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| Image by Charles Fred |
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A GREETING
I can do all things through God who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:13)
A READING
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
(Acts 9:1-9)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
The stranger has not lodged in the street;
I have opened my doors to the traveler.
(Job 31:32)
TWO POEMS
Oh Syria, my love
I hear your moaning
in the cries of the doves.
I hear your screaming cry.
I left your land and merciful soil
And your fragrance of jasmine
My wing is broken like your wing.
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Can anyone teach me
how to make a homeland?
Heartfelt thanks if you can,
heartiest thanks,
from the house-sparrows,
the apple-trees of Syria,
and yours very sincerely.
- Two untitled poems by Amineh Abou Kerech
found in The Guardian. Kerech is a 19 year old refugee poet laureate in the United Kingdom.
VERSE OF THE DAY
God gives the desolate a home to live in;
and leads out the prisoners to prosperity.
(Psalm 68:6)
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| Image by Omar Hafez |
When Saul (later Paul) encounters the forceful presence of Jesus on the road to Damascus, the first impacts are on his body: he is blinded and incapacitated. His purpose had been to rout out the new Jesus believers in the city and capture them, in order to harm and possibly kill them. Instead, Jesus uses the moment to forcibly disable him, and in that vulnerable place puts him under the supervision of someone who will ultimately heal his sight. The events form part of the story of Paul's ‘conversion,’ when instead of persecuting the followers of Jesus, he becomes one of them.
In the moment of his conversion, Paul becomes displaced from his original motivations and cultural landscape: his friends become his enemies, and his enemies become his friends. He must reckon his own past deeds and repent, while trying to become accepted where he once was feared.
During the month of December, dramatic changes have been happening in Syria, after a tyrannical government has fallen. In its wake, the half of the country’s total number of citizens who have been displaced -- have begun to think about return. Prisons have been opened and families search for loved ones among the newly freed. All this, within a knowledge that no one knows what the new leadership will be like.
Amineh Abou Kerech is a Syrian refugee youth poet, living in the United Kingdom. Her two poems included today were written prior to these recent events, and are filled with the anguish of having known suffering, even as her faith in her own people encourages her to dream of their survival. In her song Caravanserai, Loreena McKennitt imagines a memory of those whose lives were permanently nomadic as they long for home.
Sometimes radical change has to be imagined before it can become a reality. God imagines a transformed world and then sends Jesus into it. Jesus comes to set our imaginations free to create the kind of world we most want to live in, where everyone, no matter whey live, feels 'at home.' As Syrians imagine their future, how can our longing for Jesus feed our desire to support them? Who are the Syrians in your community who might welcome some supportive conversation in these days?
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A STORY OF HOPE
In Idlib, in northern Syria, commmunities of people displaced by the war have tried to re-establish their sense of home and relationship to the land by planting a garden -- made of seeds they have brought with them. In the Idlib community, as documented by Syria Direct, "strawberries, broccoli, Damask roses and turmeric to saffron, nigella seeds, peanuts and bananas, crops unfamiliar to Idlib before 2011 have taken root. They have been introduced, carried and transplanted from neighboring countries or other parts of Syria by people themselves uprooted by war." (Source) In this way, those who have moved to new land have taken their homes with them.
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| Caption that appears on original article in Syria Direct: "Workers pick strawberries in Rami Soulaq’s fields in Bidama, a town in the western countryside of Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, 6/5/2024 (Mahmoud Hamza/Syria Direct)" |
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LC† Seeds of Hope is a project 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, and on Twitter. 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!