Chance

Hymn 1

Enter, rejoice, and come in. Enter, rejoice, and come in.
Today will be a joyful day; enter, rejoice, and come in.

Open your ears to the song. Open your ears to the song.
Today will be a joyful day; enter, rejoice, and come in.

Open your hearts ev’ryone. Open your hearts ev’ryone.
Today will be a joyful day; enter, rejoice, and come in.

Don’t be afraid of some change. Don’t be afraid of some
change.

Today will be a joyful day; enter, rejoice, and come in.

Enter, rejoice, and come in. Enter, rejoice, and come in.
Today will be a joyful day; enter, rejoice, and come in.

Chance

An unexpected event: risk: opportunity: possibility
of something happening”

( – only the English language could use the
same word to describe ‘risk’ & ‘opportunity’!)

1 A chance where we have complete control

2 A chance where we have no control

3 A chance we can influence

1 A chance where we have complete control

What time we eat dinner!

What we eat – except where we have been ‘influenced’ by
advertising – or sugar has been added to our food – 80% of
supermarket products…

2 A chance where we have no control

• Acts of God . … In insurance circles, an act of God is defined an event not influenced by man. They are accidents caused by nature such as a lightning strike..
  Girl or Boy
• When I was born, there was a 50% chance my elder sister would get another brother – or a sister…
  she wanted a cat !
• Today there are 32 genders, including Androgyne to Transgender so the odds of her getting a brother would have dropped from 0.5 to 0.03 – 17 times.
• That chance has changed.
• There’s a chance of rain tomorrow – we can’t change that.

3 Chances we can influence.

• My Mother used to say “Happenchance can’t happen unless you give it a chance.” – Bea Madden
• I hitched to Lisbon as a student.. and later worked in Portugal.
• When I came here in 2003 – a divorcee with plenty of dreams, but not much else. I put myself on ‘Findsomeone.com’ & met Margi – by chance. We were soon married,
• - the best 13 years of my life!
• That chance was ‘remote’ unless you think – as we do that someone upstairs had been to computer classes..!
• Wearing a properly adjusted car seatbelt .
• People not wearing a seat belt are 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle during a crash. More than three quarters of them die from their injuries.
• Air liners have at least 2 engines – so they can still arrive and land safely if one should stop.

In 1421 the emperor of China decided to send out a huge fleet to explore the world, practically bankrupting China. They got to Australia.

In a North wind, Chance tends to drive boats south. My boat can tack North, into the

wind – the Chinese Junks back then couldn’t do that, and many were wrecked.

China turned in on herself for several centuries.

Meanwhile the Europeans were developing their boats. Slowly and at 75 degrees to the wind – they could beat, and keep away from the rocks.

The fact that Spanish is spoken in Mexico, Portuguese in Brazil, English across all Australia – & not Chinese, is partly due to Chance being beaten by the design of those boats.

We are actors like Rob or electricians like Matt. Once we weren’t, but happenchance introduced us to him or her, we read this or that – and we worked, and worked….and became whatever we are.

We chose.

If Captain Smith had turned 5 degrees to port 5 miles earlier, the Titanic wouldn’t have struck that iceberg – and killed 1500 people. He didn’t know it was there and was taking a chance… – several chances.

We don’t drink untreated water – dirty water kills 0.5M people a year worldwide – 85% of them children.

These are carbon emissions and sea level rise: The scientific consensus is that sea level rise is caused by our carbon emissions.

CO2 in the air recently broke the record again at 410 ppm, last seen 3 million years ago when the sea level was about 65 feet higher – which would drown Bangladesh, New York, London and many other places.

Paris climate agreement: to avoid 2C global temperature rise.

“Planet has just 5% chance of reaching Paris climate goal, study says”

The 5% chance – the same as trying find that white ball in the dark.

