Judith Russenberger

Third Sunday of Lent

8th March 2026

Reflection with readings below

In the reading from Exodus, the people are up in arms that they don’t have enough fresh water to drink. Quite rightly so. They know how important water is. Without water they will not survive.

Do we know what is important for life – or do we get distracted by populist issues such as wifi speed, foreign travel, journey times between London and Manchester, how many asylum seekers are occupying cheap hotel rooms, or the availability of strawberries in January?

Equally do we get up in arms about what is truly important? Are we more concerned about the love-lives of pop stars or the fate of prisoners? The domestic arrangements of the royal family or the plight of steel workers in Wales? The most recent diatribe from Nigel Farage or waiting times in our local A and E?

Returning to the necessity of water, how many of us are aware that Tehran is about to run out of drinking water? How many of us are concerned about the amount of water needed to cool AI data centres here in the UK?

The UK already faces a projected daily water deficit of nearly 5 billion litres by 2050 – which doesn’t include what might be needed by as yet to be built data centres. Might we expect agriculture to take precedence over data processing?

Water shortages re not just a UK issue, but a global issue. Across the world we are collectively consuming fresh water faster than supplies can be replenished! How many of us are outraged at the amount of water needed to make a cheap t shirt – worn today and thrown away tomorrow? Or how many of us are outraged that so much water is used to grow crops for cattle to eat so that ever greater quantities of meat can be consumed?

If nothing else, maybe their time in the wilderness taught the Hebrews that they couldn’t just expect water to be readily available at the drop of a hat – or a stick! More precisely they would have learnt that their access to water was dependent on their understanding their relationship with God. They should expect to go through life – or through the wilderness – without engaging in a real and trusting relationship with God.

God, as creator, is the source of the wisdom we need to live sustainably, securely, happily within the limits of creation. We are not gods. We cannot make creation conform to our demands. We have to live within the limitations of the created world. We cannot consume more water than the world can supply. We cannot discharge more pollution than the environment can absorb. We cannot take more resources from the earth than the earth can sustain.

Where are our contemporary prophets, who, like Moses, will challenge us to think rationally, who will challenge us to understand our dependency on God? Where are the preachers, the thinkers and writers, who will help us understand how God wishes to – and indeed does – relate with us, and the rest of creation? Are we ready to ‘kneel before the Lord our maker and listen to his voice’?

We can, nevertheless, draw consolation from the fact that God does not require us to be sinless for God to love us. What ever the state of our stupidity, our greed, our misplaced self-assurance, God is always willing to pay heed to our concerns, to afford us her wisdom, to show us a way forward. But we do have to want to engage with God – and that surely is what we mean by faith: the desire to be guided by God, to be in a relationship with God, to trust that God does indeed have answers to our problems. That is faith.

The Samaritan woman had the means of taking water out of the well. She could do this day in, day out – for as long as there was water in the well. What she hadn’t understood was that water like everything else was a gift that God had given her so that she might understand the universal nature of God, so that she might replicate God’s actions by sharing what was freely given so that all might benefit, that this water might enable eternal life not just for her and her tribe, but for everyone.

Like the Samaritan woman, we, even now in the 21st century, have a lot to learn about the life giving properties of water, and most particularly that those properties depend upon water being properly cherished and shared – to understand that all water is holy.

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have moulded the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

8 Harden not your hearts,
as your forebears did in the wilderness, *
at Meribah, and on that day at Massah,
when they tempted me.

9 They put me to the test, *
though they had seen my works.

10 Forty years long I detested that generation and said, *
“This people are wayward in their hearts;
they do not know my ways.”

11 So I swore in my wrath, *
“They shall not enter into my rest.”

Romans 5:1-11

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person– though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

John 4:5-42

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.”

Prayers for the ecosystems of South America

7th March 2026

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus Isaiah 35:1

You Lord, are the source of all good things:

We praise you.

