Biblical wisdom probes inconveniently into our multi-tiered strategies for bailing out.
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength being small; if you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death, those who go staggering to the slaughter; if you say, “Look, we did not know this”— does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay all according to their deeds? (Proverbs 24:10–12 NRSV)
Awash in a sea of refugees, newly awake to working-class seething of long standing beyond our earshot, bombarded by raw evidence that racial peace is not the settled shalom we had imagined, it is nice from time to time simply to look away.
The biblical witness follows us to our corners, asking nagging questions.
The wise are toned for the day of adversity, it insists. It is when their memorable work gets done.
Neither does a probing Watcher accept our pleas of ignorance. He discards the defense that we were busy elsewhere.
Where were you when … ? What did you do in that hour … ?
We might have saved some who were staggering to the slaughter.
Oh, here they are again. Through my window, just across the way.
Canter Bridge 