Amos, Lent and shopping local

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 03 March 2006 08:27:13

I am reading Amos at the moment (sounds like an Amish farmer, actually a book of judgement from a shepherd called to be a prophet - so maybe not so different). It is giving me a whole new concept of the wrath of God. I used to see the Old Testament God as a rather random, smitey-type, but Amos shows what really gets his goat is when he sees the poor and needy being exploited. He's not even about to exempt his chosen people from the duty of treating everyone as human beings.
Don't put the sweepings from the floor into the grain for the poor, the Lord says - and that's got me thinking about the different ways we do that - random injustice that we don't even think about. So I am trying to be more "God-focused" in the way I think about other people.
Guantanamo is particularly "on my heart" (as the charismatics say) at the moment. As the bi-centenary of slavery approaches I see the church's involvement in doing it, as well as later banning it, and I wonder what our "slavery" will be for generations to come.
When (if) I'm a grandmother, what will my grandchildren take me to task on, saying "How can you not see that was completely unacceptable and why didn't you fight against it?". And I suspect it may be Guantanamo, some of the terrible things people say about immigrants and the appallingness of state schools in some poor areas. And probably other stuff too. So, any ideas on what I should be doing about those would be gratefully accepted. It seems like a worthwhile thing to think about as Lent begins.

As part of the whole 'Lent' thing, I am trying to think about the impact we have locally, and to start supporting the people who make where we live a relatively pleasant place. If I (like so many other commuters from the London "village" where we live) continue to take all my money and spend it in Waitrose in Canary Wharf, and even in the big Sainsbury's round the corner, I've only got myself to blame if there are no shops left in ten years time and we live in a weird world where Ocado delivers and you never go out.
So (although we still have our organic veg delivered - cos I'm not at home at the right time to go to Lewisham market), I have discovered a butcher's at one end of our road (fantastic, really), and a Turkish supermarket at the top of the hill where coriander comes in huge bunches for 59p, and a bakers at the other end. It's all of it cheaper and better than Sainsbury, so I am virtuous and smug so far. Won't last. Still, I reckon Amos would have approved of the sentiment.