Judith Russenberger

Counting on ….day 161

23rd April 2022

If we wish to press for change by addressing the fossil fuel

producers, we also need to look at ourselves as fossil fuel consumers: companies will sell less oil when customers buy less. As domestic consumers we typically buy fossil fuels direct from the producers when we buy petrol/ diesel for cars, and gas and oil for heating, cooking and hot water . Otherwise we tend to buy and consume fossil fuels indirectly – either as energy for a manufacturing process, as a raw material (eg for making plastic) or as the energy involved in transportation.

If we wish to consume less petrol, we can look to find ways of replacing shorter car journeys with journeys on foot or by cycle. We can use public transport if that is available / affordable – and if it isn’t we should demand better of our local authority. We can get together with others and try car-sharing. We can replace long car journeys with train travel. Again if this is unavailable/ unaffordable we should demand better of the Government: if their agreed net zero targets are to be met, the use of trains will need to increase (and the rate of electrifying the network)

Try Before you Bike – a scheme that allows you to try a bike with an affordable monthly subscription before buying, as well as offering free helmets, cycling skills courses, and 6 months cover for repairs.

https://www.peddlemywheels.com/try-before-you-bike

The Campaign for Better Transport has recently reviewed the progress being made by England, Wales and Scotland in achieving net zero targets for our transport networks – https://bettertransport.org.uk/blog/roads/net-zero-nations

For an overview of car sharing schemes https://como.org.uk/shared-mobility/shared-cars/where/

“Government launches half-price ‘rail sale’ – how it works and how to get cheaper fares” https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/04/half-price-rail–sale–launched-by-government—find-out-how-it-/

Counting on …day 160

22nd April 2022

We are enmeshed in a economy fuelled by fossil fuel industries that are

reluctant – indeed highly resistant- to change. If change does not happen, we and the world will suffer increasingly the effects of the climate crisis. BP, one such fossil fuel company, has been a sponsor of the British Museum for many years. Despite on going public opposition and despite the move of most of other institutions away from fossil fuel sponsorship, the British Museum is currently negotiating with BP for a further five year deal. This weekend ‘BP or not BP’ will be continuing its campaign to dissuade the British Museum. Find out more from their web site https://bp-or-not-bp.org/news/

or sign their petition https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/the-british-museum-must-not-to-renew-its-sponsorship-deal-with-bp

Here is a piece from their Facebook page:

“Why is BP sponsorship such a big deal?

BP doesn’t sponsor cultural institutions out of the goodness of its heart. Its philanthropic image is a carefully curated marketing scheme, designed to distract from its appalling environmental and human rights record, its decades of funding brutal autocrats (including Vladamir Putin) and its huge contribution to climate change.

From covering up oil spills which harm oceans and animals, to dodgy deals with dictators and warmongers, BP has done it all. The company’s history is inseparable from colonial oppression and its endless quest for fossil fuels has wreaked international havoc for more than 80 years.

This sponsorship deal at the British Museum doesn’t just give BP a false veneer of respectability. It allows the company to use this publicly funded space to throw fancy events, schmooze with UK government officials, and cosy up to representatives of fossil-fuelled regimes from Egypt to Azerbaijan to – yes – Russia.”

Prayers for Earth Day

Friday 22nd April 2022 – Earth Day

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. Psalm 24:1

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 Psalm 8 (The Message )

God, brilliant Lord,
yours is a household name.

Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you;
toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk,
and silence atheist babble.

I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
    your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
    Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
    Why take a second look our way?

Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods,
    bright with Eden’s dawn light.
You put us in charge of your handcrafted world,
    repeated to us your Genesis-charge,
Made us stewards of sheep and cattle,
    even animals out in the wild,
Birds flying and fish swimming,
    whales singing in the ocean deeps.

God, brilliant Lord,
your name echoes around the world.

Today, 22nd April, is Earth Day – a globally recognised event calling on everyone to focus on the needs of the earth.

“This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.” https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2022/

And as Paul writes, ‘As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says,“In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.’ 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

Glory to God,

Let the earth be glad, and the sea resound:

Let all that is in it rejoice.

We praise you!

Glory to God,

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

We praise you!

The law of the Lord is perfect,
making wise the simple.

Yet we have done our own thing and despoiled the environment.

Lord have mercy.

The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

Yet we have hidden your ways under the cloak of greed, making life dark for our fellow beings.

Now is the time!

Teach us once more to seek your wisdom for the earth.

Now is the time!

Teach us once more how to live in harmony with creation.

Now is the time!

Teach us to be mindful in what we use and generous in what we give.

Merciful God,

forgive us and heals us,

restore our world to its former glory.

Amen.

The Grace

Counting on ….day 159

21st April 2022

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Founded in the USA in 1970, it is now observed by more than a billion people around the world as a day of action to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes. This year’s theme is Invest in Our Planet: “All TOGETHER now! This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest In Our Planet.”

