"Now the green blade rises from the buried grain" |
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An online publication of the EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation |
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EcoFaith Connections with Lent & Easter
by Melinda A. Quivik,
Former professor of worship and preaching
Editor-in-chief of the journal Liturgy
Saint Paul Area Care of Creation
For our first Creation Connections event of 2023, Melinda Quivik prepared beautiful reflections on connections with creation for the seasons of Lent and Easter.
Quivik writes, "Each Sunday in Lent and Easter gives us images that feed our abilities to envision God’s desire for us as creatures who live together with other created life forms. Each Sunday the readings are windows into healthy and whole living."
Read the full reflections here
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Applications are now open for 2023 EcoFaith micro-grants!
The EcoFaith Network - NE MN Synod grant program equips God’s people to take specific new initiatives in response to God’s call to be stewards of the earth by providing seed money for specific ministry initiatives.
Grants between $100 and $1,000 are awarded each year for proposals from congregations and other church expressions, primarily in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod.
If your congregation is awarded a micro-grant, one or two members of the EcoFaith Network will offer support and encouragement, and invite you to share your experience as a way of inspiring other communities of faith.
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The Pollinator Plot
Cross+Pollination in a Time of Ecological Crisis
Saturday, April 15
9:30 – 3:30p.m.
At the Twin Ports
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Duluth
With virtual participation option
Keynote speaker: Margot Monson, entymologist and beekeeper
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In a moment of deep ecological crisis, this year’s EcoFaith Summit calls us to become part of the Holy Spirit’s subversive plot to pollinate an alternative way of being human for the sake of life.
In this great plot, faith communities of every size and place can be demonstration plots, pollinating alternative ways of living. We all steward plots of land, even tiny ones, which can become pollinator habitat. In this critical and decisive time, a Kairos moment, what we do with our specific plots wherever we are, matters. How we live the Gospel paradox that God’s power is shown in weakness can engage us in active hope amid the growing crisis we face.
Through worship, a keynote presentation, firsthand stories, conversations, and engagement sessions, together we will be empowered to be participants in this unfolding plot.
Look for registration information later in February.
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EcoFaith Network Partner Congregations: Has your congregation become a partner?
The following congregations in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod have made or committed to making a financial contribution to the EcoFaith Network.
Bethel-Trinity, Bovey
Bethlehem, Brainerd
Bethlehem, Grand Marais
Calvary, Mora
Gloria Dei, Duluth
Holden, Isle
Trinity, Cass Lake
Trinity, Hovland
We thank you!
Help nurture the growing ministry of the EcoFaith Network by becoming an EcoFaith Network Partner Congregation in 2023. Become an EcoFaith Network Partner Congregation in 2023 and make a financial contribution of any amount.
Every congregation who has made a contribution or budgeted commitment to the EcoFaith Support Fund in 2022-2023 will be recognized at the Synod Assembly in Brainerd. We hope that your congregation will be on that list, part of a growing network in support of living out God’s call to stewardship of the earth!
Learn more and find partner congregation forms here
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Green Blades Rising in Congregations and Synods |
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2023 Creation Care Events |
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Our first ever Creation Connections Event was a great success! We focused on solar power in churches. We are especially grateful to special guests Bret Pence, Beth Tamminen, and Melinda Quivik.
Future dates for Creation Connections include April 13, July 13 and October 12, 2023 from 7-8 pm. Please contact ecofaith@nemnsynod.org with questions!
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On February 4th, the Minneapolis Area Synod will host an EcoFaith Summit at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
The MAS writes, "This Summit will bring together lay people, clergy, community partners, and everyone in between from across the Minneapolis Area Synod to learn from one another about the incredible work already happening in our communities and future opportunities to further our Lutheran commitment to push back against our climate crisis."
Learn more and register here
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Do you have a story to share? We want to hear it! Please email Rachel, EcoFaith Network Communication Coordinator, at ecofaith@nemnsynod.org.
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Green Blades Preaching Roundtable |
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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
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Rev. Dianne Loufman, First Lutheran Church, Duluth, MN
Presentation of our Lord
February 5, 2023
Malachi 3:1-4
Psalm 84
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40
Candlemas takes place 40 days after Christmas – halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. We are never far away in our celebrations from connections to creation – in this case to the turning of the planet away and then back towards the light. It’s a wonderful time to preach about darkness and light and what it means to live in-between in the shadows. It could be an opportunity to break through the binary of light/good-dark/bad. What does the darkness help us to see? What does too much light prevent us from seeing? Light can be a source of deliverance or a source of judgment. What are some examples of light being welcomed and light not being welcomed? My geranium plant grew so big and beautiful in my office last winter and spring but when I took it outside into the full rather than dappled sunlight, the light became more like Malachi’s refining fire – there was not much left!
Read the full reflection here
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Rev. Krehl Stringer, Fergus Falls, MN
The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
January 15, 2023
Deut. 30:15-20 or Sir. 15:15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1Cor. 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37.
Both Deuteronomy and Sirach extol humanity’s God-given capacity to make choices, but they also make clear that choices will have their consequences. The Israelites can choose to obey God’s commandments and ordinances for the flourishing of community, or they can choose to disobey, which will naturally redound to the diminishment of community. Broaden this concept to the workings of the biosphere and you have an understanding of the ecological consequences wrought by a humanity neglectful of its mandate to serve and preserve this beautiful garden planet upon which all life depends. The appeal in Deuteronomy to “choose life so that you and your descendants may live,” (30:19b) is especially poignant in face of this present ecological crisis. It’s also worth noting that choosing life, choosing to be a blessing, is understood as “loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him “ (v. 20) In other words, making choices for the building up of community and the flourishing of life is an act of loving God…in the same sense as “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Mt. 25:40) This might offer a kairos time to extol the kinship we share with all creatures.
