Green or white for the Feast of Creation in Christ?
Sermon by Pr. Craig Mueller on the Feast of Creation in Christ + Sunday, September 13, 2026
I have been sorting through books, files, folders and digital accumulation. I still have three books on worship from my childhood. My Church Book is about the Lutheran liturgy—for early readers. I still have a fifth grade Sunday School book and a Confirmation book on worship. Those are the only ones I hung onto. The books have information on the church year with the various seasons, feasts and the liturgical color for each.
I was so drawn to all of this that my mom made paraments—small cloth hangings from her sewing scraps—for me to use when I would play church. My brother and stuffed animals were the congregation. There was purple, white, green and red. In the late 70’s when new colors were introduced—blue for Advent, scarlet for Holy Week, gold for Easter, I was as thrilled as a nerd could be! Here I am sixty years later, still doing what I loved when I was six!
There was no Feast of Creation in Christ listed in those books I mentioned. In fact, this is the first time for all of us to observe this new ecumenical feast. I am thrilled that I can experience it at Holy Trinity before I depart. The feast has been years in the making. Involving Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians and liturgists. The lectionary and other materials are just being completed so most congregations won’t be on board until next year. But not us!
When describing the new feast to our Wednesday study group, someone asked what the appointed liturgical color would be. Oh, I said, wait for the sermon!
Well, it looks like white is the appointed color. Actually, it can be white OR green I learned. Let’s explore both as a way into the meaning of the feast
I love green, but that’s beside the point. Green is used during the summer and represents growth, an obvious connection. Let’s take it further. Think: greenness. Hildegard of Bingen, 12th century ecological mystic is remembered for her writing on veriditas—greenness as the divine life force at heart of reality—a force of love pulsating through the universe—in every plant and creature.
Which leads to our first reading today from Genesis 2. It surprises some to learn there are two creation stories in the Bible, in Genesis 1 and 2. Scholars believe these two accounts represent two different oral traditions. Creation happens in a different order and a different word for God is used in each. We hear the seven-day creation story at the Easter Vigil each year. So today we hear the story from Genesis 2. God first forms an earth creature out of the dust of the earth. God plants a garden with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then all the animals are brought to the man who gives them names. A reminder of our deep connection to the earth and its creatures. And our call to care for the earth.
Yet when God gives human beings “dominion” over the earth, some Christians believe that we should dominate for our good alone. Anthropocene describes the most recent period in earth’s history. It’s only been the past five decades or so when human activity became the dominant force shaping our planet’s climate, environment, and ecosystems.
This feast day invites us to “go green,” to link our faith to doing what we can—in large and small ways—to reduce health hazards affecting not only the environment, but vulnerable human populations.
Rather than hearing how bad things are, it’s time to do what we can to restore ecosystems. Recently Ernest and I become deeply committed to land conversation. It surprised me to learn of the nonnative and invasive plants brought by European settlers that crowd out native plant species indigenous to the area.
We literally can’t survive without nature. But there is a spiritual component. Being in God’s green earth. Experiencing the seasons and their colors. Having a pet-creature live with us. All of these bring beauty, wonder, joy.
Green for the day. Good choice. But what about white? White is the color for Christmas, Easter, and other feasts of Christ. And the name of this festival is Creation in Christ. And the cover of the bulletin appears to show Jesus present at the creation of the world. What gives? What kind of time warp is this? I remember as a child first hearing that as part of the Trinity, Jesus existed from the very beginning. Whaaaat?
Consider todays’ gospel from John 1. Like Genesis, it begins, In the beginning. In the beginning was the Word and all things came into being through this Word, which in Greek is Logos. Richard Rohr urges us to think of Logos as God’s eternal blueprint present from the beginning. This Word later becomes incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth.
The Word that brings all things into existence brings me to Artificial Intelligence, a strange move, wouldn’t you say? One author writes that for Christians creation unfolds not through labor, time or process but through Logos—God’s utterance as world-making power. The question for us isn’t whether we are for or against AI. The train has left the station. Rather, how will we as faith communities be part of the conversation? AI doesn’t live within time. It doesn’t anticipate, regret, or hope. It doesn’t act, suffer, or bear responsibility. The danger is that we will mistake fluency for understanding, patterns, for meaning, speed for wisdom.¹
Back to God. And our name, Holy Trinity. It isn’t just God the Father, who creates the world. All things are created and find their origin in the Word of God, which for us is Christ. And the Spirit was present at creation, and continues to be the animating life force. Holy Trinity, holy mystery!
And there’s more. Creation is part of our liturgy. Water, bread, wine, oil. Our bodies and their senses experiencing sights, sounds, tastes, smells.
A day for white, a day for feasting. A day for green, a time to deepen our care for the earth. Something I hope six-year olds are learning about today. Amen.
¹Uriah Y. Kim, “AI and the creation of meaning.” The Christian Century, August 2026.
