Hoping and Acting During the Season of Creation

 

 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor,  and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  For in  hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8: 19-25 NRSVue

On World Environment Day (June 8) a coalition of Christian denominations released a Season of Creation guide for the period between September 1st and the Feast of St. Francis on October 4th. This included the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox communion, and the Lutherans, as well as a number of other  denominations. In the United Church we call it Creation Time and the Anglicans Creationtide (I love this name) but it's the same focus and time period.

This means that the vast majority of the Christians on Planet Earth will uphold the importance of our hope for Creation and a commitment to act. There are still groups of Christians, most of them theological conservatives who take an individualistic, "me n Jesus" approach to faith and salvation, but we will hope, together. I am glad to see that a growing number of evangelicals are realizing that humans must move from hubris to humility and into hope rooted in loving action. 

Here is one of the prayers for the Season of Creation 2024. It is Trinitarian and theologically balanced with both contrition and the vision we all need.

Triune God, Creator of all,

We praise you for your goodness, visible in all the diversity that you have created, 

making us a cosmic family living in a common home. 

Through the Earth you created, we experience love and nourishment, home and protection.

We confess that we do not relate to the Earth as a Mothering gift from you, our Creator. 

Our selfishness, greed, neglect, and abuse have caused the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity,

 human suffering as well as the suffering of all our fellow creatures. 

We confess that we have failed to listen to the groans of the Earth, 

the groans of all creatures, 

and the groans of

the Spirit of hope and justice that lives within us.

May your Creator Spirit help us in our weakness, so that we may know the

redeeming power of Christ and the hope found in him. May the groans of

the Spirit birth in us a willingness to serve you faithfully, so that we may

hear and heal Creation, to hope and act together with her, so that the

firstfruits of hope may blossom.

Loving and Creator God, we pray that you will make us sensitive to these

groans and enable us to have the same compassion as that of Jesus, the

redeeming Lord. Grant us a fresh vision of our relationship with Earth, and

with one another, as creatures that are made in your image.

In the name of the one who came to proclaim the good news to all Crea-

tion, Jesus Christ.

Amen.