When I started to write my ‘daily thoughts’ it was primarily a response to our separation due to the closure of our church buildings and I didn’t think I would be doing so for as long. At that time there was understandable, considerable uncertainty and anxiety as no one was quite sure what was going to happen with the spread of COVID 19. Thankfully things are much better now and our churches are free to open for private prayer and contemplation. It is expected that there will be a further lifting of restrictions before too long.

Today is day 92 of our ‘collective thinking’ as it were, and I trust that having had a daily Bible passage and focus during this time will have been of some encouragement to you. More importantly than my thoughts, however, are the bible passages themselves which I have encouraged you to think/meditate on each day.

Since we are slowly returning to something resembling normality following the First Minister’ announcement last Thursday I trust you will permit me a little interlude at this juncture. Today will be the last of my ‘Daily Thought’s’. On the days that the church will be open, however, there will be on the screen a very brief bible passage and short comment for our focus and contemplation. I am also considering a weekly message on a Sunday, (summary of the sermon) for those unable to come to church.

In the meantime, I thank you for your encouragement in my daily pursuits and for your kind words and for the care you have shown to one another. Aileen and Fraser have been very helpful in their respective roles as church secretary and webmaster. Each daily thought has been accompanied by a thoughtful graphic illustration on Facebook and as they say, every picture tells a story.

Psalm 91 is a Psalm of hope and confidence. As I have said before the Psalmist wasn’t always in a good mood but today what he writes is uplifting. Let us continue in our encouragement of one another.

For one more time, I ask you to think/meditate on these things.

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

The post Thought for the day – Sunday 21 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

It saddens me greatly when I see how much damage we human beings have done to our planet. Environmentalists have been telling us for years that the seas, rivers, forests and the very air we breathe are all at risk unless we take serious measures to reverse the trend. Thankfully we have awakened from our slumber and are making significant changes, all to the good. This lockdown, oddly enough, has unintentionally given the planet a bit of a rest.

Not only have we damaged the planet itself but many of the wonderful variety of creatures that live on it. We even damage one another too. It seems that wherever we humans venture, along with many good things we do, so too, we leave behind our marks of destruction.

I love to watch wildlife programmes and there are none better than David Attenborough’s with his distinctive whispering voice-overs. While his programmes like Planet Earth, for example, are amazing to watch we can’t help feel sorry for young creatures, just born sometimes, being eaten by a predator.

Nature is beautiful but it is also ‘Red in tooth and claw’ as Tennyson describes. Among the mammals the most deadly predators on the planet are humans. Humans kill more humans than any wild animal and destroy their own habitat. No other creature does that. We are supposed to be ‘tame’ and the animals wild. For their safety wild animals are best to remain wild if they want to survive, as not all human beings can be trusted.

One creature that comes to mind this morning is the chameleon, it can change colour to camouflage itself and it has a very large sticky tongue with which it catches its prey. Anteaters have big tongues too and so do some nectar-eating birds. The most lethal tongue, not the longest, however, belongs to Homo Sapiens (Latin, wise man).

James in his letter speaks about our ability as people to control much around us in the world but we are still not, it seems, able to control ourselves. We are all painfully aware of the dangers of gossips and fake news peddlers all blurting out malicious tales by vile tongues. The really sad thing is that there are usually willing ears ready to listen which I think is just as bad.

James in his letter is very practical. He is not speaking euphemistically. He is direct in what he says and is speaking in plain unfettered ‘Hebrew’. Everyone understood what he meant and as we read his words today, so do we. It couldn’t be simpler, could it?

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

JAMES 3: 1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

The post Thought for the day – Saturday 20 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

As we know scientists all over the world, in a major, collaborative and international effort, are working relentlessly to find a cure for the current pandemic. To date, only yesterday, in fact, a remarkable breakthrough was announced. There is now, and widely available, an inexpensive steroid currently being used for the treatment of other conditions that have been found to be very effective in the treatment of Coronavirus. Although it is not a complete cure many lives will be saved as the search for a comprehensive one continues.

