Creation and Celebration
Connections
by
Jennifer Edinger
The following pages contain an odyssey in faith and piety which ponders the relationship between our worship and our care of creation. Faith touches all of life. No part of life is separated from our faith. The way we care for creation then is connected to our faith and to our worship, which is the primary work of the people of God. The way we care for creation is an act of worship. As we show respect for the gift of creation, we show respect for the Giver of that gift.
Some anecdotal experiences offer focus. Several years ago my parents gave me a computer. My parents gave me the computer with the hope and intention that I would use it to enjoy and to support my ministry. The computer was a wonderful gift to discover. I busied myself learning about word processors and desktop publishers. When I wrote to my parents, I expressed my delight in the gift and described its usefulness. And my parents were thrilled. They were thrilled that I was able to use their gift to accomplish personal and church-related projects. It was important to my parents that I used the gift with all of its capabilities. By using and discovering the computer, I honored the gift and in honoring the gift, my parents were honored.
In another experience, I was the giver. I had selected a gift to recognize a celebration. Because it was a milestone celebration, the gift was more elaborate and costly than usual. Three years later, that gift remained in its original box and gathered dust. Because the gift was a sign of my devotion, its dusty fate in the corner was distressing and painful. My love and my being were dishonored by the neglect of the gift.
The same is true when we turn our thoughts to our relationship with God. Creation is a precious gift God has placed into our hands. If we batter the gift or neglect the gift, we batter and neglect the Giver. In our neglect of the world around us, we neglect the Creator God. As we live in the world of God's creating and care for that world, we give honor to God who has made and given it to us. Our care of the world - recycling, carpooling, tapping alternative resources - becomes an act of worship as it expresses our delight in the gift and the Giver. Certainly thinking and living green is not the only form of worship, but because of the sacredness of all which God has made, it is a form of worship.
Our care of creation is an act of worship. Our worship also becomes an act of caring for creation. When we worship we bring our human fragmentation into the presence of the merciful and loving Creator who desires our wholeness. The creation God has made is also damaged. Paul states in Romans 8:22, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now." Creation aches. Even after our most noble efforts to be good caretakers of the creation entrusted to us, we cannot fix the fractured world. When we worship, we lay our broken beings and the wounded world before the merciful God who gives renewal in resurrection.
In the four-part structure of worship (entrance rites, liturgy of the Word, liturgy of the Table, concluding rites) we confess our human failure and acknowledge the forces of nature that are spinning out of control. We lift our voices together with all the pieces of creation to praise God. We turn to the life-giving Word spoken and attached to water, bread and wine to be filled with God's wholeness. We venture on our way touched by a renewal only God can give. In our worship, we serve and minister to creation with its beauty and its brokenness.
There is a relationship between our care of creation and our worship. Our care of creation is an act of worship. And our worship is an act of caring for creation. The challenge is to be intentional in making the connections between our caring and our worship, and to find liturgical ways to express that relationship in a way that does not detract from the work of praising God. Worship can be a time to increase our awareness of the world around us, to increase our appreciation of the sacredness of creation, and to deepen our desire to treat it with dignity and respect.
Each community of faith is shaped in a very unique way by its faith traditions and by its environment. Our liturgical tradition does provide structure that allows the language and imagery of creation to be incorporated so that it reflects the life and setting of the local congregation.
The liturgical year as it follows the life of Christ and life in Christ can embrace environmental concerns. Advent is a time when we ponder the fullness of God's kingdom and our readiness for the future God has prepared. As we ponder our warped human condition and how God works to smooth out the wrinkles of our living, we can consider how we might soothe and smooth those wounds in order that creation, too, might be readied for the arrival of the Coming One. Christmas is a celebration that God becomes one with the human family to save creation from the brokenness of sin and death. The incarnation gives a time to consider our oneness, not just with God, not just with the others of God's creating, but with creation itself. God becomes one with us to minister to our brokenness and invites us to consider the ways we can minister to the brokenness of human and natural life around us. During Epiphany we observe the teaching and ministry of Jesus as it embraces human woundedness to give God's wholeness. It is a time for the Church to ponder how it might be an extension of Jesus' ministry to people and to the world around us. Lent holds before us Jesus' willingness to spend himself for our life and the challenge to consider how we spend ourselves, not just for the sake of others, but also for creation. The resurrection is linked to spring. As Christ is raised to new life, the world around us bursts from its winter tomb and carpets the world with new life. The season of Resurrection is a natural time to incorporate seedtime celebrations. Pentecost, the time of growth in the faith, is observed as ears set on cornstalks, as we munch crisp green beans, and flowers splash color into the world. All Saints', the harvest of God's people, occurs as combines are chugging in the fields gathering beans and corn. The world around us embodies what God is doing in our lives. We can use the language of creation to express our faith. Then we can carry the power of our faith which gives renewal and new beginnings into our attitudes and behaviors toward the world. We bring creation into our worship an we take our worship into creation.
The structure of the eucharistic liturgy allows for creation language to provide diversity in worship. A psalm which highlights creation (Psalms 8, 24, 95, 98, 104, 136, or 148) could be used as an entrance dialog. A responsive reading based on Genesis 1 or 2 could be an opening statement of praise. Hymns of praise lifting creation images (LBW 242, 266, 527, 546, 551, 554, 557, 558, 561, 563) could more intentionally be used in worship. It is also fun to allow the imagery of creation to express our faith in the holy-making God who birthed us to life.
Liturgy
for the '90s
The liturgy
which follows illustrates how liturgy can be crafted contextually while maintaining
the integrity of the liturgical form. This liturgy was intended for a Lutheran
parish in a rural setting that is largely dependent upon agribusiness. Because
of the rural setting, creation imagery is used throughout the liturgy to describe
God's creative, redeeming, sanctifying activities. To reinforce visually the
liturgical use of creation imagery, it might be appropriate to place living,
growing plants typical to the geographical setting in the worship space. This
liturgy might be used at planting time, soil conservation week, during the
summer growing season, at harvest and at Thanksgiving.
While this liturgy departs from the format of the Lutheran Book of Worship it does retain the basic four-part structure of worship and includes entrance rites, liturgy of the Word, liturgy of the Table and concluding rites. Because New Testament writings (for example, Acts 2:42-47 and 1 Corinthians 11:17-34) indicate that Holy Communion was likely celebrated in individual homes together with a meal, an attempt has been made to reconnect the Eucharist with a fellowship meal. This "Liturgy for the '90s" is intended for occasional use, to provide variety in worship, and assumes that the congregation is acquainted with and exposed to traditional Lutheran liturgical worship. Because it is not used every Sunday, with the exception of hymns, the liturgy is spoken so that musical adaptations will not be a barrier to an unsuspecting congregation. Attempts have also been made to make the liturgy simple and easy to follow.
In this liturgy, inclusive language issues are not addressed in the Apostles Creed, the Lord's Prayer, or the Benediction. Because they are at the heart of the congregation's worship and piety, the traditional forms are retained.
Jennifer E. Edinger, M.Div., D.Min., is a pastor and author. She received her doctorate from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and is the pastor of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa.