"Now the green blade rises from the buried grain"

An online publication of the EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation

Thank you 2022 EcoFaith Network Congregation Contributors!

Your support makes our work together possible! Bethel-Trinity, Bovey Bethlehem, Brainerd Bethlehem, Grand Marais Calvary, Mora Gloria Dei, Duluth Holden, Isle Trinity, Cass Lake Trinity, Hovland

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God’s Creation-Raising Awareness by Russ Schultz, Creation Care Team Chairperson Bethlehem Lutheran, Brainerd

One day I was checking my church mailbox and I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of the September/October 2022 edition of “gather” the magazine of Women of the ELCA. In the magazine there was an article written by Anna Madsen entitled, Take off your shoes. Humus and humanity go hand in hand calling us to be good stewards of God’s creation. I found out later the magazine placed in my mailbox was by a congregational member knowing I was the leader of our church’s Creation Care team. This effort, by our Bethlehem member, reminds me we need to continue raising awareness within our congregation to care for God’s creation. This awareness sometimes gets buried. In our daily lives it is so easy to take God’s creation for granted. We all get absorbed in our day-to-day activities. This also happens in our church lives. There we also focus on the many good God’s work activities that provide great community service but we, many times, overlook that caring for God’s creation is also a stewardship responsibility. Read the full reflection here

Hope Calls: Advent Action for Climate Justice  Our friends in the Minneapolis Area Synod EcoFaith Network have shared an advent devotional focused on climate action with us! Project organizer Pastor Martha Bardwell at Our Saviour's in Minneapolis writes: "This Advent, Minneapolis congregations of many denominations are coming together to put our hope into action. We will take on the spiritual discipline of making weekly phone calls to our city council members to urge them to support the People’s Climate & Equity Plan, a plan that sets bold goals for a just transition to a renewable energy future and that creates a robust fund to address our climate and racial equity crises simultaneously. A booklet that will guide us through this spiritual practice has been co-created by faith leaders - including many pastors in the Minneapolis Area Synod. Those outside of Minneapolis are encouraged to use the devotions in tandem with calling your own local elected leaders and sharing your vision for a sustainable future." Download the devotional here

ELCA Climate Message Comment Period Closes Tomorrow, 12/2

Thank you for an energizing and productive discussion last month about the ELCA draft social message on climate. As a reminder, the comment period on the draft closes this Friday, December 2nd. We encourage you to take some time to reflect and send in comments on the ELCA website here. Your voice matters in affirming climate action as a priority for our denomination.

Coming in the New Year: Creation Care Connections Seasonal Zoom Gatherings

The EcoFaith Accompaniment Outreach Team will host seasonal Zoom gatherings in 2023! Join us for new and ongoing ideas, ways to get started and engage others, prayerful support during challenges, and a place to celebrate times of joy and hope. Dates will be January 12, April 13, July 13 and October 12, 2023 from 7-8 pm. Please contact ecofaith@nemnsynod.org with questions! Flyer will come soon.

Save the Date! 2023 EcoFaith Summit Saturday, April 15, in Duluth

Creation Advocacy

Minnesota Voted, Now What? by Tammy Walhof, Lutheran Advocacy, MN NEW COMMITTEES & COMMITTEE CHAIRS: On Friday afternoon, Nov. 18, while “finishing” this update, House and Senate Majorities released lists of both their committees and chairpersons. There are several committees that will have impacts on environmental and climate-related policy. Oddly, despite all being controlled by DFL majorities, House and Senate will have different committees, which is an important reminder that the House and Senate are each very distinct bodies. The Senate combined their Energy & Utilities Committee with their Environment Committee to form the Energy, Utilities, and Climate Committee to be led by Sen. Nick Frentz (North Mankato). The Natural Resources part of their previous Environment Committee was combined with Legacy to form the Legacy & Natural Resources Committee, led by Sen. Foung Hawj (Eastside St. Paul). Meanwhile, the House kept separate committees, with Sen. Patti Acomb (Minnetonka) replacing Rep. Jamie Long as chair of the Climate, Energy & Finance Committee, the Environment and Natural Resources Committee which will continue to be led by Sen. Rick Hansen (South St. Paul), and Legacy Finance which will continue to be led by Rep. Leon Lillie (North St. Paul). Read the full update here

Green Blades Rising in Congregations and Synods

Kids and a Pollinator Project by Pastor Erica Foss, Trinity Lutheran, Cook, MN At Trinity we have “Sunday School” on Wednesdays. Wednesday is an early out of school day for our district. We pick the kids (30-40 each week!) at school and bring them to church for a mini-day camp each week. We include snacks, singing, prayer practices, games, crafts, bible learning and God’s work our hands projects with congregational members. We call this time Bible Quest. Week one of pollinators at Bible Quest Bruce Garbisch, the lead pollinator garden person at Trinity, came with a presentation for the kids to talk about pollinators. His presentation included pictures of some of the pollinators we would be planting. The kids soaked up this presentation. They even added to the presentation because they were studying monarchs and pollinators at school! When the presentation was finished, the kids got to work making labels for each pollinator. We used index cards. The kids wrote the name of the plant and if they felt so moved, they could draw the plant as well. We then laminated the cards and hot glued popsicle sticks to them so they were ready for the next week. (see picture below). Read the full report here!

