Using the concept of “reformation” to describe the ecological conversion and movement being called for today in both church and society is not new. One substantive piece for preachers and church leaders to consider was published over a decade ago by David Rhoads, “Reflections on a Lutheran Theology of Creation: Foundations for a New Reformation,” Seminary Ridge Review 15, no. 1 (2012). It is accessible at http://seminaryridgereview.org. Here Rhoads cites a Methodist historian, Phillip Watson, who identified the 16th Century Reformation as a “Copernican Revolution” in religion. Rhoads elaborates:
“Just as our physical view of the cosmos shifted from being Earth-centered to being sun-centered, so also the first Reformation shifted the conception of salvation from being human-centered to being God-centered, from human efforts to God’s actions of grace in Christ. This was a revolution in basic perception that changed everything in relation to the dominant views and practices of the time. Lutheran Reformation churches had a theological image of God as a God of grace. They were liberated from the bondage of needing to please God. They focused on a servant theology of the cross instead of a triumphalist theology of glory. They read the Bible differently with justification as the internal canon of interpretation. They placed Scripture in the hands of the laity. They worshipped in ways that focused on God’s direct action in worship. They embraced the sacraments as material reality bearing the spiritual reality of Christ. They affirmed the goodness of creation. They reinvented church order around a priesthood of all believers. They saw ethics as a response to grace and characterized in freedom as a vocation to love the neighbor, especially in relation to the poor and the hungry. They understood Christians acting as citizens of two kingdoms. And more.
“Now, without losing the foundational fruits of that revolutionary Reformation and by building on them (indeed by shaping them for our current context), we need a new reformation, a new “Copernican Revolution,” – so to speak – from being human-centered to being creation-centered, from being anthropo-centric to being cosmo-centric, from God’s relation to humans alone to God’s relationship with all creation, from the extreme enlightenment individualism of our culture to a quest for the common good of the planet. For most of us, this is as mind-bending a change in perception as the first Reformation was. It will require metanoia (repentance) in the true sense, a mind change and a behavior change – both individually and collectively as a church. Again, this shift is revolutionary. It changes everything. It changes the way we think of ourselves (as mammals embedded in nature); it changes how we see our interrelationship with the world around us (every living creature and every non-living thing connected to everything else); and it changes our image of God as an ongoing creator (working for good in, with, and under everything)” (p. 5).
The shifting in these reformations from an old paradigm to a new one can be thought of in terms of bondage and freedom. To use images of John 8, like the people Jesus encounters who don’t remember their enslavement, it can be difficult for us to see our captivity, both collective and individual, to systems and ways of thinking and being that are harmful to people and the planet. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin,” Jesus says, a reminder of the brokenness of our relationships not only with each other, but also with air, waters, soils, and other creatures, brokenness from which we cannot extricate ourselves. But Jesus, the Son, makes us free to live in a new way, to have a place in his “household” – a word in Greek (oikos) related to ecology and economy – one we could imagine as God’s new creation, healing and flourishing, repairing and life-giving for all.
April Hepokoski, who led a workshop at our EcoFaith Summit this year, conveyed that sense of freedom when initially driven to make ecologically conscious choices after a medical diagnosis. Shifts large and small in how she now sources food or other products, uses energy and reduces landfill waste, teaches children at a barnyard preschool and incorporates earth friendly practices in her family, she writes about in Closing the Loop on Zero Waste. She did it first out of necessity, and while she encourages others to see the necessity of such changes, her inspiring examples demonstrate a freedom many have to choose and live more ecologically. Seeing someone living free from the electric grid, from an abundance of plastic, from synthetic chemicals also helps us imagine possibilities for decisions on a larger, systemic scale for the household of all creation. Knowing the truth - about the ecological crisis, our role in perpetuating or addressing it, and God’s redeeming love for the whole household - is essential to this freedom. Continuing in Jesus’ word, which always takes on flesh in this gospel and is shown in God’s self-giving love for the world, is both the gift of grace we receive, and our privileged calling.
In his concluding remarks, Rhoads writes, “Our hope is that a profound love of Earth and a deep desire to restore and to protect Earth enters the hearts of all Lutherans and transforms the deep structures of the way we live. Our hope is that the new reformation becomes an integral part of our congregational life…[and] integral to our institutional commitments.” That word integral echoes the image in Jeremiah 31, Yahweh’s promise to put the law within God’s people and write it on their hearts, so that their actions become integral to God’s intentions, evident in their whole lives and flowing from God’s saving relationship with them.
Ten years ago, the Northeastern MN Synod, meeting in assembly, passed a resolution that has continued to impact our work, that we “recognize creation care as integral to each faith practice, lived out in worship, service, study, and witness as a vital component of the church’s identity and vocation today.” A creation care team can be effective in helping a congregation make ecologically sustainable and restorative choices, but only if its members participate in other ministry teams and decisions, too. If creation care is seen as just one committee among many, or as “the ones that do the creation care at our church,” then more integrating work is needed. What Jeremiah reminds us is that in the new covenant God is making, God’s intentions are written on our hearts. We are right to connect that new covenant with Jesus, who fulfills God’s law, and whose Spirit enables us to follow his way of self-giving love for the world. But we also might make the connection that God’s first covenant was with “all creatures and the earth” (Genesis 9). What would it mean, what would it look like, for God’s intentions for earth’s flourishing and for right relationships with all creatures also to be written on our hearts and integral to our lives and congregations?
The righteousness of God, God’s making of all right relationships, happens apart from the law, Paul says in Romans 3. For this we are thankful, since we all sin and fall short in our relationships with God, the earth, all creatures, and each other. We will not save ourselves with simple technical changes; rather, the ruptures in all these relationships need a deeper healing, a transformative healing of how we relate to one another as God’s creatures – a reconciliation that God grants us by grace in Jesus. God’s loving grace for us and for this marred, beautiful creation enables us to respond in faith, that God has not abandoned us but is seeking to bring us and all creation to fulfillment. That grace also frees us from thinking we can do nothing and frees us for acting boldly for creation’s wellbeing. “We don’t need a few people doing this perfectly,” April said in her workshop. “We need many, many people doing this imperfectly.”
I am thankful that by God’s grace I am one of them in this new Reformation, and thankful that you are, too.
Pastor David Carlson
Duluth MN
The Rev. Dr. David Carlson is pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Duluth, MN and co-chair of the Northeastern MN Synod EcoFaith Network. Originally from Denver, CO, he holds theological degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and Luther Seminary. “Earth Stewardship and the Missio Dei: Participating in the Care and Redemption of All God Has Made” is the title of his Doctor of Ministry thesis, which he defended in 2016. Pastor Dave believes the church in general and Lutherans in particular are well suited to help society address ecological needs and the problems of climate change, and that congregations are ideal settings for modeling the kind of earth stewardship needed for a more sustainable world.