Sunday 25 April 2010

Colocaterre for all of us as colocataires

I made it to church here in Ferney this morning which was good. It helped me reconnect with folk in the parish and was good for the soul. Bernard preached on the Alliance biblique theme for last year of "colocaterre". It's a terrible pun but quite clever - "colocataires" are people who share the rent or the tenancy lease on a property. Colocaterre means we need to think about how we live together on planet earth (the pronunciation is identical, French is dreadful for homophones).
When I came home from the service I realised I missed a reading from the New testament. We had readings on the jubilee from Leviticus - making it clear that the earth belongs to noone - and Psalm 8 was also read as part of a celebration of creation.
I suppose what I felt was missing was resurrection hope in the face of the degradation of creation, particularly as we were still singing Easter responses. It's interesting that I didn't really notice this lack until I came home, a long time after the post worship coffee and chat.
So how do we live together as fellow tenants on planet earth? At the end of his sermon Bernard challenged us to think about what we might be willing to give up so that there could be more consistency between what we say and what we do on the issue of ecology. It all fitted in quite well for me as earlier in the week I finished the editing and preparation of texts for the next issue of Ecuemnical Review which is all about churches caring for creation and climate justice.

2 Comments:

J. K. Gayle said...

Your observations about the French puns - and then your remembering "resurrection hope in the face of the degradation of creation" while asking your question "So how do we live together as fellow tenants on planet earth?" - made me consider these verses of scripture, side by side (in the French, soupire , Louis Segond):

Or, nous savons que, jusqu'à ce jour, la création tout entière soupire et souffre les douleurs de l'enfantement. Et ce n'est pas elle seulement; mais nous aussi, qui avons les prémices de l'Esprit, nous aussi nous soupirons en nous-mêmes, en attendant l'adoption, la rédemption de notre corps. -- Romains 8:22-23

Ne soupire pas après la nuit, Qui enlève les peuples de leur place.
-- Job 36:20

Jane said...

Kurk thanks so much for this comment - I've been editing something in Englisha late last night and it had the word longing in it - it didn't wuite seem right but I left it ... now you come to me with these brilliant quote - I had thought of th Romans passge as it would it seemed to me have been exactly right. I too rarely read the Segond translation these days and I love "soupire" it has that sense somehow of "sehnen" in German
And as for the passage from Job - after yet another near sleepless night I shall try to long for the forces of day. Thank you so much!