Thoughts for the Day

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Christians have often been considered as "kill-joys" and perhaps some of this can be blamed on the Puritans in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to re-instate stricter practices in the Church of England, feeling it should be more Protestant and less Catholic. I remember exploring all the headless statues of saints in Worcester Cathedral as a minor canon there. The roundheads (ie puritans) had crazily stabled their horses in the cathedral during the civil war and then spent their spare time removing everything that they felt should not be in a place of worship. They had not, however, desecrated the chantry of Prince Arthur, the elder brother of King Henry VIII who through his actions had initiated the Reformation in England!

The Puritan influence on worship and on family life was to be immense - Christmas celebrations disappeared, clothing was plain and unadorned, dancing was abolished etc. There was though an emphasis on individual piety, people were to live a life reflecting their faith. We see in the passage from the letter to the Ephesians that the writer wants Christians to live a life of one expecting the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. Unfortunately outsiders saw this in a different way. The Emperor Julian (361-363 CE) who was the last pagan Emperor before Constantine said Christians were "hollow eyed, pale-cheeked, flat-breasted, and they brooded their lives away, unspurred by ambition. The sun shone and they did not see it, the earth offered them its fullness and they desired it not; they decide to renounce and to suffer that they may come to die.”

As Christians today we don't have to give this impression to others. We don't have to leave our joy at the church door. If we are singing, praising God, and making melody in our hearts each day it will come out in our sense of contentment with life; it will show in our behaviour to others; it will appear in our smile; it will be obvious in our love for life; and of course in our hope for a future with God. Oh yes, and our joy will also show in a glass of wine (or coffee!) with friends!

Lord God,
may we learn to praise You,
and to sing and make melody
in our hearts each day -
expressing our joy in all the ways we can,
and praising You in our hearts.
Do not let us be down-hearted,
but ever keep us hopeful of what lies ahead,
so we may seek to spread Your love
wherever we go.
Amen.