SAVE ENERGY, SAVE MONEY, SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT    THAT’S A WIN-WIN FOR EVERYONE Saint Paul Area Care of Creation By Vernita Kennen, Incarnation Lutheran, Shoreview The Saint Paul Area Synod’s Care of Creation group had a presentation from EnerChange (www.enerchange.org),an organization which provides nonprofits with FREE energy audits and recommendations.  EnerChange has a 10+-year history of working with houses of worship, schools, healthcare facilities and other nonprofits which saves energy, dollars, and our shared environment.  They are able to provide this FREE service through the Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) a collaborative venture of the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy as well as Minnesota Utility Ratepayers.  They work currently within the territory of their funders but check with them - - they may be able to find funders and hope to be able to work statewide. Read the whole article here

Do you have a story to share? We want to hear it! Please email Rachel, EcoFaith Network Communication Coordinator, at ecofaith@nemnsynod.org.

Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

The Green Blades Preaching Roundtable weekly reflections by a variety of preaching writers on the ecological implications of each Sunday’s lectionary.  To inquire about writing for the Green Blades Preaching Roundtable, or to receive these reflections on a weekly basis, contact Kristin Foster, editor, at revkristinfoster@gmail.com

Pr. Melinda Quivik, ELCA pastor and Editor-in-Chief of Liturgy Advent II December 4, 2022 Isaiah 11:1–10 Psalm 72:1–7, 18–19 Romans 15:4–13 Matthew 3:1–12 Advent wants us to wake up so that we are ready to take in the promise that, as Isaiah puts it: “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” The very Earth will know God.  Faced with a land that holds “the knowledge of the Lord,” that knows God, that exudes who God is, what else would we want to do than treat with compassion all people, all plants and creatures, the air and soil and water that God has given us?!!! Read the full reflection here

Pastor Karen Behling, Chippewa Falls, WI Advent II December 4, 2022 Repentance is all about assessing where relationships have become torn and then creatively imagining how to mend that tear so that joy can flourish. Or as John the Baptist urges us, “Bear fruit.” Fruit is pleasant to behold, it nourishes, and from its seeds, it produces more fruit which promotes more life which brings greater blessings. As we look around at our world today and consider the state of our relationships with each other and with the waterways and with the land and with all the creatures of this planet, it is so very obvious that the fabric of our life together has ripped and torn apart. So much is out of balance. And as unsettling as things may be for us, in many parts of this world, the situation is truly alarming. To do nothing is to consent to this scary downward slope. To repent is to name the tears in the fabric of our life together and then to find ways to work together to mend these many tears. It will not be easy. There is no quick fix, nor can we go back to what once was. But with some imagination and some innovation, we can find ways to mend these tears and discover the life that could be, the life that God envisions for all of us together.  Read the whole reflection here

Pastor Lisa Buchanen, Deer River, Minnesota Advent III December 11, 2022 Isaiah 35:1-10 Psalm 145:5-10(or Luke 1:46b-55) James 5:7-10  Matthew 11:2-11 My attention today is drawn to the popular desire for a Messiah who would fix everything, and Jesus showing the reality that everything cannot get fixed at once with a cosmic finger snap, but through the intentional and persistent unfolding of the kingdom of heaven. I know that we can all get frustrated at the enormity of the environmental crisis and wish someone would just do something about it already. Didn’t Jeff Bezos say he was going to give away most of his wealth!? There we go! Easy and done. Whew. For a moment there, I thought I would have to change. We want the easy fix, and yet, begrudgingly, we are beginning to realize that we all have a part in creating a sustainable future starting with our actions in day to day living. Everyday we keep trying. Read the whole reflection here

Pastor Claire Repsholdt, Patchogue, NY Advent IV December 18, 2022 Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 Romans 1:1-8  Matthew 1:18-25 In the last few weeks, I am sure we have all embraced the traditions of Advent in full festivity. As we have prepared for the coming of Christ, it may have been a little bit like we are kids in the back seat of a car on a long road trip, hating the world as it passes by the window. Struggling to settle down as we are waiting and waiting and waiting for the big arrival. And for a few precious weeks, we have rightly embraced the task of enchanting each other to make the waiting less difficult. We baked cookies, wore colorful clothes, lit candles, and sang some of our most familiar hymns.  In these last few days, though, perhaps, after all of this amazing enchantment has been done, we have enough courage to look out the window at the world around us. Perhaps we have enough time to let what is unadorned in this season speak. To look out at the world and let the cold wind, the black skies, the bare trees whisper to us that something new is about to arrive.  Read the whole reflection here

