Challenge, Commitment and Blessing |
1 Cor. 7;31
Christians are to live as those who use the world but do not abuse it; for the fashion of this world is passing away.
The time is short, not merely before the rally which we shall join but in which to cut the carbon.
Climate change is a reality and as the Stern report makes clear the malign impact will be felt first by the poor and the vulnerable in the world. How can we teach love of neighbour without reaching caring for our neighbour who is at risk of flooding and of having his crops destroyed?
Genesis and Darwin both affirm that we are creatures of the dust – star dust in our case. We are participants in a web of life. We are stewards of the earth not its masters and possessors. We are responsible to God, to the earth, to our neighbours to our children and to our own well being.
The Scriptures teach that we are set upon this earth to bear the beams of God’s love and “to dress and keep the world” as Genesis says. There is a balance between developing and tilling; and preserving the earth and allowing it to rest and recover.
There is a book selling well at the moment called the God Delusion. Whatever the merits of the contents the title points to a real problem – human beings who imagine that they are licensed to play God.
God is not merely green. Care for the natural order must never be divorced from care for human flourishing and well being. We look to the building of the city that is founded on justice and peace. There is a brown theme as well as a green theme so it may be more accurate to say that God is olive.
It cannot all be down to Government and the big battalions. We have a personal responsibility to fast as well as to feast and the Church has a corporate responsibility.
That is why we have launched the Shrinking the Footprint Campaign.
That is why we have prepared a Greener Church Guide called Creed and Creation which will be presented to London’s Church Leaders next week to ask for their endorsement.
That is why St Aldhelm’s Church Edmonton which I visited on Thursday has installed solar panels on the roof of the hall. In six months they have generated 10,630 k/watt hours of electricity and when I was there the scheme was contributing to the national grid.
That is why I can announce that the Church Commissioners whose board I chair on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury have made a £5 million investment in Impax. This is a fund which invests internationally in alternative energy and energy efficiency; water treatment and pollution control; waste technology and resource management.
The prospects if we do nothing are frightening but fear is never the last word for Christians. It is also the duty of the church to anticipate the end time, the coming just and peaceful rule of God, with such clarity that God’s future becomes a blessing which has the energy to transform the present. We pray as Jesus has taught us “thy kingdom come”. We are praying down his coming again; we are opening through our prayer a fissure through which his future can enter our present and transform our world. So be it Lord. Maranatha.
