Thought for the day – Wednesday 3 June

Thought for the day - Wednesday 3 June
by
June 03, 2020
in Minister's Daily Message
No Comments
1061
Dear All
A couple of centuries ago on a country highway if a masked man appeared in front of your coach holding a musket and shouted threateningly: ”stand and deliver” you’d have been scared out of your purse. Nowadays things are so different. We phone in and order a takeaway and what happens? A guy with a mask appears, he stands and delivers and we pay up. No threat, no problem.
Can you believe it? People nowadays are even frightened of cash. Should any of you need assistance to get rid of ‘contaminated’ cash, you have my phone number and other contact details. I operate a 24-hour service for such disposals at no charge.
It’s early in the morning and I’ve just looked in the mirror and I’m in a jovial mood. Can’t think why that is, but a laugh is a laugh. Anyway, this brings me to the bible and the subject of fun and humour. I’m not aware of any chapters and verses that describe anyone, anywhere, at any time having what we might call, a good ‘belly laugh’. Why is this? I hope you will consider this with me today as we explore together and try to find an answer.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, his parents were Mary and Joseph. He was taken to the synagogue at eight days old and circumcised according to Jewish custom. He was brought up observing all the Jewish rites, feasts and ceremonies and was found with the scholars around the age of twelve.
Jesus ate, drank, walked, talked and worked. He celebrated with guests at weddings and attended ‘dinner parties’. He was, at times, thirsty, hungry and tired. He knew what it was to be angry and he argued with religious leaders. He knew the emotional strain of rejection, betrayal and disappointment. Jesus wept. He endured physical pain and humanly speaking must have experienced the full range of human emotions, but where is laughter? I’m going to try and help you find it this morning.
Try, if you can, and ‘remove’ laughter from your life for a single day. Even as you read this it all seems such an ‘unnatural’ thing to attempt. What I mean is this, we don’t get up in the morning and decide to practice our dour Presbyterian solemnity. We don’t plan our daily emotions, we encounter various situations and circumstances and depending on what these are we act and react to them. In short we ‘experience’.
We are for example, all familiar with irony, satire, simile, metaphor, alliteration, assonance, in writing and in speech and without these literary and oral devices our communication with one another would be very dull indeed. We also know what ridicule is, and the uglier side of laughter but it’s not this kind of ‘laughter’ I’m thinking of.
With the various textual translations and cultural nuances and differences, it is probable that we don’t fully understand our biblical texts. If we exclude laughter and mirth we get a distorted picture of Jesus. I think at times we don’t quite ‘get it’. If you’ve got to explain a joke, it’s no joke.
Today I have included various texts from ‘around’ the bible. It will help I think if we purposely remember that Jesus knew nothing of the New Testament and that he was Jewish being fully aware of the teachings of the law and the prophets. Remember too the ‘missing years’ and the scholarly work of theologians in textual criticism and hermeneutics. I think you will find that humour and laughter are there, it’s just that we fail to see it.
Today I ask you to think/meditate on these things.
God bless you!
Jim
jimboag1@gmail.com

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

07864 040660

BIBLE REFERENCES

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)
Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. (Psalm 47:1)
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. (Psalm 42:5)

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. (Psalm 2:4)

Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. (Proverbs 5:15)

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15)

Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. (Jeremiah 31:13)

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. (Psalm 96:12)

So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Afterward the woman’s father said, “Please stay tonight and enjoy yourself.” (Judges 19:6)

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music. (Psalm 98:4)

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7: 3-5)

So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. (Luke 15:15)

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ (Luke 7:34)

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)
share

Recommended Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *