Afro Theology: A Love for Christ and All of Creation

Day 1 of 3: We Lament and Confess

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
—Romans 8:22 (NIV)

My friends and I graduated from College: the happiest day of our lives against the backdrop of raging wildfires. These were the worst we had ever seen in Canadian history. Many people in major city centers across Canada, for the first time, were forced to contend with poor air quality and the ominous implications of a bloodshot atmosphere, the inevitable consequence of climate change. It is important to note that Black and Indigenous in North America and throughout the Global South have been living with the consequences of environmental degradation for centuries. More than ever, people in the global north are being forced to reckon with the reality of impending climate catastrophe and the fear, hopelessness, despair and anxiety it evokes.

As Christians and other people of faith, how can we face the uncertainty brought about by the advancing threat of climate change? Our faith tradition offers rich resources, namely the Biblical practice of lament. Christian lament is how Christians throughout the ages have expressed despair, sorrow and helplessness in the presence of God. Christian lament is a personal and collective endeavor which includes turning to God, naming painful realities and asking for God’s intervention. We are invited to lift up our fear, sadness and anxieties of the future of our shared home, to God. God is with us and will never leave us. She holds our ecological grief and every tear shed in the palm of Her hands.

Similarly, we are challenged to confess the complicity of our faith traditions in this moment we find ourselves in. We have often failed to recognize creation care and environmental stewardship as an essential part of what it means to be in the right relationship with God, and subsequently, as followers of Jesus Christ. Likewise dominant forms of Christianity have long advanced an Anthropocentric view of creation where humans are given divine mandate to have dominion over the earth and at the center of God’s mission in the world.

American Evangelicals have had a characteristically slow response to confronting the realities of Climate Change and it is because of their understanding of the Doctrine of Creation. To illustrate, according to Pew Research, “American Evangelicals are among the least likely to view global climate change as a serious problem.”

Our posture has been one of dominion over land, livestock and people. And for that we must cry out and ask for forgiveness. We must repent of our domination of the Earth while reclaiming the gospel as a story of God’s redemption of the entire cosmos which includes all living creatures. We repent of our lack of ecological consciousness that has failed to adequately inspire Christian solidarity with non-human creatures and the environment. In exchange, we reclaim solidarity with all living creation as a part of our faith and in the process demonstrate the problematic nature of an understanding of creation that is primarily concerned with human activity. We should all know that and affirm that ]the restoration of the environment is central to God’s redemptive work in the world.

In conclusion, lamentations and confession are important spiritual practices that will help us attend to ecological grief, while animating our environmental activism with the self awareness and humility that is needed from people of faith at this moment.

Call To Action Spend some time today connecting your grief to the land’s grief. Journal for 10 minutes and attend to the emotions evoked by the worsening environmental situation. What fears and hopes come up for you when you consider the future of the environment? Offer a prayer for the healing of the Earth.

Meditation “Saint Francis of Assisi, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness.” – Pope Francis

Nana Boahen

Day 1 of 3: We Lament and Confess

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