not survive its proper usage. A good example might be in the Songs text above. The bird indicated is technically a pigeon but "like the voice of the pigeon..." does not quite have the same impact. The pigeon has simply never been able to land the beauty and gentleness status of the dove.

Jesus' action to overturn the tables of the dove and pigeon sellers is not just a defiance of authority but a liberation of those birds. What needs to be overturned in our own time, in order for us to confirm the survival of all bird species into the next century? The Socorro Dove, the Blue-Eyed Ground Dove (one of the world's most endangered birds), the Polynesian Ground Dove are down to their last 100 individuals in each case.

When Jesus is baptised, a dove descends, taking us back to the dove of Genesis and to the primoridial waters of the dawn of Creation. As we live into what it means to be people of faith and stewards of God's world, how can birds inspire us to deepen our commitment? What are the local and larger community actions who could use our help and our faith-led hope?

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Image by Chic Bee

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

This marks the end of the LC† The Winged Word devotional. Thank you for joining us. 
See you in Advent!

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LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 11

Image by Kandukuru Nagarjun

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Peacocks / birds-of-paradise

A GREETING
Let the fields exult and all that is in them!
Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy
(Psalm 96:12)

A READING
You set springs gushing in ravines, running down between the mountains, supplying water for wild animals and attracting the thirsty wild donkeys; the birds of the air make their nests by these waters and sing among the branches.
(Psalm 104:10=12)

A SMALL VERSE
Once every three years the fleet returned carrying gold,
silver, ivory, apes, and peacock tail feathers.
(1 Kings 10:22)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Praise God from the earth, you sea creatures and ocean depths,
wild animals and all cattle, small animals and flying birds.
(Psalm 148:7,10)

A PRAYER
Hold us God
In the longing for a new world and new living
Cradle us God
In the hunger for justice that aches in us
Feed us God
In the search for healing in our broken world
Find us God
In the gathering round the table
Gather with us God
In the breaking of bread and spilling of wine
Share with us God
In the community of faith
Reveal yourself God
–a prayer from the Church of Scotland, found on re:Worship
a liturgical planning blog

VERSE OF THE DAY
The trees of God drink their fill—
those cedars of Lebanon, where birds build their nests
and, on the highest branches,
the stork makes its home.
(Psalm 104:16-17)
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"The Adoration of the Magi" by Fra Angelica
Peacocks adorn the stable roof

The peacock was imported from India in the time of Solomon. The biblical Hebrew word is obscure and is believed to actually be the Tamil word for peacock feathers. Peacocks have been an important presence in Christian art since the early third century, when it first symbolized Jesus' resurrection. In the medieval period, peacocks entered nativity art as one of the elements that foreshadows the events of Jesus' life. The peacock's capacity to shed its feathers annually and grow back more brilliant ones also came to symbolize how a faithful Christian can be renewed into deeper faith from year to year. A peacock drinking from a vase or a stream signified a believer drinking from the waters of eternal life.

Papua New Guinea has one of the most diverse wildernesses in the world and is one of the only places on the planet with a range of diversity of climates. There are active volcanoes, glaciers and there are areas that get annual snowfall. And yet, the island has more than 2 million hectares of forested land. 

In the last few decades Papua New Guinea has been a principal source of palm oil — causing deforestation that has dramatically displaced some of the 1500 species, including many birds. More recently, however, it has become one of the many island nations affected by rising sea levels. In the video below, made in 2018, the birds of paradise are sought after by conservationists for observation, funded in part by the Cornell Ornithology Lab (who brought us the popular Merlin app). The species identified in the video live only here and nowhere else. Once they are displaced, they are gone.

The extraordinary diversity and remarkable beauty of the unique birds found in the southern hemisphere stand to pay the highest price for our first world desires. Psalm 104 describes God's Creation almost as it must have first appeared. The singing of birds is one of the named wonders, by flowing waters. How can we help support those working to keep the birds of paradise and other species that live in the South Pacific safe and free from industrial harm?