Read the whole reflection here
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Rev. Krehl Stringer, Fergus Falls, MN
Transfiguration of Our Lord
February 19, 2023
Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
2Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9.
What I find interesting is how the voice from the cloud makes explicit a connection to baptism (verbatim from the voice at Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3) as if to reiterate for folks first and foremost that they are beloved children of God. Baptism imparts (or reveals?) the glory of God’s love for all people and all Creation—a majestic glory that Jesus reveals to the disciples on the mountain. Notice how Jesus’ face shines like the sun, his clothes dazzling white as snow (Cf., Mt. 28:3 and Rev. 1:14), and his Father’s voice emanates from a bright cloud. This is more than the employment of metaphor to describe the ineffable—this is Matthew using the common experiences of nature to convey a beauty and glory manifest in all Creation for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. As the text of a new hymn puts it, “God bestows on every sense beauty as hope’s evidence: signs of what the earth will be just beyond what we can see.” (in All Creation Sings, #1069). There is a veritable rainbow of experiences available to the senses to live out God’s everlasting covenant of love for all people and all Creation, as that universal principle was established by God in Genesis 8-9. (Don’t get me started talking about that biblical mountaintop experience!). New Creation is our vocation!
Read the whole reflection here
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Rev. Paul McLean Strike, New Life Lutheran Church, Florence, OR
Ash Wednesday
February 22nd, 2023
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51:1-17
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
I’m drawn to the ashes on this day. Isn’t everyone? These charred remains were once celebratory palm fronds, used to mark Jesus’ royal entry into Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna!” Now, with a little oil, the ashes are made into signs of the cross, naming and claiming us as sinful beloveds of God in Christ. These bits of earth tell me that I am but a part of the cosmos that needs the redemptive healing and care that Christ provides.
Read the whole reflection here
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Rev. John Stiles, Our Redeemer, Pine City, MN
Lent 1
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
You might consider Jesus’ “wilderness experience” like going to summer camp. Just as Jesus was tempted by the devil to see what he was made of – so, too, our young people need an opportunity to be tested – to rise to the challenge of those experiences, trusting that God will be there when it seems more than you can bear.
God expects us to fail from time to time; but we’re still All-Stars in God’s eyes! That’s why God put that tree in the garden in the first place – he created us in the image of God… and it was high time Adam and Eve grew up into the knowledge of good and evil.
Read the whole reflection here
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Connections with Creation
February
February 19 – Transfiguration of Our Lord
Most of the world’s fresh water flows from mountains. Given its trajectory through Earth’s atmosphere, a single mountain can hold an astonishing diversity of microclimates, from desert to forest to subalpine meadow to alpine glacier. Aldo Leopold’s essay “Thinking Like a Mountain” is a classic in environmental philosophy in which the entire mountain with all its plant and animal inhabitants is seen as a living, interrelated organism. This all-encompassing vision of connection is also a spiritual and religious way of knowing. The Chinese phrase for beginning to practice religion is literally translated as “to enter the mountains.” Moses received the commandments on Mount Sinai, Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, and Muhammad received his first revelation of the Quran on Mount Hira. Throughout human history, in vision quests, on pilgrimages, and at mountaintop temples and shrines, mountains have helped humans perceive how all things are both mystically and ecologically held together.
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Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Agriculture
by Liz Carlisle
Review by Fredric L. Quivik, Saint Paul Area Care of Creation
Liz Carlisle’s Healing Ground is about regenerative agriculture and the role it must play if the Earth’s human population is to adequately address the looming climate crisis. Carlisle teaches environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Recognizing that industrialized agriculture is one of the leading sources of the carbon imbalance in our atmosphere, which is causing the climate crisis, she initially set out to understand and write about the ways industrial agriculture and regenerative farming interact with soils.
Carlisle’s four main chapters are about four prominent minority groups in the United States: Native Americans, African Americans, Americans with ancestry in Latin America, and Asian Americans. In each chapter, she describes the history of American laws and practices that have kept large numbers of those minority groups from access to the land.
Read the whole review here
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Our Only World
by Wendell Berry
Review by John Hanson, retired pastor, EcoFaith NE-MN Synod
This Berry book consists of ten essays he wrote, mostly around 2013. The contents of the essays go beyond environmental issues and climate change, but I include this book primarily because Berry has made me see an issue that most climate change activists don’t mention or spend little time discussing or analyzing; that is the abuse of and neglect of the land itself, whether forests or crop land. More about that below.
Read the whole review here
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Book Discussion in Duluth
Through the College of St. Scholastica, Pastor David Carlson of Gloria Dei in Duluth facilitates two monthly book discussion groups, to which all are welcome:
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Earth Harmony, Thursday, Feb 9 - The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change by Gleb Raygorodetsky (2018). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. in person at Chester Creek Cafe in Duluth.
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Religion & Science, Wednesday, Feb 15 - An Immense World by Ed Yong (2022). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. via Zoom. Contact Pastor Carlson for the link or for more information, pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org
Do you have a discussion group that you would like to share?
Let us know at ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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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
Safeguarding Our Earth for Future Generations
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Read. Watch. Listen. Share! |
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Minnesota Refomer
Inside Climate News
The Independent
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The EcoFaith Network NEMN Synod
Living out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation.
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SPAS Care of Creation
We are called to care for God's creation as a central part of our Christian faith and identity.
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