You call us to cherish and protect 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: Daniel 4: 10-12

Upon my bed this is what I saw; there was a tree at the centre of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew great and strong, its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the whole earth. Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant, and it provided food for all. The animals of the field found shade under it, the birds of the air nested in its branches, and from it all living beings were fed.

During Lent these prayers focus on a different continent; this week South America.

South America, the fourth-largest continent, extends from the Gulf of Darién in the northwest to the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego in the south. South America can be divided into three physical regions: mountains and highlands, river basins, and coastal plains. Mountains and coastal plains generally run in a north-south direction, while highlands and river basins generally run in an east-west direction.
South America’s extreme geographic variation contributes to the continent’s large number of biomes. A biome is a community of animals and plants that spreads over an area with a relatively uniform climate. Within a few hundred kilometres, South America’s coastal plains’ dry desert biome rises to the rugged alpine biome of the Andes mountains. One of the continent’s river basins (the Amazon) is defined by dense, tropical rain forest, while the other (Paraná) is made up of vast grasslands.
The diversity of animal life in the Amazon rain forest is unsurpassed in the rest of the world. There can be as many as 100 different tree species on a single acre. The rain forest is perfectly suited for arboreal, or tree-living, animals. More than 2 million species of insects are native to the region, including hundreds of spiders and butterflies. Primates are abundant—howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and capuchin monkeys—along with sloths, snakes, and iguanas. Thousands of native birds include brightly coloured macaws, parrots, toucans, and parakeets. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/south-america-physical-geography/

Glory to God

Creator of rivers and oceans:

We praise you for the Amazon, 1725 miles long!

Glory to God,

Creator of mountains and valleys:

We praise you for the Amazon Basin, all 2.7 million squares miles.

Glory to God,

Creator of trees and plants:

We praise you for the 40,000 plants species of the Amazon.

We praise you for biome that supports 350 millions tonnes of life per square kilometre.

Glory to God,

Creator of all that crawls and swims and flies.

We praise you for wildlife of the Amazon –

2 million species of insect, 2000 birds and mammals, 800 amphibians and reptiles.

Merciful God,

Creator of human kind,

Forgive us for the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest, 18% lost and counting.

Forgive our greed that replaces trees with cattle ranches and fields of soy for their fodder.

Forgive our greed that replaces trees with sugar cane, for sweetmeats and bio fuel.

Merciful God,

Creator of air and space,

Forgive our foolishness in destroying the source of 20% of the world’s oxygen.

Forgive our greed that gobbles up the living space of others, endangering the survival of jaguars and blue macaws, poison dart frogs and river dolphins.

Merciful God

Creator of climates and seasons,

Forgive our foolishness that creates droughts and heat waves.

Forgive our greed that fills the air with carbon dioxide and destroys carbon sinks.

Guiding God,

Source of all wisdom,

Transform our hearts and minds, turn the direction of our hands and feet

so that with alacrity and commitment we may reform our lives

and live only in harmony with your creation.

Amen.

The Grace

Thank you for inviting me here today to explore with you today’s Bible readings and to relate them to the mission of Christian Climate Action.

Psalm 121 asks where does our help comes from? Not from hills say the Psalmist. Those are the high places where the Cananite gods and goddesses were worshipped. No our help comes from God!

In his letter to the Romans St Paul is writing to a Christian community that is a mix of those who have come to believe in Jesus as the fulfilment and expansion of the very Jewish faith that they have grown up with. Others will be those who have grown up within the culture of worshipping the gods and goddesses of the Greek and Roman tradition, and who have now adopted a completely different faith – that of following Jesus.

But what underpins their faith? From what Paul is writing, it seems as if some want to read the scriptures as telling them that strict adherence to the old laws is essential, and that this is the only know that they are righteous. And it may have been just a much the non-Jewish believers who wanted the certainty that a rigid set of rules would give. No more thinking: just follow the rules: job done.

