Friday 29th July 2022
God hates cheating in the marketplace; rigged scales are an outrage. Proverbs 20:23 (The Message)
You Lord, are the source of all good things:
We praise you.
You call us to tend and care for your creation:
May we strive to do your will.
You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:
May we live together in peace.
A reading from Leviticus 25:3 – 7
For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound labourers who live with you; for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
God, who planted the Garden of Eden
with good things to eat, and caused the earth to bring forth green shoots:
We praise you.
God, who caused rivers to flow,
who sent rains in due season, and filled the seas with life:
We praise you.
God, who modelled Adam to be a gardener,
who modelled the creatures in diverse kinds, each as helpers and Eve as co- partner:
We praise you.
God, you created a world
which can offer all that is needed, and give each being, plant and creature, a place to belong:
We praise you.
And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said, ‘See, I am setting a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel”. Amos 7:8
Generous God,
we have overworked the soil and drained it of its nutrients;
we have covered vast swathes in tarmac, and have covered our gardens with plastic lawns.
We consume more than we give back, we have not measured true to your plumb-line:
Lord have mercy.
Generous God,
we have decimated the forests, and grubbed up hedgerows,
we have wiped out diversity and favoured monocultures.
We have taken and not put back, we have not measured true to your plumb-line:
Lord have mercy.
Generous God,
we have poisoned the waterways and flooded them with sewage,
we have drained lakes and rivers to water our crops.
We have ignored what happens downstream, we have not measured true to your plumb-line:
Lord have mercy.
Generous God,
We have dredged the seas and overfished the oceans.
We have over consumed fossil fuels, melting icecaps and inundating islands.
We have ignored the science, we have not measured true to your plumb-line:
Lord have mercy.
Generous God,
we hunted some creatures to extinction, and pushed others to the margins;
we have destroyed their homes, and taken away their food.
We have despised them as co-habitants, we have not measured true to your plumb-line:
Lord have mercy.
Generous God,
we have demonised our fellow humans, and used them as slaves;
we have taken their wealth and left them to starve.
We have spent more on war than on peace, we have not measured true to your plumb-line:
Lord have mercy.
Open our eyes to see the error of our ways.
Open our hearts to overflow with love.
Open our hands to be generous in sharing.
May we act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with you our God.
Amen.
The Green Tau 