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

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LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 10

Image by Martin Thomas

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starlings / sparrows / swallows

A GREETING
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to you, the living God.
(Psalm 84:2b)

A READING
Isn’t life more than just food? Isn’t the body more than just clothes? “Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet our God in heaven feeds them. Aren’t you more important than they? Which of you by worrying can add a moment to your lifespan? And why be anxious about clothing? Learn a lesson from the way the wildflowers grow. They don’t work; they don’t spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in full splendor was arrayed like one of these. Seek first God’s reign, and God’s justice, and all these things will be given to you besides. Enough of worrying about tomorrow! Let tomorrow take care of itself. Today has troubles enough of its own.
(Matthew 6:25-29;33-34)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
The sparrow has found its home at last,
the swallow a nest for its young—
on your altars, my Sovereign, my God!
(Psalm 84:3)

A POEM
Barn swallow in the boathouse,
gliding in and out of aging doors and roof holes,
a soaring,
chattering,
spitfire.

Invisible lines, a cat's cradle or
dream catcher,
wrapping wood in
delicate threads,
stitching in the tops of firs
and sun on fire.
- Barn Swallows in the Boathouse, by Sherry Coman

VERSE OF THE DAY
My hand will be ready to help you,
and my arm to give you strength.
(Psalm 89:21)

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The calming words of Jesus in urging all of us to stay rooted in the moment we live in is both radical and challenging. The meaning of this wonderfully reassuring text has been traditionally understood as one of letting go of a material agenda in life and trusting that by helping to build up the realm of God, we all will experience abundance. The images at the center of Jesus’ teaching are the lilies and grasses of a field, which he says do nothing but exist, and in their existence they thrive and grow naturally as expressions of God’s creation in the world. We hear that human beings are "more important" than even these beautiful plants.

In our twenty-first century reality of climate change, however, it can be hard to read Jesus’ words comfortably. Everywhere we turn, we see evidence mounting at terrifying speeds of the inevitable collapse of the planet’s ecological systems, unless we make change. We can believe Jesus that anxious worrying may not add a “single hour” to our life span, but if we don’t do something radical soon, then the tomorrow that will bring “worries of its own” will be upon us in force. In fact, it already is.

How do we hold the wisdom of Jesus that asks us to surrender our will to God’s steadfast love — alongside the pressing necessity that we act quickly to subvert catastrophe? When we care for the soil, the roots, the grasses and the lilies of the field, we are helping to build back how God’s creation is life-giving to us. We also build back habitat for birds. Caring for the earth is how we stop worrying.

The other ecological image that Matthew gives us is that of birds. In chapter ten, Jesus gives the same reassurance as he does in chapter six, and names the birds as sparrows. Sparrows, swallows and starlings were among the bird species of the ancient world that were not directly subject to scriptural and customary prescriptions. These small birds were used as sacrificial animals, except when they had somehow managed to make a nest in the altar of the temple, as we hear in Psalm 84, in which case they were spared. By nesting in the place of death, they save themselves. To be a bird in ancient times, therefore, meant either being banished and frequenting the forgotten places where food was scarce, or living in communities and becoming sacrificial offerings.

While North American sparrows and starlings are not endangered, the barn swallow is listed as threatened in Canada under the Species at Risk Act and designated as threatened or endangered in various provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia due to sharp population drops.

In order to be able to calm our anxious hearts and minds about the crises of Creation, we need both radical dependence on God’s steadfast love and a confrontation with the truth of what we don’t want to face. We need to nest in the altar of the facts, the inevitable extinctions, so that we can find a way to help creatures survive. How can we be challenged out of complacency into a holy anxiety (while knowing Jesus meets us there)? How can we transform hopelessness to help become part of what creates hope?

"A pair of house sparrows at Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple,
BR Hills, Karnataka, India" by Ameen Ahmed
found on Call of the Hill Myna blog

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

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LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 9

Image by Luiz Lapa

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kingfishers / regent honeyeaters
songless / song-amiss birds

A GREETING
Every morning you hear my voice,
every morning I put my requests before you, and I wait.
(Psalm 5:3)

A READING
Day after day they tell their story,
and night after night they reveal
the depth of their understanding.
Without speech, without words,
without even an audible voice,
their cry echoes through all the world,
and their message reaches the ends of the earth.
(Psalm 19:2-4a)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I wake before the dawn and cry out for help;
I hope in your words.
(Psalm 119:147)

