13th December 2015 – Advent 3C

Advent 3C
Reading the gospel lection for the coming Sunday (Luke 3:7-18), I’ve also been following, as best one can, the ‘climate summit’ in Paris this week.

John is pretty clear about repenting, changing one’s ways: this is not about lip-service – do it in ways that are worth the name. In response to the people’s questions John goes on to describe repentance in terms of individual actions, ways of living justly.

I pondered the words, ‘And the people asked him, “What then should we do?”’ and imagined them, or similar words, on the lips of many at the ‘climate summit’:
    Repent, turn around,
    and so slow global warming
    that all the world lives.

As a long-time re-user, recycler (growing up in a necessarily ‘no-frills’ life-style embeds those habits early) I’m surrounded by furniture that I built 35 years ago and which I’ve adapted – sometimes drastically – to suit our needs and the characteristics of five different places we’ve called ‘home’ over those years. Yet I still need to hear John’s words:
    Repent, turn around,
    reduce, re-use, recycle,
    that all the world lives.

 
     © Jeff Shrowder, 2015.
 
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