Sustainable September 2

Last week we looked at the theme "What is the Challenge to Creation".  This week we consider the theme "What is the Challenge to you and me."

• I want to name this challenge the "Grand Challenge", that's grand as in grand parent. Each one of us has to make ourselves accountable to our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren when it comes to our actions or inactions to combat global warming. Someday they are going to want to know what we did about the problem.
• Try writing a letter to them explaining your position on global warming.
• I'm not giving an exhaustive list of practical changes we can each take in out lives - there is plenty of information about this, including the regular sustainability tips we print in the Passion and Purpose newsletter.  We should all be taking these things seriously.
• Again, the problem is our level of wealth and consumption, we must take constant reality checks on our lifestyle.  Remember, only 25% of human beings live in the developed world. That means, basically, 75% of humanity live at subsistence level or below.  Owning a car or flying in an aeroplane are experiences they would never hope for.
• Most of us could easily halve  our wealth and still lead very comfortable privileged lives. We could halve the number of car trips we make (and double the time we hang on to our 'old' car). Halve the size of our house and still have a beautiful comfortable home, halve the number of overseas trips, halve the amount of meat and imported food we eat and substitute it for fresh locally grown produce, halve what we spend on entertainment.  Think about it - we could do all of these things and still have very interesting, comfortable lives! And save a lot of carbon emissions!
• There is a moral/spiritual question we must all ask ourselves; "If the wealth we enjoy (e.g. owning a motor car) cannot be enjoyed by every person on earth (and it certainly cannot be) what right do I have to it?"
• The main spiritual issue behind our over-consumption is our own ego. This means our dissatisfaction with ourselves and our lives.  We live in a constant state of striving for something better.
• Today's gospel is helpful in addressing this. Luke 15:1-10. The story of the shepherd searching for one lost sheep and the woman seeking the lost coin.
• This passage is usually understood as emphasising God's forgiveness - no one is unforgivable or "too" lost for God to want back.
• This is clearly a valid interpretation of the story but when put in the context of the rest of the New Testament it has a deeper meaning as well.
• It tells us that each of us already belongs to God and is already forgiven.  The "sheep" and the "coin" in the story do nothing - they neither convert nor repent - The story is about the action of God. God goes searching for them to bring them back. 
• Jesus was not very interested in salvation in the future. He put far more emphasis on healing now.  Even this gospel story is told as a justification for the fact that he is seeking out the lost now, in the present. He was being challenged for eating with sinners.
• An image of God which may be useful here is God as the sun.  The sun just shines constantly, it doesn't change in anyway, however we choose to stand in the shade, or to put up an umbrella, a barrier between ourselves and the sun. This "umbrella" is our own ego, our projection of who we think we are.
• If we let go of this projection we stand once more in the sunlight which warms and purifies us and we reflect the light to others.
• This is a radical understanding of God's love and yet entirely consistent with Christian theology - God never changes.  We are already loved, already forgiven, already in communion with God. The only change necessary is that we realise it.
• All our religious systems, rituals, disciplines and practices are designed to help us to this realisation. They are not  designed to win favour from God - there is simply no need!
• When we achieve this realisation we come to a place where compassion is the natural response. To care for others, and the planet, is the natural way of being, not to win God's favour, but because its now the only thing that makes sense.
• If we truly realised that we were already loved, forgiven, redeemed by God we would be truly content and be free of the craving and dissatisfaction that drives us to constantly want, and consume, more.
• Finally, we cannot allow ourselves to be disillusioned by negative thoughts about the ability of people to work together to achieve the changes necessary to halt climate change. All Christians must hold fast to a firm belief in the goodness of human nature. God believes in human nature - who are we not too! 
• The creation and redemption of the human race is God's masterwork.  It is blasphemy to suggest human beings are not capable of working together for the common good.  We must assert a belief in the limitless potential of human beings to do good.  Because the spirit of God is within us.