Sarah Werner, author of “Rooted Faith: Practices for Living Well on a Fragile Planet,” gives hope and tangible ideas for how to Christians can live a life that is faithful to their beliefs amid rapid climate change.
Sarah Werner is the communications coordinator for Central District Conference and pastor of Olentangy Wild Church in Columbus, Ohio. She is the author of “Rooted Faith: Practices for Living Well on a Fragile Planet,” a new release from Herald Press, the publishing imprint of MennoMedia. Sarah enjoys hiking, birding and nature photography in her free time.
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This past summer was full of headlines that remind us that we are living in a changing climate — wildfire smoke from Canada choking the Midwest, record heat in the Southwest, and ocean temperatures in Florida higher than had ever been seen before. It’s a lot to take in and can leave us feeling helpless and hopeless. But we, as Christians, are called to live faithfully in the midst of this upheaval, working to restore our fragile created world.
There are several realities that make it difficult for those of us who are part of modern Western culture to live faithfully. The first is that, though the vision of the ideal society in the Bible is one of communal flourishing in an economy of gift, our capitalist structures are the opposite of this, built on the accumulation of wealth by the few at the expense of the many. The second reality is that, though the world is full of beauty, tragedy also confronts us at every turn. It can be hard to appreciate the awesomeness of creation in a world that is also so full of the pain of injustice and the legacies of colonialism.
Jesus lived and taught in a similar time of unrest and tension. He was a member of a nation living under the thumb of the oppressive regime of the Roman Empire. In the midst of a society built on the brutal realities of slavery, misogyny and military rule, he taught the value of all people and preached about a new way of living: a community of creation, where all life can flourish without threat of violence.
The Bible provides us with some core seeds of wisdom that can radically change how we live in these perilous times, but we have to be willing to step out of our modern Western mindset to be able to see them. Perhaps one of the most profound, and overlooked, messages of the Bible is that everything in creation is alive. Those who lived in the time of the Old Testament and the early church inhabited a world that was full of sentient, animated beings, and there are texts throughout the Bible that reflect this worldview. The Psalms are full of verses about mountains that praise God and oceans that sing with joy. In Isaiah, trees clap their hands and springs bubble up in the desert. Jesus implored us to look to the wisdom of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. It’s easy for us, in the modern world, to skip over the earthshaking nature of these texts, by reducing them to mere metaphors. But when I spend any time at all outside, listening to the voice of the earth speaking, I am filled with awe at the abundant beauty and aliveness of the landscape around me.
Reconnecting with the Indigenous worldview of the Bible, in which all of creation is alive, is an important part of living faithfully. When we learn the names of the plants in our bioregion, the songs of the birds that inhabit the same land as us, or explore our watershed, we are connecting to the earth in the same way our spiritual ancestors did, which allows us to connect more closely with the sacred that suffuses all of creation. We also should take care to learn from the original inhabitants of our lands, the countless Indigenous communities that once flourished throughout North America and who, in many cases, continue to live among us. If humans are to have any future on our planet, we must learn how to live in a mutually beneficial relationship with the land, learning from those who have inhabited it for tens of thousands of years.
If the mission of our church communities is to bring about the kingdom of heaven where we are, it must start with the landscape around us — humans, animals and all life included.
If all of this sounds great, but you don’t know where to start, here are a couple of ideas:
- Go outside. Sit on the grass or the dirt or the soft carpet of fallen leaves. Take your shoes off, and let your body feel all of the sensations of being immersed in creation. If the plants and birds around you are unfamiliar, find a field guide or a bird app and learn their names.
- Research your watershed and bioregion. Find out who lived here before you by consulting the Indigenous peoples map at https://native-land.ca/. If you want to get involved in advocacy in your area, do an internet search to see if there are already environmental justice groups working in your community.
We are each of us only one person, but what we do matters. Jesus calls us through his life and teachings to be part of fostering the community of creation on earth. Wherever you are is the perfect place to begin.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog belong to the author and are not intended to represent the views of the MC USA Executive Board or staff.
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