Look up in Lockdown

Blow a trumpet...gather the people (Joel 2:15-16) Who can attend a funeral? The Church of England guidelines (i.e. rules) are very clear. Only immediate family can attend at the graveside. It even lists what counts as immediate family as 'spouse or partner, parents and children, keeping their distance in the prescribed way'. This leaves me torn. It is vital to our own well-being that we are able to mourn. While I sense that a simple ceremony by the graveside is as much an opportunity to mourn as a full church service, it is only so for those who can attend. The rules shut out both grandparents and grandchildren from the ceremony, both of whom may have a very close relationship with the person we are honouring and mourning. It is clear though that a ruling that permitted any family member to attend would allow pretty large gatherings to occur. In the case of one side of my family, there could easily be 40 close relatives and that cannot be considered safe under the current re...

And leave behind a blessing (Joel 2:14) I am fascinated by this phrase. It seems to envision God as a visiting monarch, who, on his perambulation through the town, leaves behind a token of his largesse. Rather than a golden phone box, or a right to add Regis to the name (a curse on any town I note), this God leaves 'grain offerings and drink offerings'. His people have returned to him and now he blesses them with so much abundance that they are able to again bring offerings in worship. Like gulls circling behind a ferry, who eat of the fish thrown up in its wake, we are blessed by God's passing touch. What does this mean for us? Matthew Henry suggests a note of true humility here. In our sin we have no reason to expect the full gamut of God's blessing, but may be content with that small part that he is willing to leave behind. I wonder if we do need to press into this place of humble acceptance, whether at times we have expected too much in pride rather than humility....

Return to the LORD your God (Joel 2:13) I am intrigued by the idea of returning to God. It implies that we once knew God well and have since wandered away, so to come to God is a return. This is a theme of Jesus' teaching. The prodigal son returns to his father. The lost sheep is brought back to the fold. The lost coin is found again. It would be easy to dismiss this as relevant to the children of Israel alone. As Paul grapples with the possibility that his own people, the people of God, might find themselves shut out from the presence of God, he can barely believe it, preferring to suggest that at the last they may be called home. The history of Israel is one of repeated estrangement from God and repeated reconciliation. This last coming of the Messiah is just another stage in that journey. However I am not so sure. There is good reason to believe that innocence is spiritual, that those who have never been taught their prayers naturally pray. One source is language. Now I'm...

Rend your hearts not your garments (Joel 2:13) Am I alone in being shocked that British companies report that their offer of PPE (personal protective equipment) was refused by our government and, as a result, large quantities of it are being shipped abroad while we suffer a shortage? Meanwhile we are buying PPE from Turkey and shipping is taking longer than expected. I know about international trade and the global economy but that seems crazy. Worse than that the government's lame explanation about differing standards between Europe and the UK and the vague attempt to cover their tracks in promising PPE earlier than it came, feel like year 9 students telling me that their printer broke. The worst was that nonsense about not getting the email from the European Union about bulk buying of PPE. That's on a par with my dog ate the homework. Though to be fair I have a letter in my memories box from a parent saying just that. Anything can be true on occasion, just not this time. So...

The Lord thunders at the head of his army (Joel 2:11) Gender is back on the agenda. A number of people have noticed that the most successful leaders in this crisis have largely been female, and the most disastrous and ridiculous have all been male. It is not completely binary as some male leaders have done well, but there is a fairly stark contrast nonetheless. On the one hand, Bolsonaro of Brazil declares that his athleticism makes him immune and joins a protest against his own government, while Trump suggests injecting disinfectant or getting sunlight into the body might cure the disease. On the other, Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen enacted measures in January that have kept deaths down to double figures and prevented the need for a lockdown, while Iceland's leader Katrin Jacobsdottir has offered free testing to everyone and the death toll has only reached 10. It seems that the male machismo so attractive to the masses does not deal well with valuing individual vulnerable huma...

Return to me with all your heart (Joel 2:12) I want to tell you the story of Rafael Cabrera. As a young black man in Los Angeles he became caught up in drugs and gang violence. In a moment of great rage one day he wound down his car window and shot a young man he saw on the street. The young man, Jerry Gonzales, died and Rafael went to prison for life. As you probably know in American prisons life usually means just that. A lifer stays incarcerated until they die of old age. Unusually during his 20th year parole hearing, the judge on the board, Craig Mitchell, did not oppose his parole. This began a decade long year friendship, with letters exchanged some of them 20 pages long. It took a long time and a lot of work by Judge Mitchell, but, nearly 10 years later, Rafael was allowed out of prison on parole. The story is told as part of the film Skid Row Marathon. This documentary follows Judge Mitchell's running club at the Midnight Mission, a Christian homeless shelter off Skid Ro...