Paul however takes the story of Abraham to help them their understand the scriptures from a new – Christian – perspective . Look, says Paul, Abraham’s relationship with God wasn’t established or maintained through him doing X number of good works or performing particular rituals – and it certainly wasn’t about following the law because Abraham predates that. No Abraham’s relationship with God was established through faith, through his implicit trust in God.

Paul is saying to the Christians in Rome that they must read the Jewish scriptures – remember at this stage the Gospels had yet to be written – through a new lens which is Jesus Christ. And whether they have been brought up as Jews or as followers of Greek and Roman gods, it is not following the law that will grow their relationship with God, but faith. This is a radical but inescapable truth that Paul is urging them to understand.

So we come to today’s Gospel reading. What is going on here? It sounds as if Jesus is answering a different set of questions to the ones that Nicodemus is asking! Or is it that Jesus is answering the questions that Nicodemus ought to have asked?

This sense of the two protagonists debating together is captured in a picture by the 17th century artist, Crijn Henricksz Volmarijn. Here by the aid of candlelight Jesus and Nicodemus sit together with several books on the table in front of them. Jesus is using his fingers to enumerate the points he is making.

The open books in front of Nicodemus are the Jewish scriptures which he had grown up with. The painter shows him with a pair of spectacles which he is holding in his hand. These glasses are the painter’s way of telling us that Nicodemus has always read the scriptures through the lens of his pharisaical learning. But as he is listening to Jesus, he has taken the glasses off because Jesus is giving him a different way of understanding the scriptures. Now at last Nicodemus is beginning to grasp what Jesus is saying.

The book in front of Jesus is only partly open. It represents the Gospel – the new scripture – that has yet to be written but which Jesus – who is the Word – is proclaiming through what he says and does. Jesus is inviting Nicodemus to read the scriptures differently, to see the world around him in a different light, and therefore to start living differently, to begin life anew! “You must be born again, you must be born from above.”

And isn’t that what Jesus also asks of us?

Especially during Lent when we are invited to hear and read the scriptures anew, alert to how Jesus wants us to hear his word, ready to step away from where we were going wrong, and to begin afresh following the new ways of the radical Jesus.

I’m both part of Green Christian and of Christian Climate Action, and it is through prayer, the study of scripture and theological reflection that we are constantly trying to focus on where Jesus is leading us and what he is asking us to do.

Recently we have had some conversations about the two creation stories in Genesis, and how are the Hebrew word translated as dominion might be understood. In the past the story has been read as sanctioning human rule over and exploitation of all natural resources, plants and creatures. A more contemporary understanding would be that humanity is tasked with relating to natural resources, plants and creatures in the same way that God himself exercises dominion over all creation. This developing theology is one that embraces that of St Francis of Assisi who held that all creatures, all parts of the natural world from sun to rain, from moon to fire, should be treated as brother and sister, to the more recent thinking of Pope Francis who called this earth our common home. From this viewpoint humanity is seen as an integral and interdependent part of creation – and not as a separate and superior species.

We can see afresh that our human self assurance and greed have led us to exploit fossil fuels such that their carbon emissions dioxide have increased to such an extent that the earth’s climates has been irreversibly changed (at least for the next millennia). Human activities are now causing overheating, extreme weather conditions, floods and wild fires, and are harming – and killing – our fellow brothers and sisters, human and creaturely.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to love all our neighbours. And so Christian Climate Action has been calling on the Government not to licence the development of the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea.

We have been calling on oil companies such as Equinor and Shell to transition into renewable energy companies.

We have been calling on banks such as Barclays, to stop funding new oil and gas projects.

We have successfully campaigned in calling upon the Church of England’s dioceses and their National Investment Bodies (NIBs) to divest from fossil fuels.

We have successfully campaigned in calling upon organisations such as Oxfam and Christian Aid to switch away from banking with Barclays. And we continue to campaign calling on other institutions such as our dioceses and the National Trust, to likewise shift to ethical banks.

