Lent - Week Six
LIBERATION LECTIONARY - PALM SUNDAY
Healing Climate
"We can love ourselves by loving the earth." Dr. Wangari Maathai
Macey Keung - Mother Earth
The environment on our planet is drastically changing, and climate change is a term that we use to describe pattern changes like high and low temperatures and amount of rainfall over a long period of time. While weather is temporary and changes all the time, the word “climate” is used to describe the normal weather conditions in a region over a long period of time. Climate justice means to talk about how climate change impacts both our earth and the people on it, and to include everyone’s voice in making a plan to care for our planet. It can make us think of generational wounds, because if we don’t take care of our planet now, climate change will hurt our children and grandchildren much worse than we know.
Daily Readings from Isaiah 53, John 18, and John 19
This week’s daily readings focus on the trial and execution of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of John, juxtaposed with the Suffering Servant prophetic prose from Isaiah’s second scroll.
Sunday: Isaiah 53.11-12 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Reflection: The Passion of Jesus
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you will burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah 55:9-13
When I was growing up one of my favorite songs was “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”
For most of the last few chapters of John, Jesus has been talking about the work that he has been sent to do, and the work that he is leaving the disciples to complete and amplify when he departs to return to the Creator God, whom he calls his Father. One important part of honoring this task that Jesus is leaving the disciples is acknowledging and taking seriously the needs of the earth that God made through God’s Word - which is Jesus himself!
In many ways, Black women have the whole world in our hands.
In the Bible, Eve is called “the mother of all living”, she is one of the first people God made. She worked in the garden where God placed her and Adam, and even after they lost that garden space, she could not have stopped caring both for her family and the ground they lived on.
Dr. Wangari Maathai was a very prominent scientist and environmentalist in Kenya. She spoke up consistently about the intersections of humanitarianism and climate justice. She believed in the concepts of freedom and flourishing being possible on the earth.
Jesus has given us the same hope. His voice as God’s Word called all things into existence on earth. Then he - the Word - became human so he could live on earth and heal everything he had made. That means that whenever Jesus speaks about justice and life in the kingdom, he is speaking about every part of Creation that he has something to do with. Everything that belongs to him. You and me, and the whole world.
When Jesus came to live on earth, he came to put the whole world in his hands, and hold us close. He came to put the whole world in his hands, and heal it. When he gathered the whole world in his hands, he made a plan to lead us all to play a part in our continued healing. He made a way for us to never hurt ourselves, one another, or the places we live, ever again.
The one who has the whole world in his hands came to tell us - or really to remind us - that the whole world is in our hands too.
Just like Creator God told Mama Eve in the garden, we are supposed to cause the earth to grow and produce. We have the power to love the earth to life, so that our lives can be sustained on earth. God as the giver of all life has promised us through the love and work of Jesus that this kind of life is not only possible, it is part of our destiny. That is the promise of the prophecy in Isaiah: we will walk in joy. The mountains and hills will burst forth in worship.
Jesus has made a way for this promise to come to us. He came to earth humbly, he entered our world in a lowly way, so that his power could be shown through us. So that his determination could be grounded in his greatest love, the world that he made. Ashé
Music and Meditation
Playlists: Apple Music // YouTube
Breath Prayers
Inhale. Fill your whole self with breath. Then say: God cares for all Creation
Breathe Out: I am under God’s care.
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Inhale: God cares for all Creation // Slowly Exhale: We are under God’s care.
Inhale: God cares for all Creation // Slowly Exhale: Creation is under God’s care.
Learn more about our healing history this week!
Learn about Dr. Wangari Maathai, and read these great quotes from her:
Great quotes from Dr. Wangari Maathai
Learn about the science of human connection, the “Eve Gene” is a fascinating discovery which connects so much of humanity to a scientifically recent ancestor in Africa. The Eve Gene