Mighty are those who obey his command (Joel 2:11) Too often God's people are seen as weak. At college, rejecting God was seen by some as an act of power. Throw off the shackles of this outdated mythology and you will be great. Cast away the crutch of belief and stand on your own feet. I even heard the message of salvation described as an attempt to persuade people that they have a non-existent problem so that you can provide an unnecessary solution. How refreshing is Joel's outlook. Mighty are those who obey God. Is this true? I think it can reasonably be argued that rejecting God is an act of weakness as much as strength. Atheism is as much crutch as belief. Ignoring or rejecting God avoids the challenges of eternal significance as much as believing in him may provide comfort. A philosophy that rejects an underlying meaning to existence based on God seems to replace it with an almost endless array of alternative meanings. As GK Chesterton once put it, when people stop belie...

Like thieves they enter through the windows (Joel 2:9) Loss feels so much like theft. Families who expected years more delight from the company and love of their ageing relatives lose them in a heartbeat. University students who have spent days and weeks of worry and effort to secure a house with friends, find themselves stuck at home with their families. Couples who have planned the perfect wedding, school children who have prepared for the perfect exam, businesses that have planned the perfect product launch. All stolen. Theft is sometimes thought to be the foundation of all crime. 'Murder steals a life. Adultery steals a wife. Slander steals a name. Cheating steals a game.' It is taking without consent, and consent can make the most terrible of events bearable. A little known Christian mystic and missionary, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur, who found herself confined to bed for the last two decades of her life, wrote that 'in acceptance lieth peace'. It is possible to...

The stars no longer shine (Joel 2:10) The stars are going out across our villages. One after another our great men and women are dying. It is like staring into the night sky and seeing the constellations suddenly change as lights blink out. Or standing in a wood in a storm and watching gaps appear as the masters of the forest come crashing down. I am left wondering what Christ feels as he looks on. We know that on the death of his friend, Lazarus, he wept. He must also weep at the death of each of his friends, then and now. Even with the knowledge of their certain resurrection, he still cries. So our tears are in tune with the songs of the Heaven. We know that as he was dying on the cross, he invited a new friend into paradise. The thief who asked to be remembered was welcomed home. Jesus must also now be getting up from his seat at the right hand of the Father to welcome these friends, ours and his, to sit down beside him. We know that he instituted a fellowship meal with his frie...

His forces are beyond number (Joel 2:11) The Church of England is in trouble. Of course one might reasonably ask when we have not been in trouble. In the last 80 years church attendance has declined by about 80%, while in the same period the church in Africa has grown by about 800%. And the decline  continues .  You may have heard positive messages about church numbers. There is some talk of growing churches. True but they do not match the decline elsewhere. There is also talk of many who worship and do not get counted in the statistics, so-called fresh expressions. True too but again the numbers are small and do not represent a new revival. Cathedral numbers have increased a little over the last few years, as has the attendance at other minster-type churches. Sadly the headline figures (I saw 5% once) are rather misleading. To get the big increases you have to pick exactly the right two years to compare, as the numbers fluctuate significantly. Not only that but it is not a h...

Before them the earth shakes (Joel 2:10) I cannot be alone in finding that my mental health is deteriorating. Things with which I would normally cope without difficult have become significant hurdles. My family, whose everyday foibles are normally mildly amusing or slightly discomforting, have become a source of real irritation. I say things I shouldn't or act in ways that are thoughtless. What surprises me is how suddenly this has come on. Weeks of coping with the lockdown, even enjoying some aspects of it, like longer walks and more time in the garden, have come to a dramatic end. Almost overnight, I am having to find new strategies to be kind to others and careful of myself. And I'm someone living in a loving and supportive family, and who has many resources both personal and professional to deal with these struggles. What must it be like in a dysfunctional family group for someone with little training or experience of self care? I can only imagine. What little evidence w...

His forces are beyond number (Joel 2:11) In my first two blogs on counting, I've explored the problems with counting and the difficult choices with care during this crisis, but haven't offered any alternative. Today I want to try to address that lack. First, my preferred moral theory is one that is taught to every A Level student as the Moral Law of Immanuel Kant. It is almost always misunderstood because it is expressed in such difficult terms but in essence he taught a very simple moral code: don't make an exception of yourself. You'll recognise this if you have been keeping up with any of the problems with lockdown. The parties in the parks, the beach barbecues, even the empty shelves, express the idea that I can behave in ways I would not want everyone else to behave. Everyone else can do lockdown but not me. I need 60 toilet rolls but other people can make do with none. If we applied this method, in simple terms, the clinical lead, the front-line surgeon, the go...

