Being Church as if Earth Matters
My recent talk at the Ecology, Economics and Theology Consultation of the WCRC, Depok Indonesia
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Wow, jet lag! I returned from Indonesia on Tuesday evening, and just this (Friday) morning I am beginning to feel human. Since I have been quiet on here - the wifi was insufficient to be able to post while I was away - this post is unlocked for all subscribers.
I was in Jakarta - actually in Depok, a large town outside of the capital of Indonesia - for the Ecology, Economics and Theology Consultation hosted by the Climate Justice Core Group of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
I am one of the members of the Group; this was my first time meeting my team members, and so many others, in person. In a few short days, I made many new friends, and now I have a place to stay in several countries from around the world.
Recently, the WCRC launched the Decade for Climate Justice, a decade in which combatting climate heating as an existential issue will be front and centre for the WCRC. Here is its formal launch, in which I participated: Learning from the Earth: Witnessing for Climate Justice. The goal of the consultation was to collectively draft a statement that would provide the theological grounding and direction for the work of the Climate Justice Core Group and the Decade for Climate Justice.
The statement that we wrote together after three days of talks, is powerful and direct. I invite you to read it in its entirety here: Faith, Economy, Ecology: A Theological Statement from the World Communion of Reformed Churches. If you are looking for a summary, click here.
One of the contributions that I made to the Consultation was a talk on ecclesial responses to the economic and ecological crises facing people and the planet today. The text of that talk is here for your reflection. I will be writing more over the coming weeks and months about the many learnings I gained from my time there. I have come home transformed.
Being Church as if Earth Matters
Talk Given at the Ecology, Economics and Theology Consultation, Depok Indonesia, October 20, 2023
Good afternoon. I stand here before you as a white, Christian settler on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Anishinaabe Algonquin First Nation in what is now called Ottawa, Canada. I live in the Ottawa River watershed, some 15, 637 km from here, and is the place in which I learned to walk, talk, and have my being, and which forms me in ways known and unknown.
I am an ecotheologian, with expertise in understanding how we can respond to the ecological crisis in our actions as Christian disciples. I am also an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada, my adopted church after being raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. These are some of the identities and intersections that inform me and my understanding of the world.
Grounded in Discipleship
My work explores how we can act as Christians to the ecological and, by necessity and extension, the economic crises that are destroying people and the planet. What I have discovered is that our responses must be embodied in our actions and that these actions form our discipleship as followers of Jesus Christ in the world today. If what we say we believe is not lived out in our actions, it is not discipleship. I am convicted by Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:24: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Jesus calls us to lose our lives in order to gain them and to pick up our cross and follow him.
Of course, we here are all leaders in our churches, and so we know this. And we know that this call for discipleship comes from Christ himself and that we as the church have the responsibility to guide and teach our members to live lives of full, rich discipleship.
We also know that, unless we are grounded in discipleship, the calls to respond to the economic and ecological crises will ultimately go unheard. This is for two reasons: One, especially for those of us in the global North, we can hear about the plight of people suffering from poverty and oppression in our places and around the world, and think that ‘prayers and thoughts,’ or maybe a few dollars to a ministry in that area, is enough. We will fail to understand the complex structures that underpin socio-economic oppression.
Two, if we are not grounded in discipleship, if we are not grounded in the life of mission and ministry that Jesus calls us to, then calling out multinational corporations, the governments that collude with them, and the worldviews that have led to such widespread suffering, will have little effect. We must “practice what we preach,” if our words are to have the moral and practical effect that they must in order to be persuasive.
How to Practice What We Preach
My question for us, though, as church leaders, is to ask: How do we, and our congregations, practice what we preach? How do we, and they, move from actions that are well-intentioned but insufficient to the demands of the economic and ecological crises, and instead move to system transformation and healing?
One answer, friends and colleagues, is that we must go deeper than many churches are going today. For discipleship to be discipleship, for us to be equipped to take the radical actions that we must, our efforts must be rooted in that which we need to be sustained in our faith: Sunday worship and the liturgies that shape it. I want to move us, this afternoon, from the high levels of doctrine and formal church responses, as important as they are, to that which draws us in and sustains us in our faith; Sunday worship.
More Than Care for Creation
Because my work is about discipleship in response to the ecological crisis, this is where I am going to focus my next remarks. As we know, the church has been leading for a long time in offering effective liturgy that recognizes systemic economic injustice. Perhaps it has been easier because our scripture texts speak so explicitly to that issue. However, overall the church has been less effective in transforming our liturgies to reflect a deeper understanding of the ecological crisis, how we got into this predicament in the first place, and how we can get out of it.
I am, of course, primarily speaking out of my own tradition within the United Church of Canada, but I know that what I am about to say resonates with my siblings in other denominations, too. In Christian churches for the last couple of decades, there has been a call to “care for creation” in response to the ecological crisis. This call in my own denomination made me hopeful when I joined the United Church in 2010.
