by Brandon Rhodes

Last Sunday, Christians all over the world had a Resurrection Feast to celebrate the risen Christ.  Easter serves as a reminder everyone of the miracle of rebirth that occurs throughout creation at this same time of year.  Nutrients long buried in the roots of trees and shrubs burst forth all around is in a myriad array of pinks, whites, and yellows.  Even in the desert, flowers are blooming!

That flowers and leaves blossom out of seemingly dead plants in response to the warming sun amazes and humbles me for how consistently they retell the story of death and rebirth.  The drama of our Lord’s passion, burial, and resurrection into glorious life are written into the very seasons around us!  The Bible witnesses this mystery in Paul’s letter to the Romans, when it says that “since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  Easter and springtime bring a whole new meaning to ‘flower power.’

How exciting and appropriate, then, that this Saturday is Earth Day, and Sunday is Creation Sunday.  As we in Christ remembered his resurrection last Sunday, why don’t we listen to the creation as it also remembers the risen Christ this coming Sunday?  Have another meal with family and friends, but have it outdoors this time, perhaps as a picnic or a day hike.  Maybe you could plant some bulbs or vegetables and watch in the coming months as this miracle unfolds before your eyes.  However you choose to celebrate it, Earth Day can become an extension of our Easter celebration by reconnecting with the rhythms of springtime scripted by our loving God to point us to the empty tomb.

Does this all sound a little fluffy and ridiculous, far from the tradition of our faith?  It shouldn’t!  Appreciating the miracles of the seasons and the majestic art of God goes far back into our heritage.  Understanding the Gospel through creation is an ancient way which has been preserved in the writings of many spiritual behemoths of Christian history.

St. Clement of Alexandria wrote in the third century that “the initial step for a soul to come to knowledge of God is contemplation of nature.”  St. Maximus the Confessor says that “Creation is a bible whose letters and syllables are the particular aspects of all creatures and whose words are the more universal aspects of creation.”  Can you see the jots and tittles of God’s love proclaimed in scripture also proclaimed by the fragrant sights of springtime?

The church fathers coming from the monastic traditions also shed some great light.   Reflecting on a meadow below his monastery, St. Bernard of Clairvaux says that it “has much charm; it greatly soothes weary minds, relieves anxieties and cares, helps souls who seek the Lord greatly to devotion, and recalls to them the thought of the heavenly sweetness to which they aspire.  The smiling countenance of the earth is painted with varying colors, the blooming verdure of spring satisfies the eyes, and its sweet odor salutes the nostrils.”  He wrote to Heinrich Murdach to “believe one who knows: You will find something greater in woods than in books.  Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.”  And in his classic “Canticle of the Sun,” St. Francis of Assisi praises the Lord for the “earth, which doth sustain us and keep us, and bringeth forth divers fruits, and flowers of many colors, and grass.”  Dominican friar and theological giant Thomas Aquinas said that “Sacred writings are bound into two volumes: that of creation and that of Holy Scripture.”  With such wisdom in mind, reflecting on the resurrection in a meadow of blooming flowers is about as far from heresy as one can get!

Later protestant writers also had much to contribute to our understanding God’s mysteries such as the cross and resurrection in nature.  Martin Luther wrote that “God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”  John Calvin would even write that “Everything in it [creation] tells us of God.”  These giants of the faith clearly knew what it meant to celebrate their risen Lord through what has been made. 

This weekend offers a time for the community of God’s people to enter this rich faith heritage by contemplating the heavenly mysteries inscribed into the rhythms of creation.  We can serve God’s creation by listening in on its proclamation of the Gospel.  It has much to teach us of our common Lord, and so we may give thanks to God for the resurrection and the verdant voices rejoicing in it.

So, get your picnic basket and Bible – this Earth Day, it’s time to have church with the flowers!