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Environmental Stewardship Commission

Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota
 
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Upcoming Activities:

Next Meeting:

We meet quarterly close to the solstice and equinox.

Annual Special Projects

Resolutions:

Resolution on the Spirituality of Food Production

Resolution on Church Buildings and Grounds

Resolution on Creation Season

 

 

 

If you find the information in this reflection to be of interest or concern, please contact MEESC Members.

Members of MEESC reside around the Diocese of Minnesota and are available to assist you and your congregation in their environmental stewardship walk.

Please contact us at any time with your questions.

 

Creation Season 2008 (Year A)
March 30 – May 4, 2008

Easter 7, Year A
(May 4, 2008)

Welcome! We're glad you're planning on observing a liturgical season of creation. We have prepared some materials for you to use in worship, teaching, and personal reflection.

The Reflections and Notes on the readings for this Sunday are available for you to use. You may

  • copy and paste what you wish from this page directly to your preparation materials or
  • download the materials as part of a reference materials for the individuals involved in preparing religious education, homilies, or special liturgical materials for your Service.

Reflection and Notes for Easter 7, Year A:

Revised Common Lectionary Readings:

  • Acts 2: 42-47
  • Psalm 68: 1-10, 33-36
  • 1 Peter 4: 12-14, 5: 6-11
  • John John 17:1-11

There are several Themes for this Sunday:

Lectionary themes:

  • Those who trust in God recall the former deliverance
  • Gospel theme: So that they may be one

Creation themes

  • Our cleanliness/footwashing
  • Humans can be the enemy of the rest of creation

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. [Jesus] got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

John 13:1, 4-9

Accent by the author of the reflection

 

How often we fail to recognize our own culpability in the sacrilege of the world. We imagine that the destruction of the environment is the fault of our neighbor. Global warming is China’s fault. Overpopulation centers in India. Lax environmental protections are found in Mexico.

When Jesus, dressed as a servant and with basin and towel in hand, came to Peter, Peter’s response was, “You will never wash my feet.” We can surmise from the passage that Jesus came first to Peter. As a leader among the disciples, Peter was the first disciple to be bathed by his Lord. Or was it because Peter was the most resistant? “Never!” Peter said. It can’t be that I need that kind of attention. Surely I’m not the one who needs to be washed! When Jesus says that all will be washed (which we might be able to infer could be either ‘washed in the blood,’ or ‘washed in baptism’) Peter knows that he doesn’t want to be left out.

21st century Americans cannot be isolationists. We are part of the web that is our world. Economically, socially, educationally, recreationally, and environmentally we are connected to the whole. We can no more disassociate ourselves from the economics of Bangladesh than Amish schoolchildren in Pennsylvania can be distanced from gun violence.

Real questions of today include:

  • How do we live so that the species upon which our lives depend will continue to live?
  • Are we done living so sanctimoniously that we don’t think we need other parts of God’s creation?
  • What are the new and renewed ways we honor the Creator and creation that bring integrity and justice to all life forms?

We cannot stand in judgement of creation by being the arbiter of the relative value of a species or eco-system that may seem irrelevant to our life of the moment. But moving to an ethic of environmental justice is not about being goody two-shoes. It is rather about letting Jesus wash our feet, thereby reawakening in us the awareness of our rightful place in creation.

To the other Notes in this series
Easter 7
March 30
April 6
April 13
April 20
April 27
May 4
 
This Page

 

Note: The Collects for this Sunday were prepared by the Rev Wanda Copeland.

 

The Rev Wanda Copeland was Assistant Rector of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, Roseville, MN, when she originally prepared these materials. Wanda and we welcome your comments. Please address your comments or additional reflections to Wanda Copeland or any MEESC member, or mail them to:


MEESC
c/o C. Morello
4451 Lakeside Drive
Eveleth, MN 55743-4400 USA

The MEESC assumes that all correspondence received is for publication on this web site. If your comments are not for publication, please so note on your correspondence. The MEESC reserves the right to decide which items are included on the website.
   

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