Virtual Worship - 4 July 2021

Climate Justice for All The Methodist Response

Service sheet (pdf)

Welcome to on-line worship from the Bradford North Circuit. We are interrupting our series on Parables for Bradford by using the first Sunday in each month to prepare ourselves for the COP26 conference about the Climate Crisis. In these five services, we shall be using materials produced by Methodist young people from around the World.

A collect for today:

Lord of Life, on this day called Independence Day, we know that we are not independent, but dependent on all the other creatures of this beautiful Planet, and we ask that we may remember this in all our dealings. Amen.

A story

Let me take you forward 100 years in time to 20th January in the year 2121, in numbers that is twenty, one, twenty one, twenty one. My granddaughter is now a very old lady, not too old, however, to read a story to her great grand child, Greta, who is just five years old. They bask outside in the warm January sunshine, regretting that it will soon be too dangerously hot to be outdoors. The story is by Beatrix Potter and is called Mrs Tiggy Winkle. Mrs Tiggy Winkle is, of course, a hedgehog; I read the story, when I too was five. My granddaughter knows that she had seen a hedgehog in her Papa’s garden when she was a child, but her son never had, and Greta classes hedgehogs with dinosaurs. Greta, who has just returned from Sunday School, says: Was your grandfather a Christian? Why did his people not care for God’s Earth, Great-Granny?

Greta is justifiably angry. She learns in school about extinct animals: hedghogs, whales, elephants, bumble bees: she read books about how life used to be and she sometimes sees pictures of happy children skating on frozen ponds. She is angry with us for destroying her world.

Of course she goes to church, it is the only place where she and her parents can obtain food; the welfare state proved unpopular with the the rich people, the ones with money to spare. She learns the history of the church and cannot believe that there was a time when the future of the Earth was not discussed, when every church did not have a plastics recovery service, when people went to church in cars that burned fossil fuels.

And she learns how it all changed in 2021. She learns what we still have to learn, that Climate Justice should be for all. We only have a short while to learn it. It all started at the 26th Conference of the Parties in November, in Glasgow in 2021: COP 26.

Hymn

Graham Kendrick’s hymn, 693 in Singing the Faith, Beauty for Brokenness

The Bible

We hope that Jesus will not say to us, as he said in Luke 16 to the dishonest manager

‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager…Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?’…No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money…The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight”.

From the second chapter of Jeremiah “I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination”.

From the fourth chapter of Mark’s gospel “The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful”.

And finally, from the letter of James, chapter five “You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter”.

In modern language: Climate Justice should be for All.

Reflection 1

The people who lived in the times that the books of the Bible were written did not have the same access to the precise measurement of climate, they did not burn fossil fuels, they did not clog the oceans with plastic, they did not pollute the air with noxious fumes, and so the issue of climate change had not reared its ugly head. You will find Christians today who will tell you that, because this is not a Biblical subject, it is irrelevant to the church, that the only issue for the church is personal salvation. We each have to judge for ourselves, relying on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Hymn

Fred Kaan’s hymn “For the healing of the nations”, number 696 in Singing the Faith,

At this point, the online service plays some of the ten-minute video produced by young people around the world on behalf of the Methodist Church. A new video each month explores how the climate crisis is affecting different countries.

Reflection 2

The easy thing is to switch off, to say: this is just a few long-haired cranks. However, I have to say to myself, this is the view of the Methodist Church of which I am a part, so I better take it seriously.

Today is known as Independence Day, July 4th.

Let’s look at just three of the things that happened on July 4th.

On July 4th 1838 a disaster at Huskar Colliery, in Silkstone England, saw the pit flooded and 26 children drowned. This led directly to the 1842 'Mines and Collieries Act' which banned women and children working underground. Sometimes it takes a crisis to make us act…

On July 4th 1884 France presented the Statue of Liberty to the United States in Paris. What an amazing icon of welcome and freedom. Sadly, the welcome was never unconditional and has recently resulted in children being separated from their parents and kept in prison camps. We have to be aware of declaring a moral position and then not living up to it.

On July 4th 1934 the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard patented the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb. One of the bombs dropped on Hiroshema was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT. The largest bomb at present is equivalent to 50 million tonnes of TNT. Thirteen states have an estimated 10,000 nuclear weapons between them around the world. Half of these weapons are held by Christian countries.

Today is July 4th and today we each have choices which will affect the lives of the grandchildren of our grandchildren. Do we really believe that Climate Justice should be for All? What will we, as professing Christians, do?

