Greed – The Green Tau

Proper 13, 7th Sunday after Trinity

3rd August 2025

Reflection with readings below

“Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions,” said Jesus. It is a warning as relevant today as then.

Over the last few weeks in my blog I have been reflecting in the idea of ‘joy in enough’ – the motto comes from Green Christian. Earth Overshoot Day was 24th July this year – the day when we have globally used up a year’s worth of the Earth’s renewable services and resources. Most developed countries had already used up their fair share months earlier (May 20th for the UK) so that July date reflects the extent to which developed economies thrive at the expense of others. We still live in a world of exploitation.

Such greed also reflects a disregard for God, a lack of gratitude. Creation has been God’s gift and the fact that so much of the natural environment produces renewable services and resources from which we benefit. God has created a creation that carries on reproducing and evolving, adapting and renewing itself. Isn’t this truly amazing!

But if we can’t be satisfied with enough. If we can’t share. If we can’t ensure that the needs of everyone – and not just a self selecting elite – are met. If we can’t find joy in enough, then we are failing to be the human race that was created in the image of God.

We will suffer – many people already are: mainly the poor, the marginalised and the oppressed. The environment in which we live will suffer – and indeed it already is. Unbelievably for a nation of nature lovers, the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world. God will suffer – and indeed is and always has been. God suffers when creatures suffer, when humans suffer, when rivers die of pollution, when oceans are dredged of life, when the atmosphere is over filled with pollution, when soils become lifeless. The prophet Hosea expresses God’s heartfelt sorrow at the plight of the descendants of Abraham. Hosea describes God as a parent teaching a child to walk, like a parent cradling offspring as a babe in arms, as parent pouring out so much love and tender care. And yet the people spurn that love, ignore that guiding hand, reject that care with outright rudeness.

We live in a world of suffering not because God does not care, but because we humans do not care. We are unwilling to love our enemies, to listen to alternative view points, to empathise with the suffering we with power have inflicted on those without. We humans are unwilling to share, unwilling to put other people’s needs before our own greed. We have a chancellor in the UK who believes the wealthy are paying enough and yet is still willing to take more away from the poor and the disabled.

We have oil companies who are willing to extract more oil and gas on the basis that their profits are more important than the damage those carbon emissions will cause to the environment – to our life support system.

We have banks that will continue to fund polluting companies rather than calling time on such destructive businesses – when they could be funding a green transition.

We have rich people driving oil guzzling SUVs, rich people jetting round the world, rich people having not one by several homes, rich people spending more on a night in a hotel than others earn in a month. And we have poor people who can’t afford to eat, cannot afford the rent, cannot afford dental treatment, cannot afford a holiday, cannot afford to travel to work.

How did we end up in such a topsy turvey world? How did we end up failing God on such a massive scale?

If what we really want is a life of joy, a life abundant with purpose and happiness, then we must transform the way we live, one that embraces joy in enough. Can we as Christians, discuss and share ideas with each other about how we can go about that process of transformation?

What does enough look like in East Sheen, for example? What does enough look like for a young family or a for a retired couple? What does it look like for someone with a low paid job and what does it look like for a highflying executive?

How do we go about redistributing wealth more equitably so that there is enough for everyone? How do we curb our consumerist society when ‘more is better’? How do we rebalance decades of social injustice in our country and across the globe?

How do we put in practice the teachings of Jesus, that we should love God with all our being, and love our neighbour as ourself?

Hosea 11:1-11

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

The more I called them,
the more they went from me;

they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.

I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.

They shall return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.

The sword rages in their cities,
it consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their schemes.

My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he does not raise them up at all.

How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?

How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.

I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;

for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.

They shall go after the Lord,
who roars like a lion;

when he roars,
his children shall come trembling from the west.

They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

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

2 Let all those whom the Lord has redeemed proclaim *
that he redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

3 He gathered them out of the lands; *
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

4 Some wandered in desert wastes; *
they found no way to a city where they might dwell.

5 They were hungry and thirsty; *
their spirits languished within them.

6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, *
and he delivered them from their distress.

7 He put their feet on a straight path *
to go to a city where they might dwell.

8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy *
and the wonders he does for his children.

9 For he satisfies the thirsty *
and fills the hungry with good things.

43 Whoever is wise will ponder these things, *
and consider well the mercies of the Lord.

Colossians 3:1-11

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things– anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, `What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Fifth Sunday in Lent

6th April 2025

Reflection with readings below

In John’s account of the woman anointing Jesus’s feet, the event takes place in the home of the three siblings – Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It occurs after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead -and it is repeated a couple of times, that it was this action of raising Lazarus that is both attracting the crowds and causing the Jewish elders to plot to kill Jesus. Placing the story here draws attention to this earlier sign that Jesus had performed. And that sign echoes Jesus’s telling of his role as the Good Shepherd in which he says “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus is the one who protects the vulnerable, who lays down his own life for them, so that they may abundant life.

