On September 17th, Union Seminary posted the picture above with the following tweet: “Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?”
After some critique of the practice, they responded with the following tweets:
We are in the throes of a climate emergency, a crisis created by humanity’s arrogance, our disregard for Creation. Far too often, we see the natural world only as resources to be extracted for our use, not divinely created in their own right—worthy of honor, thanks and care.
We need to unlearn habits of sin and death. And part of that work must be building new bridges to the natural world. And that means creating new spiritual and intellectual frameworks by which we understand and relate to the plants and animals with whom we share the planet.
Churches have a huge role to play in this endeavor. Theologies that encourage humans to dominate and master the Earth have played a deplorable role in degrading God’s creation. We must birth new theology, new liturgy to heal and sow, replacing ones that reap and destroy.
When Robin Wall Kimmerer spoke at Union last year, she concluded her lecture by tasking us—and all faith communities—to develop new liturgies by which to mourn, grieve, heal and change in response to our climate emergency. We couldn’t be prouder to participate in this work.
And here’s the thing: At first, this work will seem weird. It won’t feel normal. It won’t look like how we’re used to worship looking and sounding. And that’s exactly the point. We don’t just need new wine, we need new wineskins.
But it’s also important to note that this isn’t, really, that radical a break from tradition. Many faiths and denoms have liturgy through which we express and atone for the harm we’ve caused. No one would have blinked if our chapel featured students apologizing to each other.
What’s different (and the source of so much derision) is that we’re treating plants as fully created beings, divine Creation in its own right—not just something to be consumed. Because plants aren’t capable of verbal response, does that mean we shouldn’t engage with them?
So, if you’re poking fun, we’d ask only that you also spend a couple moments asking: Do I treat plants and animals as divinely created beings? What harm do I cause without thinking? How can I enter into new relationship with the natural world?
Change isn’t easy: It’s no simple business to break free from comfortable habits and thoughts. But if we do not change, we will perish. And so will plants and animals God created and called “good.” We must lean into this discomfort; God waits for us there.
What Are We to Worship?
The Apostle Paul when describing mankind’s sinfulness writes, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (Rom 1:25). In the case of Union Seminary, which is a very liberal seminary, they committed this error. They exchanged the worship of God as Creator for worship of plants as part of creation.
Jesus summarized our worship – and by extension our prayer life – when he spoke to the Pharisees. He said:
37 Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
For the follower of Christ, our worship does not belong to plants; our worship belongs to God alone.
What Are We to Do with the Environment?
This question is greater than today’s blog; however, let me summarize as I did for worship.
In Genesis, God made plants as part of creation, just as He did all kinds of animals (Gen 1:11-25). Furthermore He created man in the image of God (Gen 1:26-28). In the process of creation, He gave instructions. We call these instructions the Creation Mandate. God said:
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen 1:28)
Essentially, God gave mankind the responsibility of subduing and having dominion over the created universe around us. In essence, we become sub-regents under His rule as the Sovereign of the universe. He left us in charge to responsibly use the world under His authority.
Putting It All Together
When you consider the first and second great commandments (Matt 22:37-40) and the creation mandate (Gen 1:28), you could summarize all three in the following way:
Love God Supremely – which relates to worship (love the Lord your God…)
Love Your Neighbor Sincerely – which relates to service (love your neighbor as yourself…)
Love the Environment Appropriately – which relates to stewardship (fill the earth and subdue it…)
Therefore, should we care for and protect the environment? Should we care about and be responsible for the world upon which God placed us and made? Absolutely.
However, should we worship and pray to plants? Should we treat them as either our gods (worship) or neighbor (as people)? Absolutely not.
Instead, we should responsibly be good stewards of the incredible world that God has given us while we fill it and subdue it.
KevinCarson.com | Wisdom for Life in Christ Together