However, over the years that I have been involved in the church and in Christian life more generally, I have discovered that, when it comes to what we know, now, that humans are embedded in a wider Earth community, and that we need to create a healing relationship with the natural world, very little of that is being reflected in current church life. Rev. Stephen Blackmer, an American Episcopal priest, says it this way. He points out that Christian practice, as it is currently shaped, does not provide us with “a ready way…to live body, mind, and soul in relationship with the Earth and all her creatures.[1]”
In other words, when we go to church today, unless it is a special service for the environment, there is usually little to no reference to the reality that we are part of the ecosystems and watersheds around us. There is little to no reference to the reality that we live within a 13.8-billion-year universe history that was created by God our Creator. Although many communities of faith express concern about climate change and the need for environmental action, rarely is that reflected outside of our prayers of the people and the odd creation-themed hymn.
We know that the world is burning, that species are dying, that lands are becoming uninhabitable and that this is all having devastating consequences for animals, plants, and humans. And we know that we are interdependent in a complex natural world. Yet, that has rarely if ever changed what our liturgies look like; our prayer lives; Bible study; or most of our community activities. Yet, I invite you to reflect on a question that Rev. Blackmer asks in light of our Easter story: What does it mean when we preach the resurrection while the Earth is dying?[2]
What does it mean when we preach the resurrection while the Earth is dying?
Now, speaking out of the context of the global North, I will say that, generally speaking, we as a church have done a fair job at raising awareness about issues of climate change and other aspects of environmental harm. We have done a fair job regarding climate justice, raising awareness about the fact that the greatest consequences and burdens of global warming are being experienced by the most vulnerable human communities globally. I know that churches in the Global South are most definitely leading the way in this regard.
What I haven’t seen, however, in my context, is the church allowing what we know about the wonder of creation, God’s good creation, and the truth of the ecological crisis, to transform our worship lives, to transform how we understand God and the call of the Gospel on our lives. We have not allowed the reality of nature and crisis to cause a metanoia, a transformation, in who we are as church. Christian ethicist Larry Rasmussen talks about the need to “deepen our God-talk,” to allow the way that we speak about God and worship God to reflect what we know, now. “Worthy God-talk,” Rasmussen says, “gathers in all of Earth’s voices to sing the hymn of creation [and] to reflect creation’s ‘shine of the holy.’”[3] He goes on to say that unless God-talk encompasses the reality of what we know of the universe and the remarkable diversity of life on Earth, in both its “misery and grandeur”, that talk is not worthy of God.[4]
Now, you may be wondering, why does this really matter? As long as we are encouraging ‘care for creation,’ through announcements and outreach projects, why does it matter whether we ‘green’ our liturgies, too? Aren’t the concrete actions we take to mitigate climate change and species extinction, to address the links between ecology and economics, what matter more?
It's Not an Either-Or
Well first, it is not an either-or proposition, where we either we green our liturgies or we take concrete action. In fact, what we have learned from feminist and liberation theologians about how the ways that we name and imagine God have a direct impact on how women and those in the global South are portrayed and, in turn, treated, shows us that how we understand creation and the nature of creation in worship has direct implications for how we portray the natural world and, in turn, treat the natural world.
So there is one way in which what we do on Sunday in church impacts upon efforts for Earth healing: When liturgy is transformed to include all of God’s good creation; when hymns that lift up the wonder of the natural world and the voices of the Earth community praising God; and when scripture readings are studied and preached for what the Gospel has to say regarding our relationship with the natural world, the ecological crisis and our responsibility, then people start to see the Earth differently. We start to notice the ways in which the Earth community praises God and lives within the sacred rhythms of life. We also start to notice the gifts that each creature brings, and also where Earth’s creatures are being silenced, harmed, and subjugated. We start to realize, for example, the parallels between the subjugation of our faith ancestors in scripture, and the subjugation of the Earth community today, as well as how that connects with the continuing subjugation of people around the world.
Worship and Costly Discipleship
Even more so, though, the transformation of our life as a community of faith to reflect better God-talk about the Earth community in which we are interconnected and interdependent is vital for another reason. It is because the discipleship that we are called to as followers of Jesus Christ is hard. It is costly. A discipleship of Earth healing, that takes on the issues of climate change and species extinction, fracking and pipelines, ecological refugees and environmental racism; that is a discipleship that is simply not possible unless our worship and our fellowship as a church supports us. We need worship and fellowship that corresponds to and bolsters our eco-discipleship. We need worship and fellowship that mirrors where God is calling us to go, how God is calling us to be, and what God is calling us to do. Further, we need worship and fellowship that will cause metanoia, that will help to bring about the transformation within our hearts and souls, our minds and bodies, so that we are able to hear God’s call on our lives in this way, and then are able to act on God’s call in this way!
