Delivered on Sunday 27 July 2008 in St George's Chapel

1 Peter 4

Hedgehogs are funny animals. To the best of my knowledge hedgehogs hibernate, and they like to hibernate in groups. If you want to hibernate you have to find the best temperature for sleeping for six months: it can't be too low - that would lead to extinction; and it can't be too high - that would lead to insomnia, and even we humans can understand that six months of insomnia is a pretty unsatisfactory state of affairs. Now, hedgehogs don't have a great biological mechanism for controlling temperature on their own; so in order to regulate their temperature they hibernate in groups - it's a kind of cuddly co-operation.[1] This is a tricky sort of situation: you can't get too close to one another or things get uncomfortable hot, and you can't get too far away from one away or you will freeze one another out. Somehow or other, by instinct, they get the distance between themselves exactly right. They are past masters at 'getting the distance right'.

I want to suggest that there are similarities between hedgehogs and Christians. At the most basic, both hedgehogs and Christians are prickly beings: hedgehogs by definition and Christians by nature. There is something about being a Christian that seems to depend on defining territory, standing up for what you believe and therefore appearing prickly to those who look on, quietly scratching their heads. At a more complicated level Christians, just like hedgehogs, need to get on with a lot of others just in order to survive. Peter, in his letter, comes close to making this point. His point is somewhat lost in the English translation, the rather weak 'Be hospitable' is more closely translated 'Love the stranger'. It is not just a case of giving a friend a meal; it is more a case of entering into relationship with those who are as yet unknown. As far as Peter is concerned, Christians should also be past masters 'at getting the distance right'.

Over the last couple of days, the bishops at the Lambeth Conference have been discussing issues relating to the environment. These are not specifically Christian issues but they are issues on which Christians have a specific understanding. From a Christian point of view the world is God's before it is ours - it has never been a possession but always a gift. And that's a view that might have just have been forgotten in the capitalist economies of the first world where free markets are in the ascendancy and notions of equity are considered backward and economically stifling. But the Christian view - that God owns the world before we do - is something worth holding on to. It's a good thing for the Lambeth Conference to have brought to our attention.

Here at St George's we have recently held a meeting for Clergy. At that meeting we had a really good speaker talk to us about the environment. She was adamant that the problem we face is not a problem facing our children or grandchildren but a problem that we face today, now, each and every one of us. Unlike the hedgehogs we are not in hibernation, we are active, but we really do need to consider how best to use God's gift of creation so that we neither reach the point of extinction or the point where we freeze each other out. We need to understand how to get 'the distance right'.

Of course the problem of the environment is not solely a problem for Christians; it is a problem facing all human beings. But could it not be - should it not be - that the Christian community should take a lead. The Christian understanding is not rooted in sheer self-preservation but in the equitable use of God's gift. This Christian understanding is a valuable contribution to the global conversation and it shapes our thinking about Peter's instruction to 'love the stranger'.

21^st century life is too centred on the self; we need to move that centre to include the stranger. It is a fact that our lifestyles make other people's lives impossible. Our way of living means other people have no way to live. The instruction to 'Love the stranger' is the call to get the distance right but even more particularly to use God's gift properly.