“All things bright and beautiful
All creatures great and small
All things wise and wonderful
The Lord God made them all.”
November has swept in with a crash like cymbals! The rain is back, midterm elections were stunning, and the post-Halloween Christmas explosion has come even to religiously-sleepy Portland.
This is not the last thing I have to say about the midterms. There is so much. My goodness!
But back to all things bright and beautiful for a moment. When I sought to play an arrangement of this hymn for an early elementary piano recital, my childhood piano teacher and church organist remarked that she disliked it very much because the hymn is “too Tweety Bird.” Even as a young child, Looney Tunes seemed rather trifling to me. I put the hymn aside after her example.
30 years later, we have lived some things! We have lived seasons when hope was elusive, when the fog of depression could not be penetrated by any sort of headlight, when the beauty of creation was not only taken for granted but abused.
Today, to sing “all things bright and beautiful” and take a moment to revel in and celebrate any brightness, any beauty – no matter how big or small – is not only a lifesaving triumph, it is a sustaining act of resistance.
ALL things, bright and beautiful!
Our trans and immigrant beloved. Beautiful!
Signs of new ecosystems in habitats that had been destroyed. Bright!
Every Black or Latina or Native little girl who can see herself as the highest leader in her state. Wise!
Everyday kindness doing what it can to gently heal loneliness. Wonderful!
All things, bright and beautiful.
Enter: pet blessings and stuffie parades. Not the movement that will solve every problem, but the organized chaotic whimsy that we need.
I love the whimsical joy of a good Blessing of the Animals. What greater opportunity could we have to delight in God’s creatures, bright and beautiful, great and small?
Along with the memory of my piano teacher throwing shade at UMH 147, I have memories from that same year’s Blessing of the Animals. Into the historic Sanctuary of Seattle First United Methodist Church, we brought our two unmedicated and untrained cats (Tiger and Cheetah) in the cardboard Humane Society boxes that they came in.
They were not happy. They most certainly peed.
Thankfully, that sanctuary did not have seat cushions- just the curved wood of the classic pews that we’d regularly crawl underneath. I am sure there was plenty of smell to clean up, regardless.
Back in Houston, St. Paul’s would host a fall Blessing of the Animals not in the sanctuary but outside. Not in robes but in t-shirts, and with a police horse leading the pet parade.
Our Portland version will be quite different than either of those memories!
On Saturday, November 14, our church will gather up by Picnic Shelter A at Peninsula Park in North Portland. Pets, stuffed animals, pictures of pets, and pet ogglers alike will enjoy animal-centered activities and connection. You don’t have to be a member of First Church or to believe any particular thing about the blessing we will offer.
Bring your own lawn chair for a brief time of liturgy celebrating creation, a few different pet activities, and the chance to connect with your neighbors, church folk, and their pets and stuffies.
Find more information and sign up here: www.fumcpdx.org/pets
This Sunday we start a new worship series in this post-Stewardship, pre-Thanksgiving season of gratitude: The World We Want.
I’ll see you on Sunday for worship to imagine together the world that we want, and then Saturday the 14th for Blessing of the Animals at Peninsula Park!
(I recommend wearing more layers than a t-shirt)
Peace,
Pastor Karyn