Through the centuries and in various countries and cultures remedies of one kind or another have been used for all manner of ailments. Some have proved to be effective while others are of the ‘snake oil’ variety. Here in Britain for example, we have discovered many medical, scientific cures for deadly conditions that wreaked havoc in the population. Before the discovery of penicillin, for example, many minor ailments could ‘develop’ and kill. They often did. Many deadly illnesses have now been eradicated or at least, are successfully treated.

In desperation, my guess is that we will try anything to help a loved one or ourselves if we thought it would cure an illness. Desperate circumstances lead to desperate, not always successful measures. Some folk do go to extreme lengths and the woman in our story did. She had spent all her money to no avail and was now desperate. She came to Jesus.

It was her last try for a cure, even though it was her last resort, she came expecting nothing less than a cure as she approached him anonymously in a crowd. All she needed, she thought, was to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment such was her faith. She desperately wanted a cure, she genuinely believed she would find a cure, and she found in Jesus Christ a cure and an end to her troubles.

Not everyone will find a cure for their illnesses, we know that from bitter experience and we sometimes wonder why that is. Why does God allow suffering at all when he could, if he wished, put an end to it all? Is it our lack of faith, or what? The answer is we do not know and no amount of well-meaning platitudes are of much comfort.

What we do know is that God loves us and cares for us and that with or without illness he knows our plight. We are not unknown, anonymous entities in a universe too big to describe, but people for whom Jesus came to seek and save.

We pray for the healing of our loved ones and in praying for them, we and they are often strengthened to face the realities that we would sooner avoid. Jesus himself prayed in his anguish, ‘Father take this cup from me’.

Sometimes we discover that healing is not only of the body but of the mind and soul too and an honest sense of the mysteries of God’s sovereignty is more credible than a vain attempt to explain the unexplainable.

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

God bless you!

Jim.

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

MARK 5: 24-34

So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

The post Thought for the day – Wednesday 17 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

We’ve all heard and used the phrase ‘the tables have turned’, or ‘turning the tables’ and we all know what it means, but where does the saying come from originally? It crossed my mind that it might have something to do with Jesus in the temple overturning the tables of the money-changers and merchants, but this is quite wide of the mark. The saying has nothing at all to do with Jesus in the temple, this, however, is what we are considering in our thoughts for today. Why did Jesus do what he did in this ‘table tantrum’?

The origins of ‘turning the tables’ has more to do with peoples’ position at the table, rather than the table itself. The table never moved, those seated at the table did in a manner of speaking. It refers in short, for a change of position as was a custom and practice in some17th century board games. Some dinner party etiquette required that no one be left out of the conversation so each person had to engage in conversation with a different person at some point. We still do this today, we arrange the seating eg boy, girl, boy, girl etc. ‘Tough luck’ if you get landed next to…….

To get some idea of why he did what he did we need to see his actions in context. Throughout Jesus’ life, as we read in the gospels, he often quoted from his ‘bible’ much as we might today. Jesus’ understanding and interpretation of the Jewish writings (The Old Testament) sometimes led to heated exchanges with the Pharisees and teachers of the law. He would in his general conversation with ordinary folk speak about the teachings of the Law and the Prophets and what they meant.

They would discuss and question their meaning and application for everyday living. For example, what you could, and could not do ‘legally’ on the Sabbath, was often a contentious point for debate. Jesus upset many of the religious authorities because of his ‘liberal’ views. He healed and his disciples ‘worked’ on the Sabbath.

At the time of the Passover when the city was crowded with people from all regions, what he saw in the temple provoked his actions and his stern words. Jesus’ words to the money changers were direct quotations from Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The temple in Jerusalem was a large ‘complex’. It had various courts eg the court of women, the court of men, and the court of the gentiles. It may have been in the court of the gentiles that the table-turning scene occurred. It was a hotbed of commerce, profiteering, extortion and certainly not what it should have been. This is what disturbed Jesus. The place of prayer and refuge was being used for dodgy religious enterprise.

