Preaching Voices of Creation in Scripture

By Rev. Dr. Nancy Victorin-Vangerud

…Let’s listen how this planet hums with so much wing, fur and fin.

    –Aimee Nezhukumatathil¹

Well, talking with family and friends about climate change may be difficult enough, but what about preaching?  To fight climate change, do we also need to preach about it?  

“Of course!” says the UMC Creation Justice Movement’s worship resources team.⁴  Preaching, praying, and preparing worship to embrace our embodied lives within the “kin-dom” of God can be more than a once-a-year Sunday or special topic.  People who preach don’t have to be climate scientists like Dr. Heyhoe, though drawing on scientific understanding does model an openness of mind and heart.  People who preach don’t have to provide definitive answers about the future or specific outcomes of climate-related trends, though stories of loss, adaptation and resilience are crucial.  Preaching about climate change–and creation justice–need not be considered an add-on or diversion to the Gospel.  In fact, preaching about climate justice can be grounded in a serious consideration of scripture.  As the UMC Creation Justice Movement (UMCCJM) webpage attests, “Powerful, inspiring sermons related to Creation Justice are being preached regularly from our pulpits.”⁵

So let’s talk about it!  Let me share my own recent experience with re-imagining sermon-writing based on the practice of hearing creation-centered voices within scripture. Once I started, I found myself in the midst of a whole chorus of living voices!

But in preparing to preach in a time when climate justice is front and center, I needed a new approach. I wanted to do more than cite scientific data and trends, which–though important–can potentially overwhelm people. I sought to do more than provide actions to shift our everyday individual habits and choices (as impactful as these changes can be!).  I wanted to reflect on scripture from the ground-level, in order to as Brian McLaren describes, “disentangle our identities from the civilization’s dominant story” and “begin imagining, embodying, and telling a new story, a story that gives us a deeper sense of meaning, belonging, and purpose, one that helps heal the Earth, our fellow humans, and our fellow creatures rather than destroying them…It is not about us as individual humans…”.⁶ McLaren’s Creation-wide hope moves biblical interpretation and preaching into the ground of mythos, narrative and values.  

So who to turn to for encouragement and creativity?  A good friend from Vanderbilt Divinity School days recommended I check out a model of preaching developed by Lutheran ecofeminist homiletician Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade in her book, Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology and the Pulpit.⁷  Schade calls her interpretive approach an “ecological hermeneutics,” where we enter an ongoing conversation with scripture by engaging in an open tradition-ing process, rather than receiving a text with a closed horizon of meaning from the past.⁸  Following the editors of The Earth Bible series, Schade considers “Earth as a subject in the text,” as she explains:

I found Schade’s invitation intriguing–to listen, empathize and playfully/prophetically articulate voices of Creation in the text. So often the land, living beings, and elements are overlooked in interpreting scripture.  Perhaps we mention them as setting the stage or describing the context, but not as narrative partners in the story.  Instead of preaching as one-way messaging from God to human beings (only), Schade’s approach cultivates meaning-making within an expansive Creation-community.  As soon as we ask ourselves what might be the concerns or voices of eco-participants in the text, we are considering otherkind and not just humankind as God’s beloved.

For example, in the UMCCJM’s 2023 Season of Creation: Let Justice and Peace Flow, texts from the book of Ezekiel provide a chance to explore Schade’s method.  As we learn from the resources, Ezekiel’s prophecies reflect Israel’s context of historical trauma, forced migration and land devastation.  As a temple priest in Jerusalem, Ezekiel had been forcibly exiled in 597 bce by the Babylonians with the first mass deportation.  His remaining impoverished people watched their children starve and herds languish.  We can recognize that Ezekiel’s prophecies emerged from horrific harm, so how might sermons provide ways to empathize?  

One text, in particular, provides a startling opportunity.  In Ezekiel 36:8-12, we encounter the prophet announcing the return of the people to the land of Palestine.  He declared that the people will come home from exile to the valleys, waterways, fields and dwelling places of the land.  Ezekiel cried out that the people and the land will be fruitful and multiply, echoing Creation images from Genesis. The news Ezekiel brought was  that God will be accountable to the Covenant:  homes and villages will be rebuilt, children will grow up.  Herds of animals will peacefully graze.  The people will again till and sow the soil.  Tables will be provisioned, trade will commence, and generations sustained season after season.  Ezekiel’s words painted an abundant future. 

