Opening narration:
(This story is read to a background of a drum
beating at heartbeat rate and to Tibetan cymbals
clashing at moments of crisis)
Once upon a time, there lived a man alone in a snowy cottage in the forests. He was an honest and kind man. One snowy day he saw a crane was suffering being hit by an arrow. He felt sorry for the crane and rescued it. It was a beautiful white crane. She flew over the forests and then disappeared in the crimson sunset sky. Long after the day, one snowy night, he heard a knocking on the door. When he opened it, he saw a beautiful woman in snow.
She said to him, “I would like to be with you.” He invited her into the house. After that they married. Their life was happy. She loved to play with children making circles and singing songs. She worked from morning till night, weaving cloth at a room of a loom. She asked him not to look at her room when she was weaving cloth. He kept the promise.
She wove beautiful shining white cloth. However, as the cloth was so beautiful, he and his friends started to have an idea to sell it in the rich capital city. They sold it at a good price. They asked her to weave again and again. Thus they received more and more money and became greedier. She continued weaving responding to their request. None of them noticed that she became skinny and sickly. One day he started to be curious about what she was doing in the room of the loom. He entered her room then he found out that a crane was weaving the cloth.
The crane was almost naked without any feathers around her. She used up her own feathers to weave the cloth. His wife, the crane looked at him and said. “I came to you to offer my thanks because you had rescued me. But you are becoming greedy. You exploited me repeatedly. Now I need to leave you.
She wanted go back to the forests. Then she spread her wings. But as she almost did not have any feathers on, she could only fly over the trees and cross over the forests, then she disappeared to the crimson sunset sky.
Reflection: The crane was the Mother Earth. The crane was the sacred immanent God. Telling this story from generation to generation, Japanese people have been learning the interconnectedness between nature and human beings, and not to exploit nature.
Nowadays, Japanese people are forgetting what the story means. We have been committing to the denudation of the forests and destruction of the earth. The earth is already denuded.
The earth and the immanent God cannot have further renewable energy to support human greed on this planet. The earth was dead.
Confessional: (Sung to a chant)
Dear Creator God,
We have dirtied your waters.
We have not loved you.
And we humbly repent.
Dear Creator God,
We have poisoned your air.
We have not loved you.
And we humbly repent.
Dear Creator God,
We have burned holes in your skin
We have not loved you
And we humbly repent.
Dear Creator God,
We have destroyed your creatures,
We have not loved you
And we humbly repent.
Dear Creator God,
We are choking you,
We have not loved you
And we humbly repent.
Dear Creator God,
We are crucifying you,
We have not loved you
And we humbly repent.
Response from our broken earth: (sung by another voice)
Oh! My people, why have you forsaken me?
Oh! My people, why have you forsaken me?
Oh! My people, why have you forsaken me?
Time of silence to listen to what God asks of us, followed by the opportunity for participants to use
a variety of media to respond to their time of silence and then share if they feel comfortable doing so.
(If this were a Eucharist service, this would be good place to celebrate Eucharist)
Pledge:
With the words you give us, we shall heal you.
With the gifts you give us, we shall heal you.
With the power in our hands, we shall heal you.
With the love in our hearts, we shall heal you.
With the joy you pour forth, we shall heal you.
We are sent:
Go forth in peace
Go forth with clear voices
Go forth with powerful and loving hands
Go forth with strength and love in your hearts
Go forth to love and serve our Earth
Go forth to love and serve our Creation.