Dear Companions in Creation Care,
Happy New Year to you all! Though the troubles of 2020 are not magically erased in the new year, I hope you are finding at least a small spark of renewing energy as we start a new year. There is a lot we can do together, which you will find in this newsletter.
One opportunity we can share very soon together in the new year is our upcoming Called to Arise J-Term workshop focused on the biblical Year of Jubilee and its relevance for the 50th year of Earth Day and beyond. We hope you will consider joining us!
As always, if you have something you want to offer or even just a good word to say about something you enjoyed in the newsletter, please share! This newsletter belongs to you!
-Erica Bjelland, EcoFaith Communications
ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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Join us for a J-Term Workshop, part of the Called to Arise Workshop Series! Old Testament Professor Emerita Diane Jacobson, in the video Earth Day’s Jubilee Year, calls the biblical Jubilee Year “the Sabbath on steroids." We hope you will join us! Registration is now open at https://bit.ly/3aNjkwB.
Save the date for
the spring series Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm, March 2-23, 2021
From Death to Resurrection
Part 2.
Called to Arise
Standing at the Intersection of Racism, Inequality, and the Environment
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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Moments of Arising:
A Video Series for the Jubilee Year of Earth Day
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Watch the latest Moments of Arising video, Incarnation!
Come, O great Creator, as in Bethlehem,
To your world, incarnate, bringing hope again.
All creatures sing, “You only can redeem!”
Love shall come again like wheat arising green.
Stanza 6, Now the Green Blade Rises Lyrics and musical arrangement
by Paul Jacobson
Litany by Claire Repsholdt, Reflection by Rev. John Hanson, videography by Linda Kalweit, and concluding invitation by Rev. David Carlson.
You can watch all the videos here.
NEXT TO BE RELEASED mid-January is stanza 7, Responsibility
With a reflection by Tammy Walhof, Executive Director of Lutheran Advocacy Minnesota, and prayer poem by Kendrick Hall, recent graduate of Luther Seminary.
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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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Preaching for the Whole Creation:
Commentary on the Lectionary
For Sundays of Epiphany Jan 10-31
"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
“For those who are in Christ, creation is new.” What does this promise mean for care of creation? With the readings for the Season Epiphany we come to a provocative, but hopeful, answer."
For those “who are in Christ” at this moment of earth's all-encompassing ecological crisis, it is indeed time for “breaking with business as usual.” Following Jesus' call for “fundamental reordering of socioeconomic relationships,” (Ched Myers’ phrase) – the ecological systems of our planet together with the human economy – could lead to the restoration of all creation – that is, to new creation."
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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New! Sunday Creation Connections
This section comes from Sundays & Seasons and brings creation connections for every Sunday.
"The sheer vastness of creation is astounding. In the psalm for today (Sunday, January 17), the community praises a God who accompanies humanity in the secret depths of the earth as well as “the uttermost parts of the sea” (Psalm 139:9). ...When fear about the fate of the earth grips us, or when our courage to change our consuming ways fails us, we can turn to God, who draws near to us in spite of our weakness. Held close by a power so vast, we find the strength to care for what is right in front of us."
Check out the January creation connections here.
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EcoFaith in Worship and the Word
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New! Creation in the Bible
Reflections on creation, earth care, ecojustice
"In Genesis 2 creation is presented as a garden. God and humanity relate differently to a garden than to the more abstract portrait of creation found in Genesis 1. God provides for the garden and the gardener. God “tames” the chaotic waters of Genesis 1, creating from them springs and the rivers of the world to water the garden. Into this garden the Lord puts trees that are good for food and beautiful to the eye. The fruit of all the trees but one is freely offered. The garden, the creation, is conceived as pure gift."
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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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
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg is 17 years old. She was Time Magazine’s person of the year in 2019. She has addressed the European Union, the U.N., and the U.S. Congress. She has several videos out pertaining to the climate crisis she is passionately warning us about...Her picture on the book cover says: “I’m serious, are you?"
...As we celebrate Epiphany and the Magi worshiping the Christ child, I am reminded of Isaiah
11:6, “...and a little child shall lead them.” Indeed the next generation is counting on us. Shall we make them proud?
Read the whole book review 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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What We've Been Reading
Here are a few other resources the Leadership Team is reading!
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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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