Will you tell Jesus about it, or shall I?

Music for Reflection

Please reflect while reading “Hear the song of our lament” by Resound Worship.

Hear the song of our lament,
we grieve a dry and broken land;
hearts have turned from your intent
and earth is ravaged by our hand.

Oceans weep for beauty lost,
and forests plead for your return,
fields are drenched in tears and blood;
all nature groans beneath sin’s curse.

Have mercy, have mercy,
have mercy on us, Lord.
Renew us, restore us,
have mercy on us, Lord.

Peoples rage and nations rise
to war and waste for senseless gain,
turning from creation’s cries
and trading glory in for shame.

Have mercy, have mercy,
have mercy on us, Lord.
Renew us, restore us,
have mercy on us, Lord.

Lead us in your Eden call
to live as those who bear your name;
show us how to love your world
until the day you come again.

Reflection 3

Lets come at this another way. The “ME TOO” movement has highlighted the exploitation of relatively powerless women by powerful men. I guess that we can all agree in condemning the actions of the powerful media men who have abused vulnerable young women aspiring to be stars, and depending on the men for advancement. This is an example of people who have power using it to the disadvantage of people who don’t. We understand from a recent OFSTED report that nine out of ten girls in secondary schools have experienced sexual harassment in school, an abuse of power by teenage boys. They have power, but we think that does not give them the right to treat others with disdain. It is appaling!

However, is it worse than the way in which I choose to exploit the accident of my birth to eat meat from South America where rain forest has been destroyed for pasture? To buy food wrapped in plastic which will inevitably pollute the oceans for generations to come? To travel around in a car burning diesel fuel, increasing the greenhouse effect? Just because I have the power and wealth to enable me to be a careless consumer does not give me the right to deprive subsequent generations of a clean, peaceful, and diverse world in which to live. Is there really any difference between us, morally? Why would Jesus approve of my actions any more than those of other abusers? Do my actions demonstrate that I, as a Christian, believe that Climate Justice should be for All?

Prayers

I want you to imagine these prayers being said by children while…

Discarding something unwanted into a bin:
I know that throwing away food is a terrible thing to do when so many people in the world are hungry. Please, Lord, help me to learn to buy and cook just what I need so that I don’t waste food that someone else has grown, harvested and driven to my door

Putting something in a recycling bin:
Everytime I put something in the recycling bin, I think about children in other countries sorting through mountains of our recycling waste, trying to earn enough to eat, hoping not to catch something nasty from what I have thrown away. Forgive me, Lord, for ignoring the work of other children on my behalf.

Showing a garden with fruit &/or vegetables growing:
Help me, Lord, to learn how to grow my own food, to appreciate the seasons, to make room in my garden for bugs and beetles, to feed the birds, and to make a little haven for the little

Buying something from a shop, catalogue, or website:
Everytime I buy something that I know I will not be able to pass on to the next generation, I am contributing to the spoiling of the planet for others, forgive me, Lord, for my greed, buying things that I don’t need.

Putting something in the dustbin:
Every time I put something in the dustbin, it means I have bought something to throw away. I know that the Earth can’t cope with this sort of consumption. Forgive me, Lord, every time I throw something away.

When we say “Forgive us our sins” help us all to remember that we should be asking forgiveness for the way we use your Earth. We know that whenever we do things that harm other people, and future generations, we sinning. Please, Lord, don’t just forgive us, help us to live better lives. Amen

Please join us in saying the Lord’s prayer

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.

Hymn 

Touch the Earth Lightly. No. 729 in Singing the Faith

Reflection 4

Let’s look at this from a different point of view just for a moment. The longest professional training course of my career lasted about 30 years. It was a course in becoming a parent. I noticed something that you may have noticed. Children learn more quickly to get something out to play with than they learn to put it away. This is because they understand their own desires, but not the point of view of other people who might like to use those toys later, or who would like to use the kitchen floor for some other activity. Are we like children? We take what we tell ourselves we need from the earth, minerals, coal, oil, gas; we buy food that has been grown in chopped down rainforest; all without considering the needs of other people, maybe in the future, who might need those forests, those minerals, for some purpose that we cannot fully comprehend. Learning that Climate Justice must be for All is a long process, we don’t have much time.

Thank you for joining in our reflections today. Our service on the first Sunday of each month leading up to COP 26 in November will focus on the Climate Crisis and the preparations that the G7 and G20 will be making to ensure the safe future of our world. Our prayers must be with them.

Please join me in saying the Grace:

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen

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