Litany for Our Planet

I feel a great deal of urgency combined with hope. People, especially people who claim to follow the Christ - the Peacemaking, violence-ending, death-resurrecting Christ - need to wake up to the understanding that caring for creation = caring for the poor. This is my prayer that Spirit People will not wait to face this, that they will start now, make and push for change now. So that we can leave a legacy of a healthy planet to our children and grandchildren.

God, we ask for your help. 
Our planet, our mother, is suffering
Due to human neglect, apathy, and greed; 
Due to overconsumption, mass production, and pollution.…

*Spanish Translation* Letanía para la Tierra

Rick Behrens of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church in Kansas City contacted me wanting to translate some litanies for use in their bilingual services. A member of his team translated my "Litany for the Earth" into Spanish. They kindly shared their lovely translation.

Translated by Carmen Flores.

Dios, lamentamos la destrucción que se ha hecho
Que hemos permitido que se haga
Por nuestro silencio e inacción
Y por nuestra acción directa
Para la Tierra - Tu creación.
Perdónanos, oh Dios.

Incluso ahora nos damos cuenta de que nuestro hogar
Esta sufriendo
Sus habitantes están sufriendo
Por falta de agua limpia y aire
Falta de alimento vital
La falta de hábitat seguro.

Ayúdenos a tomar conciencia
De las necesidades de la humanidad,
De las necesidades de las generaciones venideras,
De las necesidades del suelo y las criaturas.

Reconocemos que tenemos una oportunidad:
Para elegir la paz sobre el beneficio
Para elegir la actividad sobre la complacencia
Para elegir un Bien Mayor sobre la conveniencia de hoy.

Despierta en nosotros una nueva compasión
Una nueva voluntad de cambiar,
Una nueva emoción para fomentar la comunidad,
Una nueva fe en la abundancia de tu Reino.
Un nuevo celo por establecer la Paz y la Justicia de Dios,
Un nuevo deseo de establecer la Tierra en derechos
Una nueva comprensión de la conectividad de todas las cosas,
Una nueva apreciación del don de la Tierra.

Amen

Litany for the Earth

Here is the text of the first half of Psalm 24 (NLT).

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas
and built it on the ocean depths.

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
Only those whose hands and hearts are pure,
who do not worship idols
and never tell lies.

They will receive the Lord’s blessing
and have a right relationship with God their savior.
Such people may seek you
and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.
                 - Psalm 24:1-6

God, we lament the destruction that has been done
That we have permitted to be done
By our silence and inaction
And by our direct action
To the Earth - Your creation. *
Forgive us, Oh God.

Even now we realize that our home
Is suffering
Its inhabitants are suffering
From lack of clean water and air
     Lack of life-giving nourishment
     Lack of safe habitat.

Help us to become aware
     Of the needs of humanity,
     Of the needs of generations to come,
     Of the needs of soil and creatures.
We acknowledge that we have a chance:
     To choose peace over profit
     To choose activity over complacency
     To choose a Greater Good over today’s convenience.

Arouse in us a new compassion,
A new willingness to change,
A new excitement to foster community,
A new faith in the abundance of your Kingdom.
A new zeal for establishing the Peace and Justice of God,
A new desire to set the Earth to rights
A new understanding of the connectedness of all things,
A new appreciation of the gift of Earth.

Amen

*Recommended reading for people of faith on the topic of Creation Care is Tri Robinson's _Saving God's Green Earth_.

Litany for Imagination

God, we are made by you:
Imagined by you,
Formed in your image,
Created by your love.

We often forget that we are creatures of imaginative potential,
Of creativity;
That our imaginations, like yours, can be generative and life-giving
Useful to your Kingdom.
We often forget that our assumptions about you are limited
     By our experience here;
     By words on a page,
     By culture and tradition,
     By our ego,
     By our smallness.
But with these starting points, and with imagination, we can let go of assuming
And move closer to you.

We struggle, because we only know things that you are like
     Like water
     Like bread
     Like wind
     Like a parent
     Like a king.
But we know that these are incomplete comparisons:
Nothing we know can define you.

We pause now, and open our minds
To the fullness of God;
Of which we can contain only a little at a time -
A portion that gives us life
And makes us hungry and thirsty for more.
Fueling our imaginations.

This is what we ask for:
To be able to move past what we can see, feel,
Taste, touch and hear with our mortal bodies.
Toward a new horizon, a new reality:
A Kingdom you are imagining
And inviting us to imagine and embody.

Amen
 

Litany for Creation Care

Creator God, whose art and beauty are evident in every molecule of Creation, You made the universe - planets and solar systems, earth-home, plants, creatures - and called it good.
You made human life the pinnacle of that work, even choosing to incarnate that work in the Person of Jesus; and giving humanity those great and terrible gifts: choice and dominion.

Receive our confession now.

We have regarded your Creation only as a resource to be spent, not as a gift to be stewarded.
We have polluted air, water, and land.
We have destroyed ecosystems and species.
We have exploited and razed entire sections of earth.
We have created mountains of unnecessary waste.
We have valued material wealth and convenience above the health of our bodies and those under our care.
We have forgotten our own temporality, that other generations will come after us needing a home.
We have forgotten that You created life and it is precious.

Where we should have stewarded, we exploited.
Where we should have protected, we left vulnerable.
Where we should have respected, we chose to disregard.

Grant that we may come to a new hope and understanding of Your Creation, our relationship with it, and our role within it.
Grant that we may find ways to participate in its healing and renewal.
Grant that we may become willing to develop new habits and ways of interacting with the world, that consider its beauty and welfare.
Grant that we may re-imagine prosperity, economy, and civilization in light of stewardship of Creation.
Grant that we may more deeply understand Your nature through your Creation.
Grant that we may more deeply understand the interdependence of humanity and earth.
Grant that we may extend the work of Christ on the cross to a creation groaning and waiting expectantly.
Grant that we may have a renewed hope for the future of Creation - redeemed, reconciled, restored to its proper place and function.

May gratitude and the love of Christ govern our every interaction with humans, creatures, and the earth.

Amen.