But what stands out in this passage as we listen to Ezekiel, is that he  directed his words to the mountains surrounding the habitable land, not the people returning home.  One can almost hear the prophet apologizing to the mountains, sincerely recognizing all that they have endured.  Since God intended the re-inhabitation of the land, the prophet pledged to the mountains, valleys, and waterways that God would do even more good than before–this would be a plentiful, regenerative relationship between God and the land. 

At this point, we can take up Schade’s invitation to listen for voices of Creation, enlarging our understanding of the story and the flow of conversation.  What if we listen with imaginative empathy for the voices of the mountains as they might respond to Ezekiel’s prophecy?  How would they respond to this news?

Standing with the mountains we might hear them say, “So, you’ve returned to us, prophet of Israel?  With so many traumatic years of exile, we were not sure we would ever see you again.  We mountains have been traumatized too–the crying of children, the languishing of goats and sheep, the cutting down of branches and trees, all of this agony and death impacting our wellbeing.  We rejoice that the people will be coming home, but can we trust them after living in exile?  Will they till and sow with care, will they draw upon our waters with wisdom and prudence?  How will they share the fruits of harvest–with equity and compassion, or with greed and hoarding ?  It will take years to build up the fertility of the soil again!  Will the people persevere?  Will they respect us?  We are ancient, but we too are vulnerable, our waters fragile.  Will the people commit to future generations?  How will God inspire their efforts and hold them accountable?

So how would the mountains respond?  Will they shout with joy?  Break forth into singing?  Skip like rams?  Yield food and prosperity?  Or quake, smoke and tremble?  Turn in fear and trembling?  

In my experience, by using the UMCCJM worship resources, I found that preaching can invite congregations into the transformed “we” of a Creation-community.  And fortunately, there are more series to come!  This fall, one team has developed a 2024 Season of Creation, “First Fruits and Fig Trees: To Hope and Act with Creation,” based on scriptures involving fig trees, in light of Romans 8:19-25.¹⁰  And for Eastertide 2025, another team is developing a 6-week series in partnership with Discipleship Resources, tentatively entitled “Believing Into Christ,” based on the season’s lectionary texts from Revelation and the Gospel of John.  

So, preach!  We have a growing movement of United Methodists passionate for Creation Justice!  Not only can we talk about climate change, we can preach Creation Justice too! 

And PS:  This Oct. 5th, at Hamline Church United Methodist, St. Paul, Minnesota, the MN Hopeful Earthkeepers will be offering a series of three Creation Justice workshops from 2pm to 5pm, in tandem with the Global  Ministries Earthkeepers training (Oct. 3-6).  These workshops are for people wanting to explore or engage further in ministries of Creation justice.  I’ll be leading one of the workshops, “Preaching Voices of Creation in Scripture”, which will invite participants for eco-interpretation with Rev. 22:1-2, the Tree of Life.   Planning is still underway for the afternoon, but if you want to attend in person, or by livestream, or just know more, feel free to contact me at nmvicvang@gmail.com.

1. Aimee Nezhukumatathil, ‘Invitation” in Oceanic (Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2018), 29.
2. Katharine Heyhoe, Saving Us:  A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World Atria/One Signal Publishers (September 20, 2022).
3. Jerrod Davis, “Fight Climate Change, Talk about It” in “Creator, Creature, Collards” (July 16, 2024) https://creatorcreaturecollards.com/2024/07/16/fight-climate-change-talk-about-it/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR233VCTnZ7dFH5ZdsvFsE0v6tsY5zCyxveZmjgWi84PbhH84SUjeDRZTf8_aem_BZUd6WbisW7FEByQum6jrQ
4. To explore worship resources such as sermon notes, videos, music, prayers, and children’s messages in “Season of Creation” series among others, see https://umcreationjustice.org/library/.
5. For examples of sermons on climate justice see the growing collection curated on the UMCCJ website:  https://umcreationjustice.org/project/creation-justice-sermon-collection/.
6. Brian McLaren, Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart (New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2024), 71.
7. Leah Schade, Creation Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology and the Pulpit (St. Louis, Missouri:  Chalice Press, 2015).  Thank you Rev. Dr. Phil Jones!
8. Schade, 32.
9. Schade, 34.  To explore further ecojustice principles of biblical interpretation, see Norman C. Habel and Peter Trudinger, Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics, Society of Biblical Literature Symposium Series (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2008).
10. https://umcreationjustice.org/5098-2/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2sszY5L7fGlyL7Idi5S-9HPFBoZsmdx5qijlQko9uIup9Eq4WPceczdxM_aem_8Jle7OfPkwBDp8wJEz5kiA