We take to heart the command in Genesis 2 to cherish and protect the earth. Across the world, biodiversity – natural wildlife in all its richness and beauty – is rapidly diminishing, pushed out of existence by human urbanisation, industrialised farming, and the impacts of climate change. An international consensus has led to the development of the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework.

This framework sets out how we can reverse the rapid loss of biodiversity across the world and protect the natural ecosystems – clean air, fresh water, fertile soils, a sufficient number and variety of pollinators etc – on which life depends. Each participating nation, including the UK, has committed to restore and protected for nature 30% of their land and seas by 2030.

This clearly is in line with God’s words of instruction in Genesis.

In response to this Christian Climate Action is in dialogue with the Church Commissioners over the scope they have to restore for nature up to 30% of the land that they control.

In light of the increasing ecological crisis that the earth faces, Christian Climate Action has produced a vision document entitled ‘Stop Crucifying Creation.’ The document was drawn together after much prayer and reflection, as we looked again at what God is calling us to do in the face of the damage we humans are causing.

It is a call to the Church to discover afresh its roots – that lively and compelling faith demonstrated by the early churches that St Paul wrote to.

It is a call to the Church to embrace anew the courage it has shown at other critical points in history, and to reclaim its prophetic role in speaking truth to power – whether that is calling on oil companies to cease burning the planet, or calling on water companies to stop polluting the rivers, or calling on the Government to take urgent action in addressing the climate and nature crisis, or calling on world leaders to seek peace and dialogue rather than a knee jerk reaction towards aggression and conflict.

Truly we are being called to see the world and the scriptures anew, to be as ones born again as we follow in the steps of the radical Jesus, loving whole heartedly our neighbours whoever and wherever they are.

Amen.

Psalm 121

Levavi oculos

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills; *
from where is my help to come?

2 My help comes from the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved *
and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.

4 Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel *
shall neither slumber nor sleep;

5 The Lord himself watches over you; *
the Lord is your shade at your right hand,

6 So that the sun shall not strike you by day, *
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; *
it is he who shall keep you safe.

8 The Lord shall watch over your going out and your coming in, *
from this time forth for evermore.

The Epistle

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

The Gospel

John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Prayers for the ecology of Australasia

28th February 2026

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus Isaiah 35:1

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: Isaiah 42: 5, 10-12

Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth!
Let the sea roar and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice,
the villages that Kedar inhabits;
let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy,
let them shout from the tops of the mountains.

Let them give glory to the Lord,
and declare his praise in the coastlands.

These prayers during Lent focus each week on a different continent; this week Australasia.

The Australasia realm is dominated by the Australian continent and 2 additional subrealms — New Zealand and the Australasian Islands: Papua, Sulawesi, and other Indonesian islands east of the Makassar Strait and south of the Java Sea, as well as the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. Australasia encompassed a diversity of environments from the vast interior deserts of Australia, dry and wet tropical savannahs and rainforests, Mediterranean woodlands, temperate grasslands and alpine uplands. With its seven seas and immense coral reefs, Australasia is one of the most important realms for ocean biodiversity. The Great Barrier Reef, considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders, is the world’s largest coral reef system. https://www.oneearth.org/realms/australasia/

Australasia is already greatly affected by the ongoing climate crisis, with rising land temperatures and an increasing frequency of heat waves and bush fires; rising sea levels and an increasing frequency of heavy rain causing flooding, interspersed with increasing periods of drought. Rising sea levels disproportionately affect small islands nations. Rising temperatures in the oceans are destroying coral reefs.

An extract from ‘Kangaroo’ by D H Lawrence

Delicate mother Kangaroo

Sitting up there rabbit-wise, but huge, plump-weighted,

And lifting her beautiful slender face, oh! so much more

gently and finely lined than a rabbit’s, or than a hare’s,

Lifting her face to nibble at a round white peppermint drop

which she loves, sensitive mother Kangaroo.

Her sensitive, long, pure-bred face.