Mary seems to be particularly in tune with Jesus, seems to know that Jesus is facing the imminent ending of his life. And she is determined that this should not happen without some acknowledgment that a) she is aware of his impending death and b) expressing physically her love for him.

In Jesus’s telling of the Good Shepherd, we hear of the hired hands – the paid shepherds – who don’t stay the course, who value their lives more than the sheep in their care and who, at the first sign of danger, run away. And Jesus’s audience then and the gospel readers since, understand that those hired hands represented the Jewish religious leaders – those very same ones who now feel threatened by Jesus and find it easier to kill him that to try and understand his message.

As we hear Judas criticising Mary, we sense again the presence of a hired hand, of someone whose heart is not committed to the business of Jesus’s life-giving gospel.

Who are the poor? The poor are those who lack sufficient resources for daily living. In the first century regions of Judea and Galilee, they were the shepherds, the hired labourers working someone else’s land, the fishermen, the carpenters, the slaves and the beggars. They were not the middle class small farmers or the local business men nor the scribes nor the priests nor the Pharisees. The poor were the lowly and the humble. They were the ones forced to depend upon others.

Yet the poor were also those favoured by God. Time and again God – and God’s prophets – speak up for the poor. Time and again, God’s law calls on society to care for the poor – for the widow, the orphan and the alien.

“For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.” Deuteronomy 15:11

“Vindicate the weak and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and destitute “ Psalm 82:3

“When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God.’” Leviticus 23:22

“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” Isaiah 41:17

Time and again, it is the poor who receives God’s message, it is the poor who know their need of God, it is the poor whose love for God is strongest.

Jesus’s own teachings highlight the importance of giving generously to those in need, of giving and not counting the cost, of repaying what we owe, of giving all that we have. Maybe we all need to become poor to enter the kingdom of heaven? For if we become poor, we will not be fixated on wealth that rusts and decays. If we become poor we will learn to give and receive the little we do have. If we become poor we will learn to live with the sufficiency we have. If we become poor we will learn to live lives dependent on God. If we become poor we will be creating a counter cultural society – a society in which even the king will ride a donkey.

However let’s not forget that poverty is an unasked for state of affairs for many millions of people; that poverty exposes people to pain and suffering at level that we can not imagine. Poverty is corrosive of many people‘s lives and such poverty is contri to God’s will and desire. The growing differential between those who are wealthy – and getting wealthier by the minute – and those who are not, both globally and in individual countries is wrong. Poverty and greed lead to conflicts and wars, to social unrest and unease. Greed is creating the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, whilst the resulting suffering is being felt more strongly by the poor.

I would suggest that as followers of Jesus, we would be using our counter cultural life style to challenge this corrupting status quo and working to effect real change in people’s lives. I don’t think it is an easy task. It is certainly not one we can attempt on our own. Rather it is a task where we must work cooperative with each other and with God.

Isaiah 43:16-21

Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,

who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;

they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:

Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

The wild animals will honour me,
the jackals and the ostriches;

for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself

so that they might declare my praise.

Psalm 126

1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, *
then were we like those who dream.

2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, *
and our tongue with shouts of joy.

3 Then they said among the nations, *
“The Lord has done great things for them.”

4 The Lord has done great things for us, *
and we are glad indeed.

5 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, *
like the watercourses of the Negev.

6 Those who sowed with tears *
will reap with songs of joy.

7 Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, *
will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Counting on … Lent 15

25th March 2025

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep and wail, all you wine-drinkers, over the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

The fields are devastated, the ground mourns, for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails. Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vine-dressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined. The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people.

Joel 1: 5,10-12

If you consume too much, you will find that there is nothing left to enjoy.

Over consumption in a world of limited resources is unsustainable. The Earth Overshoot group calculates that to sustain our current levels of consumption we would need the equivalent of 1.75 earths!!

https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/how-many-earths-or-countries-do-we-need/

God’s generosity and our greed

1st March 2025

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

Fourth Sunday of Advent

22nd December 2024

Reflection with readings below

In today’s readings it is the small and the marginalised that are brought centre stage – Ephrathah the smallest of the clans, sheep (that ubiquitous farm animal), women (even today in many societies women are still marginalised) and unborn children. The texts offer peace and security, restoration and salvation, and a rebalancing of wealth and power.

