Lethal ambition

I attended the Eucharist at St Catherine's this morning. There were eight of us altogether. We had coffee and a chat afterwards about the Old Testament lesson in the service, which was the story of King David, the census and the plague. To a modern audience it seems rather bizarre and cruel and needs explanation. I remember reflecting on it when it arose in the scripture readings two years ago during my sojourn in Ibiza as the epidemic turned into a pandemic. 

King David finds out the hard way that God thinks he has no business counting the number of able bodied fighting men to organise for his army. This shepherd king of Israel's big idea encroaches on God's unique role as protector and defender of Israel, and the deadly plague people must survive is a harsh lesson about not getting ideas above your station. It's not obvious until you look at other stories in which God instructs his people to reduce rather than increase an armed force to tackle an enemy invader, so victory is secured against the odds, by God's grace. Sometimes hysterical panic causes an enemy to flee, or else it's inspired ingenuity and surprise tactics that win the day. All the Israelites need is courage and confidence that victory belongs to God, regardless of numbers. Beware of ambition!

After lunch, a trip to the shops then a walk in the park. The first few daffodils are now in full flower. also crocuses, and the carpet of snowdrops under the trees in the avenue down to the stables has grown ten fold in under a week, thanks to relatively mild weather. Then, writing a biblical reflection for next Thursday. The lectionary has switched now so that we're no longer reading a passage of a Gospel, but a passage from one of Paul's Pastoral Epistles.. It's a different kind of challenge from working on passages from a story. An interesting one too, as Paul's world is in so many ways different from ours.

This evening we watched 'The Repair Shop' and 'Digging for Britain' once again, two specially appealing telly programmes we both enjoy. Then a call from Owain, just back from doing an internet radio techno music programme from a studio over in the St Paul's Area - half a mile from where he was born.