When we are eventually able to return to our church buildings they will be ready for us to continue where we left off so to speak. Perhaps though, our return from ‘exile’ will mean that we have to do things differently. What will not be different, however, is our purpose. For many who use our buildings, they are no more than convenient premises for their leisure and/or business activities. For some, the buildings are a centre of community and for us, the church is primarily a place of worship.

In consideration of all who use our buildings, it is a place of welcome and acceptance, a place where the gospel is preached and heard, a place where the rites of passage are performed and celebrated. The church is a worshipping community within a community. In our absence from our church buildings, it is right to contemplate our return and re-emphasise that it is first and foremost a place of worship. The worship of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and all are welcome in his house.

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

ISAIAH 56:7

“These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

JEREMIAH 7:11

Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

MARK 11: 15-18

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

The post Thought for the day – Tuesday 16 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

Last night, early morning, I sat and watched on TV a programme, ‘Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?’ It was a disturbing and revealing documentary about the lifestyle and exploits of a man who befriended, duped and abused many he came in contact with, men, women and young girls. All this over many years, and all with seeming impunity. His apparent ‘above the law status’ caused and still causes many to question how all this could have happened. Many in positions of power have serious questions to answer and will need to answer if justice is to be done. Justice will be done!

Among Mr Epstein’s friends were many famous personages who seem now to be suffering from severe bouts of amnesia even when faced with photographic evidence. The amnesia sufferers have ‘forgotten’ too that they were ‘dealing’ with real people, young vulnerable people, all with feelings and emotions. Amnesia, it appears, can make you think that people are no more than nameless disposable items of no particular value.

Any human being given the means, motive and opportunity are capable of committing just about any crime imaginable. To establish a crime these three ‘elements’ have to be present and in Mr Epstein’s case, they were. My reason for speaking about him today, Epstein that is, has nothing to do with any personal interest I have in him but rather because he, though deceased, is in the news, and will be in the news, for some time to come. The coronavirus has not stopped the pursuit of justice for the ruined and discarded lives of his victims/survivors.

A frequent theme throughout the Old Testament is the treatment of the downtrodden, ie those who are most vulnerable, the homeless, the widow, the orphan and the poor. God looks for his people to consider them and not abuse them. They have a special place in God’s heart, God will not allow them to be overlooked. Today’s reading tells us that.

The ill-treatment of the poor at the hands of the arrogant, ruthless and exploitative rich and powerful do not go unnoticed by the Lord. The proud, selfish and arrogant think that God himself can also be ignored but will soon realise that God will require them to account for their deeds.

Exploitation, slavery, trafficking, ill-treatment of any kind, and injustice are all unacceptable in our society. Sadly, it seems that we have not listened or at least paid heed to the teachings such as we read in our passage today.

In view of what is happening around the world, what can we learn from our passage about the Lord, our world politics, justice, our dealings with and our treatment of one another?

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

PSALM 10

The post Thought for the day – Monday 15 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

A man told his wife one day that he was ‘homesick’, she replied, ‘but this is your home’, ‘yes I know’ he said, ‘I’m sick of it’. Maybe we are all a bit ‘homesick’ just now. We’ve been at this lockdown now for three months and being at home for unusually long stretches is not quite normal for most of us. Understandably we’re a bit ‘sick of it’. We hope it will all end soon. It will!

I’m not prone to travel sickness. I don’t know about seasickness though as I fly more than sail and I’m in no hurry to find out. Seasickness is pretty nasty I’m told. Even the famous Admiral Lord Nelson of Trafalgar fame, believe it or not, was given to feeling a bit queasy at sea. Yes! the great seafaring Admiral was at times, a bit ‘green around the gills’. Life is full of surprising ‘contradictions’.

