MILLENNIUM PSALM

MILLENNIUM PSALM

Four thousand years ago the law was given through Moses

you saved your people through the Red Sea waters.

Two thousand years ago and grace was seen in Jesus

your power proclaimed in Christ who was raised from the dead.

Since then the faith has spread through the nations

Christianity is common to east and west,

one thousand years ago the Russian people accepted it

the Orthodox Church began at the baptism of the nation.

The Prince himself was converted and churches were built for song

a great and glorious liturgy filled all their land;

they thought, when revolution came, it might all be gone

churches could only survive by toeing a party line.

But now belief is possible again

countries of eastern Europe need a faith restored;

after a generation the barriers have been broken

the Berlin Wall is breached for Germans to meet one another.

So where is democracy leading us now

shall we renounce the wars and the ideologies?

The law has been working through religion and politics

but grace has also been seen in church and in society.

Chinese students in the square caught the hopes of the western world

but the power of the people can still be crushed by the fears of our leaders -

the march of freedom is carrying us onwards

yet the journey to democracy is long and the road is hard;

there are bound to be continuing problems

a dying snake will always wriggle.

We need to believe in people as assets and not as costs

can human beings be valued higher than causes?

Into a new thousand years, God is leading us forward

you will guide us through, to win your future.

(Using ideas from Hilarion of Kiev in the 10th century, Han Suyin on Tiananmen 1990, and a South African saying (verse 13). See, for example, Psalm 78.)