AN ECOPREACHER’S BLESSING

The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade

Click here for a 3-minute inspirational video for doing justice for our human and Earth-kin (text is below):

May God send you forth with courage to step into the prophetic role to which God is calling us.

 

May God send you forth to amplify the voices of “the least of these,” those most vulnerable human and Earth-kin who are impacted by the effects of extreme energy extraction, climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction, so that their voices may be heard. 

May God send you forth to and hold our elected leaders accountable for listening to science and protecting public health and God’s Creation. 

May God send you forth to find the values we share in common, whether you are from the city or the rural areas, whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, whether you are a person of color or a person of privilege.

May God send you forth not just to protect the land, water, air, communities and the health of our citizens, but to create a world where the environment doesn’t need protection.

May the God of justice and truth empower your to put your faith not in corporations and temporary, corrupting wealth, but in the God who fights for the oppressed, the voiceless, and in those who stand on the side of righteousness. 

May God send you forth not just to care for the afflicted, but to stay the hand of the ones causing the affliction in the first place. 

May God stand with you as you stand in solidarity with those who suffer, calling our leaders to accountability, and living into the vision of a clean-energy future where all children, women, men, and Earth-kin may thrive.

May God send you forth to demand justice for our human community and for Creation.  Like the persistent widow in Jesus’ parable, like David fighting Goliath, like Moses and Aaron confronting Pharaoh, like Sojourner Truth confronting slavery, like Buddhists monks wrapping trees in saffron robes, may you be confident in the promise that justice and righteousness shall prevail.

May God send you forth knowing that you stand in a long line of faithful people who take their religions and traditions outside their houses of worship and out into the world, helping to create on the outside what we preach on the inside.

May God send you forth to attend to your tasks today with confidence, good humor, perseverance, fierce advocacy for justice, and great joy knowing you have friends and colleagues to support and encourage you in doing this Great Work of our time.

Salaam alekum. Blessed be. Shalom. Peace. Blessings. Namaste.  Amen.

Leah Schade is the author of the book Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015). She is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky, and an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.