Lazarus's Sisters Emote over the IPCC Report (John 11)

CLIMATE BIBLE STUDY: APRIL 2023

Jesus Wept (Jésus pleura), by James Tissot (1836-1902)

by Lowell Bliss

Director, Eden Vigil Institute for Environmental Leadership, WCIU

The Climate Bible Studies series: How can the Bible be read in new and helpful ways so as to respect both the sanctity of Scripture and the urgent relevance of the climate crisis? Since 2020, the Eden Vigil Institute, as a partner of Climate Intercessors has been offering short biblical reflections through their monthly newsletters. Here is the first installment on the WCIU blog.

Excerpt: There is no doubt about it, John 11 is the story of a miracle.  Jesus calls Lazarus forth from the grave and it is another one of Jesus’s seven signs in this gospel that he is divine, another occasion for one of his seven I AM statements, in this case, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  I will begrudge no one in our Climate Intercessors prayer network who wants to pray for the miracle of preventing a 1.5°C warming.  Yet, as I read John 11, while it is obviously the story of a miracle, I don’t believe it is a story about miracles.  It is about death and life, and about how in Jesus we live, and breathe, and have our being even unto eternity.

To read the entire Climate Bible Study, click here: “Lazarus’s Sisters Emote over the IPCC Report (John 11)”