This is why the lack of God-talk about the Earth community, in deep and meaningful ways beyond the odd Sunday, is such a problem. As Rev. Blackmer says, “And yet, notwithstanding the rightness of all I have been doing, Christian practice, as I have learned it, does not provide a ready way to live out my life-long and passionate love: to live body, mind and soul in relationship with the Earth and all her creatures.” He then asks, “What would ‘church’ be if Earth mattered?[5]”
If I feel a pull toward the hard work of picking up my cross of climate activism, but my worship life does not reflect that, sustain me in that, or encourage me in that, how will I be able to hold onto that cross? If I sense tendrils of love for Earth’s creatures when I go hiking with my church community, but that isn’t reflected on Sunday, how will those tendrils be transformed into action? If I come to Bible study battered, bruised and discouraged by the hard work of transforming my life to better match my values of Earth healing, how will I be able to continue in that discipleship if I don’t hear interpretations of Scripture that encourage and challenge me?
How can I walk the path of costly discipleship, the path that is all too easy to step off, if I am not immersed in the wonder of God’s good creation on Sundays, if I am not heard, supported and held in the prayers of the people on Sundays, if I am not challenged and transformed in my relationship with Jesus Christ, within Earth community, on Sundays?
And further, how can we, as a community, take the hard steps to be transformed as communities of faith in light of what we know about the natural world, God’s good creation, and the way that certain humans are destroying it if we don’t experience an immersive, transformative experience of God, ourselves as Earth creatures, and the call to Earth healing, on Sundays? So a question, then is: How can we be church as if Earth matters, if Earth doesn’t matter on Sundays?
Transforming Liturgy
And so, one of the ways that we can respond to the ecological crisis, as we have already been doing with the economic crisis, is to guide our communities of faith to transform our liturgies. There are several ways in which we can do this, and I can’t go into them in detail right now if I am to respect the time I have been given!
I will list just a few ways in which we can transform our liturgy so that it can, in turn, transform us in our Christian discipleship. First, I have mentioned already the need to have better God-Talk. How we name and understand God, not just as the God of human beings but of the entire Earth community, is vital.
Second, we can explore Scripture more fully. The entire Bible is soaked in stories, images, and messages that can speak to us as people of faith in our time and place, living in Earth community and responding to the cries of the world today.
Third, we need to transform our prayer in worship to be not just about our human needs and relationship with God, but about the needs of God’s groaning creation, and our relationship as part of that creation. Fourth, there is a vital need to bring lament back into liturgy. Our colleague Eve Rebecca Parker spoke about this in the launch of the Decade for Climate Justice.
Finally, we are invited to explore the symbols of our sacraments, of baptism and communion, in terms of how we use those most earthly of symbols, water, bread and grape. I am going to flesh this out with you a little more now.
Baptism
It is time to reflect more deeply, with the Earth community and in light of the ecological crisis, on the actual physical water that we are using in baptism, and on the reality of water, itself. Asking questions about what the local watershed is, how polluted the water may be, and the lack of universal access to clean water: These and other questions can invite us into metanoia, into transformation, a transformation that makes our baptism deeper, and more meaningful. Our baptism then becomes enlarged to include the entire Earth community and invites us into deeper discipleship.
The Eucharist
So, too, with the symbols of the Eucharist. When you eat this bread and drink this wine, Jesus said, remember me. Where do the wheat and the grape come from? How were the farm workers treated, and who grew the crops? Do they come from local, small farmers, or from big agribusiness? What is our relationship to the land in which the wheat and the grape were grown? How does our consumption of the bread and wine at Jesus’ table affect our relationship with the farmers, with the ingredients, and with the Earth itself? How might these questions, and more, invite us into deeper transformation when we eat at Jesus’ table?
Summary and Conclusion
The transformation of our liturgies is just one aspect of our collective life as a church that needs to be transformed in order to reflect the reality of our place within the Earth community, the reality that all is made in the image and likeness of God, and to better reflect the reality of the ecological crisis. Every area needs transformation, including pastoral care, our understanding and practice of mission, and so much more. And this is our role and responsibility as leaders within our faith communities. How do we transform all that we do, all of who we are, in the face of the economic and ecological crises in the world today?
Ultimately, if we are to make the transformative and radical changes that we must for climate action and economic justice, then it requires a radical discipleship of following Jesus. And this is simply not possible, it is too difficult if we are not transforming Sunday worship to support, guide and challenge us in this.
This is one of the most important jobs that the ecclesia can take on right now. This is our role as church leaders. We must do more than ‘care for creation;’ we must transform our liturgies and, in doing so, be transformed ourselves. Thank you very much.
How can we be church as if Earth matters, if Earth doesn’t matter on Sundays?
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[1] Stephen Blackmer, “Being Church as If Earth Matters: A Response to Journey of the Universe from One Episcopalian’s Perspective,” in Living Cosmology: Christian Response to Journey of the Universe, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2016), p. 137.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Larry Rasmussen, “Getting from Protestant Social Justice to Interfaith Creation Justice,” in Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to Journey of the Universe, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2016), p. 152.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Blackmer, “Being Church as If Earth Matters,” 137.