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| 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.
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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!