Micah’s words promise peace and security. We only have to glance at the newspapers to see how important those two still are. Micah lived in a time of great turmoil when powerful empires sought to grab control of the known world – and largely disregarding small nations in the process: their purpose was to be a source of taxation – and rich men tried to grab as much profit as they could, and would willingly bow to any god or passing fad, if that helped them up the greasy pole. In other words Micah’s world was not dissimilar to our’s today. If you read more of Micah’s words you will find the vocabulary highly critical and harsh.

Yet Micah did seem confident that the God he worshipped and for whom he spoke, did still love Israel, was still merciful and still offered hope for a better future. In an earlier part of the Book of Micah, we hear of swords being beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Peace – and justice – will only come into being through radical change. The ‘same old, same old’ will not do. Mary’s Magnificat comes with the same message. Existing power structures need to be upended. Existing patterns of wealth distribution cannot continue. Radical change is needed.

Jesus’s birth heralds in God’s era of radical change. The writer of Hebrews articulates that in the issues of his day. God’s desire is not going to be met through burnt offerings and sacrifices, God’s will is not going to be achieved through a set of laws that have passed their sell-by date. God’s salvation comes through the incarnation, through the indwelling of Christ in a human body – through the lived experience of Jesus as a human encompassing birth and death and resurrection.

And God’s salvation is still be found in those bodies wherein Christ dwells today. Like Mary before us, we are called to say yes to God, to allow God’s word to be implanted in us, to allow that living word to shape our thoughts and words and actions. We may find ourselves echoing the prophet Micah or echoing Mary the mother of Jesus, in challenging the ongoing sinful practices of the rich and powerful. We may find ourselves enacting countercultural actions that will turn swords into plough shares or redistribute wealth to the poor. We may find ourselves embracing the mind of Christ that understands that everyone is to be loved.

Micah 5:2-5a

You, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labour has brought forth;

then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.

And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth;

and he shall be the one of peace.

Psalm 80:1-7

1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; *
shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, *
stir up your strength and come to help us.

3 Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4 O Lord God of hosts, *
how long will you be angered
despite the prayers of your people?

5 You have fed them with the bread of tears; *
you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6 You have made us the derision of our neighbours, *
and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Hebrews 10:5-10

When Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;

in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’
(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Luke 1:39-55

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,

for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Lent – refusing to comply

10th February 2024

The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all 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 from Amos 5:14, 6:1-7

Seek good and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you,
just as you have said.

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
   and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
the notables of the first of the nations,
   to whom the house of Israel resorts!
Cross over to Calneh, and see;
   from there go to Hamath the great;
   then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
   Or is your territory greater than their territory,
O you that put far away the evil day,
   and bring near a reign of violence?

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,
   and lounge on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock,
   and calves from the stall;
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
   and like David improvise on instruments of music;
who drink wine from bowls,
   and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
   but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,
   and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

Repentance:

Like carbon to the atmosphere:

We have added to the world’s woes.

Like nutrients from the soil;

We have taken without restoring.

Like heat to the ocean:

We have sown destruction.

All: Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.

In our forgiving and being forgiven:

Bring in your reign, O God: Let Godly hopes prevail.

Tuesdays in climate emergency

A Lament for our age:

When advertisers exhort us to drive ever larger faster cars –

and so called sports utility vehicles –

We shall not comply.

When fashion houses entreat us to buy new clothes

for the beach and yet more for the barbecue,

clothes for lounging and more for reclining –

We shall not comply.

When top chefs urge us to buy tropical fruits and exotic grains,

to eat strawberries in January and avocados in September –

We shall not comply.

When tour companies lure us with trips to the Tropics,

all flights included, or city breaks by air –

We shall not comply.

When weekend magazines promote this season’s new colour schemes,

must-have wall papers and furnishings:

out with the old and in with the new –

We shall not comply.

When tech industries unveil this year’s new phone,

the upgraded tablet and colourful but irrepairable head sets –

We shall not comply.

When governments tell us that coal mines are good

and oil economical,

whilst asking for our vote –

We shall not comply.

When trend setters define the next unmissable accessory

and deride what was last season’s in-thing –

We shall not comply.

When politicians tell us national needs are all important

and foreigners must wait –

We shall not comply.

Holy God,

keep awake in us a true love for the earth,

its flora and fauna, our brothers and sisters.

Strengthen our resolve to live within our means,

to act with compassion, and following your will –

We shall COMPLY!

Green Tau Reflection

Inheritance and Greed

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

So begins the conversation that leads to Jesus’s parable about the greedy farmer.

