Earth Day is kept each year on 22^nd April. This is a month after Spring officially begins.In the Church Calendar it often comes somewhere between Easter Day and the Festival of Rogation.
Rogation is a time set apart for prayer for the farming community and in thanksgiving for the crops, animals and all the gifts of Creation. Away from the countryside it isn’t regarded as so important in urban areas though giving thanks for all that sustains our life on earth and praying for those who work the land ought to be the business of us all.

In this season the lambs are born and this is a symbol of the new life we associate with Easter. Other signs of New life are all around us right now as, in the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate Spring. My garden was all but dead and unkempt a month ago but now it is teeming with new life and is a source of great joy. Trees are coming alive with the fresh green of new growth as buds unfurl in a dusting of leaves. This is beautifully expressed in my friend Gill’s photo above. I call this the Greening of the earth again after the dormant days of Winter.
I’m convinced that God’s favourite colour is Green! It’s splashed liberally across the earth from the Divine palette!
Green is a particular colour of new growth.

Nature follows a cycle of creation and re-creation which is mirrored too in our human lives.  On one level we move from birth to death—from Spring to Winter but on another level we are constantly being re-created and made new.  This second level is, of course, the spiritual level and for us Christians, Easter is the crown of that renewed creation and creativity in our lives.  One of the Easter Carols we sing celebrates this. It begins:

Now the green blade riseth from the buried grain.

The carol makes the connection between the new birth of Spring and the Resurrection of Jesus. Wheat that has lain in the dark earth suddenly bursts forth and is alive again.  Jesus, laid in the grave comes forth at Easter. 
Love that was thought to be slain lives again as the refrain to each verse reminds us:

Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.

Love is come again– such beautiful words to describe the Resurrection and for Christians, it is a reminder of the essence of Resurrection. Love cannot be defeated.  The love of God can never be killed off. Jesus embodies that Love on earth and as our Christ he is its dispenser eternally.  Love triumphs.  Jesus Christ conquers all that is not love—in the world; in us.  For us it is a reminder—as Spring is a reminder—that God makes and re-makes all things –makes them new again—Re-news. Easter faith is renewed faith with a real spring in its step.

But maybe you don’t feel like that. For so many at the moment Joy is the last thing they feel.
In a world filled with turmoil we can’t just manufacture Joy. There is nothing worse than being at a party when everyone is enjoying themselves and you’re feeling miserable. So here’s the final verse of the Carol:

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Thy touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of hearts, that dead and bare have been—Love is come again…

Jesus went to the depths of the tomb and he knows the dark places of our lives and our world.  He is the Love who comes to us there and his touch can help us—if we let Him.

That love in our hearts should also help us to love the Planet where we live.
This Earth day we have a responsibility to cherish our Planet and not pollute it. We are being asked this year to stop choking it with plastic and take responsibility for actions that we can change to stop the over use and disposal of plastic.
We can celebrate the joys of Spring and enjoy all that it offers us in renewal of our lives and hopes but a deeper celebration can be found in something so simple as carrying a canvas bag to the shops and, where possible, being careful about the packaging of goods! It really is as simple as that. It is something we can all do.

[Mr G]
with thanks to Gill for her photograph.

PS. one way to make a comment is by email – geoffrey_connor@priest.com