This is the fifth installment of the Ecological Stations of the Cross. On Maundy Thursday we strip the altar to symbolize Jesus stripped of his garments. Today, global waste and trash strip Earth of its health, dignity, and beauty.
[This resource is part of the EcoPreacher 1-2-3 series that helps preachers and congregations address environmental issues in their sermons and ministry. The Ecological Stations of the Cross is made possible through support from the Interfaith Center of Sustainable Development with editing assistance from Rabbi Yonatan Neril. You can access all the reflections as a full booklet here.]
Scripture: Matthew 27:28-30
28They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ 30They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.
Reflection on waste and trash
Stripping Jesus of his clothes was an act of humiliation. The soldiers tore off his garments in order to shame him, remove his dignity, and expose him to the elements. Spitting on him was a form of insult. They polluted him with their spittle and beat him with the reed they had used to mock him.
Today, our waste has stripped Earth of its beauty, insulted God and God’s Creation, and polluted our own bodies. According to Our World in Data, humans produced 2 million tons of plastic in 1950. By 2019, that number had grown to nearly 460 million tons. Plastics litter every part of the Earth, from bags caught in trees, to massive garbage patches in the oceans. Corpses of marine animals reveal the plastic in their stomachs mistakenly consumed as food. And microplastics now litter the blood of fish, animals, and humans, causing cancers and other health maladies.
Prayer for cleansing
Holy God, you are ashamed by what we have done to your Creation and to ourselves by the intentional, as well as thoughtless, ways we have littered and polluted this planet. Compel us to halt the production of plastics and find other ways to make items that can be safely produced, used, and reused. Bless the efforts of all those who are cleaning up the land and waterways of this ecological sin.
God in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Read also:
Maundy Thursday and Passover: A Holy Eco-Connection
Turning Earth into Golgotha – We Need an Eco-Resurrection
A Theology of Water: Responding to Our Baptismal Vocation
The Pietà of a Mother Orca: Carrying the Grief of an Eco-Crucifixion
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky and ordained in the ELCA. Dr. Schade does not speak for LTS or the ELCA; her opinions are her own. She is the author of Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit (Chalice Press, 2015). She is the co-editor of Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her newest book is Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation, co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).
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