My understanding of seasickness, travel sickness, car sickness or air sickness is that they are all properly called ‘motion sickness’. Whether the disciples ever suffered or not we shall never know but one thing we do know is that they were in a boat during a storm and they were scared.

The calming of the storm is recorded in each of the synoptic gospels, ie Matthew, Mark and Luke. It was at Jesus’ invitation that they got into the boat in the first place. The water was calm at first and then with sudden fury, there arose a violent storm. The suddenness of such storms was not unusual due to the topography around the lake (sometimes referred to as the Sea of Galilee) and are still frequent occurrences to this day. They come and go.

The calming of the storm is presented and often interpreted as a miracle but as with most miracles they can be ‘troublesome’ to the modern mind. What are we to make of them? I see little point in senseless speculation. If it was as miraculous as we read, then that is good and well but what does it tell us about today as many people perish in storms at sea all over the world.

The word ‘miraculous’ is bandied about without too much thought I would suggest. If a miracle can be explained then it should be explained. We are no less believers in Jesus Christ if we seek explanations than those who see a ‘miracle’ in everything.

People all over the world face each day in all manner of circumstances. There are those for whom life is a constant struggle. Struggling does not always imply financial hardship, though it usually does, but can be a battle against ill health, uncertainty, remorse, guilt and the difficult business of day to day living itself. The sunshine doesn’t brighten up everyone’s life.

Some folk find life easy and pleasant and who would want to deny anyone their happiness but just as life can be plain sailing so too there can arise storms which threaten everything, even life itself. Fear and dread can overwhelm. Whether or not life is plain sailing or whether we are feeling overwhelmed in a storm it is the presence of Jesus Christ that makes all the difference.

None of us is immune to the trials and tribulations of living. The storms of life can arise anywhere at any time and engulf anyone no matter their status. As with the disciples in the boat, they were not saved from a storm they were comforted in a storm and given the assurance that Jesus was in command. Storms might rage around us but the presence and inner peace of the Lord calm our troubled hearts and troubled minds.

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

LUKE 8: 22-25

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement, they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

The post Thought for the day – Sunday 14 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

In the space of a few short months, the focus of our lives has changed quite dramatically and relatively speaking, quite suddenly, in ways we wouldn’t have reasonably thought or imagined. We have moved from speaking about ‘Brexit’, remember that topic? to the new crisis subjects of Covid19 and the ‘Black lives matter’ movement, ignited with the televised, brutal and chilling murder of George Floyd.

Not only do we now have a pandemic but along with it, a global protest movement highlighting the unjust treatment of black people. Until there is justice there will be continuing unrest. ‘Black lives matter,’ they do! All lives matter, black and white.

All issues surrounding ‘justice’ or ‘injustice’ are important. We can all be affected and you may have been adversely affected at some time in your life. Being treated unfairly never feels right because it isn’t right.

I have deliberately avoided mentioning specific people and situations currently in the news, with the exception of Mr Floyd, and avoided particular references to the past. My reason for this is not because I don’t have a view but because I have many views.

Undoubtedly, down through the centuries to the present day people from all walks of life have been concerned with justice and its absence. Zechariah the prophet who lived in and wrote during 520–518 BC delivered his message to the people. His message was that God was ‘more concerned’ with their treatment of the poor, the widow and the homeless than with their insincere personal devotions. God looked for justice not fasting.

Personal piety in itself is not ‘true religion’, what we believe and how we treat one another is, it is both creed and deed. Our love of God is not some abstract notion but is manifest in our love for our fellow human beings of whatever colour or creed. In 1 John: 4, 20 we read, ‘He who says he loves God but hates his brother or sister is a liar’. These are strong words.