Her full antipodal eyes, so dark,

So big and quiet and remote, having watched so many

empty dawns in silent Australia.

Her little loose hands, and drooping Victorian shoulders.

And then her great weight below the waist, her vast pale belly,

With a thin young yellow little paw hanging out, and

straggle of a long thin ear, like ribbon,

Like a funny trimming to the middle of her belly, thin

little dangle of an immature paw, and one thin ear.

Her belly, her big haunches

And, in addition, the great muscular python-stretch of her tail.

There, she shan’t have any more peppermint drops.

So she wistfully, sensitively sniffs the air, and then turns,

goes off in slow sad leaps

On the long flat skis of her legs,

Steered and propelled by that steel-strong snake of a tail.

Intercessions

We give thanks for the beauty and diversity of the world you have given us,

for its colour and abundance, its richness and vitality.

Generous God, hear our prayer.

With sorry we acknowledge our part in damaging what you have created.

We acknowledge that our lifestyles have been selfish and careless.

We acknowledge that we could and can do more

to tend this earth and care for its inhabitants.

Merciful God, hear our prayer.

We pray for these who conserve plant and animal wildlife, birds and insects.

We pray for the work of agriculturalist and scientists

developing better, kinder ways of living on this earth.

We pray for the resilience of indigenous communities

that strive to live in harmony with their environment.

Gracious God, hear our prayer.

We pray for government leaders and advisers,

farmers and business leaders,

that they will hold dear the needs of the environment

and strive to avert the risks of the ecological crisis.

Enabling God, hear our prayer.

The Grace

First Sunday of Lent

22nd February 2026

Reflection with readings below

Life is full of choices: whether to get up or lie in a bit longer; what to have for breakfast; which coffee to have – the skinny decaf latte or the oat flat white; whether to be vegan or vegetarian; to drive or take the bus; which bank to bank with. Most choices are innocuous and inconsequential. But it is surprising how even when the choice is between a safe bet and a dead cert risk, we can still make the wrong choice. That certainly was the case in the story of Adam and Eve. They had all the food they needed but they chose to eat the one fruit destined to kill them!

Yes they were tempted. The snake fed them a slippery line one that as not quite truthless but definitely flawed. Perhaps that snake was a budding marketing executive or maybe a spin doctor.

Would we have been so gullible? So foolish?

Yet for 30 plus years we have know that putting excessive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere causes global warming – causing extreme weather conditions, rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity etc – and yet we have carried on not just putting CO2 into the atmosphere, but increasing the amount we put in!

Have we been duped? Yes. Big businesses – the fossil fuel industry, the meat industry, the plastics industry, the tech industry etc – have all been encouraging us to buy, buy and buy. They have argued against restraint. They have green washed the truth. They have fought and bought themselves the freedoms that they want.

Have we been trapped? Yes. Big business has created a vast network of systems that overshadows the freedom of the individual. We are dependent on transport networks to provide roads and trains. We are dependent on electricity grids and energy companies to heat our homes and power our computers. We are dependent on software updates and mobile signals. We are dependent on supermarkets and their supply chains for our weekly shopping. We’re dependent on investment funds to build homes and schools, hospitals and prisons. And we’re dependent on governments to create workable rules that will constrain the worst of the risks.

The writers of the scriptures knew the compromised state of the world – hence this story today of Adam and Eve. They also knew that the world wasn’t in the state desired by God – both creation stories present a picture goodness and harmony of God’s original making. Yet God doesn’t abandon or give up the world. If we read on we hear that God speaks with Adam and Eve, draws out from them sufficient wisdom that they see their error and can accept forgiveness. God re-equips them to live in the world as it now was. Once more humanity is willing to work with God (and almost as a footnote we hear that God replaces their scanty leaf attire with something more robust).

