There were two people living in a certain city. One, having benefited from government contracts and subsidies for a decade, and an agreement to delay repaying a huge VAT bill, he was very rich, owning a yacht, an island and a football club, he planned to become a space tourist and orbit the earth with his rich pals.
The other was a single parent, caring for several children, he had had to leave his job to look after them and was struggling to get enough for them to live on. He would queue at the foodbank, ask at the back doors or cafes and resturants and search the bins in the streets for anything that might do.
Both of these men caught COVID19 and were in hospital.
The poor man was worried about his family and how they would cope with him in hospital. Would the children be taken into care he wondered and it was all he could do to keep breathing.
The rich man was very demanding, wanting the staff to deal with his needs first. He would shout out ‘Nurse, Nurse’ or ‘Doctor, Doctor’ and demand water and care saying how he was suffering and didn’t they know who he was. But his demands didn’t impress the professional staff who continued to care for rich and poor alike. Just before he was placed on a ventilator, he said to the staff, ‘Ask the Chaplain to go to my family home and tell all my relatives to get vaccinated, so they don’t find themselves in here in this situation of torment’.
The Chaplain replied, ‘Your family have government guidelines to follow and the advice of the Cheif Medical Officer. If they will not listen to these modern day prophets they will not listen to me’.
The rich man replied, ‘But that poor man has got better. Send him to speak to them and they will be convinced’.
But the Chaplain said , ‘It’s as if he has come back from the dead, but if they do not listen to any of the usual authorities they will not be convinced even by that’.
Janet Lees, Remembering the Bible in Longdendale: 28.09.2021