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

ZECHARIAH 7

In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

“‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one travelled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”

The post Thought for the day – Saturday 13 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

Have you ever put something valuable in a safe place and then forgotten where the safe place is? Everyone has their own ways, systems and methods of remembering things. Just about every fridge I’ve seen in peoples’ kitchens, including my own, is bedecked with magnets of all shapes and sizes. Magnets, along with ‘post-it’ notes help us with our shopping lists, phone numbers and a multitude of things ‘to do’. We all need little reminders and as time passes the notes get bigger and there’s a lot more of them.

At times we temporarily forget names, car registrations, dates and the all-important passwords and pin numbers that have to be reset from time to time. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever stood at a cash machine and muttered to yourself, ‘what’s that number again?’, and with only one more chance left, you leave without your cash to ‘gather your thoughts’. A simple distraction, lapse in concentration can put you off.

Remembering is made much easier by using rhyme and little ditty’s. We make up our own and can recite effortlessly those learned from childhood. We all know, ‘Remember, remember the fifth of November, and ‘thirty days hath September and so on’…

I don’t know if anyone has ever tied a knot in a hanky or, if they have, whether or not it works. I don’t think ‘hankies’ are used as they once were as tissues are more common and hygienic and not so easy to tie knots in.

Mnemonics too are very useful and effective and I think once we practice using them we rarely forget. In music, remembering the notes on the guitar or piano are used in the early lessons, for example, E, G, B, D, F (All Good Boys Deserve Football) and helps keep us right. Sometimes!!

In many Jewish homes, on the door frames, you will find a little decorative case called a Mezuzah in which is contained passages from the Torah, and tied on the foreheads of some Jews are little box/boxes called tefillin or phylacteries which also contain writings from the Torah. Both the Mezuzah and the phylactery are the reminders that we read about in today’s passage.

The Israelites as they entered and settled in the promised land, and were instructed to remember their times in Egypt, and their wanderings in the desert. They were not only to remember them but also teach the young about their experiences and so pass this on from one generation to the next. The beginnings and continuation of a religious tradition still observed to this day.

Although we are out of sight and distant from one another, we still think and care for each other in our thoughts and prayers. We remember one another and look forward to being together again. ‘Not forgetting’ is perhaps, more ‘passive’ whereas deliberately ‘remembering’ is ‘active’. We do remember one another, we don’t just ‘not forget’

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

DEUTERONOMY 6

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Before our eyes the Lord sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

The post Thought for the day – Friday 12 June appeared first on Broom Parish Church.

Excuse the references to my boyhood years, but today’s passage brought back some memories, especially about climbing trees. I used to climb trees regularly, and when I think back, I don’t think a chimpanzee would attempt what I did. It’s a ‘miracle,’ some might say a ‘pity’, I’m still here.

During those youthful years, not all attributed to climbing trees, however, I’ve managed to be hospitalised with a broken femur, broken tibia and fibula, broken wrist, scars of varying lengths, along with a variety of bumps and scrapes. I was a real hardy boy and sometimes a bad boy as well! but you don’t want to read about my escapades do you? Actually, I think you do, but my ‘confessions’ need to end here, for the time being, It would take too long.

Trees have a fascination for me, I really love them, they are beautiful in their variety and what’s more, we need them. The carbon cycle from my biology lessons comes to mind ie the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, all necessary for our life on earth. One tree, In particular, I saw on a TV programme yesterday was the great Sequoia standing at over 300 metres tall and some trees that still exist today were 3000 years old at the time of Jesus and preceded the building of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Amazing!!

Today’s tree variety is not on the same scale as the Sequoia, however. The tree in our passage is a sycamore of such a size, that a small, tax collector could climb and get back down again easily and safely. The trees I climbed were not sycamores, they were deciduous and pretty tall, that’s about as much as I know from memory.

What happened on that day with the meeting of Jesus and Zacchaeus caused a bit of a stir. Some pious folk thought it a crime and betrayal, as tax collectors were regarded as the lowest of the low. They were collaborators and worked for the national enemy, the Romans. Others, though, weren’t sure what to think at first, and for Zacchaeus? well! it was all very unexpected, exciting and life-changing. Things would never be the same again.