His forces are beyond number (Joel 2:11) I started our exploration of numbers by looking at QALYs. I am hoping that some of you at least were intrigued by where such a notion of using numbers to allocate health care arose. The easiest way to understand its origins is to see it as having two precedents. The first is the increasing difficulty and expense of treatment. It was recognised a number of years ago that our health service would need a virtually infinite budget to provide every possible treatment to every available ailment. There had to be some principles to limit the amount spent. The attraction of a numerical method is obvious. It is simple to apply, clear in its outcome and, by the rules laid down, visibly fair. No one can blame the health service for adopting it. The second precedent is a move within society and particularly politics away from a morality based on the teachings of Jesus and the historical formularies of the Christian religion, and towards something known a...

His forces are beyond number (Joel 2:11) I have always loved maths. There, it's out, no hiding it anymore. I am a self-confessed maths lover. I'm not sure how it started, but aged 10 I was taken on by an inspirational maths teacher. He had many faults as a human being, but he loved maths and he inspired a small group of us to love it too. That fact that only the three of us had any real clue what was going on, and that he was, frankly, a bully to the weaker members of the class, slipped past us at that age. On top of this, I'm not even sure that it was good for me to be taught A-level material aged 11. It made the next few years a bit dull. Still I loved it, and I still find numbers fascinating. So the phrase 'forces beyond number' intrigues me. I understand it as a hyperbole, as even the sand on the sea shore has a number, albeit beyond anyone's wish to count or record, but I find the idea of not counting difficult. I am particularly fascinated by the idea it...

They plunge through defences (Joel 2:8) I wonder if you've come across omas? For those interested it's pronounced as in coma not as in comma, and I just made it up. You may have come across the phrase, or proverb, once is never, twice is always. It's meant to remind us to forgive or even to forget it when someone gets something wrong once, but to be warned that if it happens again there's every chance it has become a habit. It is proper for such things, in that it contains enough wisdom to be worth remembering, but also enough stupidity to be aware of it's limitations. One limitation is that it encourages us to judge repeat offenders as failed characters. The 'three strikes and you're out' law in some American states is an example of this. The first person to suffer under this law was incarcerated for life because he stole a slice of pizza. I am sure examples of how we should not condemn people for getting it wrong more than once abound. My favourite i...

They jostle each other (Joel 2:8) Have you ever played the blame game? This is a very simple game playable by any number of players in any context. It is so easy to understand that it is playable by anyone from about 5 and older. The rules are as follows. As soon as anything goes wrong look for someone to blame. It's a great family game, played the world over. 'We haven't got any milk. Who forgot to buy some?', 'I'm not responsible for the shopping, you are', 'You dropped by the corner shop on the way home to get some crisps. Didn't you think about asking if we needed anything else?' As you can see the permutations can be endless and the opportunities to play are everywhere. It's often played at work. When a football team loses a few games in a row, it's instantly the manager's fault and he (almost always 'he') has to go. When someone doesn't hit their targets, or gets an order wrong, the solution is to blame them and i...

Not swerving from their course (Joel 2:5) Boris Johnson is out of hospital. Hooray. One more life saved. Whatever your politics, it is a cause for gratitude. And, to my mind, Boris has done the right thing. He's used it as an opportunity to let everyone know how the dedication of individuals saves lives, and to thank by name where possible all those who saved his. However, I cannot be alone in spotting at least one major irony. His two great saviours were from New Zealand and Spain. The first is a country that has not toyed with 'herd immunity' one little bit and, so far, has reaped the benefit. In the long run it is hard to be sure what is going to work best, so I am just delighted not to be making the decisions, but it does put our government's approach and its reliance on 'the science' into stark relief. The second is, of course, a European country. Luis is going to have to apply for residency if he wishes to stay here. Not only that but as a nurse, his pa...

