Christian Aid service - Coventry March 19th 2009

Climate Justice For The Poor: Luke 18 1 - 8

“When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?” Good question!
Of course, there’s no knowing when he will come! History’s littered with false predictions!

As the world gets worse and better – yes, there are many things in the world that are much better than they were. The satirist PJ Rourke has one word for those who are always looking to the past and criticising the modern world : “Dentistry”! Those of us who remember sitting in the dentist chair and watching the cord that was driving the drill into our teeth go round and round have no appetite for nostalgia! But as some things get better other things do get worse, much worse; you don’t need me to draw up your list.

And as the earth moves on its axis there’s a real danger that those who hope that good will eventually triumph will lose heart, give up, stop praying and lose their faith.

So just in case this should happen to us the words of Jesus rouse us like a cracking whip – that we need to keep on praying and not lose heart. So, he does what he often does, he tells us a story.

At this point I should really stop! For, you’ve already heard the story about the Judge and the widow. To explain a story drains it of colour. I remember G.B. Caird, the great Biblical scholar, saying that explaining a parable was like explaining a joke and advising against doing both! The story should stand and do its own work – BUT sometimes a story can strike you as being so relevant to your situation that you have to bend people’s ears to hear it again! Not least, because this is one of the seven sayings in the Gospels when the Son of Man speaks about the earth.

“When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?”

It begs so many other questions! Not least, faith in what?

Well, read the story!

Faith in Justice. Faith in Fairness. Faith in the God of Justice.

Although it’s a long time ago since my children were young I can still remember that one of their earliest cries was “That’s-not-fair”. The big challenge to every parent is to be fair, to be seen to be fair and for it all to feel fair! That sense of fairness, of justice seemed to come with the milk teeth! But where did it come from? Nature or nurture? I don’t know! I suspect a bit of both. There’s this moral instinct, deep down that the world ought to be fair and just. That that’s just how it was meant to be.

And so the widow in Jesus’ story went looking for justice. And she turned to the most obvious person – a Judge! Begging him, “Grant me justice”.

But, of course, you know the story.

She had to beg and to nag.

The judge complained that she was giving him a headache, a proverbial black eye!

But she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Justice was her right.

She knew her Bible and how in Deuteronomy it said “Cursed be anyone who deprives the orphan and widow of justice. And all the people shall say Amen”.
Did you know that? Did you hear that? Do you believe that?

Well, that’s why we’re here. Nagging the world for justice.

Because in the world at large 2000 years after the Son of Man first came there’s still no justice for most of the world’s widows and orphans. And there’s certainly no climate justice.

What do I mean by that?

The climate’s changing and there’s no justice in the change. Why?

Because those most affected by the changing climate are powerless to do anything about it; and those who have the power to make a difference don’t yet feel the full disastrous effects of climate change! That’s why there’s no climate justice!

And the women and children who have become widows and orphans through the devastating changes in climate – the droughts, the floods, the cyclones and hurricanes – call out, “Is there any justice in this world?”

Six years ago I went with Christian Aid to the State of Orissa, ravaged by the supercyclones. I walked the rice fields that had been flooded and in whose waters the bodies of drowned children had floated because they had not run fast enough to escape from the cyclonic tides that swept over them into the valley of death. I sat in the villages with the elders and listened to stories of the changing weather. I planted a coconut tree next to a new cyclone shelter cum community building. And the wide eyes of the surviving widows and orphans seemed to be asking if there was any justice in this world?

You see, the widows and orphans of the world did not die out with Jesus. They’re still with us asking for justice. But there is no climate justice in today’s world.

There’s no climate justice in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Malawi where each person contributes less than 0.1 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. In Europe we spout about 10 tons per person; in America at least double that figure. Where’s the justice in that? Where on earth is the justice?

Tell me, if the Son of Man came again today would he find faith in justice on the earth? Apparently the earth can sustain each person emitting one ton of carbon each year. That’s the just and fair share for “all people that on earth do dwell”. And that’s why we’re here.

Because we have faith in the God of justice.

Because we hear the cry for justice from the widow and the orphan.

Because we want God to grant them justice.

Because God wants us to grant them justice.

My friends, what was Jesus’ question at the end of his story?

“When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth?”

Faith in Justice on the face of the earth?

The answer is down to us; down to the Heads of State at the G20 Summit, down to the leaders at Copenhagen. Pray for them.

We have less than 100 months to turn it around, to curb our emissions and to halt the inexorable rise in temperature.

As Jesus said: Don’t give up. Don’t lose heart. Don’t stop praying. Have faith in the God of justice.

So that when the Son of Man comes again he will indeed find faith in fairness, faith in justice, faith in the God of Justice, faith on earth.

Justice for the widow and the orphan.

Justice for the earth itself.


©The Rt. Rev. James Jones
Bishop of Liverpool



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