Today is the second Sunday of the Creation Season. Last Sunday in my sermon I posed the question why Christians in particular should be concerned about the environmental emergency our planet faces. I said that one basic reason was that God, the good creator, had gifted this good earth to us and had made us to be good stewards of it.

So ‘creation’ was the watchword there. Today there is another reason why we, as the Christian Church should be concerned, and there is another watchword. It is ‘justice’. Let’s begin with something from this year’s Christian Aid prayer brochure. This year the story Christian Aid told was of a lady called Aline. And the country she lives in, Burundi, in central Africa.

Listen to this:
‘When you are pushed to the brink of survival, putting a healthy meal in front of your family, sending your children to school, and having a small, regular income become unthinkable dreams. Yet this is the reality faced by many families in Burundi, where extreme poverty and the climate crisis are making survival a daily challenge.’ There it is: the world-wide climate crisis impacting locally on a country, a woman and her children.

Listen also, to this from the USPG prayer calendar for the past week:

‘Let us pray for the countries of the Global South that are disproportionally affected by the visible consequences of the climate crisis.’

There it is again: the climate crisis. It does, of course, affect everyone, but some it affects disproportionally.

It is a global irony that those worst affected are often those who have contributed least to the climate crisis. In this country we are certainly feeling the effects: two months rain currently in the south of England is just one example. But even this is not as severe as what is facing many countries in the global south. So, there is the serious matter of global justice.

Justice is a key word in the Bible, turning up time and again, especially in the Old Testament, in fact 165 times. Obviously the idea occurs more often than just the word. ‘Righteousness’ is a closely related idea and that occurs 262 times. Justice is pressed home on God’s people time and time again.

Deuteronomy 16.20, ‘Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue.’ And that verse from the prophet
Micah which many of us will recognise, Micah 6:8, with its searching question and answer: ‘What
does the Lord require of you? To do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.’

And in the New Testament from Luke’s Gospel (Luke, one of our patrons), Jesus said, ‘But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practised …’ (Luke 11.42).

And there is the sharp criticism in today’s reading from James: ‘Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor.’ The global north continues to pump out CO 2. On the other hand Aline in Burundi, trying to till a parched earth, struggles to feed her family. The Bible sharpens our sense of justice in its many forms, environmental justice not least among them.

There is a reason, closely related to global justice, why Christians should care about other countries and what is happening environmentally there. The Church is a single world-wide body. We believe, as the Creed puts it, ‘in one holy, catholic (that is worldwide) and apostolic Church’. This is the one Church of Jesus Christ of which we are part. Our Church of England is part of this one Church and says so explicitly in its foundational texts. The Archdeacon says to every incumbent when she/he is instituted, ‘The Church of England is part of the one, holy Catholic and apostolic Church, confessing the one true faith … are you willing to affirm this inheritance of faith?’ ‘I do so affirm…’ comes the reply.

There are consequences flowing from this. We are part of the one Church, in all countries, some of which suffer severely from the climate crisis. It is so easy as individual congregations to bury our heads in our own small part of the Church. It is very easy to become desperately concerned about things that don’t really matter and get things out of proportion. A healthy view of the Church, the one Church of Jesus Christ spread across the world, heals us of our petty obsessions. One world- wide Church. We are blessed in this Church by a congregation with links to many parts of our world.

‘Justice and only justice you shall pursue,’ is God’s imperative to his people Israel and so to us, the
Church. The Letter of James, our reading before the Gospel today, pinpoints the need for integrity
in Christian practice. Acting justly, by Christian congregations, by national churches and as Christian
individuals is crucial. ‘You do well’ , writes James, ‘if you really fulfil the royal law according to the
scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin
and are convicted by the law as transgressors.’

So what sort of actions are open to us? National church can invested in an environmentally friendly
and just way. Parochial Church Councils can look at their carbon footprint. Individually we can
look at our charitable giving. Does it reflect the international nature of the Christian Church that
belief that our Father, is also the Father of others? What about our political choices? The Archbishops of Canterbury and York put out a prayer diary during the campaign that led up to the general election. Day 5 focused on the environment and ended with these words, ‘Let us pray fervently for our own government and leaders of the world, that they may see the well-being of the earth and of nature at the heart of public policy’. And then there are the environmental, political choices which flow from this prayer. We apply to them those words from Deuteronomy, ‘Justice, and only justice shall you pursue’. Care for the environment, the actions and the choices we make, are going to be either justice denying or justice affirming.

So once again, as always, we bring bread and wine to the altar as we celebrate the holy Eucharist. This Sunday let us see them not only as offerings of the fruits of the world, but as symbols of the earth’s resources, in which all, all, are called to share equitably. So we bring them to the altar, humbly but also hopefully. As the Eucharistic prayer says near its close, ‘Help us, Father, to love one another, as we look forward to that day when all suffering is ended, and all creation is gathered in your loving arms.’

Service: Canon Bill Croft. 8th September 2024. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)

Readings: Isaiah 35.4-7a; James 2.1-10 14-17; Mark 7.24-end