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| Manitoulin Island. Image by Sam MacCutcheon |
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A GREETING
O God, what variety you have created,
arranging everything so wisely!
the earth is filled with your creativity!
(Psalm 104:24 TIB)
A READING
Come to me, all you who labor and carry heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon your shoulders
wand learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.
Here you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30 TIB)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
The birds of the air make their nests by these waters,
and sing among the branches.
(Psalm 104:12 TIB)
A REFLECTION
My name is Autumn Peltier, I'm 15 years old and I'm from Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island which is in Northern Ontario in Canada... I would like to start by sharing that the work I do is in honour of my great auntie Biidaasige-ba [Josephine Mandamin]. If it weren't for her lifetime commitment and sacrifices to create the awareness and the sacredness of water, I would not be standing here today...She created the mother earth water walks. She walked around all of the Great Lakes more than once. She did this because the elders began to see changes in the lands, medicine [plants], animals and waters. She brings me to what means the most to me and what I have been learning and sharing: the sacredness of water...
When you ask the question about why is the water so sacred, it's not just because we need it and nothing can survive without water. It's because for years and years our ancestors have passed on traditional oral knowledge that our water is alive. Our water has a spirit. Our first water teaching comes from within our own mother: we literally live in water for nine months, floating in that sacred water that gives us life. We can't live in our mother's womb without water as a fetus. We need that sacred water for development. The sacred significance is that my mother comes from her mother's water. My grandmother comes from her mother's water and my great-great grandmother comes from her mother's water flowing within us. It’s original water, lifeblood of Mother Earth that sustains us as we come from this land, Mother. Earth's power is in the lifeblood of Mother Earth, which is our water.
- excerpted from a transcription of a speech by Autumn Peltier
given to the Global Landscapes Forum in 2019.
VERSE OF THE DAY
You will answer the prayer of the abandoned,
and will not scorn their petitions.
Put this on record for the next generation,
so that a people not yet born can praise you.
(Psalm 102:18a TIB)
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| Strawberry Island Lighthouse. Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Image by Sam MacCutcheon |
Lake Huron is connected to Lake Erie by three water bodies: first the St. Clair River, which flows into Lake St. Clair, which in turn flows into the Detroit River, which drains into Erie. Following the shores of Lake Huron northward on the eastern shore, we find the head of the lake where it meets Georgian Bay. Sitting in the middle of that confluence of waters is the largest freshwater island in the world, Manitoulin Island.
The sacredness of water is at the heart of the work of Anishnaabe activist Autumn Peltier, born and raised on Manitoulin Island and a member of Wikwemkoong First Nation there. Carrying on a tradition begun by her aunt Josephine Mandamin, a water walker, Peltier has spoken before the United Nations and was named Chief Water Commissioner for the Aniishnabek Nation in 2019, at the age of fifteen. She is an active advocate for safe drinking water on Indigenous reserves. “Our water needs to be treated as human, with human rights,” she said to the UN in 2018. “We need to acknowledge our water with personhood so we can protect our waters.” (Listen to her here.) In her speech before the Global Landscapes Forum quoted above, Peltier compares our water sources to the water that is present in the womb, saying that the waters of birth are actually waters we carry in our body and pass on to future generations.
In today’s reading we hear the well-known verses in which Jesus invites us to bring to him our heavy burdens. The Greek word ‘pra-us’ conveys a meaning of ‘mild’ or gentle’ but it also has the cadence of ‘strength under control’ and even ‘showing power without harshness’. This same word is used by Jesus (translated here as ‘gentle’) to describe himself as he offers to share the burdens of others, and even lend his strength to them. Jesus’ words are therefore holding both that sense of authority and suffering, burdened suffering and gentle authority. When there is a fire in a small community, people pass buckets of water to try to put it out. People use buckets to harvest rain water, to water animals, to bring laundry to a clothesline. In some practices of farming, a yoke is still used across the shoulders to carry two buckets in tandem to and from a well. While Jesus holds our burdens when we come to him, Jesus also needs us to carry the buckets of need for others.
When Josephine Mandamin and the other water protectors walked around the Great Lakes in the early 2000s, they carried a bucket of water from that lake as they went. How the water felt, its lightness or heaviness, was part of how they knew the condition of the water. (Mandamin explains it in the video below.) When we work for justice, we are looking to end the suffering of our own and future generations. How can we uphold the work of water protectors with our own commitment to greater awareness of our country's water crises?
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A STORY OF GUARDIANSHIP
In this video shot in 2008, water walker Josephine Mandamin, who is referred to above by Autumn Peltier, explains what she and her fellow protectors heard, saw and felt, as they walked around the Great Lakes in the previous years. In the 17 years since the video, how might their observations have become even more acute? What encouragement would you offer Autumn Peltier in continuing her aunt's work, if you could?
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Resources in today's devotion:
Scripture passages are taken from The Inclusive Bible.
For more on Autumn Peltier, including information on a documentary about her, go here.
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LC† Streams of Living Justice 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!