Jesus too experiences the temptation of being human. He is tempted to do things the human way that ignores God and relies on hearsay and half truths. But Jesus stay true to the word and the wisdom of God. And Jesus – both there in the wilderness – and back on the roads and in the towns, challenges the systems that distort God’s word, that disregard God’s wisdom. Systems that fail. Systems that fail the vulnerable, that do not help the weakest, that do not protect the environment, that do not result in love for our neighbour.

What makes temptation tricky is that it can seem so plausible. That as systems become more complex it is harder to see the truth, to understand where the good lies, to find the path that helps our neighbour.

Last week, starting on Ash Wednesday, Christian Climate Action held a 24 hour vigil outside St Paul’s cathedral, calling on the Church as an institution to speak out prophetically against the suffering of the world, against injustice, and against our tacit crucifying of creation. As each hour past, we prayed for different areas of the world, which within just the first six weeks of 2026, had suffered from the impacts of the climate crisis. Places as far afield as Patagonia and Albania, as Morocco and the UK.

It was a cold, tiring 24 hours, and at times wet! Yet we maintained our quiet presence and continued to pray. But no one, no one from the cathedral, from the institutional church that is seen as a leader of faith in this country, came out to pray with us or even talk with us. Who is going to challenge the systems that distort truth, that aggravate the climate crisis, that persist in rewarding the rich and penalising the poor? The temptation perhaps is to do nothing!

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’“ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Psalm 32

1 Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, *
and whose sin is put away!

2 Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, *
and in whose spirit there is no guile!

3 While I held my tongue, my bones withered away, *
because of my groaning all day long.

4 For your hand was heavy upon me day and night; *
my moisture was dried up as in the heat of summer.

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you, *
and did not conceal my guilt.

6 I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” *
Then you forgave me the guilt of my sin.

7 Therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble; *
when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach them.

8 You are my hiding-place;
you preserve me from trouble; *
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

9 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go; *
I will guide you with my eye.

10 Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding; *
who must be fitted with bit and bridle,
or else they will not stay near you.”

11 Great are the tribulations of the wicked; *
but mercy embraces those who trust in the Lord.

12 Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; *
shout for joy, all who are true of heart.

Romans 5:12-19

As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned– sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”

Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Prayers for the ecosystems of the Antarctic

21st February 2026

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus Isaiah 35:1

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: Job 38:4-7,18

‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
   Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
   Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
   or who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
   and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.

During Lent I shall be focusing on the different continent; this week Antarctica.

Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent in terms of total area. There are no countries in Antarctica, although seven nations claim different parts of it: New Zealand, Australia, France, Norway, the United Kingdom, Chile, and Argentina. The Antarctic also includes island territories of South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, Peter I Island and Bouvet Island, Heard and McDonald islands, Scott Island and the Balleny Islands.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet dominates the region. It is the largest single piece of ice on Earth. This ice sheet even extends beyond the continent when snow and ice are at their most extreme.
Antarctica has a number of mountain summits, including the Transantarctic Mountains, which divide the continent into eastern and western regions. A few of these summits reach altitudes of more than 4,500m. The elevation of the Antarctic Ice Sheet itself is about 2,000m and reaches 4,000m above sea level near the centre of the continent.

The Antarctic region has an important role in global climate processes. It is an integral part of the Earth’s heat balance. The heat balance, also called the energy balance, is the relationship between the amount of solar heat absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and the amount of heat reflected back into space.

Lichens, mosses, and terrestrial algae are among the few species of vegetation that grow in Antarctica. The interior has little if any vegetation. The ocean, however, teems with fish and other marine life – among the most diverse on the planet. Upwelling allows phytoplankton and algae to flourish. Thousands of species, such as krill, feed on the plankton. Fish and a large variety of marine mammals thrive in the cold Antarctic waters – especially blue, fin, humpback, right, minke, sei, and sperm whales. One of the apex predators in Antarctica is the leopard seal. The most familiar animal of Antarctica is probably the penguin. They have adapted to the cold, coastal waters. Their wings serve as flippers as they “fly” through the water in search of prey such as squid and fish. Their feathers retain a layer of air, helping them keep warm in the freezing water. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/antarctica/

Global warming is raising temperatures and melting ice sheets. This has wide ranging impacts from rising sea levels, the disruption of ocean currents, the disruption of weather systems, the displacement of those living beings that only thrive in the particular Antarctic conditions and the consequential knock-on effect on other interdependent species.

