“E.T. phone home!” Spielberg’s lost and lovable extraterrestrial formulated this plaintive mantra only after young Elliot showed him a globe and then pointed to Earth on a star chart and repeated the word “home.”
Moviegoers everywhere suddenly remembered that we are spinning on a precious little blue and green planet at the far edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Earth. Home.
There is no punctuation or rhyme in “GOD OF THE SPARROW GOD OF THE WHALE.” In these verses, humans are creatures with the language to sing praise to our Creator and the cosmic awareness to call our spinning, sparkling, suffering planet “Home.”
The words were written by Ohio-born Jaroslav Vajda (1919-2008). Vajda, the son of a Lutheran pastor, became a Lutheran pastor himself and edited several Lutheran magazines.
As a child of Slovakian descent, Vajda’s introduction to poetry seems to have been through his youthful dedication to translating classical Slovak poetry. He wrote his first hymn at age 49 and went on to become a leading hymn writer of the 20th century.
In “God of the Sparrow,” written in 1983, there is death and resurrection: “God of the cross God of the empty grave.” There is suffering: “God of the hungry God of the sick God of the prodigal” and complicated human relationships: “God of the neighbor God of the foe.”
The questions that conclude each verse (“How does the creature say …”) do not demand answers as much as they suggest a range of responses, with an awareness of God at the very center. First sung at the annual meeting of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in July 1987 to Carl Schalk’s tune ROEDER, Vajda’s hymn quickly became a favorite.
A HYMN BELOVED BY CHRISTIAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS
This hymn seems both timely and urgent as we awaken to the sin of human-caused climate change and reexamine the themes of “ecotheology,” exploring the interrelationship of ethics, spirituality, and nature.
We watch in despair as our planet becomes a wasteland of detritus, the result of greed, obsessive consumerism, environmental carelessness. Scientists tell us that one million species are threatened with extinction because of us. Our oceans are choking with plastic bags. With increasing alarm, we look out our windows, flood waters rising, winds and fires and drought threatening our homes, farms, cities. What have we done?
God of the earthquake God of the storm
God of the trumpet blast
How does the creature cry Woe
How does the creature cry Save
The images in this hymn, all biblical, stretch our awareness from the diminutive sparrow to the massive whale to the vast universe itself. We cry to our Creator with single syllable words — Awe / Praise / Woe / Save. But, it is the last word of the hymn that brings a lump to our throats.
God of the ages God near at hand
God of the loving heart
How do your children say Joy
How do your children say Home
TO GO DEEPER
“History of Hymns: ‘God of the Sparrow’” by C. Michael Hawn, UMC Discipleship Ministries website
“How Does the Creature Say Thanks” by Nancy Rockwell, Patheos, October 5, 2013