NEW! Over the next twelve months BUGB President John Weaver will reflect in his monthly blog.
July 2008
The drive of your life!
Fuel prices are rising. In College we have been warned by our energy supplier that our charges will rise by 50% from next month. Petrol and diesel prices have risen by more than 20% in a few months and the Government shows no sign of reducing the tax on fuel.
But there are two issues here: there are the shortages in the supply of crude oil; and there is the need to reduce global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The price rises are having the desired effect – British motorists are driving less, resulting in a 20% drop in the demand for petrol.
For the Government, desiring to cut back our national emissions of CO2, this is welcome news, but I feel that it is sad that our response to the impending global environmental catastrophe is coloured not by our concern for the planet, but by the demands on our personal bank balance.
On what are our lives built? We all know the familiar parable that Jesus told about houses on sand and rock. Lives built on the truth of ‘Deny self, take up the cross-shaped life of sacrificial love, and follow Jesus’ will flourish. But those built on greed and profit tend to collapse in the face of storms, such as the collapse of the sub-prime market (risky loans made by banks to home owners) and the rocketing price of crude oil.
How do we, as Christians, approach our use of non-renewable resources?
The first chapter of the Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God, and that God looked at creation and saw that it was good. But sadly, human beings were tempted to believe that if they had the knowledge then they would not need God, and the beautiful creation of Eden turned into a world of weeds, toil, violence and destruction.
God renewed his covenant with creation through Noah, but nothing changed and human beings continued to be self-centred. But God so loved the world that he sent his Son, and we now stand on the other side of the cross and the resurrection.
Paul’s words to the church at Rome are our challenge: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:19). Creation ‘groans’ as it waits for human beings to become truly Christ-like, to find their God-created image in Christ.
When it comes to the global disaster facing the planet we have the technology to cure the environmental ills, but sadly in our selfish human nature we do not have the will. This, the Bible calls sin. We put ourselves and our desires in the place of God, and refuse to follow God’s way for living. The results are clear for us to see: injustice as the poor get poorer, unfair trade, and unequal distribution and availability of God’s creation gifts.
We can, fairly, conclude that sin is the main factor in environmental destruction. Sin alienates us from God, our fellow human beings and from the natural world. Sin is a failure to believe in, and listen to, the Creator, and not to accept any change in our lifestyle. But, in Jesus Christ there will be a new creation (Romans 8:18-23). The Spirit gives us the possibility to be what we are to become - the children of God. The whole creation awaits the revelation of this possibility: of caring, self-denying, human beings, who live for others.
We must learn to think and act ecologically. There is a need to be re-awakened to the Gospel ethic, and recognise that human greed is at the root of the environmental crisis.
There is a price to pay through fair prices for third world goods and higher taxes to allow the support of development in third world countries. We can make a start by becoming fait trade churches, taking environmental audits of our church and community, and establishing eco-congregations. In addition we begin to think seriously about our own carbon footprint and ways in which we can reduce our consumption of non-renewable resources.
John Weaver