June 2008: Choose Life
0. Before the service
harsh words on creative images, and vice versa (Matt)
1. Intro.
Reading: The Offer of Life or Death: Deuteronomy chapter 30 11-20
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. Words of God reported in Deuteronomy chapter 30. The subsequent command is so obvious that it hardly needs to be stated: now choose life, so that you and your children may live.
A command which is even more relevant today than it was thousands of years ago. Just consider the relationship of humans with the environment. Have we chosen the way of death and destruction? And what about our children, and future generations? This quotation is from Ian McKewan:
"In our cleverness we are just beginning to understand that the earth considered as a total system of organisms, environments, climates and solar radiation, each reciprocally shaping the other through hundreds of millions of years is perhaps as complex as the human brain; as yet we understand only a little of that brain, or of the home in which it evolved. Despite that near ignorance, or perhaps because of it, reports from a range of scientific disciplines are telling us with certainty that we are making a mess of the earth, we are fouling our nest and we have to act decisively and against our immediate inclinations." And then he continues: "we are asked to address the wellbeing of unborn individuals we will never meet and who, contrary to the usual terms of human interaction, will not be returning the favour." That's where the children and future generations come in.
We have a huge amount of scope to change the world, and usually change it for the worse. Here are some examples. The first one is from the film "Evan Almighty".
Visuals:
- Extract from Evan Almighty
- images and statistics from "Running the Numbers" – see here.
- images from the Terminator (Mike suggested this).
- Rubbish island video
- Adbusters
Thoughts:
- Nature is not stable, because humans are damaging it.
- The world changes -- but we should not accelerate the process. (From Steve)
- Humankind is, for the first time, having to act selflessly. We are acting on behalf of future generations. (I think Mike said this, quoting from an essay).
- are you living your life as an act of worship, or just throwing away what you have been given? (From Matt).
2. Imaging
This is an imaging exercise. It helps you to find ideas that already exist within your imagination.
There will be two imaging exercises in the service. After the second one, there will be some time for discussion and sharing of anything you may have thought of.
Sometimes people think of disturbing images. This may happen to you in the first exercise, which is quite negative. Don't dwell on the image -- open your eyes and think about what you had for breakfast!
That's the introduction -- now we will begin.
Get yourself comfortable -- lie down if you are able to -- close your eyes.
Relax. Let your concerns melt away. [Pause a few seconds]
Open your mind to God. What does God have to say to you? [Pause a few seconds]
Engage your spirit. Receive what God is offering you. [Longer pause]
Imagine you are looking at an example of human damage to the world.
What does the world look like to you?
How do you feel?
What do you do? [Longer pause]
What do you expect God to do?
Now it is time to return. Slowly become aware of your surroundings again, and when you are comfortable, open your eyes. [Pause for long enough to allow everyone time to return].
If you've learned anything from the exercise, remember it, and you will have a chance to discuss it later.
3. Confession
heap in the middle
everybody stands around
say confession piece:
this heap is the evidence against us
the embodiment of human wastefulness
our desire for more and cheaper
our forgetfulness of the cost
plastic from oil, a million years in the making and minutes to use and throw away
paper from trees, twenty years to grow and twenty minutes to read and discard
packaging is protection
maybe we wouldn't have to protect it if it hadn't travelled so far
packaging is advertising
we added advertising to the apple
'eat this and be like god, knowing good and evil'
we have turned the garden of eden into a landfill
let us make a physical confession
take it in your arms, as much as you can carry
burden yourself, remembering how you burden the earth
take it to the sanctuary and drop it on the floor around the altar
as you do so, remember that all of the earth is god's holy place that we are defiling
when you have dropped your burden,
look at the cross and remember how christ takes the burden
of your sin, and of his damaged creation
because the earth is the lord's, and everything in it
ask god's forgiveness
repeat your journey until all the rubbish has been dumped around the altar.
let's start by doing something necessary and symbolic
[here] are recycling boxes
labelled for cans, plastic, cardboard and paper
let's take the rubbish from the altar and put it into the appropriate boxes for recycling
4. Imaging II
Now it is time for the second imaging exercise. We begin the same way as before.
Get yourself comfortable -- lie down if you are able to -- close your eyes.
Relax. Let your concerns melt away. [Pause a few seconds]
Open your mind to God. What does God have to say to you? [Pause a few seconds]
Engage your spirit. Receive what God is offering you. [Longer pause]
Think about the world at its most beautiful.
What you want to do?
Do you want to celebrate?
Do you want to share the beauty with others?
Do you want to protect the world, so you can share it with others in the future?
What do you do? [Longer pause]
What do you expect God to do?
Now it is time to return. Slowly become aware of your surroundings again, and when you are comfortable, open your eyes. [Pause for long enough to allow everyone time to return].
Now get into small groups, with the people around you, and if you have come up with any interesting ideas, share them.
5. Taking action.
Why shouldn't we be able to behave unselfishly, and act in the interests of God and of future generations? We are designed to be the world's stewards. But what can we do on our own? Actually, quite a lot: [Tony Juniper]
And so it is worth doing things which don't directly benefit the environment, such as writing to your MP, as well as things which do directly benefit the environment. So we are asking everyone here to make a pledge to do something that will make the world a better place.
One of the possibilities is to write to your MP, as just suggested. Another is to switch your electricity supplier to one which generates electricity from renewable sources. The purpose in doing this is not just to reduce your own carbon footprint, but, ultimately, to change the dynamic of the electricity market by increasing demand for renewable energy -- if the demand increases enough, the government will have to step in (if industry hasn't already done so).
Another possibility, which is perhaps less obvious, is to buy more Fairtrade products. It isn't immediately obvious how this benefits the environment -- isn't Fairtrade about reducing poverty? Of course it is -- and one of the benefits of guaranteeing income for poor farmers in developing countries is that they are less likely to be forced on to marginal land, or to clear forests to gain more farmland in order to maintain their income. So as well as reducing poverty, you also protect the environment.
Maybe you've done all the things on the list already. In that case, get somebody else to do one of them, or you can make up your own pledge -- there are many other things you can do.
[Hand out pledge forms, and pens, lightbulbs, electricity flyers]
Environmental pledge form:
I pledge to:
Calculate my carbon footprint, and find a way of reducing it by 10%. A calculator can be found here.
Switch to a renewable electricity supplier -- either Good Energy (0845 456 1640), or Ecotricity (0800 0326 100). (If you choose Ecotricity, choose the New Energy Plus option).
Take one fewer return flight this year.
Make one fewer car journey this week.
Change all the incandescent lightbulbs in my home to low-energy lightbulbs, and turn lights off when I leave the room.
Find out more about the Climate Change Bill (information can be obtained from Christian Aid -- click on "stop poverty"), and write to my MP to tell them that 80% cuts in emissions are required.
Substitute a Fairtrade product for something I currently buy.
Get somebody else to do one of the above things.
Something else:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Signed: __________________________
Name: ___________________________
Date: ____________________________
Final blessing
Liturgy and final blessing -- Mike. I made a suggestion that the emphasis is on the blessing that we can be to the world.
Photos
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