IN A sense, every sermon emerges and grows from the earth. Writing a sermon is an organic process, an act of creation itself. The green shoots of an idea emerge, sustained by the soil of scripture, the sunlight of lived experience, and watered by wisdom, worship, and prayer. Jenny Wilson dwells with the earth in this book and finds that, through that lens, new perspectives are found, and the preaching imagination is transformed.

By preaching for the planet, we come to find that God is speaking through the earth, in all its glory and through the gaping wounds that humanity has inflicted upon it. We are reminded that Christ, as a teacher and preacher, noticed the times and seasons, telling stories about seeds, trees, fruits, plants and vineyards, sheep and goats, seas and rivers, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. Each sermon is carefully crafted, never too long, and presents a vignette into an aspect of the created order.

Besides drawing deeply from the scriptures, Wilson refers to prophetic voices who also speak up for the earth: St Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis, Sir David Attenborough. Each sermon is attentive to a planet that groans in pain from exploitation and climate catastrophe, longing for rest and renewal.

There are also perspectives in this book drawn from other vantage points: cathedral ministry, the global pandemic, and Wilson’s own reflections on the art of preaching. She is preaching here for all things loved by God, who creates, redeems and sanctifies the planet as also humanity. Good sermon-writing can be celebrated by making time for this book and, through it, becoming a little more aware of life on earth in all its fullness, and gaining a new appreciation for the world that Christ came to save.

The Revd Dr Victoria Johnson is Dean of Chapel at St John’s College, Cambridge, and Canon Theologian of St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

Preaching for the Planet: Sermons on creation and climate
Jenny Wilson
Sacristy Press £14.99
(978-1-78959-355-6)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49