Themes: Isaiah 55:1-9 – An Invitation to Abundant Life
Psalm 63:1-8 – Comfort and Assurance in God’s Presence
1Corinthians 10:1-13 – Warnings from Israel’s History
Luke 13:1-9 – Repent or Perish; Parable of the Barren Fig Tree
Prayer of the Day
Eternal God, your kingdom has broken into our troubled world through the life, death and resurrection of your Son. Help us to hear your word and obey it, and bring your saving love to fruition in our lives through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one god, now and forever. Amen.
Hymn Suggestions:
Gathering: “Commonwealth is God’s Commandment” (ACS 1036)
“Come, Beloved of the Maker” (ELW 306)
Hymn of the Day: “As the Sun with Longer Journey” (WOV #655, ELW 329)
“As the Deer Runs to the River” (ELW 331)
Offertory Response: “For the Wholeness of the Earth” (ACS 1067)
Sending: “Earth is Full of Wit and Wisdom” (ACS 1064)
“Light Dawns on a Weary World” (ELW 726)
Overview
Consider these thematic statements for the upcoming EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest:
Earth’s Cries: “Wake up! Listen! Creation is crying out, groaning in travail!”
Earth’s Call: “Stand up! Stop denying! Take bold action together!”
Becoming Midwives of Hope and Healing: “Rise up! Take heart! Be creative and courageous!
Together these moments comprise a singular challenge of coordination in a prophetic call to repentance—which is to say that every act of repentance will have its peculiar cries, changes, and promises to consider. I learned recently that, for medieval Jewish mystics, the Hebrew word teshuvah, typically translated as repentance, referred to a process of returning dynamic balance to the cosmos, long before the concept of tikkun olam,“healing the world”, came into use.
It has become abundantly clear that “repent or perish” is now the dreadful reality with which humanity must reckon. The church is being challenged today to resume its prophetic responsibility, daunting as that may be, for the sake of the world God loves.
The devil is in the details, though…temptations abound in how best to coordinate the steps. Every year, people of eco-faith accompany one another to a summit, there to listen to what Jesus has to say. Isn’t this so like accompanying Peter, James and John up the Mount of Transfiguration to have our booth-time with Jesus? But have we prepared to join him on his exodus of self-denial, taking up crosses and being buried like seeds in the ground? Stumbling into the valleys and plains of Lent, have our fears and tears discouraged us from loving as Jesus loves?
What I would like to suggest this Sunday and elaborate in Lent 4, is a kind of repentance, a Lenten descent that returns us to our indigeneity, there to be reacquainted with our imago Dei in loving partnership with God and all creatures, in restoring and sustaining a co-op of peace on earth.
Becoming Doulas of Repentance
While humanity largely contradicts its truth, the maxim that Isaiah speaks is among the greatest of mercies: “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” (Isa. 55:8) Many people derive a kind of pseudo-comfort from believing the opposite—that their thoughts are God’s thoughts, and their ways are God’s ways—and they will marshal any number of biblical verses to confirm their bias.[1] We could, of course, find contra-indicating passages of scripture that we just as firmly believe reflect the character of God and the mind of Christ.[2] We could go back and forth ad nauseum searching the scriptures for our zingers and prooftexts, and utterly miss “the love of God among you.” (Jn. 5:42) Anxiously fortifying theological comfort zones may be a large part of what needs to change; theological discomfort will be part of repentance.[3]
Becoming Doulas of Surprise
Living in a maelstrom of present-day crises, we can readily fixate on fears of perishing instead of trusting God’s steadfast love to save/heal/deliver. We find ourselves in a vale of tears, which can become a veil between our situation and God’s steadfast presence[4]. This is the recurring surprise of the gospel: that “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn. 3:17).
The gospel of 3Lent addresses people who were inclined to associate instances of political violence and outright tragedy with God’s punishment for sins. Jesus not only challenges this belief but tells a counter story which bears the gospel surprise: the intervention of a patient gardener who has every confidence that with digging and shit comes new life. There is a goodness in the land/soil, be it vineyard or wilderness. The fruit of God’s love is unvaled and unveiled.
The surprise also echoes in the voice of the psalmist, imploring, “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Ps. 63:1). Often in the biblical imagination, wilderness gets represented as a place of banishment beyond the peaceful idylls of Eden (Gen. 3:24ff), a “dry and weary land” of enmity, pain, murder, and strife. If over-generalized by traumas and fears, wilderness suggests an unremitting curse of God upon a sinful humanity, soaked into the very ground of earthly existence (Gen. 4:10)—which would be a violation of what God had solemnly promised not to do after the flood, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind.” (Gen. 8:21 and cf. 9:8-17) Yet the psalmist does not equate the “dry and weary land” with God’s curse, but invites us to be surprised again by seeking the One who upholds us.
Becoming Doulas of Peace
An elder of the Cherokee nation joins the gospel invitation to become doulas of surprise with a vision of becoming doulas of cosmic peace:
In the language of my people, there’s a word for land, eloheh, the same word [that] also means history, culture and religion. We cannot separate our place on earth from our lives on the earth, nor from our vision, nor our meaning as a people. We are taught from childhood that the animals, and even the trees and plants, are our brothers and sisters, so we, when we speak of land, we’re not speaking of the property or territory or even a piece of ground upon which our houses sit and our crops are grown. We are speaking of something truly sacred[5].
Call it teshuvah, shalom, eloheh, or the most thorough integration of DEI imaginable (yes, pun intended!), this is the harmonious economy of grace of an all-loving Creator, Healer, and Sustainer, into which humans are called to be doulas.
Now let us go up to the EcoFaith Summit and listen to what Jesus has to say!
[1] e.g., when Jesus says things like “if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:15); or “with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Mt. 7:2-3); or “those who do not believe are condemned already” (Jn. 3:18); or “unless you repent, you will all perish as they did” (Lk. 13:3)
[2] e.g., when Jesus says “do not resist an evildoer…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Mt. 5:39, 44); or “just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn. 13:34); or “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk. 6:36)
[3] It certainly begs the question of the responsible use of scripture—what I think is a vitally important matter as we have seen the Bible’s weaponization in Christian nationalism against the socially, economically, and ecologically vulnerable. I believe it is somewhere in Sallie McFague’s book Models of God that she affirms the Bible’s theological complexities and contradictions as being “true to life,” and which draws people of faith into a more authentic and responsible way of doing theology. Accordingly, Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker advise readers of the Bible to “carefully weigh the prophetic texts against each other, not as infallible commands but as a range of human responses to crisis.” (Saving Paradise, p. 23)
[4] Among the vales/veils must also be included the theological traumas of those who fear for whom the bell tolls: “the way of the wicked will perish… and you will perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled.” (Ps. 1:6; 2:12) Many a beloved child of God has been enculturated and indoctrinated to fixate on God’s seething contempt for corrupt human hearts and original sin and a hopelessly fallen world, instead of trusting God’s heartfelt desire and everlasting promises to love and to bless. This is the recurring surprise of the gospel: that “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn. 3:17).
[5] Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview, pp. 67-68
Rev. Krehl Stringer
Fergus Falls, MN
Krehl Stringer serves as chaplain at PioneerCare Retirement Community in Fergus Falls, MN. Ordained in the ELCA in 2006, Pastor Krehl has served parishes in southwestern Michigan and northern Minnesota and is presently a member of the Northwestern Minnesota Synod’s Creation Care Task Force. He and his wife, Meghan, cherish time together in the outdoors, advocate passionately God’s unfailing love for the world, are proud of two grown children living in the Twin Cities, and are continually amused at the antics and humbled by the exuberant affection of their collie, Missy.