Creation’s Easter Celebration!

Christ is risen from the dead,

and creation celebrates!

Have you ever thought about what Easter means for the created world? Have you ever thought about why it matters that Christ’s resurrected body was in a physical form? Christ’s body was recognizable by its scars. It could be touched. Christ’s resurrected body has implications for the creation around us, because matter, the things of this earth, matter to God. They will be changed, renewed, restored, but still recognizable, scars and all.

Have you ever thought about what Easter means for the created world?

Have you ever thought about what it means that when Christ comes again the earth will be restored and that the Holy City, the New Jerusalem will come down to earth (Rev. 21:2)?  Have you ever considered that “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (Rev. 21:5)--that includes the stuff of this earth!

It’s Easter. A time to celebrate new life and the hope we have in the resurrection. But scripture and our faith paint a much fuller picture of the scope of Christ’s redemptive power than most of our churches attest to in worship. While we readily claim the Easter message as part of our own personal salvation stories, we rarely consider its cosmic implications.

Christ is risen from the dead,

and creation celebrates!

Why? What does the message of Easter mean to creation? Everything.  

God created the world, in all its glorious beauty. Adam and Eve were given the task of being its caretakers, but instead their actions resulted in the cursing of all creation. According to Romans 8 the created world has been groaning, eagerly seeking its redemption and that one day “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay” (Rom. 8:12).

What does the message of Easter mean to creation? Everything.  

The task given to all believers is to work to set things right even now: the redemption of humans, calling them into a right relationship with God, and the redemption of the earth. As kingdom builders we are also nature’s caretakers.

And Christ’s resurrection was the first fruit of all creation. It not only is our hope but the hope of all creation.

Christ is risen from the dead,

and creation celebrates!

If we truly believe in the cosmic scope of redemption--

that God’s call to be creation’s caretakers is still true today,

that God’s call for us to build his kingdom here on earth also means working towards the redemption of creation--  

if we truly believe all of that, then our worship needs to reflect it.

If we truly believe in the cosmic scope of redemption, then our worship needs to reflect it.

When we raise our voices to God in praise we are joining in the praise of all creation. When we bow our heads in lament we are joining in the lament of all creation. When we come to God in confession we need to confess again and again that we have failed in our tasks as caretakers.

When the Word is preached it needs to include a Gospel message big enough to encompass the whole of creation.

When the Word is preached it needs to include a Gospel message big enough to encompass the whole of creation. When we celebrate the sacraments we are mindful that God uses the stuff of this earth as sign and symbol. When we are sent out we are sent out to join the work that the Holy Spirit is already doing in the world around us; the work of redeeming not just lives but the whole cosmos.

Christ is risen from the dead,

and creation celebrates!

To help churches give voice to creation’s praises and laments, to preach an expansive gospel, and to call its people to lives spent claiming this world and all it contains for Christ, the CRC’s Climate Witness Project collaborated with Worship Ministries of the CRC, and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, to identify resources. You can find the result of that collaboration here.

This collection of free online resources includes prayers, liturgies, calls to worship, and responsive readings, sermons, Bible studies, and discussion starters, as well as congregational songs and hymns.

It includes laments like this one from Psalm 80 that prays:

Leader 1: The troubles before us are overwhelming in their enormity. Everywhere the cry of the poor is matched and echoed by the cry of the earth.

Congregation: You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.

Or these words from Julie Heisey,

Let us see with our eyes,

 and feel with our hearts,

 and live through our actions -

A repentance of the hurt that we've caused

 Your believed creation.

 Let us be humble in these confessions.

Christ is risen from the dead,

and creation celebrates!

Creation celebrates Easter because it is the promise of things to come. As the refrain of one of the songs in this collection declares:

    By your awesome deeds you deliver us!

    You answer us, oh God of our salvation,

    you are the hope of the ends of the earth

    and of the farthest of seas.

        --Noah McLaren, Psalm 65: Hope of the Earth

[Photo by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash]