Tag: sharing

Counting on … day 126

7th August 2025

According to the Book of Acts (Acts 2:42-47), one of the features that attracted people to the first Christians was their willingness to share what they had with each other, to hold their belongings in common. 

Living simply, sustainably, and joyfully within the limits enough, would logically involve sharing and holding possessions in common. This enables things to be shared. It also means that fewer possessions are needed overall which makes for better use of limited resources. 

Some people share the use of a communal car or subscribe to a car sharing scheme. (1) 

Libraries provide a collection of books (as well as dvds, audio tapes etc) which are held in common for everyone to use. And there are also toy libraries and Libraries of Things as well as street sharing schemes, that allow a community to own things such as electric drills, lawn mowers, wallpaper strippers, that the whole community can use.

Churches are places kept open for the use by anyone in the community. Church/village/community halls are large gathering spaces that anyone can use (for a fee and terms and conditions will apply). 

Roads are communal spaces where anyone can drive, cycle or walk (again terms and conditions apply). 

Green spaces and parks are publicly (or sometimes privately) owned which are kept open for the whole community to enjoy. Ditto public sports centres and swimming pools (fees and conditions may apply) – few of us could afford, either in terms of finance or space, to build and own a swimming pool for our own use, but having a public one kept for common use makes real sense.

In Cambridgeshire there is a village owned heat pump to which householders can opt to connect! (2)

The more we can hold and use in common the better. 

  1. https://www.como.org.uk/shared-cars/overview-and-benefits
  2. https://www.positive.news/environment/pumping-hot-inside-britains-first-heat-pump-village/

Counting on … Lent 21

2nd April 2025  

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

The Earth provides a bountiful supply of food that can satisfy everyone. Ensuring a sufficiency for all underlies God’s wisdom, God’s purpose. Ensuring that everyone can access this sufficiency however requires that we humans act responsibly. The following sound advice comes from the German Advisory Council on the Environment. 

“…sufficiency is a long-established concept in the environmental sciences. It is distinct from efficiency (less input per output) and consist (more environmentally friendly input). In contrast, sufficiency aims at the absolute reduction of outputs, ie a conscious collective self-limitation of ecologically critical goods and services. Secondly, sufficiency with the meaning of “enough” (lat. sufficere) can be linked to questions of justice: sufficiency aims to ensure that all people have sufficient access to natural resources. For people living in poverty, “enough” can therefore also mean “more”. Sufficiency requires “less” for resource-intensive groups. These are the middle and upper classes, especially (but not only) in rich countries. A life of dignity for all within planetary boundaries is therefore also the guiding principle of German and international sustainability strategies.”

https://www.umweltrat.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/EN/04_Statements/2020_2024/2024_06_Sufficiency_as_a_Strategy_of_the_Enough.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2

Counting on … Lent 19

31st March 2025  

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Genesis 2:5-6

Without water there is no plant life; without bodies of water there is no rain. The creation story in Genesis understands that God provided the water that was essential for life, providing a source of water which we now understand is continually circulated via plants and rain cycles. If we treasure life then we also need to treasure the natural balance of the water cycle, not over extracting water from inland  seas and aquifers. Misusing water can see too much water diverted for industrial or intensive farming purposes such that both people and the natural wildlife suffers. 

A press release from UNESCO underlines the importance of handling water systems  with fairness and cooperation. 

“Nearly every water-related intervention involves some kind of cooperation. Growing crops require shared irrigation systems among farmers. Providing safe and affordable water to cities and rural areas is only possible through a communal management of water-supply and sanitation systems. And cooperation between these urban and rural communities is essential to maintaining both food security and uphold farmer incomes.” https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/imminent-risk-global-water-crisis-warns-un-world-water-development-report-2023

Counting on … Lent 18

28th  March 2025 

Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together. And quarrelling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarrelling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” Exodus 13: 5-9

When too many people – or rather if the activities of the people are consuming too many resources – it is good to come to an amicable arrangement whereby the available resources can be shared. In the natural world some plants build this in to their growth patterns. Apple trees through their root systems and their  mycorrhizal fungi prevent new apple seedlings from growing too close less they both compete over the same nutrients. Other trees benefit from the work of magpies and squirrels which plant seeds at a fair distance away from the parent tree.

Counting on … day 16

22nd January 2025

If not buying things makes for better use of limited resources, then there is real advantage in borrowing and sharing. This can informally, via a street WhatsApp or via a Library of Things – https://www.libraryofthings.co.uk/

And also – https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/home-garden/library-things-directory

Advent 15: a shared path – II

Here is another reminder that that the road we travel we share with others. Living together, co-existing  requires understanding, cooperation and tolerance.

 I wonder how we would respond if the sign depicted a person and dormouse? Over time recent times dormice have lost access to the spaces  in which they can live – woodlands and hedgerows – because we humans have allowed our activities to dominate the landscape to the detriment of others. It is not that there is too little space for us all, but that we do not always share the space with consideration.

In the book of Genesis we hear how Abraham and Lot had to consciously make decisions about where they would each graze their flocks so as to ensure enough grass and water for them all. Later Isaac faced the same need to share. 

But the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well and quarrelled over that one also; so he names it Sitnah. He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”… 

Genesis 26:20-22

Author Judith RussenbergerPosted on Categories Advent Reflections, UncategorizedTags climate crisis, PrayerLeave a commen

Bread for sharing

27th July 2024

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Matthew 7:9

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.

Genesis 8:22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.

Heavenly Parent, mother and father of us all,

May you be ever honoured by your people.

For you are the one who caused the earth to bring forth seed bearing plants –

wheat and barley, oats and rye and all manner of grains. 

You are the one who provides the staff of life.

Hallowed be your name!

Isaiah 55: 10 -11 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Heavenly God, creator of soul and body,

May you be ever honoured by your people.

From you comes wisdom and insight 

so that we may learn how to,love you and our neighbour.

You are the one who provides the staff of life.

May your kingdom come!

Matthew 14:19-20  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

Heavenly Redeemer, sustainer of life, 

May you be ever honoured by your people.

You provided manna for the long years in the wilderness,

And the harvests of the earth are sufficient to feed the whole world,

such that all should have the means to thrive and flourish.

May your will be done!

Teach us today and every day to handle bread with respect.

Teach us today and everyday to appreciate that bread is the means of life.

Teach us today and everyday to take only what we need.

Teach us today and everyday not to steal from tomorrow’s supply.

Teach us today and everyday not to hoard what comes to us as a gift.

Teach us today and everyday to share what you give us.

Teach us today and everyday not to be satisfied until everyone is fed.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Feast of Pentecost

28th May 2023

Reflection (the readings are below)

The day of Pentecost was not a day to be forgotten. For the disciples it must initially have frightening – to have the sound of violent wind fill the house and then to see what looked like tongues of fire. Yet it must have been amazing, astounding, to be so full of the Spirit that they could not help but be eloquent, loquacious, inspired, outspoken ….

And I wonder if it was any different for the crowd that had gathered. What has first caught their attention, caused the, to stop and stare? Initially bewildered and then – like the disciples – inspired, overcome by the message they were receiving. A message that somehow spoke directly to each one, no matter where they had come from, no matter what was their personal agenda – each of them heard a message that directed at them and which answered their need –  and maybe answering a need they didn’t know they needed! That surely is the power of God’s message, the power of the good news, that whoever you are, wherever you are it will have a pertinent message for you.

That day of Pentecost must have seemed magical! But I suspect that we all have message, a story, we could tell about God’s deeds – whether it was about something that happened in our lives, some event or place that was very significant, some word or image or phrase of music that spoke so,powerfully to us of God. And just imagine if we all told out stories – surely we would find that our story would ring a chord with someone else, that our story would speak eloquently to another about the presence of God.  We seldom tell these stories because we don’t imagine that we could be a channel for God’s Spirit. 

If like me you have a passion for the environment, can you take a leaf out of the psalmist’s book? Can you celebrate and sing praises to God to express your joy and awe that God’s creation is so amazing, so prolific, so life enhancing? The psalm reminds me that sometimes we have to let God’s creature be and just stand back in wonder! 

I only occasionally cut the grass at home, so it is without any effort I take part in No Mow May. This afternoon I counted five different types of grass – as the seed heads form you get to see what a variety there is. I also noted plantains with a white flowering frill around their seed head; golden buttercups (replacing the golden headed dandelions that flowered earlier); wild sorrel; common daisies and ox eye daisies; cat’s ear daisies -also yellow like a dandelion – and the tiny mauve flowering small-flowered cranesbill. 

Maybe for someone that vision of God’s biodiverse creation would be the message that warms their hearts and fire them up for action as citizens of God’s kingdom here on earth.

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs– in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

`In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.

And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ “

Psalm 104:25-35, 37

25 O Lord, how manifold are your works! *
in wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

26 Yonder is the great and wide sea
with its living things too many to number, *
creatures both small and great.

27 There move the ships,
and there is that Leviathan, *
which you have made for the sport of it.

28 All of them look to you *
to give them their food in due season.

29 You give it to them; they gather it; *
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.

30 You hide your face, and they are terrified; *
you take away their breath,
and they die and return to their dust.

31 You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; *
and so you renew the face of the earth.

32 May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; *
may the Lord rejoice in all his works.

33 He looks at the earth and it trembles; *
he touches the mountains and they smoke.

34 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; *
I will praise my God while I have my being.

35 May these words of mine please him; *
I will rejoice in the Lord.

37 Bless the Lord, O my soul. *
Hallelujah!

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptised into one body– Jews or Greeks, slaves or free– and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

John 20:19-23

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”