Earth Day: Choosing Life for All Earth1
Earth Day Service: Choosing Life for All Earth
Liturgy and notes by Betty Lynn Schwab in collaboration with Bruce Sanguin. Originally written for April 22, 2012, Easter 3.
Virtually every planetary biosystem can be released from the stress humanity places on it. Many species can be brought back from the brink of extinction when all humanity takes action for the sake of life. When we take Earth seriously as the body of Christ, we realize our ecological crucifixions can experience resurrection through God’s grace and our choosing life for all Earth.
Portions of the service printed in bold are spoken by the whole congregation.
Our Earthly Gathering
Words of Welcome
We welcome all friends and neighbours into worship today.
Each faith tradition and Aboriginal teachings honour God’s creation.
For Christians, in this season of Easter,
Jesus’ resurrection reminds us that
the universe is infused with the Spirit
of the cosmic Christ.
Call to Worship
Gather everyone, to hear the surprising story:
It is a sad and joyful song from just beyond Christ’s tomb;
all Earth has joined in.
From our private thirst for truth,
we turn to the Stranger unexpectedly among us.
We fear. We doubt. We can’t understand.
Peace be with you, he says.
Why are you frightened?
Why do doubts arise within you?
Look and see, touch and taste!
We are witnesses:
Christ is alive!
Christ is with us!
Hallelujah.
Hymn of Praise
Opening Prayer
Living Christ, you were once dead,
And buried in the Womb of Life.
We know about death.
We gather when someone mourns
because of the pain death brings.
But now you are living.
That kind of living
is hard for us to understand.
Like your disciples,
We would be terrified
to see your wounded hands and feet.
Terrified until you opened our minds
and we received your Peace.
Earth joins our lament;
souls of lives now extinct,
and of those soon-to-be extinct.
They call to us:
“Can you not hear what song we sing?”
“Do you not see what we are saying?”
We brought death,
and we bring death
in the name of our desires
to all of Earth, O Christ.
We are witnesses to that.
Can life come again to creation
as it once came again to you?
Open our minds and hearts!
That we might see you,
O Christ,
standing among us;
that we and all creation might raise to life with you,
one Godly people,
one hale and hearty Earth.
Amen.
Moment Up Front(see note 1 in Service Notes, below)
Children’s Hymn
Our Creaturely Listening
Invitation to Hear the Word
In Christ we are ever emerging.
Because of his strange, intimate presence,
we know this truth: the best is yet to come.
Let us listen therefore to His Word
and hear itsTruth for us this day.
Readings
Acts 3:12–19Why do you wonder?
Psalm 4 (VU 727)O, that grain and wine be plentiful!
1 John 1:1—2:2Life revealed: we have seen it.
Luke 24:36b–48Why do doubts arise?
Hymn of Faith
Sermon(see Sermon Notes below)
Prayer for Faithful Living
Living Christ,
you gave of yourself so that life might prevail.
Out of the tomb’s death,
you emerge resurrected,
filled with the Heart and Mind of the universe,
inviting us into New Life.
Raise within us holy unrest
Until all Earth, too, resurrects.
Amen.*
Our Love’s Response
Hymn of Response
Filling of the Sanctuary(see note 2 in Service Notes, below)
Covenant with Christ (see note 3 in Service Notes, below)
What is being asked of us this day in Earth’s history is to make a choice. It is the same choice the disciples had: life or death. Our choice is either to keep our unsustainable lifestyles that degrade Christ’s planet, or to take a more modest place in the intricate and sacred Web of Life.
Silent reflection
Invitation to the Offering
Christ’s Loving Presence
flows through the cosmos
and through us.
Let it now flow
from us to all the earth
through our morning offering.*
Blessing of the Offering and Our Covenant Promises
Hidden Christ, you are hidden Wholeness
to which death is but the portal.
Heart and Mind of the universe,
Mystery of Growth beyond our comprehension,
you hear our sigh
and all Earth’s incessant sigh
for completion.
Receive our gifts and action promises,
and bless them and us all
that we in turn may be a
blessing to your creation:
our home, our source, and our very being.
Amen.*
Prayers of the People(see note 4 in Service Notes,below)
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn of Departure
Commissioning
Let us go forth walking
more lightly upon Earth,
more humbly with all creatures,
more faithfully caring for the air and water,
and for all creation.
Benediction
May the blessing of
Hidden Wholeness,
who knows the universe to be One,
And the blessing of the Christ,
who is our Assurance that all creation will reach its goal,
And the blessing of the Spirit,
Who lures us toward Mystery,
Stir in you/us,
and nurture you/us this day and always,
into our great and glorious cosmic inheritance.*
Service Notes
1.Moment Up Front
- Have a picture of our Moderator on hand (or projected) and her gift to your congregation.
