The day’s materials
Energy Security, Transition and the Common Good
Environmental Stewardship in Energy Use
Leviticus 25:1-7
Old Testament
The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
Romans 8:19-22
New Testament
For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
Leviticus commands a Sabbath for the land. For six years it may be sown and tended, but in the seventh it rests. The instruction is agricultural, but it is also spiritual: the earth is not a machine, and Israel is not allowed to act as though it were. Limits are part of faith.
Paul writes that creation itself is groaning, waiting, longing for the revealing of the children of God. The world is not merely the stage upon which salvation happens. It is bound up in the story. It suffers, and it hopes.
Energy use sits right where these texts press us: the need for provision and the need for restraint. We require power to live, to work, to care for one another. Yet we also require wisdom to live within limits, to treat the earth as God’s beloved handiwork rather than as an endlessly exploitable store. Limits can be love. They can also be trust: we are not God.
Lord, teach us a holy sobriety. Give us practical habits of restraint without pride, and generous provision without waste. Show us where our comfort is costing others their safety. And make us hopeful: not despairing, but faithful in small obediences that honour your creation.
Prayer Points
- Teach us to live within limits with gratitude, not resentment, and to resist waste and entitlement.
- Give wisdom to leaders balancing provision and environmental care, especially where decisions are difficult and costly.
- Protect communities harmed by pollution, extraction, and environmental degradation; bring justice and repair.
- Strengthen those working for sustainable transitions; grant patience, courage, and integrity.
- Make the Church a people of hopeful restraint, showing that love can be practical and joyful.