Join us for
The Spring Called to Arise Series
Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm, March 2-23, 2021
From Death to Resurrection
A collaboration between Together Here Ministries - NEMN Synod, EcoFaith Network - NEMN Synod and Care of Creation Work Group - St. Paul Area Synod
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For Times Like This by Sue Lyback
"Sometimes I wonder what is real, what is not, who am I, where is God? Crazy world, strange times. Things I always thought I knew now don’t seem to be so true. I don’t know about you, but me? I wasn’t raised for times like this. I was taught right from wrong, real truth that does not change With the whim of the one who tells the story only so that THAT one can win, Can gain power over more, and more…and more until There’s no more left. No more quiet. No more safe. No more hope. No more life. I can’t breathe. I wasn’t raised for times like this."
Read the rest of this reflection here.
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Living into the Biblical Vision of Jubilee through Regenerative Farming
by Don Schuld, chairperson of the St. Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Work Group
That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you:
You shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth,
Or harvest the unpruned vines.
For it is a jubilee: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
Leviticus 25:11
Our St Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Work Group has become especially interested in regenerative farming for its promise to not only slow the growth of atmospheric greenhouse gasses but bring down the total amount of carbon and return it to the soil where it is needed. Our conventional industrial agricultural practices demonstrate that we have not listened to the words of Leviticus. In fact, we have not listened to our ancestors, to our indigenous farmers and
yes, even to what many animals have told us. The land needs to rest and be regenerated.
Read the rest of this reflection here.
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We want to share stories of care for the earth from congregations and communities like yours! If you have a sustainability story to share from your congregation or community, email ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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Moments of Arising:
A Video Series for the Jubilee Year of Earth Day
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Watch the latest Moments of Arising video, Responsibility!
Come, O Gracious Healer, source of health and life,
May we, too, be healers, we who have caused strife.
Strengthen our hands to bind the wounds of Earth,
Sharing with the world your promise of rebirth.
Responsibility
Stanza 7, Now the Green Blade Rises
In a year unlike any other, this January has been a month unlike any other. Two weeks after an unprecedented attack on the United States Capitol we celebrated the Inauguration of the 46th President. So now, what is our responsibility? How do we exercise it?
Responsibility, the recently released Moments of Arising video, does not pretend to answer the question for us. Yet, with music and visual imagery, with Kendrick Hall’s prayer and Tammy Walhof's call to put neighbor and nature at the center of public policy, it places the question of our responsibility right where it belongs --- into our open hands and beating hearts.
The final video in the series, Resurrection, will be released on February 15. With Rev. Karen Bockelman’s litany, Rev. David Carlson’s reflection, Linda Kalweit’s film design, and an extraordinary performance of Paul Jacobson’s final stanza 8 arrangement of Now the Green Blade Rises, this video will echo with the alleluia of the green blade rising.
May these videos befriend your yearning for healing of creation, and stimulate conversation and action in this moment of arising!
Pastor Kristin Foster
Moments of Arising Project Coordinator
EcoFaith Network NE MN Synod
Leadership Team Co-Chairperson
You can watch all the videos here.
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Preaching for the Whole Creation:
Commentary on the Lectionary
For Sundays of Epiphany Feb 21-28
Commentary for February 21 and 28, the first two Sundays in Lent, will be available soon and can be requested by emailing ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
“For those who are in Christ, creation is new. Everything old has passed away. Behold, all things are new.” -- II Corinthians 5:7, translation by David Rhoads What is the connection between Jesus and the “new creation”? We hope that the four previous installments of the commentary on the scripture readings for Epiphany have begun to answer this question. We appreciate that our use of II Corinthians 5:7 as an epigraph for this series may nonetheless still seem problematic, if for no other reason than the rarity of the association. Of the two instances of “new creation” in the New Testament (Galations 6:15 is the other one), this is the only one that specifically links the phrase with Jesus or Christ.
Read the EcoFaith Epiphany lectionary commentary here.
Written by Rev. Dennis Ormseth. Rev. Ormseth has been writing ecologically oriented commentary on the lectionary for many years. He is active in Lutherans Restoring Creation, the EcoFaith Network of the Minneapolis Area Synod, and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
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EcoFaith in Worship and the Word
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Creation in the Bible
Reflections on creation, earth care, ecojustice
"I wonder if, when you have looked at the image of creation in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, you have ever considered God’s other arm, the one wrapped around a woman. I suggest to you that this is Woman Wisdom who, we learn in Proverbs 8 (as well as in Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon), was there with God at the beginning. Read Proverbs 8:22-31 and you find Wisdom as a partner, a daughter, an architect there with God at creation..."
Check out the whole reflection here.
Dr. Diane Jacobson is Professor Emerita of Old Testament, Luther
Seminary and the retired Director of the ELCA Book of Faith Initiative.
Her extensive speaking, writing, and workshop leading often
highlights the ecological dimensions of the Bible.
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Sunday Creation Connections
This section comes from Sundays & Seasons and brings creation connections for every Sunday.
February 7 – 5th Sunday after Epiphany
God spreads out a blanket in the heavens that becomes like the ceiling of a tent for us. It is this same God, so high in the heavens, who comes close to earth, bending in care for those who are lowly and dejected. The prophet envisions God maintaining “the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22), not as one instance of setting things in motion but as a continual active presence, even making earthly rulers wither like grass. Sensing the circle of creation and the ongoing dance of life, we come to a humble discovery of our own place within it all. We are part of the great circle dance, but just a part. It is God who calls the dance into being and guides it. Blessed be our brief time and small steps in the dance of the cosmos.
Check out the February & March creation connections here.
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This Month's Green Tips
Feel free to use these helpful Green Tips created by two Synod members for your bulletins and general knowledge! These are meant to inspire earthkeeping action!
Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa and here are Steve Spigarelli's Green Tips from First Lutheran in Aitkin.
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Book Review
Wild Hope by Gayle Boss
Stories for Lent from the Vanishing
Pangolins and polar bears, olms, lemurs, and leopards. We share this beautiful blue-green globe with creatures magnificent, delicate, intricate—and now vanishing at a faster rate than at any other time in Earth’s history. Spend Lent with twenty-five of these wild ones. Vivid descriptions of their lives will fill readers with wonder—and grief at what they suffer on a planet shaped by human choices.
Read the whole book review here.
And information about ordering Wild Hope here.
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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.
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Saturday, February 6th, 12-4pm Palisade, MN
The EcoFaith Network was invited to this event. Feel free to join us for a socially-distanced, family-friendly gathering to celebrate winter, water, and our love for the Mississippi River. Water protectors and others who are working together for a sustainable future will share educational information while building community around a just transition for rural northeastern Minnesota. Stop by anytime between noon and 4PM for free art-making activities, music, storytelling, and healthy food.
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What We've Been Reading
Here are a few other resources the EcoFaith Team is reading!
MPR
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The EcoFaith Network of Northeastern MN is a growing network of ELCA Lutheran congregations and their members in northeastern Minnesota with a mission to live out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation. Through social media, seminars, resources on current environmental justice issues, project micro-grants and active inter-and intra- congregational conversations, the EcoFaith Network encourages grassroots creation care actions among the Synod’s 133 congregations and leadership within their communities.
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