A congregation of the United Church of Canada
Calling Out Your Name
“The fury in the pheasant’s wings.”
One of the songwriters I admire most is named Rich Mullins. 26 years ago yesterday he was killed in a tragic auto accident. But his music lives on. So too does his theological insight. At Faith United you hear a little bit of Rich every single week when I offer the blessing after our Prayer of Invocation. I always end with the words “Be God’s!” I stole that from Rich. It’s how he signed every autograph.
Seeing that we’re in the Season of Creation I thought I’d honour both that and Rich today. Below are the lyrics to his song, “Calling Out Your Name.” If you click that title it will take you to a video recording of him. (The instrument he’s playing in the video is called a hammered dulcimer.) I hope as you read (and perhaps listen) you will appreciate why I admire his work so much. I hope you enjoy it…and Be God’s!
Well the moon moved past Nebraska and spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills
And angels danced on Jacob’s stairs, Yeah they danced on Jacob’s stairs
There is this silence in the Badlands and over Kansas the whole universe was stilled
By the whisper of a prayer, The whisper of a prayer
And the single hawk bursts into flight, and in the east the whole horizon is in flames
I feel thunder in the sky, I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
I can feel the earth tremble beneath the rumbling of the buffalo hooves
And the fury in the pheasant’s wings, And there’s fury in a pheasant’s wings
It tells me the Lord is in His temple
And there is still a faith that can make the mountains move
And a love that can make the heavens ring, And I’ve seen love make heaven ring
Where the sacred rivers meet beneath the shadow of the Keeper of the plains
I feel thunder in the sky, I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
From the place where morning gathers you can look sometimes forever ’til you see
What time may never know, What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope, To run wild with the hope
The hope that this thirst will not last long
That it will soon drown in the song not sung in vain
And I feel thunder in the sky, I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name