What a load of rubbish!
St Oswald’s Litter Pickers have been out three times this year and collected thirty-four bags of rubbish of the streets, in the parks and from around the hedgerows. Added to which are numerous other items, including a large fire extinguisher, three supermarket shopping baskets, a suitcase and a TV.
Personally, I set myself a New Year Resolution to pick up at
least one item of rubbish per day, and so far I have managed to do this on most
days, even sometimes while out running.
There is no shortage of grot to pick up!
I have also been pushing for ‘Less Litter in Lent’ and challenging
people during Lent to pick up at least one piece of rubbish every day and pop
it into a bin. If over the course of the
forty days of Lent, ten people took up this challenge, that would four-hundred
pieces of litter picked up.
There are no other words, people who drop litter or fly tip
of dump sofas and other rubbish in back lanes or fields are dirty, disgusting
and disrespectful and guilty of a criminal offence!
Now, considering what is happening across the world, the
violence, mistrust, the starvation, the climate change and so much more, litter
on our streets may not appear to be that important.
However, I would argue that this is symptomatic of attitudes
that can grow and develop into a careless type of attitude. It is somebody else’s
problem, I need to get rid of this rubbish and can’t be bothered to make the time
and effort or even the cost involved in disposing of it in the correct way. Or maybe to consider recycling, repairing and
reusing.
It may seem to a bit of leap but let me remind you of some
words from Matthew 5. 21-22, part of what we have come to know as the ‘Sermon
on the Mount.’
“You have heard that it was said to
the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be
subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a
brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says
to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ (an Arabic term of contempt) is
answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in
danger of the fire of hell.”
Put simply, if you murder someone you will be liable to the
local court, if you use a term of contempt against them you will be brought
before the high court, but, if you call them a fool you will be in danger of a
committing a capital offence.
Now, doesn’t that at first appear wrongheaded? However, think of it this way using an old expression
that ‘the thought is father to the deed.’
We need to go to the source, the well spring. That is the principal
Jesus is driving at here, and elsewhere in this block of teaching, it
is our thought processes that we need to address.
(Let’s not get to tied up with whether we
consider the heart, the head or the stomach as the source of our motivation and
action)
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. Matthew 15.19
If we are
carless and casual about dumping and dropping rubbish because we don’t care
about the mess or the pollution or even the cost of cleaning up the mess, then what
does that say about our ‘heart position’? What does it say about our thinking about
the environment and towards those who have to walk through or live alongside the
rubbish we have so casually discarded?
I was asking
somebody who has recently started a new post as a teacher at a High School in
Coventry how it was all going. He said it was fine, but he was slightly taken
aback by the lack of respect from the students. Ordinarily he said, you might
at least to have a bit of a honeymoon period, but there was none of it.
At the end of the month our lovely twin grandchildren will be
seven. It is that age when we are doing
all that we can to ensure they show respect and mind their manners, saying
please and thank you.
However, we are finding that it is a struggle. We appear to
have lost a common sense of respect and decency, especially amongst our
leaders, all hyped up through social media.
What we need is a heart transplant. ‘And I will give you a
new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony,
stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.’ Ezekiel 36.26.
Can we, who have undergone this ‘heart surgery’ be those who
take a lead here? Can we be those who endeavour to be kind, to show respect,
and yes, certainly not drop litter or throw rubbish away but seek to reuse,
recycle and repair.
One piece of litter a day or taking part in regular litter
picks may not seem that much, but lots of littles can add up to a lot.
And a little bit of love and all the little acts of kindness we do, added together, will make an ocean of difference!
A Little Bit of Love
(By the way, look out for details of a town wide litter pick
involving several church and groups in Rugby on the 12th July)
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