From Fear to Fire: Igniting Community for a Planet in Peril

2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest

Rev. Emily Meyer

Luke 24:13-35

© March, 2026

Permission granted by the author to use in part or in whole for preachers and congregations participating in the 2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest and recipients of Green Blades Rising Preachers Roundtable.

Please observe copyright laws and cite all quotations and images accordingly.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Christ is Risen, indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Sisters and Brothers and Siblings in Christ, grace to you and peace from Creator God, Embodied Christ, and life-giving, in-dwelling Holy Spirit. AMEN

This Wednesday, April 22, is the 56th Annual Earth Day.

In 1970, 10% of the U.S. population - 20 million Americans - led by college students - mobilized for climate justice.

In 2020, ‘a coalition of youth activists’ led over 1 billion people worldwide in Earth Day actions.^[1]

Today, international actions toward healthier human and other-than-human relations - led by youth, young adults, and elders - are taking massive strides toward New Life. The U.S. stands almost alone in walking away from planetary resurrection.

…

Yesterday, hundreds of people who care about God’s good creation - elders, young adults, youth, and children - gathered in Duluth and online for the EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest. The Summit was grounded in the Emmaus Road’s call to lament losses, listen to diverse voices, and recognize resurrection through community organizing, action, and transformation, by walking From Fear to Fire: Igniting Community for a Planet in Peril.

Three fire images were central to the Summit:

Indigenous peoples for centuries have utilized controlled burns^[2] - based on nature’s own systems - to burn away fuel (to prevent wildfires), to eliminate invasive species, and to germinate fireseeds, so that ecosystems can flourish.

A firebreak^[3] is a particular type of controlled burn in which a strip of land is burned back toward a wildfire, consuming the fuel ahead of the wildfire, thereby terminating the wildfire.

Fireseeds require fire to germinate; they need fire’s intense heat to burst open, take root, grow, and flourish.

As people around the globe lament what is being crucified by U.S. policies and practices, we, the Church, baptized with fire and the Spirit, are called by prophetic witness - especially in the voices of young people, diverse neighbors, and creation - to blaze with New Life as controlled burns of organizing, as firebreaks of action, and as fireseeds of transformation in our local, national, and global communities.

…

Today, we enter Week Three of Easter Season 2026 - and our Gospel story begins with grief.

Cleopas and the unnamed disciple walk away from Jerusalem ‘sad’.

They’ve heard the story of Jesus’ resurrection - but they are feeling stop-in-your-tracks sad.

Resurrection sounds ‘astounding’ when death is everywhere: wars and more wars in service of fossil fuel’s empire; neighbors abducted and families torn apart; children imprisoned or isolated by fear; environmental protections stolen away; mining and pipeline and AI threats to all our sacred waters; billions of dollars stacked against fair and open elections; tattered hopes of climate progress and healing; and every individual experience of illness, suffering, and loss...^[4]

We have heard the story of Resurrection.

Yet we feel stop-in-our-tracks sad.

Endless stories of death can snuff the spark of life out of us.

So we hold one another.

We share our grief.

We lament together.

Walking through grief together, dying embers are fanned back to life.

Love glows as we step onto the Resurrection Road.

~~~

Cleopas and the unnamed disciple have just heard - first-hand - the story of the century: the story of Jesus’ empty tomb.

They chose to walk away.

What a privilege: to walk away when we don’t believe the stories.

Jesus invites the disciples to share their experience of the story.

What a gift when someone listens.

Cleopas scoffs. He assumes Jesus is ignorant. Then he ‘disciple-splains’ Jesus’ own story to Jesus.

Jesus believes that they do not believe it.

The women who saw the empty tomb, who were told by angels that Jesus was alive, and who shared their story with the others - were not believed.

The disciples thought it an ‘idle tale’^[5]; Cleopas refers to it as ‘astounding’; and because they didn’t have the same experience, the men did not believe the women.

Men not believing women’s stories is a story as old as time.

Elders not believing youth’s stories

- and youth not believing elders’ stories…

Colonizers not believing Indigenous peoples’...

‘Locals’ not believing ‘new-comers’’...

We all struggle to believe the stories of people whose experiences are not like our own.

We all utilize the luxury of walking away when others’ stories seem too ‘astounding’.

So we practice the controlled burn of listening.

We organize around shared stories.

We believe one another.

Walking the road of trust together ignites the controlled burn of community.

Love deepens as we story the Resurrection Road.

