Welcome: About Midsummer wither.

Welcome to The Danish Midsummer Church Service. No one like the painter P.S. Kroyer has captured the moods of a Danish Sct. Hans evening as in his painting Sct. Hans 1906. Here, children and adults look at the Midsummer Bonfire that illuminates the beach, so that anyone who sees the painting can almost feel the heat from the blaze and smell the smoke.

There is no Danish song, which like the Midsummer-song, authored by the poet Holger Drachman, which has influenced and marked our Sct. Hans celebrations. The song is loved and sung, either on P.E. Muller’s old tune or Shubidua's enjoyable version.

Today Mette will lead as we sing the beautiful Midsummervise on Muller's old melody. Let the memories go back to former Sct. Hans evenings, to memories of bonfires and bright nights – and then sing.

Prelude: Midsummer.

Sermon. Midsummer, fathers, and bonfires.

I have given this Danish sermon a threefold title: midsummer, fathers and bonfires. All of these are something we care about, yes something and someone we love.

We love Midsummer, where we sing about how much we love our country! And to enjoy or commemorate the special bright nights that characterize summer in Denmark and the Nordic countries. Midsummer is a lovely time. It is strange that six months have already passed by 2020, and that we are now celebrating the longest day – and must realise that now it is going the opposite way. Towards autumn and darkness. But, let us remember that Sct. Hans is the highlight of summer, and we know that throughout July and August we will still have beautiful summer days. Let us enjoy the summer, let us enjoy the long days and the bright nights, let us celebrate Midsummer with joy and not with the sadness that the days get shorter.

It is Father's Day. It was already Father's Day two weeks ago in DK, but for all you brave, loving and good fathers here in the United States: we celebrate you and we know that it takes courage, time, attention, patience and love to be a good father.

In recent months due to COVID19, when we have been more at home and with our families, I think many fathers have enjoyed spending more time than usual with their children. Our busy lives were put to rest, where we were to stay at home and keep distance. I hope and believe that it has been good for many fathers and families.

Let us say or whisper our Father's Name — and let us think fondly of what he means or has meant to us.

Let us celebrate the good, let us forgive what must be forgiven, let us reconcile with what must be reconciled.

We thank good fathers, our beloved grandfathers, and other father figures who have shaped us, helped us, loved us, and made us who we are.

We celebrate Midsummer with sparkly bonfires: because we believe that light is stronger than darkness. As the gospel so beautifully and strongly says today: "What I tell you in the darkness, you shall speak in the light, and what is whispered in your ear, you shall preach from the roofs." We must talk about the light in the darkness, we must believe in the light in the darkness, and we must lead the way to the light in the darkness.

Sct. Hans around a bonfire. A sparkly bonfire that will be lit on Tuesday in many parts of DK and in many places around the world where we Danes are located.

Like the beautiful Skagen painting, the flare from the bonfire illuminates both the face and the hearts. Like a beacon.

We love our country, we sing.

We love our country when it is Christmas, and we turn on the star on the tree with brilliance in every eye.

We love our country when it is spring, and the birds let their voices greet and warm us.

But we love our country, the small kingdom of Denmark high to the north, mostly in midsummer. The nights are bright, and our minds are light-filled. We want nothing else than to chase all evil, all darkness, all war, all witches, and trolls away from our lives and will light bonfires of joy for all the world.

It is quite evangelical: that the light shines in the darkness and darkness did not overcome it.

That was the message that John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, paved the way for: with his wild cries in the sand of the deserts. He spent his life doing just that: paving the way for the light itself, the true light.

We call Sct. Hans St. after Saint John-Johannes, who was born half a year before Jesus on June 24. Sct. Hans is like Christmas, a mixture of pagan and Christian rituals. The Christian Celebration of John the Baptist was at one point mixed up with bonfire Midsummer Celebrations.

Sct. Hans is indeed a lovely and much beloved tradition. Celebrating the height of summer, the bright nights, the power of nature.

A sparkly bonfire that testifies to a belief in the best, and a heartfelt song promising to fight for goodness, light, and truth.

A sparkly bonfire that sends light into our lives and our world.

A sparkly fire that tells us that the light is always strongest.

"We will peace here in our land, Sankte Hans Sankte Hans.

It can be won where the hearts never get doubtfully cold."

Do you remember the beautiful fairy tale about the "Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen?

A fairytale about doubtful cold hearts. The fairytale tells the story about a troll-mirror that has the power to distort everything that is mirrored, so that you only see the flaws in everything.

The mirror falls to the ground and is crushed, and the splinters fly around with the distorted dark force in them. And it happens that one splinter speck gets into the eye of Kay, and the boy suddenly only believes in what can be counted, measured, and weighed. Gerda, on the other hand, cries over him and wants to save him.

The adventure is a long story of how Gerda bravely and purposefully travels far to get Kay back. It is a fairytale, and it ends well as it is revealed that the strongest power that can make even doubting frozen cold hearts melt…. is love.

At Midsummer we promised to keep away the cold of our hearts by lighting our bonfires, and lighting hope and love in each other's hearts, and faith.

Listen to Benny Andersen's beautiful tribute to life:

Live while you are living and do not be envious

But wish the living all the best in life

A hand can be clenched as well as opened

Use it for caresses and not for strokes

Tomorrow may be another day

Where nothing is quite the same as before.

Amen.