A POEM
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
- "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," by Gerard Manley Hopkins

VERSE OF THE DAY
Hear my voice because of your love, O God,
and give me life.
(Psalm 119:149)

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The regent honeyeater. Image by Mark Gillow

On Day 1, we reflected on the "lost words" that were so uncommonly used they were for a while left out of a children's dictionary in the UK. The voices of protest allowed for a restoration of important vocabulary that links children to the created world. Birds are renowned for their songs which have always enchanted humankind. But only some birds sing. Half of the world's bird population make a wide variety of other sounds that make them recognizable to their kin.

Among these is the kingfisher. It makes a range of rattling sounds and shrieks, depending on the species. Though the Common and Belted Kingfisher birds are stable and not a concern, there are more than a dozen species of kingfishers, mostly in the southern hemisphere, that are vulnerable or verging on extinction. Rapid land clearing, invasive species and deforestation are the main reasons globally.

But for songbirds, there is a different challenge.

As songbird numbers decline, there are less individuals able to model the song for their young. As a result the young birds end up learning the songs of other species, confusing their own kind and becoming unable to mate. In the video below, the Regent Honeyeater, an Australian songbird, is profiled in this way. It can sing a beautiful song but that song has been slowly dying, even though the species itself is not extinct, simply because there are not enough birds to teach the young ones the song. Instead they are picking up other, different songs. In the video, we hear a parallel made to the way Indigenous languages have been threatened.

In today's poem, we hear how every creature lives out its own unique nature, and what we do reflects who we are. But how will some birds continue to know who they are?

We can lose words and we can lose voices. We can stay indifferent to the increasing silence that surrounds us. Those who use their words to make the sound of protest disrupt our complacency, just as a dawn chorus is not always welcomed when we prefer to sleep. Silently and with their songs, birds are calling us to take action. We need all the songs of all of the birds. We need all the listening. It will take all of the activism of all of the people seeking restoration, to build God’s kindom in a time of decline. The good news is that we are not alone: Jesus, God and the Spirit are right there with us as we do.

What is the bird song or sound we most love to hear?
What are we willing to do to keep it alive?

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 8

The Kākāpō, image by Jake Osborne.
Native to New Zealand, it is now critically endangered. 
There are currently only 325 known individuals.

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most endangered birds

A GREETING
Turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.
Show me your steadfast love—and your great strength.
(Psalm 17:6-7)

A READING
Guard me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, let your hand rescue me from such people, from such a world.
(Psalm 17:8;14)

MUSIC
Sung in Irish, the lyrics lament the departure of a loved one, 
and a desire to use music to call them back.


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
“Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye!"
(Zechariah 2:12)

A REFLECTION
The sense of [peace] may come with watching a flock of cedar wax-wings eating wild grapes in the top of the woods on a November afternoon. Everything they do is leisurely. They pick the grapes with a curious deliberation, comb their feathers, converse in high windy whistles. Now and then one will fly out and back in a sort of dancing flight full of whimsical flutters and turns. They are like farmers loafing in their own fields on Sunday. Though they have no Sundays, their days are full of sabbaths.
- from The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

VERSE OF THE DAY
When I look at justice I see your face;
and when I awake, I’ll be content just to see your likeness.
(Psalm 17:15)

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The giant ibis is on the verge of extinction, with only 300 - 350 individuals
believed to still exist. This image, taken in 2013, is by Brendan Ryan.
Most likely such a capture would not be possible in 2026.

In Psalm 17, we hear the psalmist ask God to be held as “the apple” of God’s eye. The ancient saying is believed to refer to the reflection of oneself that can be seen in another's eye when standing very close. Being guarded or held as the apple of God's eye can be a metaphor for God's love, and extends the sense of humankind being made in God's image. We are close enough to God that we can see our own reflection in God, and God in us.