Is it that the brother has kept all the inheritance for himself? Or maybe has palmed off his sibling with a pittance? Maybe the inheritance was a house that could not easily be divided between two? Maybe it was a farm that might be uneconomic to run if halved in size?

Certainly for what ever reason, the sibling feels short changed and wants a fair share of the inheritance, indeed wants justice.

Jesus doesn’t ask for clarification, nor does he suggest ways in which the inheritance might be divided, or ways in which to engage the brother in talks about what might be a just and fair solution to the problem. Instead Jesus tells the sibling to be wary of greed – and not just any greed but “all kinds of greed.” Jesus then tells the crowd a parable.

There was once a rich and successful man – so successful that his annual harvest was more than his warehouse could hold. So the man tore down the first warehouse and built an even bigger one, assuring himself that with all this great wealth he would certainly be able to retire and enjoy the good life. And yet that night he died having failed to enjoy any of his gains.

I wonder what the sibling thought? How was this an adequate answer to what must have seemed a valid request? Did the sibling conclude that Jesus was criticising his brother for wanting to keep all the inheritance rather than sharing it? Or did the sibling sense Jesus saying that there were more important things in life than accumulating wealth and maybe especially so if it was inherited wealth for which one had perhaps not even worked?

What might this passage have to say to us as we wrestle with finding a just settlement of the climate crisis? Is there a global inheritance that needs to be divided? Is there a rich harvest being garnered that is more than one person’s need?

The natural wealth of the world is certainly something inherited by each generation. A rich inheritance of resources: lands, birds and animals, rivers and lakes full of drinking water, forests burgeoning with timber, minerals, numerous plants with which to feed ourselves and from which to create clothes and medicines, energy from the sun, irrigation from the rains, power from winds and thermal energy, a multitude of mini beasts that keep the solid rich and fertile, insects that pollinate crops, oceans that shift heat around the planet, and so on and so on. It is a vast wealth that should satisfy all our needs.

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. in 2021 Earth Overshoot Day fell on 29th July. Since then we have as a global population been living beyond our means. We have been consuming resources faster than they can be replenished and instead have been accumulating excess waste, particularly of carbon dioxide. Something is wrong! And it’s wrong on two counts.

Firstly as a global population we cannot carry on living beyond our means. To do so leads to disaster. Or as Mr Micawber in ‘David Copperfield’ explains it: ‘Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 pounds 19 shillings and sixpence, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds nought and six, result misery.’ For those of on earth in the 21st century the misery we face is most readily seen in the climate emergency: excess amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, is so markedly changing the climate that wild fires, floods, droughts, heat waves and storms that might be once in a life time events are now annual occurrences. The changing climate is simultaneously changing the landscape, expanding deserts, shrinking ice caps, shrinking the tundra, narrowing the temperate Alpine zone, draining river basins such as the Amazon and the Po, rising sea levels and the loss of islands and coastal lands. This misery is not limited to the climate but is also found in rapidly declining biodiversity of the planet. Over the last 40 years the world’s wild life population – animals, plants, birds etc – has declined by more than 60% and some 10-30% of all species now face imminent extinction. And in the declining availability of essential resources such as fresh drinking water.

On the second count, the overshoot is bad because its pain is not being shared equally across the global populace. For many of us in the west life remains safe, comfortable and affordable but for many more, especially those in the global south human life is extremely vulnerable and painful. In the UK we face from time to time shortages of items such as cauliflowers or potatoes, people elsewhere face life threatening shortages. In Ghana last year the staple crop of maize was 60% below average. This year heat waves in Bangladesh have destroyed about 20% of their staple rice harvest.

We should be hearing this as demand from our siblings to divide the world’s inheritance and to do so fairly.

Those of us currently enjoying western lifestyles need to reassess what we consume of the earth’s resources and undertake to consume less, and to share – to give – a greater proportion to the underprivileged. Such levelling up needs to take place both globally and nationally. Here in the UK in 2018, the richest fifth of the population had incomes 12 times that of the poorest fifth, whilst a quarter of all wealth is held by just 1% of the populace. Globally the richest 1% hold 43.4% of all wealth.

Unlike the rich man in Jesus’s parable, we do not see many of the rich and wealthy dying overnight. Rather we see them (and us) contributing the greater amount of carbon dioxide and other waste products that are the cause of climate change and biodiversity loss. It is not rich individuals who are dying unfulfilled. It is our global family that is dying prematurely and unfulfilled. If we did but live within our means and did so equitably across the globe, life would be richer and sweeter and peaceable.

This is the message that should be heard at COP26 and should be the model for the agreements made there. It is also be the message we individually should hear and act upon.