- Share with the children a little about Moderator Mardi Tindal:
- She grew up on a farm.
- She used to go with her family on picnics near a pretty little creek at the back of her family farm.
- That little creek is all dried up now.
- Mardi wishes it could flow again with clean, beautiful water.
- She loves all creation.
- She hopes each of us will help take care of Earth.
- Being Moderator of The United Church of Canada means when people around the world see her, they are seeing our church; she represents or stands for all of us.
- In a way we can say she is The United Church of Canada.
- When Jesus’ disciples heard that he was alive again, they couldn’t believe it.
- They saw him die on the cross and buried in Earth.
- They were certain he could not be alive again.
- But they kept trying to figure it out.
- They heard stories of people seeing Jesus again—alive!
- They couldn’t figure it out.
- Suddenly, they heardJesus saying, “Peace be with you”
- There he was in the room—alive!
- Earth is like that:
- Sometimes a park is full of weeds and broken glass.
- Or a beautiful forest is all cut down and the plants on the forest floor all die.
- Sometimes, we see a place where nothing is growing, and good soil just washes away every time it rains.
- Mardi hopes that you will not feel sad or scared because of how people treat our Earth.
- And that you won’t hide away from those kinds of ugly places.
- Even if you are 3, 4, or 5 years old, you can join in to help places like that come alive and be beautiful again.
- Invite the children to see Mardi’s package and guess what’s inside.
- After the disciples knew Jesus was alive, they shared that good news with everyone!
- We can show everyone how Earth can be more beautifully alive by planting Mardi’s seeds in a special place and caring for them.
- Maybe adults will see you doing that and help make somewhere else look beautiful again!
- Let’s sing the Moderator’s new hymn about God and creation.
2.During the singing of the Hymn of Response, have a joyful procession with people of all ages carrying in small plants (or slips of plants) to the front of the sanctuary—if possible, enough for each household to receive and take one home as a reminder of this day.
3.During the Silent Reflection, have the ushers distribute small pieces of green paper with the title “My commitment to better care for creation” and space below for each worshipper to jot in one new action taken on for the sake of Earth. Collect thepieces of paper and bless them with the offering. Then arrange them as a collage and hang them in the church as reminders to care about Earth.
4.Prayers of the People
Living and Loving Christ,
you gave of yourself so that life might prevail.
Your primordial chaos let the crocus bloom,
the beluga swim, baby birds peep in the nest,
mighty rivers flow, fluffy clouds float in the blue sky.
For your primordial chaos and death
are the nutrients of Earth and Life.
Thankyou for the living and creative process
that flows throughout the cosmos,
to us and to all creation.
Your process is beyond our comprehension
and beyond our wildest imagination.
You are generosity and hospitality,
wisdom and curiosity, energy and rest.
Thankyou that
your Mind and Heart
lies deep inside this planet’s face,
and deep inside
the sacred orb
of human consciousness.
You know Earth to be holy,
all creatures to be kin,
the universe to be One.
We live and die inside that miracle.
Thankyou, O wondrous God, thankyou.
Local prayers of thanksgiving
We hear Earth’s joyful songs.
Stir within us until we dare to
listen and see, touch and taste Earth’s pain.
Awaken us to wonder
that issues in conviction and humility.
We feel helpless and despair
of making all things good again.
Come among us
as you came among your frightened disciples.
Raise in us a blessed restlessness
until Earth resurrects and we glimpse
the fullness of our being and yours.
We pray for all who work to heal Earth:
scientists, politicians, and government leaders;
nature lovers and our youngest children.
Bless them with endless visions of the world made new.
Strengthen them until their visions come true.
We pray for all who are destroying Earth:
for poachers who take too many,
for sidewalk users dropping litter as they go,
for executives and managers seeking far too much profit,
and for all of us who have abundance and yet want more.
Bless us so that our unexamined thoughts and assumptions
are challenged and move us to work for change.
Bless us so that our sense of community
becomes more noble and important than our sense of entitlement and self.
Bless us to regard our life and all forms of life
with utter reverence.
Lead us ever more boldly
into what and who
we, you and the universe
truly are.*
Local intentions and intercessions
Amen.
5.Check out The Action Guide created by Be The Change Earth Alliance ( It has over 400 examples of small things people can do, and commit to, for Earth’s repair. It’s being used by many high schools in the Vancouver area. Some of the examples would fit as further examples in the Moment Up Front or the sermon.