“The goal of EDO’s campaign is to push aside the barriers erected by the ancient, dirty fossil fuel economy and their co-conspirators – old technologies of centuries past – and redirect attention to creating a 21st century economy that brings back the health of our planet, protects our species, and provides opportunities for all.“

Counting on… will continue each to suggest ways, big and small, by which we can make that change happen.

Counting on …day 158

20th April 2022

At the heart of a plant based diet are beans and pulses. Hodmedod’s is a good place to source these as they specifically stock ones grown in the UK – both supporting UK farmers and reducing food miles. Variety is good for the diet – split green and yellow peas; blue, wrinkled, marrow fat, Carlin and black badger whole peas; fave beans, chick peas, haricot beans, green and red lentils …..

To save on electricity and cooking time, weigh out daily amounts (approx 30g dried weight per portion) half-filling glass jars. Then fill up with hot water, secure lids, and leave to soak for an hour or over night. Place the jars into a large pan and fill round the jars with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour. Leave to cool. These jars of cooked beans are now ready for use – and because they have been boiled with lids on, don’t need to be stored in the fridge.

NB cook red kidney beans separately as they need to boil vigorously for ten minutes to remove natural toxins.

Counting on … day 157

19th April 2022

The plight of refugees is topical. Their needs are something we as nations and globally must address and plan for. The acceleration of the climate crisis will add to the number of people forced to flee their homes.

Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

Matthew 25:44,45

Even just as human beings x regardless of our faith – can we ignore the plight of people forced by fear to flee their homes? If we were in their position would we not want someone to help us, to give us something to eat and drink, clothes to keep us a warm, a roof over our head, and a reassurance of protection?

“Love your neighbour as yourself” said Jesus repeating the commandment given in Leviticus. The commands in both Leviticus, Exodus and Deuteronomy are clear that the duty of care is just not to your kin but to the stranger and the alien.

You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:34

According to the UNHCR ‘An asylum-seeker is someone whose request for sanctuary has yet to be processed’. They are a person who is in the process of having their status as a refugee legally determined. To label such as person as being illegal is wrong. To remove that person from the place where they have come seeking safety, and exporting both them and their claim, is wrong.

As Christians we should stand up and voice our complaint to the Government that what they propose is both abhorrent and wrong. Not to do so is to spurn Jesus’s teaching. Write or email to your MP and to the Home Secretary and make your voice heard.

Counting on …day 156

18th April 2022

Can we count on our faith to cope with and address the suffering the climate crisis is and will cause? Can we be sufficiently open to God’s guidance to know what to do, and sufficiently willing and committed to change our lives accordingly?

Easter-tide seems a good time to explore this for it is a season concerned with new life, new beginnings and new understanding.

Hands Animals Chick Beak Love Yellow Kids Love http://www.maxpixel

Easter Day Intercessions – the egg

17th April 2022

Can I invite you to cup your hands,

and imagine that in them you are holding an egg.

Feel the smoothness and the hardness of the shell. It is there to protect the young chick inside.

Let us pray for those people and situations who need protection. For the people of Ukrainian living with the dangers of war and especially for young children and those who have been separated from their families. For the people of the Philippines living with the dangers of flooding and mudslides in the aftermath of Storm Megi, and for the people of South Africa suffering from storm force rains and floods. For the Javan rhinoceros threatened with extinction by trophy hunting, poaching and habitat loss. We pray for the climate which needs protection from our human stupidity.

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Now imagine that you can hear a small tapping sound as the chick in your egg uses its beak to break open the shell.

Let us pray for those places and situations where people are trying to free themselves. For refugees and asylum seekers. For people trapped by poverty. For people in abusive relationships. For people working in unsafe environments. For the work of Tree Aid planting trees to free communities from the worst affects of the climate crisis. For the people of Shanghai trapped by rising covid infection rates. For Just Stop Oil trying to free us from our dependency on fossil fuels.

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer.

Now imagine that the shell is breaking open and out struggles a small damp and floppy chick,

needing warmth and comfort to gain its strength.

Let us pray for those who need care and comfort and healing. For ecosystems struggling to cope with the climate crisis and the pressures of human consumption. For those who are lonely, for those in pain. For those who feel anxious and afraid. For those who are sick.

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer

Now imagine that the chick perched in your hands is all fluffed up and warm, with a beady eye and a happy cheep.

Let us give thanks for the wonder and joy of life, for the beauty we see around us and the love we encounter day by day, for the resilience of nature.

On this day of resurrection we remember those who have died recently,

And those whose year’s mind occurs now,

Let us give thanks for the hope and reassurance that God gives us through the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Merciful God accept these prayer for the sake of your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Easter Day

17th April 2022

Acts 10:34-43

Peter began to speak to Cornelius and the other Gentiles: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; *
his mercy endures for ever.

2 Let Israel now proclaim, *
“His mercy endures for ever.”

14 The Lord is my strength and my song, *
and he has become my salvation.

15 There is a sound of exultation and victory *
in the tents of the righteous:

16 “The right hand of the Lord has triumphed! *
the right hand of the Lord is exalted!
the right hand of the Lord has triumphed!”

