Before the flood

Annie: You’re back on Twitter again, Martin! How many hours do you spend on it, really!

Martin: Not that many! I do look at it every day. Tell you, what, you learn more from it than you do from the newspapers these days.

Annie: Maybe. Depends who you follow, I guess.

Martin: Well, I follow all sorts. Archaeologists. Scientists. Lefties. Non-Lefties. Not really Right-wingers though. But you can’t miss the things that they say, whatever tweets you read.

Annie: Christians?

Martin: Yes, of course. A lot of church tweeters. And you know, it’s really noticeable how different their tweets are. Look at this: We’ve just switched on a lovely star on the side of the church. What about this: How marvellous the cathedral looks all lit up. And there are dozens at the moment like this one: Just over, our wonderful carols by candlelight service—magical atmosphere!

Annie: You’d expect that right now!

Martin: And there’s a lot that go: Ooh, So-and-so is going to be a wonderful bishop. And then, now and then you get, How dare they bring in this new service for people who’ve undergone gender reassignment.

Annie: So?

Martin: Well it really gets to me how—whether it’s positive or negative—it’s all about this tiny microcosm, the church and its internal activities, and pet peeves. You wouldn’t think there was anything going wrong in the real world (apart from gender reassignment, of course).

Annie: Makes me think of that bit where Jesus says In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.

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Martin: Yes, I mean, do we really know nothing about the awful things that might happen? Look at what our own Government, not some loony extremist, has just been threatening us with: food shortages, medicines in short supply, more suicides, queues of lorries outside Dover, and even troops guarding petrol stations. When have we ever seen that before?

Annie: And we’ve already got soaring child poverty, more and more homeless people, people who have actually got jobs sleeping in the street…

Martin: Dying on the street actually! I suppose at least there are churches tweeting about food banks.

Annie: And MPs, posing in them!

Martin: Don’t get me started on MPs. We just can’t trust our rulers any more. They tell lies, they break faith, they do all sorts of stuff secretly…

Annie: What about them being ‘influenced’ by other countries?

Martin: Well, I think we could even see democratic government suspended—you know, like martial law, state of emergency?

Annie: Really?

Martin: So why do you think all army leave’s been cancelled from 1 April 2019?

Annie: Well, I think we should all be in sackcloth and ashes for this incubus that we, as a nation,  have brought on ourselves.

Martin: Hang on, I didn’t vote for it!

Annie: Yes, but Martin, we’re one people, one flesh and blood; we can’t stand back, we are all involved. Those of us who can repent should do it on behalf of those who can’t yet see the need.

Martin: Well maybe, but that’s not the the end of it. While we’re flailing around enmeshed in the totally unnecessary net that we have made for ourselves out of our own folly, we can do hardly anything about that far greater spectre of climate change that’s looming up. Do the people with stars on the side of their churches realize that the world has only got twelve years to counteract it? We’re seeing temperature extremes, bigger and bigger hurricanes, ice caps melting, coastal areas flooded...

Annie: With the worst effects falling on poor people—lots of Christians!—in the third world! Actually reminds me of another of those things Jesus said: On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

Martin: Maybe they just go along with 2 Peter saying You look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. Maybe they’re making sure the elements will be destroyed by fire by supporting fossil fuels, fracking, and new runways!

Annie: Oh it’s horrible thinking all this. I hate being a killjoy. I’d rather not spoil people’s Christmas…

Martin: Just possibly, their last normal Christmas.

Annie: When’s this blog for anyway?

Martin: Christmas Eve.

Annie: No one’s going to read it on Christmas Eve!

Martin: Listen, during the day, surely, it will still be the season of Advent. The message of Advent is ‘Wake up!’ And the call to wake up doesn’t end on Christmas Day. We need Christians to wake up! They need to stay awake and keep praying!

Annie: Yes, praying with repentance, the sure way to receiving mercy.

Martin: And especially for the rulers of this world and of our nation. They really need it.