My turn to sound off!

Matthew 25 v 31-40  The Inasmuch of the Gospel is Christian socialism in action. Like 2 Cor 8 v 13-15.

Jesus is hungry.  In the 60s, I attended the Point 5 Oxfam w/e conference at Stowe School.  In 1986(?) I ran 10 Kms/miles for Feed the World, organised by Bob Geldoff.

Jesus is thirsty.  Parliamentary committee of MPs says we are going to have shortages of drinking water.

I WAS A STRANGER

Jesus is a stranger.  Our ancestors were strangers to the lands and people when they went all over the world.  First to explore, then to trade and to make disciples, and to make the most of other nations’ resources.  That led to violence and wars on other nations' land.  The "disgraceful" (Michael Portillo) Opium Wars on China.  The Boer War with us upright, honourable Brits introducing concentration camps to the world.

Jesus is not a warrior, never a soldier and never killed anyone; but he was the subject of capital punishment.  So we should be against capital punishment.

Jesus is a refugee when he, Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt.

Jesus is an asylum seeker wanting a better life (actually just to live, in many cases!)  and to escape the horrors of OUR wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen now and, in previous decades in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

I WAS HOMELESS

Jesus was thrown out of his home in Diego Garcia by us, so very democratic lot.  Everyone was forcibly deported between 1968 and 1973.  But none of them ended up in the UK!  No way was that to happen!

“Diego Garcia is an island of the British Indian Ocean Territory, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is a militarised atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of the 60 small islands of the Chagos Archipelago.” Wikipedia

Jesus flees environmental destruction brought about by our greedy, love of luxury, over-consumption and overpopulation.  The Royal Society in the 1990s said:-  “the two main drivers of global destruction were over-population and over-consumption.“

The level of sea ice in the Antarctic is the lowest ever recorded.  And it was thought - and very much hoped - to be acting as the planet’s refrigerator.  The planet is burning, said Greta Thunberg in 2018.

Jesus was naked, sick and a slave over the 300 years of OUR criminal, disgusting, the truly iniquitous and evil slave trade.  The perpetrators got bought off, handsomely but not the victims or their descendants!

I WAS A PRISONER IN GUANTANAMO BAY and you did nothing.

Jesus is a prisoner suffering an outrageous miscarriage of justice that even the Criminal Cases Review Commission refused to act on, not just once but twice, to leave the poor guy (Andrew Malkinson) languishing in prison for 17 years when, all along, he was the wrong man because of clear incompetence, corruption and negligence by those who should have known better!!  A small charity, Appeal had to do the Commissions work for them.  Scandalous!

Last Sunday, Martyn Joseph sang on ‘Songs of Praise from Greenbelt’, about Albert’s Place in Sunderland, with these words,

“The unemployed, the homeless and the lost

The abused, misused, refused, that gather here.

The measure of a country’s prosperity is not the wealth it holds

But in the absenceof poverty and, equal opportunity for us all.”

Rose Hudson-Wilkin - Bishop of Dover and Bishop in Canterbury - “they are here because we were there.”

The work of city missions is both hands on and spiritual - a holistic ministry.  Excellent!

Do something for the lowest of the low, the Untouchables in India, rough sleepers in the UK, the voiceless and you are doing it to the Jesus Christ of the Gospels - my Lord, my Inspiration, my Hero.

Levelling up or socialism or basic Gospel teaching!

 Dear Peter and Geo

Thank you for organising the excellent and helpful Zoom meeting yesterday.  It has prompted these thoughts.  Could this be forwarded to the others who attended, please so I get their comments?

I would like to emphasise the importance of insulation and minimising the spaces that need heating in the first place, viz:

1. Insulating or lagging ourselves with layers of clothing when we sit in a smaller rather than larger room.
2. That room at a maximum of 20 C with other parts of the house not even heated at all, ideally.
3. We know heat rises.  Therefore, consider sleeping on the ground floor and living on the first floor.
4. Press for small to medium-sized homes for new housing estates with PV on every W, E, S facing slope for the building beneath..
5. Encourage small to medium-sized families.
6. Press for laws where the wealth of the nation is more evenly distributed, to discourage the rich from walking off with more than their fair share of resources and most responsibility for the climate/ecological emergency.  Called levelling up or socialism or basic Gospel teaching!
7. Accept that even medium income households are taking more than their fair share of resources and that we all need to tread more lightly on the planet by making do with less, instead of ever more stuff.
8. My own home, a 3-storey townhouse, is ideal where my wife and I live on the first floor with one L-shaped dining/living room that means minimum heating is required.  Our total energy bills are not much more than £1 a day.
9. It is mid-terrace, with a small area of land at the front and back.  PV means it is a mini power station, with about 75% exported to the Grid.  Giving instead of taking!
10. This kind of more simple living is essential if we are to postpone or, ideally reverse the sixth mass extinction episode that we humans are causing to ourselves.

I would like to ask that these Zoom meetings are excellent and should continue.  However, breakout rooms do mean that people will talk about their own ideas, that one person can then feedback for the final few minutes.  One hour is too short, I think but an extra 30 minutes for breakout and final conclusions and summary is ideal.

Best wishes

Tim