Images of the mirror and reflection of God's love in us and working through us fill Psalm 17. The psalmist is asking for God's intervention against an enemy and uses the argument that God's people are cherished by God, the "apple of God's eye," so God will intervene to save them. How might we read all of these verses, from the point of view of the most critically endangered birds in our world? The kākāpō and the giant ibis, two native birds of the southern hemisphere and mostly known to have had habitats in New Zealand and Cambodia/Vietnam, might be good candidates for taking the place of the psalmist. These very rare birds are down to their last individuals and on track to become extinct. Efforts have been made to relocate and sequester the kākāpō to specific predator-free islands off the coast of New Zealand, possible only because the kākāpō is a flightless bird. The giant ibis is the national bird of Cambodia, and enjoys legal protections there. However, illegal logging and hunting still threaten even these measures.

Just as we are the precious apple of God's eye, so too is Creation and all its creatures. How much can God count us to make endangered species the apple of our own eyes?

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This American ornithologist explains why birds are declining 
and offers suggestions of what we can do.



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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

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LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 7

Image by Rob Zweers

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Quails

A GREETING
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
Let your nurturing Spirit guide me
on a safe and level path.
(Psalm 143:10)

A READING
Now the Spirit went out from God and drove quail in from the west, and they alighted all over the camp as far as a day’s walk in any direction, in piles three feet thick. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than about sixty bushels.
(Numbers 11:31-32)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
They demanded food, and God sent them quail
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
(Psalm 105:41)

A REFLECTION
In spite of all the talk about the law of tooth and fang and the struggle for survival, there is in the lives of the animals and birds a great peacefulness. It is not all fear and flight, pursuit and killing. That is part of it, certainly; and there is cold and hunger; there is the likelihood that death, when it comes, will be violent. But there is peace, too, and I think that the intervals of peace are frequent and prolonged. These are the times when the creature rests, communes with himself or with his kind, takes pleasure in being alive...I have seen the same peacefulness in a flock of wood ducks perched above the water in the branches of a fallen beech, preening and dozing in the sunlight of an autumn afternoon. Even while they dozed they had about them the exquisite alertness of wild things. If I had shown myself they would have been instantly in the air. But for the time there was no alarm among them, and no fear. The moment was whole in itself, satisfying to them and to me.
- from The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

VERSE OF THE DAY
We are free like a bird from the trap!
The snare has been broken and we are free!
(Psalm 124:7)

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Drawing of a corn crake, by Johann Friedrich Naumann (1899)
for his Natural History of Birds in Northern Europe. 
"Corn crake" is the word used instead of "quail" in some translations of 
Exodus and Numbers. The corn crake is on the red list in the UK.

The second half of these devotions will turn to birds who are not stigmatized by scripture but instead play a life-giving role in the biblical story or have become symbols of divine life. At the same time, we will see how much these same birds are vulnerable, threatened or nearing extinction in our own time. This week we will also feature the writing of Wendell Berry, the American poet farmer and environmental activist who died last week.

There is no specific mention of quails in the Levitical and Deuteronomic prescriptions about birds as either clean or unclean. God's provision of quails as food for those wandering in the wilderness is slightly different in the two accounts of the feeding: in Exodus the quails are linked with the appearance of manna and are a manifestation of God's abundance. In the Numbers account, they are summoned from the sea.

In our own time, quails migrate by the thousands from Europe to Africa where they are then trapped by hunters in huge nets spread along the edges of the Mediterranean as they arrive, exhausted. The nets used are fishing nets, erected along sand dunes. Fishing nets are a biblical symbol of plenty promised by Jesus. How does their use this way challenge our sense of abundant life?

Many of the world's species of quails are critically endangered, verging on extinction or actually extinct. Most famous among these is the Himalayan Quail, last seen in the western Himalayas in India almost 150 years ago. The Manipur Bush-Quail, another Indian species, dwells in the grasslands of the northeast and is rarely seen, as its habitat undergoes climate change-created drought. Scientists are trying to reintroduce the Masked Bobwhite Quail to Arizona after that species succumbed to drought in Mexico.

Our biblical stories are marked by ritual mistreatment of animals, including birds. But do our own contemporary stories have to be? In the spirit of today's music, how can we change the narrative of our time to become one in which we all thrive?