Pastor Dick Bruesehoff, Anishinaabe land near Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin Christmas Eve and Christmas Day December 24 and 25, 2022 Luke 2:1-14[15-20], John 1:1-14 On the Feast of the Nativity, less is more! The time will come to explore, perhaps even to argue the case for the Incarnation. Days will follow, plenty of them, for diving into every nook and cranny of the duties and delights of discipleship. Even then we will never fully know and understand the mystery of the Incarnation. Today it is enough to celebrate the beginnings, to ponder convergences, to reflect on the Incarnation as the glue that connects us to God and God’s beloved world, to ruminate on the mysteries of Word and Flesh. Read the whole reflection here

Pastor Amanda Kossow, Cass Lake, Minnesota January 1, 2023 Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148, Heb 2:10-18; Matt 2:13-23 As I started reading Hebrews, I was struck by the author’s sidenote assertion in verse 10, “…God, for whom…all things exist.” I exist for God. You exist for God. The black squirrel exists for God. The tall red pine exists for God. The sparkling snow exists for God. The gray sky exists for God. You get the idea. I can’t really say where I’m going with this necessarily, but it affirmed for me the purpose of all of creation. This then, for me at least, contested the prevailing notion in some cultures, mine included, that the sole reason for other-than-human life is to serve us humans. I then came across the author’s good news: “so that through death he [Jesus] might destroy the one who has the power of death…and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” Fear of physical death has a stronghold on many of our lives. I started to wonder though, what other types of death do we fear and hold us captive? Death of our theological and/or scriptural stances? Death of our viselike grip on self-serving power? Death of our consumptive way of life?  Read the whole reflection here

Rev. Emily Meyer, The Ministry Lab January 1, 2023 Isaiah 63:7-9; Psalm 148, Heb 2:10-18; Matt 2:13-23 Like Ramah before them, and Bethlehem in today’s Matthew reading, many of our communities find themselves in a paradoxical position of weeping and lamenting, while quietly carrying the (unacknowledged?) additional weight of complicity in either their own suffering, or the suffering of other communities. In preparation for this First Sunday after Christmas, it is worthwhile to attend to Matthew 2:3, in which ‘King Herod… and all Jerusalem with him’ are frightened by the news of a new king being born. ‘All Jerusalem’ has good reason to be afraid - not because a new king has been born, but because Herod is afraid. There is nothing more frightening for a population than a frightened despot. Frightened authoritarian leaders do frightening things. Unfortunately, frightened populations often allow frightening things to happen - either to themselves, or to a scapegoat population they are willing to sacrifice for their own preservation. Read the whole reflection here

Connections with Creation December December 4 – Second Sunday of Advent Trees appear in all three readings this week: the axe at the roots, a shoot from the stump, a root that rises. These tree images evoke ecological relationships between wounding and healing, growth and ruin, death and life. Indeed, in a forest one may notice how many new trees are sprouting from stumps or fallen, decomposing trunks. Forest ecologists teach that a tree’s life span can be roughly divided into thirds: a third as a growing and living tree, a third having died and still standing, and a third fallen and serving as a nurse log for newly emerging trees and plants. While John’s axe threatens, Jesus in his death on the tree becomes a nurse log for the world. Exploring a forest and noticing how many trees are growing from older ones that have died, one may wonder if every tree is a shoot from a stump of Jesse. Read all Connections with Creation for December and January

Psalm 148 Worship Video

The Ministry Lab is creating a video reflection on Psalm 148 comprised of photos and images contributed by members around the state of Minnesota. Congregations and leaders are invited to share this video as a sermon (give your preacher the First Sunday after Christmas off!), as another part of worship, or for a contemplative gathering - online or in person. The video is free for member congregations who can register for the video link here. Non-members can request access by emailing Emily Meyer (ministrylab@unitedseminary.edu).

EcoFaith Book of the Month Drawing Close, Encountering Joy by Janice E. Kirk Over the two years I have written book reviews for the EchoFaith newsletter, most have been about climate change and the threats to the environment and how and why we human beings need to change our ways. Janice Kirk’s book is a refreshing departure from that theme. Through poetry, drawings, prayers and scripture readings, she calls upon the reader to “enjoy nature’s wonders every day.” I did that as I read through her book, sitting on the edge of the lake where I live. I would recommend reading this short volume as close to nature as you can. Read the whole review here

This book review is by John Hanson, a retired pastor living on Turtle Lake, north of Grand Rapids, with his wife, Linda. He is a member of the NE MN Synod EcoFaith Leadership Team.

This Month's Green Tips Use these in your congregation's bulletins, Facebook pages, websites, or newsletters! Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips from Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa The Global Extinction Crisis is NOT Inevitable Here are Steve Spigarelli's Green Tips from First Lutheran, Aitkin

Read. Watch. Listen. Share!

Rooted Transformation on a Small Farm Faith & Lead COP27 Reaches Breakthrough Agreement on New “Loss and Damage” Fund for Vulnerable Countries UN Climate Press Release Water as Part of the Climate Solution Inside Climate News

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