Playing ball

They scattered...divided...cast lots...traded...sold (Joel 3:2-3) 

In our garden is a trampoline. All families have one. It starts out as a wonder of modern life, bringing fun to all ages, and ends up as a rusty pile of disintegrating net and steel. As readers of this blog will know, ours lay untouched until lockdown, when it replaced swimming as Caleb's Thursday afternoon activity. Now it has a new role. Alison invented a game which she called Trampoline Volleyball. Caleb sits in regal splendour in the middle of the trampoline while his poor parents are run ragged chasing a beach volleyball being bashed from inside to outside and back again. The more we struggle, the more he laughs. I've even counted. One game can mean a thousand steps for us and none for him. Something wrong there.

It struck me as an interesting metaphor for the state of our world. Some sit in the middle in comfort and plenty, while others rush around fulfilling their needs. The rich work easy for much, while the poor work hard for little. I am not suggesting like Caleb that we sit and giggle at the plight of the struggling poor but it does paint a picture. It certainly intrigued me that Joel's list of epithets for the nations under judgement are almost all financial. Even the division of the land has an economic significance. With the oversight of its people gone, the land and all that is left is traded up for hard currency. Boys and girls are sold and people are used for gambling. This theme runs through the Scriptures. So often when God judges, it on behalf of fairness. He is called on as a just arbiter for right treatment of the poor and marginalised. God's inheritance might be his people, but his complaint is that you have treated people as sources of income. You have valued wealth about righteousness, jewels above justice.

It intrigues me that, so far, the richest of nations have suffered the worst from the virus. God has not picked out the wealthy and poured judgement on them, but it is a moment for us to stop and think. The very symbols of our wealth, our vibrant cities and lively airports, have been the source of the spread. The very success of our lifestyle, our easy access to healthcare, our soft lifestyles and good food, have allowed us to live to an age that makes us vulnerable to the virus. So what might we think? Well it might give us pause to wonder again whether a T shirt can really be made, that is cloth woven, dyed, cut and sewn, packaged, parcelled and delivered, for less than the price of a bag of potatoes. If we are concerned about God's judgement then this is a good place to start.

London lights in easier times