6.If Darwin Prayed is a book of prayers by Bruce Sanguin available fromUCRD. All the prayers in this servicethat have an asterisk(*) are adapted with permission from this book.
7.To register your congregation’s Green Team and find lots of ideas for greening activities in your church, follow the link from go to
Sermon Notes
Today, in the gospel reading, we enter a room filled with Jesus’ disciples trying to understand strange rumours: the one they saw dead is alive! How can that be? And suddenly there he is, sitting with them eating fish.
Today is also Earth Day. And we can imagine or explore the perhaps strange idea that Earth is in some way part of the body of God. When God spoke the Word and creation came into being, all that came was of God, and this includes Earth today. This means that our devastation of Earth, its biosystems, and other-than-human species can be understood as a modern-day crucifixion.
- Draw attention to your core concerns for Earth: climate change, species extinction, overpopulation, erosion of topsoil, chemical toxicity, etc.
Can resurrection come to Earth as the resurrected Christ did to the disciples in that room so long ago?
To address our ecological crises, we need a radical shift in how we think about and imagine ourselves; we need a radical shift in our own identity. Because Earth’s devastation today reflects humanity’s deep identity crisis today: who are we? Unlike our earliest foremothers and forefathers of faith, we have forgotten that we are one with the natural world.
So often, we imagine ourselves as separate individuals, separate from all the other individuals and independent of creation. Think, for example, about how highly we value the idea of a young person leaving home to “become independent.” But we also imagine ourselves as individuals living in a universe basically indifferent to us and with no intrinsic purpose of its own. As a result, we end up regarding Earth as little more than a resource.
Can we ground ourselves instead in a deeper and scientifically more accurate identity? Not one of us is separate from or independent of the processes that created us! We are not separate from God, the Womb of All Life, the Heart and Mind that gave birth to this universe. We have instead been made in the image of God. As an integral part of the cosmos, we are growing in and toward the full manifestation of God. And we are not separate from the evolving universe. In fact, it took the universe 13.7 billion years to make us.
The universe is not out there somewhere. We are not over here watching it. But what very few scientists take the time to help us understand is that when we think about Earth and creation, it may be said that we are the presence of the universe studying itself. We are part of the insides of the universe. The air around us is also in every cell of our body. We are in the air and of the air.
We are the result of the creativity of the universe, and in a sense, we are the very presence of that creativity in this very moment. When we have imagined ourselves to be separate and independent from God and the universe, we tend to either slip into despair—concluding that we are small and insignificant specks in a universe that doesn’t care, so what possible difference can we make and why bother?—or slip into passivity as people of faith, hoping and praying that God will do something. But when we get our identity straight—we are the presence of the very Spirit-animated process that shaped us over 13.7 billion years—we are filled with a resurgence of hope and power. The very power that brought forth a universe is bringing forth a new creation, in, through, and as us! Not only can we make a difference but also we are the universe making a difference! We are a significant part of the difference that the universe is making!
So, on this Earth Day Sunday, let us open ourselves to the power of a Spirit-animated Earth to rise up from the ashes of our mis-identity. Let us open ourselves to the power of a Spirit-animated Earth to self-renew—when given a chance by us.
We are, quite literally, the result of the universe’s God-given resilience that brings new life out of death. Scientists say that Earth may be in the midst of the sixth major extinction, and it is largely caused by our presence. Yet after each previous extinction, life found a way to rise up and carry on. The death of dinosaurs, for example, made room for small mammals to thrive. Out of their death came our life. With our commitment, decision-making, and lifestyle changes, new life will come out of our strip mines, polluted lakes, and contaminated soils.
- Add your own examples of cosmological and planetary resilience in the face of cataclysms.
- Offer examples of nature’s resilience in your own bioregion. In BC, I would speak about the dramatic return of the pink salmon in numbers no scientist predicted. To this day, nobody understands all the factors that contribute to resilience. The revival of the Great Lakes is an example in Ontario.
- William McDonough is an architectural engineer who is working with corporate clients to manufacture according to the natural principle of zero waste, following nature’s formula of waste = food. His book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,recounts how he helped a Swiss textile manufacturing company reduce its waste to zero and ensure that the water used in processing textiles emerged at the end of the manufacturing cycle cleaner than the water that went into it.
This doesn’t mean that we can let down our guard. Rather, it means that we need to tap into the natural wisdom and intelligence of Earth and use it. As we come to understand our new identity, we come to see ourselves as expressions of Earth. We come to reject ways of thinking and living that do not serve the health of our planet. With our help, Earth can restore itself in dramatic fashion.