At the sight of them, nations are in anguish (Joel 2:6) I am guilty of a crass folly. In my naivety I thought that the less developed nations of the world, with their very different demography that favours the young, might escape this pandemic relatively unscathed. I am not suggesting, please note, that their fewer elderly can reasonably be sacrificed with little economic strife. I simply thought that the prevalence of young people meant that the idea of herd immunity might actually work without over-stressing the health system. Oh how narrow minded I have been. Let's look at the reality for an underdeveloped nation. Social distancing is a nonsense. In the slums of Nairobi or Kampala, Delhi or Mumbai, in the favelas of Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro you are lucky to ever be 2m from a fellow human being let alone try and spend months apart. So vast numbers will catch the virus very rapidly. Health services are minimal at best for all but the very wealthiest. In Zimbabwe, for example...

A mighty army drawn up for battle (Joel 2:5) I love to read. I have loved reading as long as I can remember. I was one of those children, who, given a good book, would secretly read it under the bed covers with a torch until the early hours. It was probably a good thing that Harry Potter did not come out when I was young or my school work might have suffered badly. At the moment I am reading, or I should say re-reading, The Lord of the Rings. I always must have a novel on the go as reading a few familiar pages at night is an essential part of my bedtime routine. The prospect of running out of reading material was a worry during lockdown, so, in a flash of inspiration, I decided that the time had come to read again the epic tale of Frodo and the Ring. It's funny what you remember. Last time I read it many years ago, the Tom Bombadil chapters seemed to go on for ages. It was still wise to leave him out of the film as an unnecessary complication, but this time of reading the events...

A day...such as never was of old (Joel 2:2) This day in the Christian calendar has more names than any day I've ever come across. Even the partial list I have is pretty long: Holy Saturday, Sabbatum Sanctum, the Saturday of Holy Week (rather dull that one), Holy and Great Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Black Saturday, Joyous Saturday, Hallelujah Saturday, Glorious Saturday, Easter Eve (not really a name somehow), Joyous Saturday and the Saturday of Light. One vaguely feels that no one has quite worked out what to do with it. It is as if we've had all the energy worked out of us by the events of Easter week and now have nothing left to give. We, like Jesus' disciples, are emotionally and physically exhausted. We need a break and we get one. It's the day of rest. For the first disciples this must have made sense. The criminals either side of Jesus were dispatched quickly rather than left to suffer for days because of the Sabbath. It was not an act of mercy to break their...

A day of darkness and gloom (Joel 2:2) It is not hard to guess what Jesus' disciples felt on the first Good Friday. A day of darkness and gloom just about sums it up. They have watched in confusion as he is led away for trial. The bravest follow to look on but are driven away by the inquisitiveness of the other onlookers. So it may be that, even on the night of Maundy Thursday, they hold out some hope of escape for their loved Lord. On Friday morning even that glimmer of hope must have been cut off as by a hand snuffing out a smouldering wick. Just so does Joel look on the attack on his nation with dread. We cannot be sure if these are two invasions, one succeeding the other, or if this is the story of one attack told in two different time frames. Whichever it is, the fear is doubled, as a prediction of disaster is made a firm promise: the fire has devoured, the fire has devoured. So it may be for many this morning. This is no good Friday, but a terrible day of mourning and sorr...

Nothing escapes them (Joel 2:3) I caught a small part of a programme on the mechanics of virus infection last night. It described in exhaustive detail the incredible way that a virus will hijack a cell in order to reproduce itself. I was slightly distracted by the realisation that it was voiced by David Tenant, in our house both Dr Who and the stars, plural, of Nativity 2. His melodic Scots accent is pretty unmistakable. What struck me in the midst of the awful details was how unstoppable the attack of the virus appeared. As Joel puts it, 'before it the garden of Eden, behind it a desert wasteland'. So is it most encouraging that, for the most part, our bodies have little trouble with these infections. Indeed even this most dreadful of viruses, seems to give the young little more than a slight fever and an annoying cough. Our bodies are extraordinarily well adapted to beating off the little blighters, even with all their armoury.  So why not this one? Well, I'm not a med...

Like dawn spreading across the mountains (Joel 2:2) After a while Joel can really get you down. He only just finishes describing a previous nationwide destruction and then immediately prophesies another one: darkness, gloom, clouds, blackness. I, for one, can only take so much dread and destruction. I'm the kind of person who turns off the news and listens to my favourite music or comedy programme. So today, I've cheated. I've picked an image that Joel intends as a picture of unavoidable disaster, dawn, and re-appropriated it for spreading joy. So here's my good news. Funerals in the churchyard, with almost no mourners, are not the farce I expected. Yesterday as I spoke the words of commendation and committal, it felt good. The only item in the churchyard other than the gravestones dedicated in memory was given by the man we were honouring. He had a witness ready made. The sound of the words as I spoke echoed around the buildings that surrounded the grassy lawn, like ...