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By: Benni and Rhianna Isaak-Krauss  Photo by Joann Boswell used with permission. This liturgy was created for chapel at AMBS, inspired by the call for a Global Climate Strike. For more information about the climate strike see https://globalclimatestrike.net/ Throughout the chapel we use the biblical metaphor of hardened hearts to describe the condition of implicative denial. Implicative denial is when we acknowledge the science of climate change but continue to live our lives undisturbed by it, “as if nothing happened.” In the biblical story hardness of heart is one way to describe sin and a lack of understanding of God’s working in the world. The work of the Spirit is like water slowly softening our hearts and preparing the ground for transformation and radical action. We were inspired in this by the work of Ched Myers and others who work on Watershed Discipleship, especially Ched’s essay: “Nature against Empire: Exodus Plagues, Climate Crisis and Hardheartedness.” Before the service practice ‘Oh Healing River’ with the congregation. Call to Worship: Dearly beloved, Thank you for coming. It has been a full week of working, studying, and wrestling with countless tensions. Today, millions of people are responding to the call by young people to strike for the climate. From Australia to Africa, Asia to Europe, and throughout the Americas children and youth are leading a movement to draw attention to the abuse of our Earth and the groaning of creation. As a community, we have not chosen to close down for the day. While some of us may join other actions today or in the future, our primary collective contribution to the climate strike is worship. Worship is an act of protest against the reality of sin in our world and a declaration of God’s victory over the powers of sin and death. At the same time, Christian worship also allows us to tell the truth about ourselves and our own complicity in evil, while affirming God’s ongoing goodness. This is called confession. Only when we tell the truth can we mourn and, out of mourning, transform grief and anger into appropriate action. Confession is a necessary step to allow God to soften our hardened hearts. Though we also pray for creation in travail and hope for a creation restored, today we will make confessions. Prayer: Creating and Healing God, You have promised you will reconcile all things to yourself. Soften our hard hearts with your lifegiving water; Teach us to listen; Fill us with courage to confess the truth. Scripture: Listen to the reading from the prophet Isaiah, speaking to a hard-hearted people: The earth mourns and dries up, (silence—listen to the ambient sounds) Introduction to the Ritual: Like the Pharaoh of Exodus, we harden our hearts when faced with deep pain. Despite the voices of prophets, we harden our hearts when repentance feels impossible. When we feel overwhelmed by helplessness and hopelessness we harden our hearts to continue on. Together we will seek God’s healing waters through confession. Many of you have pieces of paper on your seats. Read it over silently to yourself now. As we go around the circle, please come forward and confess--on behalf of yourself and on behalf of humanity. We will join you with the words: LORD soften our hearts. Then dip your hands in the living water and wet the hardened clay. This ritual is an act of faith: that our hearts can soften and that the parched Earth can soften and heal as well. Confession: Ritual: Step 1: Confess Step 2: Congregation responds: Lord, soften our hearts. Step 3: Reach into water, cupping your hands in the cool healing waters to pour over parched earth. Leader: Jesus says: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) Trusting these words and knowing that we are beloved in God’s eyes, we can tell the truth about ourselves and the world we live in. 1: The truth is you have given us an amazing planet to be our home. You have woven an intricate web of life in which all relations are interdependent and a stable climate providing abundant food for all. Lord, soften our hearts. 2: The truth is we are the ones who have broken this precious balance. We have taken more than we needed. We have abused the power with which you vested us. We have sought to remake the world in our image rather than seeking to conform to your image which you placed in us. Lord, soften our hearts. 3: The truth is we have become addicted to fossil fuels and the pipe dream of endless growth. We want to go quickly and eat cheaply regardless of the human and ecological sacrifices. Like addicts, we choose denial. We lash out at those confronting us with the inconvenient truth. Lord, soften our hearts. 4: The truth is fossil fuel extraction and consumption are the main drivers of climate change. Unless we rapidly begin recovery, our addiction to fossil fuels will kill us. It is already killing millions of people and a countless number of God’s other beloved creatures. Lord, soften our hearts. 5: The truth is climate change is not some potential future threat. We are already realizing the effects of a one degree Celsius increase, leading to more extreme weather. Yet the hurricanes, floods, and droughts we are experiencing today are only the first fruits of the harvest of destruction that we are bringing upon ourselves. Lord, soften our hearts. 6: The truth is the coral reefs and the majestic creatures of the sea are dying. They are overheating by rising temperatures, dissolving by increasing acidification, being strangled by plastic waste, and weakening by overfishing. Lord, soften our hearts. 7: The truth is the Amazon forest is burning. Fires laid by cattle herders are displacing wildlife and indigenous peoples and destroying one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. The truth is our insatiable appetite for meat is driving this destruction. Lord, soften our hearts. 8: The truth is climate change is already displacing millions of people. As islands are swallowed by the sea, and once-fertile lands experience drought after drought, millions more will lose their home. Unfortunately, many harden their hearts and refuse to let climate refugees take shelter. Lord, soften our hearts. 9: The truth is we cannot put our trust in political leaders. Too often they are even more captive to the fossil-fueled delusion of endless growth and development. While a few politicians openly deny the reality of climate change, many more pay lip service to environmental protection while approving new fossil fuel infrastructure. We are in dire need of leaders who will listen to the people over the fossil fuel industry. Lord, soften our hearts. 10: The truth is our destruction of habitat is driving animals into extinction at rates 1000 times faster than normal. Each day ten to twelve species go extinct. By 2050 half of all species may be gone. While we might not notice some of these animals, they form the basis of the food web and are precious and known in God’s eyes. Lord, soften our hearts. 11: The truth is that while the rich countries of Europe and North America have contributed the most to climate change, the impacts are most severely felt in poor countries, especially in the tropics. We add insult to injury by blaming ecological problems on overpopulation in the Global South, while conveniently ignoring the obscene overconsumption of resources in Western countries, especially by the super-rich. Lord, soften our hearts. 12: The truth is we have been warned. We have not heeded the countless warnings of indigenous peoples, scientists, and our own holy scriptures. We have been willfully ignorant of the consequences of our actions and have even justified ourselves by expecting you to whisk us away to a new place instead of renewing your creation here on Earth. Lord, soften our hearts. 13: The truth is while we have gotten ourselves into this mess, we cannot get ourselves out of it. As we struggle with our personal addiction to fossil fuels and meat, we know that individual change will not save us. Only a great awakening, a global conversion of our economic system and spiritual state might give us a chance to stave off the worst catastrophes. Only the Guardian of Creation can protect us from the waters of chaos. Lord, soften our hearts. 14: We confess that as we begin to face the daunting reality of climate collapse, we are tempted with despair. We are tempted to forget your acts of deliverance and deny your powerful saving grace. We may realize that in our comfortable lives we never really believed in you in the first place. Lord, soften our hearts. Assurance Leader: These are bitter truths and hard to swallow. May we chew on them until they become sweet in our mouths and our hearts begin to soften. Hear these words of assurance: The truth is, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.” Psalm 24:1 Lord, soften our hearts. The truth is, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 Lord, soften our hearts. The truth is, “Christ is the firstborn of all creation … in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15 Lord, soften our hearts. Sing Oh Healing River (Sing the first verse, or one time through, then process whilst singing). Process outside singing Oh Healing River, in call and response form. Benediction (from Revelation 22) Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
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