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

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LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 6

Image by Fyn Kynd

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mother birds

A GREETING
You say to my heart, “Seek my face,”
and so it is your face I seek!
(Psalm 27:8)

A READING
“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem—you murder the prophets, and you stone those sent to you! Oh, how often have I yearned to gather you together, like a hen gathering her chicks under her wings! But you would have none of it. Therefore your house is being left to you—abandoned."
(Matthew 23:37-38)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Within a few days Mary set out and hurried to the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
(Luke 1:39-41)

A POEM
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
- "Hope is the thing with feathers," by Emily Dickinson

VERSE OF THE DAY
Yet you drew me out of the womb;
you nestled me in my mother’s bosom.
(Psalm 22:9)

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Image by Elliott Ross.
The original caption reads: "In a tender moment, a mother moves in and touches her head to her eldest daughter’s for reassurance as the girl begins to cry." Elliot Ross is a NYC-based photographer whose work focuses on "human stories that explore the social, cultural and economic effects of geographic isolation". The pictures above are from his photo series "At the Gate", which follows the lives of migrants arriving in Lesbos, Greece.

At different times in the gospels, Jesus uses Wisdom metaphors to describe himself. Since Wisdom is always personified in the feminine in the Hebrew Bible, his analogy in Matthew 23 for himself is to a hen. In the ancient world, the figure of the public mourner was a woman. In his lamenting over Jerusalem, Jesus casts himself as an embodiment of the mothering figure. He is not just a caring parent, but someone who is able to enclose her young to herself.

A mother bird gives birth to a chick through an egg that comes from her body. Then once the chick is hatched, it can crawl back underneath her, almost as if to the womb. When Jesus laments, he is yearning to be able to draw the people he cherishes back under the protection of his own body. In this sense, his lament over the city foreshadows the Cross.

Any creature in the world that has given birth, yearns to be able to keep that young one close and nurture it until it can be self-sufficient. The Talmud therefore says that if a bird or it's young must be taken away, one or the other should be left so that the species survives. But do we in our contemporary world think this way? In some places, conservation-minded groups help us to make sure that expansion and development projects plan carefully to protect breeding birds. And yet still many species of birds lose their habitats through unbridled human expansion that threatens or eradicates traditional breeding grounds.

When Mary and Elizabeth greet each other, Elizabeth's babe leaps in her womb. These mothers will experience incalculable suffering and sorrow. But right now, in drawing close to each other, they embody Jesus's lament. They are gathering their broods beneath their wings so that their children may safely come into the world. In this moment, in the company of each other, they are the opposite of abandoned.

In what ways do we uphold the mothers of any creatures? On the other hand, how much do we expect the mothers of birds and other animals to sacrifice their young for our sake?

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A mother osprey and her young one, photographed by @harrycollinsphotography, found on Instagram. Clck here to read his story. Make sure sound is on.


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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

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LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 5

Image by Oleg Chernyshov

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Roosters

A GREETING
Out of the depths I cry to you!
God, hear my voice!
(Psalm 130:1)

A READING
One of the high priest’s attendants saw him sitting there at the fire, and she stared at him and said, “This one was with Jesus, too.” But Peter denied it. “I don’t know him!” he said. A little later, someone else noticed Peter and remarked, “You’re one of them too!” But Peter said, “No, I’m not.” About an hour later, someone else insisted, “Surely this fellow was with them, too. He even talks like a Galilean.” “I don’t even know what you are talking about!” Peter said. Just then, as Peter was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Jesus turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered Jesus saying, “Before a rooster crows today, you’ll deny me three times.” Peter went out and wept bitterly.
(Luke 22:56-62)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Who instills the ibis with its prophetic wisdom?
Where does the rooster pick up its intuition?
(Job 38:36)

A POEM
Tear-encrusted thick
as a medieval relic
he waits. Poor Peter, heart-sick,

still cannot guess
those cock-a-doodles yet might bless,
his dreadful rooster come to mean forgiveness,

a new weathervane
on basilica and barn,
and that outside the Lateran

there would always be
a bronze cock on a porphyry
pillar so the people and the Pope might see

that even the Prince
of the Apostles long since
had been forgiven.
- from "Roosters," by Elizabeth Bishop

VERSE OF THE DAY
My soul longs for you, O God,
more than sentinels long for the dawn,
more than sentinels long for the dawn.
(Psalm 130:5-6)

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"The Penitence of St. Peter," (17th c.)
Anonymous (Bolognese School)

Junglefowl, the ancestor of the rooster, was a species that were brought to the Mediterranean world from India. Over millenia they became domesticated and their descendant is the rooster. Although roosters do not appear more than once or twice in the Hebrew Bible, they are vividly present in the gospels. The rooster plays an important role in the passion narratives by offering the sign by which Jesus anticipates and Peter realizes his denial of Jesus. The Gemara, a Jewish text of the Mishnah, describes how within the Temple precinct there was a man who cried out at the beginning of Temple service in the morning. Sometimes a rooster was used. Therefore it is possible that Peter's denial happens in the early hours of the morning, near the time of the first ritual worship of the day.

In our contemporary world, when a rooster lives a free and abundant life on farm, he can live from five to eight years. His natural instinct is to watch out for hens, guiding them to food and water through a dance called "tidbitting." Roosters fight predators like raccoons and foxes and sometimes die in the process. The bird, acting freely, chooses to risk death.

The rooster who does not live a free life, is most often processed or killed within a month or two of being born. In the industrial egg industry, male chicks are euthanized within 24 hours because they will not be useful. The rooster is unnecessary and unwanted in mass scale farming and has no role to play in a mechanized henhouse, or even in free-run areas.

The moment of Peter's denial is one of the few places in scripture where a bird plays a pivotal narrative role. The Luke version is the only time Jesus is present and hears the denial. What is the cockcrow that we need to keep watch on our own indifference to animals? As a rooster keeps vigil for the first moment of dawn, the time of safety for hens to come outside, what are we doing to keep vigil for the well-being of farmed animals?

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Image by Johann van Heerden

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 4

Image by Silver Leapers

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Snowy Owls

A GREETING
Because you are my rock, my fortress, and for the sake of your Name, lead me, guide me!
(Psalm 31:3)

A READING
For God says: “I will rescue you from the snare, and shield you from poisoned arrows. I will cover you with my pinions; under my wings you will take refuge; my faithfulness will shield you. You have no need to fear the prowlers of the night or the arrow that flies by day, the plague that lurks in the shadows or the scourge that stalks at noon. Because you have made me your refuge and have me as your stronghold, no evil will befall you, and no disaster will come near your tent.
(Psalm 91:2-6; 9-10)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places.
I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
(Psalm 102:6-7 NRSVUE)

A POEM
Coming down
out of the freezing sky
with its depths of light,
like an angel,
or a buddha with wings,
it was beautiful
and accurate,
striking the snow and whatever was there
with a force that left the imprint
of the tips of its wings —
five feet apart — and the grabbing
thrust of its feet,
and the indentation of what had been running
through the white valleys
of the snow —
and then it rose, gracefully,
and flew back to the frozen marshes,
to lurk there,
like a little lighthouse.
- from "White Owl Flies into and out of the Field,"
by Mary Oliver

VERSE OF THE DAY
Those who wait for God, find a renewed power:
they soar on eagles’ wings.
(Isaiah 40:31)

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"The Enchanted Owl" by Kenojuak Ashevak

In today’s reading, God’s reassuring protection is like the wings of a large bird, an image that Jesus echoes when he stands looking over Jerusalem and compares himself to a mother hen aching for her brood (Luke 13). The longing of Jesus is the same as that of the Psalmist — that we may be protected from the “prowlers of the night”, which we can hear as not only that which threatens our wellbeing, but the wellbeing of our relationship with God.

But what if we are the "prowlers", setting the snares, knowingly or not? Raptors and birds of prey are considered by scientists as an indicator of the overall ecological health of environments; they bear the brunt of changes that affect habitats and the food chain. Right now, some species of owl, including the snowy owl, are considered "threatened" in Canada and have been identified as “vulnerable” worldwide, a categorization that indicates that their numbers are declining. Increased rainfall and general warming in the Arctic (the breeding ground of the snowy owl) have meant a flooding of nests and a starvation of lemmings, a principal source of food for growing owls.

