Sustainable September 1

Sunday 5th September.  
This month the Diocese of Perth is asking us to reflect during our Sunday worship on the environmental crisis facing our planet.  I am going to address some of the theological and practical issues during the "September Sermons" and thought I'd try writing a few notes on each one on this blog.

This week's theme is the question "What is the challenge for Creation?"

• The Challenge is Global warming!
• This does not mean a mild inconvenience with the weather getting a little hotter and drier in some places and a little wetter in others over a long period of time.
• It means catastrophic changes including: the inundation of vast areas of habitable land creating hundreds of millions of 'climate refugees'; decreasing crop productivity with millions starving, increased frequency and severity of storms and extreme weather events; extinctions and migrations of animal species, the breakdown of food chains. Some of these changes could happen quite suddenly.
• The two principle causes of global warming are the burning of fossil fuels and land clearing.
• These two factors greatly accelerated as a result of industrialisation beginning in the 18th century.  The rise in global temperatures matches the increase in idustrialisation throughout the western world.  Check out www.ipcc.ch/  for more information - this is the website for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
• Even without the problem of global warming our industrial/economic system is fundamentally flawed because it is based on a principle of "economic growth". This means that our prosperity depends on an economy that is constantly increasing its consumption of natural resources.  These resources are finite and will eventually run out.  This economic system is, and always was, unsustainable. Global warming is just emphasising the point!
• THE PROBLEM IS FUNDAMENTALLY SPIRITUAL
• I say this because as industrialisation has increased religion has decreased.  The church has declined in all the industrial nations of the world. The nations where the church is booming are all under-developed countries. Our desire for material wealth rather than to serve God is causing massive, unsustainable, over-consumption.
• THE SOLUTION IS ALSO SPIRITUAL
• In order to halt global warming the richest nations of the world need to voluntarily reduce their consumption and adopt economic practices that are environmentally sustainable - this mean we must choose to be poorer.
• History suggests this is unlikely to happen unless courageous individuals are prepared to lead the way and change their own lifestyle.  The people most likely, and best equipped, to do this are those with a strong spiritual life and commitment to God.
• Believe it or not none of this is bad news, it is GOOD NEWS! Because the root of the problem is our own spiritual malaise and impoverishment, the challenges presented by global warming will be our very salvation.
• God's people are called at this moment to stand up and become leaders.  We are called to make our lives count for something, to be a light to the world, to show the way of Jesus.
• In today's gospel, (Luke 14:25-35) Jesus tells us to give up our possessions, take up our cross, and follow him. 
• Jesus' whole message is that individual sacrificial action, done selflessly for the good of all, is salvation.
• This is the message we are called to demonstrate  to the world.
• The prospect of facing this challenge should fill us with determination, resolve, clarity, and joy.