A Snowball's Chance at the Olympics

 

                         

                                                                                 Paralympics 2022

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin...

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

                                                                                       Psalm 51:1-2, 7

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and the psalm of contrition on the part of King David in which he implores God, "purge me...and I shall be whiter than snow." A reference to snow might seem incongruous in a text written in the ancient Middle East yet there are about two dozen verses which refer to the white stuff in the bible (just one in the New Testament.) I do wonder whether the disciples had a snowball fight at the top of the Mount of Transfiguration which was conveniently omitted from the story --maybe the shelter they offered to build was a snow fort? 

Focus David, focus... Have you heard that nearly all the snow for the Winter Olympics in China, and now for the Winter Paralympics is artificial? There have been articles about the amount of water diverted to make snow for the Olympics in a region where water is in short supply, and that the snow cannons use a lot of energy. Oddly, there was a snowstorm during the Olympics which brought a number of outdoor venues to a halt and caused events to be rescheduled. The weather is even balmier during the Paralympics, which is creating issues. 

It's bizarre, isn't it, that various sites for the Olympics over the past fifty years or so might not have sufficient snow to host the games within the next couple of decades? The Olympics held in British Columbia twelve years ago were successful, but not without a lot of hand-wringing about whether hills would be bare. There are lots of reasons why the games should no longer happen, but who thought climate change could be a deciding factor? 

In the end this may seem frivolous, that even a grand and global sporting event actually matters in the bigger scheme of things. Yet is another of the "signs of the times" when it comes to the radical changes which are occurring on our one and only planetary home.

 This is a profoundly practical and spiritual matter. If we want to have a "snowballs chance in hell", or the Olympics, we better wake up. 

                                                       Jerusalem snowfall January 27, 2022

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

                                           Isaiah 55:10-11