Over the course of human history, birds of prey and particularly raptors, have been the subject of our projected imagination, embodying that which we cherish or deeply fear. Raptors have an uneasy place in scripture too: while the image of "eagle’s wings" is comforting, most references to them are less so. The owl appears in scripture in association with deep loss, sorrow, desolation and solitude (Isaiah 34:15; Zephaniah 2:14). Banished as unclean for eating by Leviticus 11, it became a frequenter of the wastelands. Because of its banished status and haunting cry, it was associated with omens and negative spirits by other non-Jewish religions and cultures.

The owl has always been a respected and revered symbol of wisdom in Indigenous knowledge-keeping. Owls are spirit guides, with the capacity to see in the dark, revealing knowledge that is hidden and providing companionship through transition and change. How can we be inspired by that wisdom to improve the future of creatures who were made alongside us? What needs to change in our way of thinking, so that animals that are ‘vulnerable’ can return to a place of thriving, abundant life?

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This whimsically instructive video made by the American broadcaster NPR in 2016 tracks one man's attempt to find a tagged owl according to its GPS locations. Project Snowstorm, still active today, is a citizen science-led initiative that observes and documents the flight patterns of tagged snowy owls while they are south, while also helping to relocate owls who are hanging out by dangerous airports. Baltimore, the snowy owl featured in the video, was one of their tagged owls. At the time, the snowy owl was experiencing an irruption -- a higher than usual population. Ten years later, they are officially "threatened." Read more here.



†

Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 3

Image by Scott McMurren

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Kittiwakes and Seagulls

A GREETING
I will praise you, Oh God, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all your marvelous works!
(Psalm 9:1)

A READING
Among creatures that fly, you must treat the following as detestable—you must not eat them, for they are detestable to you: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, any kind of kite and falcon, any kind of raven, the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the barn owl, the pelican, the horned owl, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.
(Leviticus 11:13-19)

MUSIC


A MEDITATIVE VERSE
Oh, my little bird,
out here among the rocks,
on the mountainside,
where no one can see us—
let me see the beauty of your dark skin.
Talk to me; let me hear
the joy of your voice.
(Song of Songs 2:14)

A POEM
All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,
Sad as the sea-bird is when, going
Forth alone,
He hears the winds cry to the water's
Monotone.

The grey winds, the cold winds are blowing
Where I go.
I hear the noise of many waters
Far below.
All day, all night, I hear them flowing
To and fro.
- "All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters," by James Joyce.

VERSE OF THE DAY
But let all who take refuge in you be glad and rejoice forever. Protect them, so that those who love your Name will rejoice in you.
(Psalm 5:11)

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"Kittiwake gulls," by John James Audubon (c.1830)
found in his collection "The Birds of America."

The writers of the bible were not ornithologists. And yet Leviticus 11 names twenty different forbidden groups of predatory birds, calling them "detestable," most likely because predatory birds scavenge on decaying and dying creatures, putting anyone who comes in contact with them in danger of violating the Hebraic purity codes. The banishing of these birds also reflected pre-existing cultural suspicions. Many predatory birds were believed to be omens of evil, bearing bad spirits, who could bring spiritual harm to the one who encounters them. On the other hand, Greek poets of the early common era saw the violence and vulnerability of some of these birds as metaphors for human nature.

Over the centuries of translations, scholars have translated the birds differently (scholars are not always ornithologists either). Therefore what is a 'hoopoe' in one version is a 'lapwing' in another. Seabirds make up a sizeable portion of the banished birds. A pelagic seabird is a bird that spends most of its life out on the open ocean, only coming to land when it is time to nest and breed. Kittiwakes, a species of pelagic seagull, have been around longer than humankind by twenty-nine million years and no doubt they will still be around after we are gone. They populate empty islands of the Arctic circle with huge colonies.

When it comes time to finally come to shore and nest, kittiwakes will often choose coastal urban areas, settling into tall buildings that simulate coastal marine cliffs. The adaptability of these birds fails, however, if food sources are gone. Contemporary kittiwakes and other gull species are declining because of the overfishing of sand eels, a problem that affects a wide variety of marine birds.