~~~

Cleopas and the other disciple had hoped that Jesus was ‘the One’ to redeem Israel, ‘the One’ to deliver God’s people from the oppression of empire.

Jesus invites his followers to take up their cross and follow^[6];

before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed his followers into loving unity

- with himself and God and one another.

In crucifixion, ‘the One’ Redeemer becomes many who live as one.

Buddhist monk Thích Nhât Hanh, suggested, ‘that the next Buddha… [might] take the form of a Sangha, a community practicing understanding and loving kindness...’^[7]

Reflecting on this prophecy, Rev. Cameron Trimble writes, ‘We have been trained to look for salvation in singular form. We scan the horizon for charismatic leaders, gifted speakers, strategic masterminds - someone who can carry the weight for us... But what if that expectation belongs to an older story? What if the world we are living in now requires a different kind of wisdom?’^[8]

Like the wisdom lived in Minnesota this past winter.

Those of us who ‘carried our weight’ through Metro Surge can attest to what Trimble wrote: ‘There [was] no single leader… No polished hierarchy... No personality holding it all together. [Just] ordinary people stepping toward one another around shared values [of] dignity, safety, accountability, care; …neighbors feeding one another; …people protecting one another; …courage multiplying rather than concentrating… [a] coordination born from relationship.

…like a sangha.’^[9]

Like church.

Like a firebreak.

We singe back the fuel of fear and lies

with compassion and kindness.

As One, we sear away hate and death

with neighbor-love.

Walking the road of crucifixion together we are ablaze with courage.

Love becomes a firebreak of action as we march the Resurrection Road.

~~~

Jesus counters the disciples’ ‘foolishness’ and ‘slow hearts’ - their indifference and detachment - by interpreting the prophets, revealing God’s history of pouring God’s whole love into the world.

Prophetic moral clarity paired with bread - broken, blessed, and shared - open the disciples’ eyes to astounding possibilities.

Their apathetic hearts now burn within them.

The Resurrected Christ is suddenly recognizable.

Visions of equity, peace, and joyful harmony take root in their souls.

They have to get back to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room, where justice and love are germinating; where a transformed community will sprout from the ashes of grief.

Everyone who has been pushed ‘out’ recognizes New Life when their place at the table is restored.

Everyone who is hungry experiences Resurrection when bread is shared.

Our eyes pop open to prophetic visions.

Our hearts are ablaze, bursting the fireseeds of moral clarity.

We clear the ground so that all our relations can flourish.

Walking the road of justice together we become a beacon of belonging.

Love roots and thrives along the Resurrection Road.

~~~

Once they get it, Cleopas and the unnamed disciple hustle back to Jerusalem, to rejoin the others.

They return to the fear, the messiness, the chaos of grief.

They return to the love, the creativity, the organizing of a new community.

Everyone’s all excited because now the Risen Jesus ‘has appeared to Simon’.

They corroborate one another’s stories - the men do - now that they’ve had their own experiences of the Risen Christ.

The women are never heard from again.

Resurrection is exciting stuff.

Resurrection is transformative stuff.

Resurrection is community-shaping stuff.

Resurrection requires practice

- or we wind up back again,

in a shuttered room of fear

or a lonely road of apathy

of silencing, isolation, hatred, and death.

So:

We hold one another.

We share our grief.

We lament together.

We practice the controlled burn of listening.

We organize around shared stories.

We believe one another.

We singe back the fuel of fear and lies with compassion and kindness.

We sear away hate and death with neighbor-love.

We open ourselves to prophetic visions.

We are a blaze, bursting open fireseeds of moral clarity.

We clear the ground so that all our relations can flourish.

We burn with love.

We share New Life.

We walk - hand in hand - the Resurrection Road

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

Christ is Risen, indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!

