Sunday 18th April Daily Message

Dear Reader

All this ‘play’ and ‘no work’ is making Jim a dull boy. Well, working from home has its limitations and I think we’d all like to get back to our normality as soon as its safe to do so. I am enjoying writing my daily ‘column’ and as I do so I can imagine you all at home reading my ‘thoughts’. It has been very interesting to hear from some of you from your own particular situations and hearing how you are coping with the necessary restrictions. I enjoy your messages.

I was persuaded recently to join Facebook and the church now has its own account too. Fraser, our Webmaster, has been doing a great job each day. He posts my message and couples it with an illustration. Every picture tells a story. I never thought I’d like Facebook but I do now. It’s really quite amazing what this ‘lockdown’ can do to you. I’ve been in touch with relatives in America and Australia, folk I’ve not seen or heard from in years.

The word ‘Sabbath’ has to do with rest, and Sunday, in Christendom, is our day of rest. In Judaism it is a Saturday. Today’s reading was about a Sabbath and what the disciples did that ‘hacked off’ the ‘religious ones’. They picked some corn on their way through a field and ate. Tut! tut! It wasn’t that they picked corn and ate it, it was their timing that was out. They broke the law. It was the Sabbath. No work, no play. The poor guy with the sore hand was involved in this Sabbath drama too. Jesus saw him as someone in need and he helped, Sabbath or no Sabbath. Jesus never broke any laws, what he did though, was fulfil them. There is a difference.

Legal folk tell us that there is no such thing as the ‘spirit’ of the law. Only the ‘letter’ of the law. Now I don’t know about such legal technicalities but I do know this, that the law sometimes is an ‘ass’ as someone aptly put it. Jesus did good on the ‘holy day’ and he was criticised.

There will be times, if there haven’t been already, when we face difficult decisions that challenge our beliefs, ones that might bring us criticism and conflict.

Today I ask you to think/meditate on these things.

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

LUKE 6: 1-11

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”Then Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled.The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.