"Tight lines" is a blessing fishermen offer each other, a wish for lines taut with the weight of good fish. May God grant that the lines written here be taut with His blessings.
Tuesday, 04 November 2008 | |||
|
A Blonde Joke | |||
|
How do you get a blonde's eyes to twinkle? Shine a
flashlight in her ear. I confess that I enjoy that sort of joke, and I
further confess to the rather ridiculous imagination that Jesus told the
parable of the ten virgins in
Matthew 25:1-13 with a twinkle in His own eye as a kind of first
century blonde joke. The word for "foolish" in verse 2 is moros, from which we get "moron." These five foolish virgins are truly dumb girls. Lest anyone get too upset with me (or Jesus) for chauvinist stereotyping, let me note that there are also five wise women in this story and that the previous parable in Matthew 24:45-51 is about a man who is not only dumb, but vicious. Of course, blondes in Palestine then (as now) were few and far between. So this is not really an amusing stereotype about hair color, but a depiction of a kind of foolish carelessness about the future. Jesus is telling all of us, male and female, that we are fools if we take no thought to preparing for His return and the coming of His kingdom. And we are definitely to be preparing for Jesus' kingdom as well as His return, as can be seen in the familiar formula which introduces the parable in verse 1, "... the kingdom of heaven will be like..." That is, wise Christian living is not only individual preparation to meet Jesus (by accepting Him as Savior, let's say), but also holy living that prepares one to be a fit citizen of God's kingdom. It may be foolish to fail to prepare for future events like a wedding or retirement or economic hard times. As Christians we are even more fools if we fail to consider what we say and do in light of the consequences for living in an eternal kingdom. So there's the blonde who keeps a coat hanger in the back seat in case she locks her keys in the car. . . Let's be better prepared. | |||
|
Profile |
I am the pastor of Valley Covenant Church in Eugene, Oregon. I love to flyfish and hike along the beautiful rivers in our area. I welcome your comments as I share sermon work in progress and occasional other thoughts.
Thank you for visiting this blog. I invite you also to visit my web page.
|
Blog Posts |
Archives |
|
|
SurgeMail - Blog Server Software |
Windows Mail Server Software |
UseNet News Server Software