Seeking first your kingdom & righteousness may all things needful be added to us.

We pray for the wellbeing of the Antarctic, the protection of its climate and preservation of its ice cap. Inspire and encourage us, as citizens and consumers, governments and leaders to truly address the means by which we can radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
We recognise ourselves in the fractured and frail failures of the stories of God’s people. and we pause to reorient ourselves towards love of God and neighbour.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
Our love has been as the morning mist, as the dew that goes early away.
God be gracious;
Lord, have mercy
Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth
Our love has been as the morning mist, as the dew that goes early away.
God be gracious;
Lord, have mercy
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Our love has been as the morning mist, as the dew that goes early away.
God be gracious;
Lord, have mercy.
O Soul be joyful; our merciful God stretches out a loving hand to you.
(1 Cor 13:4-7; Hosea 13:3) https://ourcommonprayer.org/2017/07/22/lent/

The Grace

Counting on 2026 …. Day 24

18th February

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday when in the past people confessed their sins and were shriven so that they could start Lent free of the burden of guilt.

If in observing Lent, we are following the example of Jesus who prepared for his mission in sharing the gospel by spending 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness, what can the next 7 weeks offer us?

In the wilderness Jesus was totally reliant for his survival on what God could give him and what the wilderness – ie nature – could give him. Through this experience he would have been very close relationship with both God and nature. So is that, I wonder, what we should be aiming for during Lent? A chance to deepen our understanding of, relationship with and reliance on, God and nature?

Green Tau Shrove Tuesday Reflection

17th February 2026

Today is Shrove Tuesday. Shrive comes from the Old English to write, and thence to assign or prescribe, and from that to confess. Today would be a good day to list all the things that we feel are out of kilter in our lives and in the lives of our society, with perhaps a particular focus on those relating to our care of creation.

In the 15th century (and earlier) Shrovetide wasn’t just a Tuesday but was the three days before Ash Wednesday. Three days, including a Sunday, would have given more opportunity for people to formally confess their sins and receive their penance – what they must do to atone for the sins they have committed.

Once shriven – absolved from sin – the penitent was ready to embark on the forty days of Lent: forty days of fasting and observing the penance they had been given.

Fasting is holding back for pleasures and often includes food. Not ‘not eating’ but not eating certain foods, typically meat and dairy products. In many countries the days preceding Ash Wednesday are called Carnival. The name comes from the Medieval Latin ‘carnelevamen’ meaning to put away, to not eat, meat. Not wanting perhaps to waste food, or perhaps to enjoy one last pleasure before the fast began, the days before Lent have becomes days for feasting and merriment. Hence Carnival and shrove Tuesday pancakes! For those of us who are carnivores or vegetarians, giving up meat and dairy products for forty days could be a challenge. In the 15th century it may have been less so – Lent coincided with the lean time of the year when winter supplies had largely been eaten and spring foods had yet to appear. Fasting from meat and dairy products may have been a necessity rather than a choice. But now, as more people swop to plant based diets, the restrictions of Lent can seem less daunting. There is a growing range of plant based foods, recipes, cuisines etc that makes not eating meat no penance.

What then is the purpose of fasting? Fasting can be a way of cultivating self discipline. It can be a way of focusing our awareness on the needs of others: some people opt to limit their food intake to the limited amount that many brothers and sisters ensure as a necessity. Some opt to eat only locally grown produce, such as the Fife diet, as a way of rooting their awareness of local food production. Some might concentrate on foods that adhere to Green Christian’s LOAF principles – local, organic, animal friendly and fairly traded.