While the bible forbids contact with some birds for religious and cultural reasons, contemporary conservationists are constantly working to push forward policies and regulations that will ensure the survival and wellbeing of those that are threatened. Then, as differing needs of those in power emerge, those helpful policies are sometimes rolled back. Human beings are therefore capable of using laws and regulations to both condemn and uphold endangered wildlife. Kittiwakes now have a "vulnerable" status worldwide. What can we do to assist those who are working to save and protect the habitat and food of seabirds?

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Narrated by Tom Dickins, a British ornithologist and specialist in seabirds, and recorded in 2014, this video mentions that kittiwakes have already been in trouble "for about a decade." The video is meant for other scientists, but has helpful information.


Rissa-cs is a Norwegian agency acting toward the conservation of Arctic seabirds.
Read about them here.

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!

DAY 2

Image by Koshy Koshy

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Turtledoves

A GREETING
Like a swallow or a dove,
I twitter, I moan. My eyes grew dim as I look to the skies.
Sovereign One, I am overwhelmed! Be my security.
(Isaiah 38:14)

A READING
Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him any more.
(Genesis 8:8-12)

MUSIC


MEDITATIVE VERSES
So I said, “If only I had the wings of a dove!
Then I’d fly away and find rest.
Yes, I’d fly far away,
and find rest in the desert.
(Psalm 55:6-7)

A POEM
My little doves have left a nest
Upon an Indian tree,
Whose leaves fantastic take their rest
Or motion from the sea;
For, ever there the sea-winds go
With sunlit paces to and fro.

The tropic flowers looked up to it,
The tropic stars looked down,
And there my little doves did sit
With feathers softly brown,
And glittering eyes that showed their right
To general Nature's deep delight.

My little doves were ta'en away
From that glad nest of theirs,
Across an ocean rolling grey,
And tempest-clouded airs.
My little doves who lately knew
The sky and wave by warmth and blue.

And now, within the city prison
In mist and chillness pent,
With sudden upward look they listen
For sounds of past content,
For lapse of water, smell of breeze,
Or nut-fruit falling from the trees.
- "My Doves," by Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
published in 1838 in the volume The Seraphim and Other Poems.

VERSE OF THE DAY
Don’t give the vulture the life of your dove;
don’t ignore forever the lives of your little ones!
(Psalm 74:19)

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"Turtle dove mourns her husband," an illustration found in 
Bestiaire D'Amour, by Richard de Fournival (1250).

Doves are referenced more times in Scripture than any other bird. Because they were so plentiful and therefore cheap, turtledoves were the ritual sacrificial offering of those who were very poor. In Genesis 8, Noah sends out a dove (after the raven) to determine if there is land nearby. After twice seeing the dove return, finally it does not. In a voyage that is preserving only two of each species, a missing bird could signal no mate for the remaining one. The 'sacrificial' association with the turtledove is therefore present; there is a willingness to accept extinction of that species.

When we in our own time engage in development that we know leads to the destruction of natural habitats and breeding grounds of birds, how much are we participating in the same kind of willingness to risk extinction of species?

The turtledove migrates from the Sahara, where it winters, to northern Europe in the spring. It has inspired songs such as Shaker hymnist James Whittaker's In Yonder Valley, as a way of expressing joy at the arrival of milder weather. And yet many turtledoves do not arrive where they are headed. Turtledoves are hunted during the migrating season -- to an estimated three million in southern Europe alone. While some of these kills are for food, most are for sport -- with longstanding cultural approval. Despite bans imposed in many areas on the migration route, the tradition continues.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem "My Doves," was written in response to receiving a lavish gift of two turtle doves, sent from the Caribbean to London to live with her in a birdcage. Browning imagines how much they must long for their homeland. The poem captures a different kind of migration, and like hunting that is for sport, the birds suffer for the sake of human amusement. Meanwhile, doves mate for life and a signature courting sound in some breeds is laughter.

As God often surprises the expectations of human beings, the dove in the story of Noah brings back a piece of greenery and in so doing ushers in new life. What are we doing to help ensure continuing survival and new life for the turtledoves and other birds in our own time?

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For more on some efforts being made to protect the turtledove, read about the work of Operation Turtle Dove. We will be returning to doves towards the end of the series! 

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Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.

†

LC† The Winged Word is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work. 
Thank you and peace be with you!