Sea level rise floods deltas and other low-lying areas

The Vietnamese Mekong Delta is one of Earth’s most agriculturally productive regions and is of global importance for its exports of rice, shrimp, and fruit. The 18m inhabitants are some of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change.

Over the last ten years around a million people have emigrated due to flooding.

By the middle of this century – in only 32 years time, experts estimate that climate change is likely to displace between 150 and 300 million people. 

If this group formed a country, it would be the fourth-largest in the world, with a population nearly as large as that of the United States.

Water – friend or foe?

We can’t live without it, we are made of it! – yet it is threatening millions.

We live on possibly a unique planet, the only blue one seen so far in the milky way – blue from the sea.

Unique and free to choose

Seems the Chief Designer had a plan when he designed us…

And he made each one of us to the print of our index finger, a totally unique design. 

And he gave us all complete free will. When we leave that door, we can each turn left or right, it’s our choice.

There is nothing to stop us driving into a stobie pole. There are 7 suicides a day in Australia. But hopefully most of those sad people are alone. They don’t kill others.

With Climate Change – our way of life, and our choices kill others.

What can we do to avoid sea level rise?

This 14 year old girl in India – with her Dad – converted her bike to run 60 km on 10 kg of – potentially solar – compressed air. And the car did 800 km in the thirties – on compressed air.

Our cars don’t have to run on hydrocarbons 

Margi’s electric car & the solar panels on our roof. Now Mini has done the same. Margi has had hers for 5 years now, its never had to be serviced and runs – for free, from the solar panels on our roof – except for the speeding fines, talk to her!.

The hydrogen car

A car fitted with a fuel heater so it can run carbon neutral on used frying oil. First done by Rudolf Diesel himself in 1910 to show the French how farmers could grow their own fuel.

European heatwave caused 35,000 deaths | New Scientist

“Heatwaves are coming earlier, they are lasting longer and they are hotter. They build up for days and before you know it, elderly people, infants and the homeless are in danger.” Tim Flannery 

Stephen Hawking, who recently passed on, was perhaps a greater genius than Newton. And said humans have 100 years to move to another planet. With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious, Temperatures on Venus reach 250°C with powerful 300mph winds. He said the greenhouse effect burned the planet’s oceans and lands, and that our Earth may follow.

So in summary

There is a very good chance we will hit 2C global temperature rise, if we don’t regain control. By our own actions – and by influencing our leaders to make the right choices for our climate and our planet. And if the Chief Designer wont intercede when hundreds of whales beach themselves or when suicides crash into stobie poles then we can’t expect him to when we turn this blue jewel into a Venus by our actions.

Earth will carry on like Venus does – but without Bach’s Cello suites. Or indeed Cellos…

Finally, some words from that great English philosopher Winnie the Pooh:

“We don’t need to shift our responsibilities onto the shoulders of some deified Spiritual Superman, or sit around and wait for Fate to come knocking at the door. We simply need to believe in the power that’s within us, and use it. When we do that, and stop imitating others and competing against them, things begin to work for us.”

Thank you

And now a reading from Margi

Hymn 2

Though below me, I feel no motion
Standing on these mountains and plains
Far away from the rolling ocean
Still my dry land heart can say
I’ve been sailing all my life now
Never harbor or port have I known
The wide universe is the ocean I travel
And the earth is my blue boat home

Sun, my sail, and moon my rudder
As I ply the starry sea
Leaning over the edge in wonder
Casting questions into the deep
Drifting here with my ship’s companions
All we kindred pilgrim souls
Making our way by the lights of the heavens
In our beautiful blue boat home

I give thanks to the waves upholding me
Hail the great winds urging me on
Greet the infinite sea before me
Sing the sky my sailor’s song
I was born upon the fathoms
Never harbor or port have I known
The wide universe is the ocean I travel
And the earth is my blue boat home

Offering – this church might have solar panels on the roof, but it still needs money to run it

Hymn 3

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning,
That brightens up the sky;

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows for our play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day;

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.