Such fasting for Lent shows us how penance can be constructive. It helps us both to address the harm we have caused and to learn new habits to stop us from committing the same sins again. Fasting and penance need not apply just to food. Some people practice a carbon fast, cutting back on activities or use of equipment that has a high carbon footprint. Some might opt out fast from consumerism, and cut back on new purchases, cut out of retail therapy etc. some might fast from work – some of us put work and achievement as a priority in our lives and may wish to spend more time with friends, with family, with nature, with God.

In some cultures past and present, those who were penitent wished to make a clear statement of their decision – their need – to repent and would put on clothing made for sacking, would cut their hair, or go barefoot. Such action strengthened their resolve and was a witness to others for the need for repentance.

If we want to take Lent seriously as a time for re orientating ourselves towards the resurrection and life lived in Christ, then observing Shrove Tuesday as a time to confess our sins and to accepting a penance that will be make good at least some of the harm our sins, is a good starting point. However you may find yourself in a minority with most people deferring such reflection and preparation till Ash Wednesday. Even in the church, Shrovetide has been replaced by ‘pancake day’ and become a day in which to eat pancakes in all shapes and sizes and adorned with all manner of flavourings from the sweet sour lemon and sugar, to the meaty ones of bacon and maple syrup.

Ash Wednesday is the modern Shrovetide.

NB this is based on earlier articles I wrote in 2022 and 2023

Counting on 2026 …. Day 23

17th February

The main cause of climate change is the increase in carbon dioxide emissions – and it is an increase caused by human activities. The following chart shows the annual levels of CO2 emissions measured in parts per million. 350 ppm is the safe planetary boundary. (1)

The second chart shows the correlation between rising levels of CO2 emissions and global temperatures. (2)

Once released into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide remains there for centuries. So it is important to understand not just how much we emit each year, but also how much has already accumulated in the atmosphere and to which we are now adding. The chart below comes from an article produced by Our

World in Data. (3)

Whilst climate deniers may point to periods on the past when temperatures in the UK during the past two thousand years have been higher than average, there has been no period during human history when global temperatures have risen to the levels now seen and nor when carbon emissions HVO been at current levels. We have very clearly passed the safe planetary boundary vis a vis carbon dioxide emissions.

Counting on 2026 …. Day 22

16th February

Of the seven planetary boundaries where we have passed from the safe zone into the unsustainable zone, the last I am writing about is climate change which is subdivided into CO2 concentration and radioactive forcing.

Radioactive forcing is a scientific concept which measures the imbalance between incoming and outgoing energy in Earth’s climate system. When energy from the sun reaches Earth, some reflects back to space while some gets absorbed. The difference between these two creates what scientists call radiative forcing, expressed in watts per square meter (W m⁻²). (1)

Different gases and particles suspended in the atmosphere (aerosols) plus the reflective capacity of the land/ sea surface contribute to this. Of all the gases in the atmosphere carbon dioxide has the greatest impact – absorbing energy (heat) whilst of aerosols sulphur dioxide has the biggest impact reflecting energy/ heat back out of the atmosphere. Thus the dirty smoke from coal power stations and from diesel shipping does in fact cool the planet, and as these sources of air pollution are reduced, there is an ironic increase in temperatures. Sulphur dioxide forms of smog which is harmful to health, often causing premature deaths (pictures of Delhi with obscured views of the city illustrate the density of these particles). (2)

“Scientists have proposed a PB for total anthropogenic radiative forcing at +1.0 W/m², relative to pre-industrial levels. This threshold is based on the climate system’s sensitivity to greenhouse gas forcing, observed responses of polar ice sheets to warming, and growing evidence of climate instability at forcing levels above +1.5 W/m². Exceeding this boundary increases the risk of irreversible climate impacts and long-term system feedback loops.” (3)

We exceeded this safe point in 1986.

https://climatechange.academy/introduction-to-climate-change/radiative-forcing-explained-climate-change/

(2) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4d9kq2eno

(3) https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/boundary/climate-change/