“Similar to ‘Then Peace Will Dwell,’ I started writing this song in El Salvador on Juan Carlos Berríos’ keyboard. The song acknowledges that when we have the privilege to gather as a community for worship, that our real work is to take nourishment we received, and to go nourish a deeply wounded world. This idea grew from a number of encounters I had with Salvadorans (for instance, the line ‘where hearts are imprisoned by hate’ was inspired by reading about gang battles and killings on an almost daily basis), but the concept of nourishment in a social justice context came from one particular encounter at Cantón el Cedro, my praxis site.
One day, it was raining incredibly hard. In Cedro’s cafeteria, I talked to a Cedro gardener named Lolo about the rain.
‘I was going to pick some lettuce,’ he said, motioning to an empty light blue bucket by his side. ‘But I don’t want to get wet.’
‘What about the corn?’
‘There’s nothing but water and mud in the fields right now. The corn might die. And the new corn won’t grow if it keeps raining this much. It’s really hard…I need to pick that corn so I can buy food for my family. And right now, I can’t. Not until the rain stops.’ I learned later that Lolo earned twelve dollars a week to support his family of five.
There were plenty of corn tortillas for me to eat during lunch that day, and plenty of beans and vegetables to fill me completely, one of my only concerns being to test the site’s ancient computers to see which ones were functional. Yet right on the other side of the kitchen was someone whose only worry was to provide a dinner to the family he so deeply loved.”
-Christopher Wemp
lyrics
(Chorus): On this day of the new creation,
we have been nourished and blessed by God.
Now we are called to be hope for God’s people.
Humbly we’ll live to serve and to love.
Yet on this day where people are suffering
from poverty, sickness, and war,
may our hearts turn to You, O God of Hosts,
who heals the broken with love.
Chorus
Yet on this day where the meek are forgotten,
where the greedy punish the poor;
may we gather the strength to raise a voice
announcing the justice of God.
Chorus
Yet where there is violence and oppression,
where hearts are imprisoned by hate,
let us return to God’s embrace,
that calls forth the freedom in all.
Chorus
May love be our guide and our center,
let forgiveness and peace shape our minds.
Call us to walk humbly with You,
lead us to life, O God.
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