(L-R) mission specialist Jeremy Hansen of CSA (Canadian Space Agency), mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover, and commander Reid Wiseman(Image: Getty Images)
Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name:
Jeremiah 31: 35 NRSVue
To the moon Alice, to the moon!
This was the misogynistic, disturbing threat, thankfully never fulfilled, issued regularly by the volatile Ralph Kramden to his wife Alice in the brief 50s series, The Honeymooners.
Astronauts are heading to the moon this evening, weather permitting, a precurser flight for the first actual orbit of Earth's satellite since 1972. The very first orbit was in 1968 with a reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve. I was in my mid teens when Apollo 11, the first lunar landing, occurred in 1969 and as with so many households our family looked on with fascination. Walter Cronkite, the legendary news anchor, was left chuckling and speechless as "the Eagle has landed."
One of the mission specialists for this Artemis II expedition is a Canadian, Jeremy Hansen. There have several Canadian astronauts but Hansen be the first Canuck to leave Earth's orbit and in select company as one of only two dozen humans to orbit or land on the moon.
Blessing on the new moon Drawing from 1695 Amsterdam Passover Haggadah
It is an interesting synchronicity that this is the first day of Pesach/Passover. This ancient Jewish festival begins at sundown because it is connected to the rising of the moon. There will be watch parties today for Artemis and there will be watch parties to declare the first sighting of the moon for Pesach to commence.
Christians are mid-way through Holy Week because the date of Easter is set as the first Sunday following the first full moon of the Spring Equinox. Jesus the Jew was in Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and what we term the Last Supper was a Pesach meal. His agonizing hours in the Garden of Gethsemane may have been bathed in moonlight.
When I was in pastoral ministry I supported the conversations about establishing a fixed date for Easter instead of careening around the calendar from year to year. One really early Easter in Sudbury we gathered to celebrate the Resurrection on a morning where it snowed heavily enough that one attendee quipped that it felt more like Christmas.
Now I have such a sense of wonder about the changing of the seasons and the marvellous waxing and waning of the moon that I revel in the archaic setting of Passover and Easter when so much of life, including the Artemis launch, is described in precise terms. For all our human striving and accomplishment, the Earth and the Moon, the other planets and their satellites move in stately grandeur in their orbits. Isn't the inconvenience somehow an important part of our shared stories?
We shouldn't take any of this for granted. Four weeks ago we were shivering outside early in the morning to see the lunar eclipse and it was stirring, in slow motion.
Godspeed for today's astronauts. To the moon Jeremy, to the moon!