17 I shall not die, but live, *
and declare the works of the Lord.

18 The Lord has punished me sorely, *
but he did not hand me over to death.

19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; *
I will enter them;
I will offer thanks to the Lord.

20 “This is the gate of the Lord; *
he who is righteous may enter.”

21 I will give thanks to you, for you answered me *
and have become my salvation.

22 The same stone which the builders rejected *
has become the chief cornerstone.

23 This is the Lord’s doing, *
and it is marvellous in our eyes.

24 On this day the Lord has acted; *
we will rejoice and be glad in it.

1 Corinthians 15:19-26

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Reflection

‘I have seen the Lord!’

‘I have seen the Lord!’ says Mary Magdalene. To have been one of those first disciples and heard those words, indeed to have been Mary and seen what she saw, must have been amazing, thrilling, sensational, out of this world! To see alive the one you thought was dead, the one you thought had been disfigured, mutilated and cruelly killed, must have been so overwhelming, so joyous, so unbelievable.

This is the moment that has been eagerly anticipated throughout John’s Gospel. “I am the resurrection and the Life” Jesus had promised, and it was – and is – so. And Mary Magdalene is the first witness.

Those who witness the resurrection, are, Peter says, commanded by God to preach to the world and testify to what Jesus Christ has brought about.

What is the resurrection about? It is not simply ‘coming back from the dead’ – it is not resuscitation. That was what Lazarus and the widow of Nain’s son experienced. Resurrection is about the Life, which is more than just the mortal life we live now. It is certainly a life that continues into the ‘next world’ but equally importantly it is Life experienced in this world. Otherwise it would , as Paul says, leaves us more to be pitied than ever. The resurrection is a reality to be experienced in this life.

I think that what John’s gospel tells us is that to experience the resurrection and to experience the kingdom of God – to experience God’s reign – are one and the same. Jesus came to announce the kingdom of God (or in Peter’s words, to preach God’s peace) to inaugurate the reign of God and establish God’s kingdom on earth. To experience God’s reign is to do God’s will – just as Jesus did, repeatedly declaring that he did what the Father did. When that happens things change, life is transformed – life becomes Life! The vine’s branches flourish and are abundantly fruitful, the blind see, bread is multiplied and wine jars overflow. Those who are open to God – in Peter’s words, those who fear God – can experience this.

The inauguration of God’s reign – resurrection – is an ongoing process that will be completed when, as Paul writes, Jesus has destroyed -ie overcome, supplanted – every ruler and every authority and power. It is that rule, that reign, that kingdom, which is being built upon the cornerstone rejected by we would-be human builders.

Resurrection is real, it is a reality – but maybe it is something we have to be open to see. In John’s gospel there are many instances of people who do not see or understand what is happening around them. They are blinkered, they are looking the wrong way, they are avoiding walking in the light. Peter and the beloved disciple don’t understand what they see when they find the tomb empty and the grave clothes folded. Mary Magdalene struggles. She doesn’t see at first, and confuses Jesus with a gardener. If Jesus hadn’t spoken would she have left the garden in ignorance?

So we need to be alert in looking for signs of the resurrection, for signs of the Life. We need to witness to these signs, to share the insights and to enable each other to see what is happening around us. We need to both seek and tell the good news. And we need to live the resurrection, to live The Life. That is not to live the uninformed ‘worldly life’ but to live The Life according to the way God desires, according to God’s rule, following the teaching and example of Jesus. To live that lifestyle of which Jesus is the corner stone.

This is the only way I believe that we will cope with the climate crisis that we have created for ourselves.

Counting on … day 155

17th April 2022

Christ is risen! Happy Easter!

The resurrection is God’s promise of Life.

Last night I had a lovely surprise – a little tap on the kitchen door and Heidi popped her head round. She had come home after three weeks protesting with Just Stop Oil. I wasn’t expecting her until maybe mid week. It was such a wonderful feeling of joy and love – a small taste of the feelings that the disciples must have felt when Jesus returned to them.

When Adam and Eve went against God’s wishes in the Garden of Eden, God rather than confiscating their lives, allowed them to live but thereafter they had to live with the hardships that their actions had produced. The resurrection is God’s assurance of the continuation of Life – it does not exempt us from having to live with the damage we have caused, but surely today of all days must give us the impetus to want to transform how we live, to heal the injuries we have caused, to live according to God’s will in loving harmony with all our fellow beings.

The urgency of the climate crisis is such that globally we need to cut our emissions by about 50% over the next 8 (just EIGHT!) years and to zero by 2050. Halving emissions in 8 years is not compatible with expanding oil and gas production, is not compatible with policies that do not swop gas boilers for passive haus insulation levels, petrol cars for enhanced public transport and active travel, industrial farming for regenerative agriculture.

Do make changes in your lifestyle. Do press the government and businesses for systemic change. Do stand up for climate protestors and for the victims of the climate crisis.