Jesus, throughout his ‘ministry’, befriended many people from all walks of life. Some were important religious officials, some were wealthy, some poor. Some were women, some were men and there were children too.

There were those who lived on the ‘fringes’, those regarded as unclean, collaborators, irreligious and not worthy of recognition. Zacchaeus was one such individual.

We don’t know the details of Jesus and Zacchaeus’ conversation in his own home but things from then on were going to be different. Jesus’ message was one of inclusion, seeking and saving those that everyone had overlooked or deliberately ignored. His message demonstrated the love of God. He came to rescue the lost.

There are probably some folk in society today regarded as misfits, unconventional, different and peculiarly odd, some we might think twice about rubbing shoulders with for good reason, but none are outwith the reach and all-embracing, unconditional love of God. Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous but the unrighteous.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He came to seek and save you and me.

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

LUKE 19: 1-10

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

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For all of us, life, in general, is a mixture of events and experiences. Who we are and what we are is shaped by what we are taught, and by the many influences, we have encountered and still encounter each day. We are not, however, defined by any one single thing as each day we continue to grow and learn. Our moods alter, our feelings are at times unpredictable and we are at the mercy of circumstances outwith our control. We never ultimately ‘arrive’ it seems, at being the ‘complete individual’. Each day brings something new or old to bear in our minds. We look back and forth.

I doubt if there is anyone who could honestly say they have no regrets, and that their life’s path has been smooth and that they have been happy all their days. If you are one such individual you are most fortunate indeed and are a probable rarity in human existence, a unique specimen.

If we make ‘good decisions’ in life, you would think it should be only reasonable to expect good results and outcomes. The problem is, of course, how do we know that our decisions are good ones or not, we only realise this later on if things have turned out as we expected or otherwise. Decision making is not easy, even more, difficult is the execution of what has been decided, the actions to follow.

We need to try and make things work do we not. Sitting back, watching and waiting for things to happen is akin to fatalism. We are not fatalists, we have a say in how ‘things’ will be. What we decide to do or not do affects us and those around us. It is this ‘decision making’ that is the point of my thoughts about today’s passages.

We all need guidance, advice and direction. We learn from those who have gone before us, we learn from history we learn from our mistakes, or do we? Life has many pitfalls and many promising vistas open up before us, the lure and promise of easy adventures are so appealing and enticing that it seems there is no need to heed anyone. We can make up our own minds thank you very much! As some folk say, ‘It’s a no brainer’.

We know our own minds do we not? Young folk of every generation think they know better and that any warnings or advice offered is just interference from oldies who are out of touch. Sometimes they are right and oldies are out of touch but usually not. They have learned and acquired wisdom in the process of living, attending the ‘school of hard knocks’ and acquiring a first-class honours degree in the ‘university of life’.

Wisdom and knowledge are not the same things. If you think about this distinction I trust that you will come to the same conclusion as me. The accumulation of knowledge is not the essence of wisdom. Wisdom is found in paying heed to the wise. Foolishness is not paying heed, knowledge itself will not make you wise.

In today’s readings from the Gospel and from Proverbs both Jesus and, before him, Solomon speak about wisdom and folly. If you read through Proverbs you will find this recurring theme of the house built on wisdom as a solid foundation and its rooms filled with priceless treasures.

Jesus would have been familiar with the teachings of Solomon and those attributed to him. Jesus is thinking about the two builders may have had in mind something that Solomon said. It is not unreasonable to think so.

The house built on the rock stood still, the house built on the sand was a disaster, a case of ‘abandoned engineering’. The lesson is clear. Each day we have to decide on something. In the scale of importance what path lies before you today? What decisions will you have to make and where will they lead? How does what we read in our passages help us?

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

God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

PROVERBS 1: 1-9

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction

PROVERBS 15

MATTHEW 7: 24-27

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