Fire and Water

Shadows danced on the craven face of a village patriarch. Candle in hand he lit the soft-ball sized chunk of incense that sputtered to life and soon cast both warm light and billowing smoke on the cliff below which it sat. As its flames grew the old men lead our prayer in concert. The clicks and purring sounds of their Mayan dialect mixed with our own muttered prayers English to form a strange but beautiful cacophony of petitions.

After over thirty hours of travel from the city of Nashville, Tennessee to the small village of Stezimaaj, Guatemala we had finally begun the real work of the trip: Setting relationships right.

Our Mayan friends have a long history of being attentive to the natural world. One of our team leaders, Steve Sherman, explained to us that in the Mayan worldview the Earth, and all aspects of it, are a considered have a spiritual identity. The Earth is related to as a "thou" and not an "it". In the years after colonization by European powers Christianity became an additional layer to many Mayan's worldview. That is why tonight the Setzimaaj, in addition to praying to God, patriarchs buried a chicken and poured out a corn-water libation to the Earth. As we prepare to carve miles of trenches into its surface to install a community water system they want to assure their relationship with the Earth is maintained. It is also why they lifted up prayers to God in petition for a blessing of safety and success in the construction of the system.

A side of me feels conflicted over their offering to the Earth. What does the Earth, or even God, care for a chicken carcass, corn water, and sweet smelling smoke after all? Another side is uncomfortable with assuming I know better and would be much more comfortable to just call it "cultural" and put it into the any-thing-goes bin. I want to be open to learning from my Mayan brothers but genuine learning takes genuine relationship which takes time spent together listening. So, tonight I listen.

It was when the man ignited the incense and they all began to pray that I was back in my element. I prayed for freedom and for life to the full. I asked for God to bring healing to relationships between us, himself, and creation. I prophesied that this valley and all of those around would become like that burning ball of incense; filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to lift up prayers like that billowing smoke.

Soon the other prayers began to silence and I too focused my attention on the leader. He finished and quietly added his candle to the still-roiling incense fire. Turning our backs to the flame we stepped out into the deep dark of the highland jungle to carefully pick our way back down.

When the morning comes we will continue where we left off: setting relationships right. May we begin by loving or neighbors, and that includes working together to provide clean water to every home in Setzimaaj.