AMEN

Suggested hymns:

Canticle of the Turning - ELW #723

+      Paul Jacobson’s ‘From Fear to Fire’ vs. 5 [shared with permission]

With our hearts on fire, filled with fierce desire

fed by fuel from a God of love,

Joining hand and hand, hearts aflame, we stand,

full of faith coming from above.

Oh, Holy One, our life, our sun shine down on us, we pray.

Come and shine your light in this earth’s dark night

to Creation’s newborn day.

Refrain:

Creator, Guide, stay by our side, in this world we caused to fall.

For you are like a refining fire, our eternal hope, our all.

Closing refrain:

Our hearts now burn, causing us to yearn

for a world that is free from strife.

May the ears of all hear your fiery call

for creation’s health and life.

Earth, Earth, Awake! - ALC #937

Day of Arising - ELW #374

Christ Is Alive! Let Christians Sing - ELW #389

The Risen Christ - ELW #390

Ask the Complicated Questions - ALC #1005

Ashes and Smoke - Linda Allen

Additional Inspiration:

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), 'Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus', c.1617-1618. © National Gallery of Ireland.^[10]

Emmaus: Emmanuel Garibay, 2010-2011 Artist in Residence ^[11]

The Servant Girl at Emmaus^[12] 

Denise Levertov (1923–1997)

Inspired by

The Servant-Girl at Emmaus

(A Painting by Vélasquez)

She listens, listens, holdingher breath. Surely that voiceis his—the onewho had looked at her, once, across the crowd,as no one ever had looked?Had seen her? Had spoken as if to her?

Surely those hands were his,taking the platter of bread from hers just now?Hands he'd laid on the dying and made them well?

Surely that face—?

The man they'd crucified for sedition and blasphemy.The man whose body disappeared from its tomb.The man it was rumored now some women had seen this morning, alive?

Those who had brought this stranger home to their tabledon't recognize yet with whom they sit.But she in the kitchen, absently touching           the winejug she's to take in,a young Black servant intently listening,

swings round and seesthe light around himand is sure.

^[1] earthday.org; https://www.earthday.org/history/; accessed 03.19.26.

^[2] See Ishkode - where 2026 Summit participants engaged with Indigenous fire wisdom keepers to learn about prescribed or ‘controlled’ burns and forest and prairie stewardship. https://www.ishkode.org/

^[3] USDA & NRCS: Firebreak: Virginia Conservation Practice Job Sheet; https://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/Delete/2011-11-5/Archived_394_Firebreak_JS_111101.pdf; accessed 03, 17.26

^[4] Rebecca Solnit, in her March 6, 2026, Meditations in an Emergency post, ‘Visions of Life / Agents of Death: Love Thy Neighbor and Love Thy Nature’, draws a clear line through these multiple embodiments of hatred borne out in cruciform destruction, noting their interconnectedness and roots in misogyny, racism, and terracide - the destruction of Earth.

^[5] Luke 24:11

^[6] Matthew 16:24

^[7] Trimble, Cameron; The Future Arrives as Community, Piloting Faith, 02.06.26; Substack; https://open.substack.com/pub/camerontrimble/p/the-future-arrives-as-community?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web; accessed 03.19.26.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660); © National Gallery of Ireland. https://www.nationalgallery.ie/art-and-artists/highlights-collection/kitchen-maid-supper-emmaus-diego-velazquez-1599-1660; accessed 03.20.26

^[11] Emmaus by Emmanuel Garibay; see also Overseas Ministries Study Center: Princeton Theological Seminary, for Eric Barreto’s reflections on this piece. https://omsc.ptsem.edu/emmaus-by-emmanuel-garibay/ Accessed 03.20.26.

^[12] Levertov, Denise; The Servant-Girl at Emmaus; based on The Servant-Girl at Emmaus - a painting by Vélasquez; from the website of The St James Cathedral, Seattle, WA;

https://www.stjames-cathedral.org/PoemoftheWeek/levertov-servantgirl.aspx; accessed 03.20.26.

For Levertov's poetry, see Paul A. Lacey and Anne Dewey (editors), with an Introduction by Eavan Boland, The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (New York: New Directions, 2013), 1063pp.