December 30, 2021 — Luke 17:5-8 – “Up to Snuff” 

“The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink?” Luke 17:5-8 

“Up to snuff:” Chewing tobacco once enjoyed immense popularity but owing to its great expense was only afforded by the upper castes. So the original meaning of the phrase “Up to Snuff” shares similarities with today’s, referring to one’s financial and intellectual status. A man who was considered “up to snuff” possessed the money, smarts and sophistication necessary to fully enjoy and appreciate fine tobacco. Today it has a more mundane meaning — those who are up to snuff are the ones who “have the ability” to do something, or who can “cut the mustard”. Uh oh, another idiom. The modern sense of the idiom “cut the mustard” is “to succeed; to have the ability to do something” — just like someone who is “up to snuff”.  The idea that someone could not “cut the mustard” comes from the long development of the established use of the word “mustard” as a superlative, as in phrases such as “keen as mustard.” In the nineteenth century in America, mustard was used figuratively to mean something that added zest to a situation, and the proper mustard was something that was the genuine article. The move from genuine to excellent is just a short step. O Henry used the word in the sense of something excellent in Cabbages and Kings in 1904: “I’m not headlined in the bills, but I’m the mustard in the salad dressing just the same”. 

Thank goodness the idiom is not “Cut the Mustard Seed” — for since it is such a small seed, it might not mean much. However, as we hear from the lesson of the mustard seed in Luke 17, this was the point that Jesus was making. It will not take much for the kingdom of G-d to take root and sprout — as long as there are people willing to scatter the seed of G-d’s word. Jesus tells various parables about seeds, including the “Wheat and the Tares”, and the farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Jesus is aware that people remember stories when he uses familiar imagery — when he talks in terms that all of the people will understand. They were an agrarian economy and people — farmers, shepherds, workers in the vineyards, and people who toiled the ground to scratch out a living. They knew about seeds, about tilling, about watering, and about harvesting. So when Jesus said it takes only faith the size of a mustard seed, they knew what he meant — and knew it only takes a little faith to be able to “cut the mustard” — so to speak.

Let us pray,

Lord Christ, help me to remember that my faith does not need to be giant like a mountain to “cut the mustard” with you. Even if my faith today is as small as the mustard seed, your spirit will allow me to do great things. Amen.  

Pastor Dave 

December 29, 2021 — John 11: 38-44 – “Skeleton in the Closet”

“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11:38-44 

“Skeleton in the closet:” In the United Kingdom, a person’s shameful secrets are kept “in the cupboard” rather than the closet, though the origins of the near-identical idioms stem from the same exact same source. Journalist William Hendry Stowell first used this expression in his article for the UK monthly periodical “The Eclectic Review”, 1816: 

“Two great sources of distress are the danger of contagion and the apprehension of hereditary diseases. The dread of being the cause of misery to posterity has prevailed over men to conceal the skeleton in the closet…” 

However, it is more generally believed that the idiom derives from past medical practice when doctors weren’t allowed to perform autopsies on dead bodies until an Act of Parliament permitting them to do so was passed in 1832. So they would hide dead bodies in closets so they could medicine at learn more about the body and diseases by doing autopsies at night.

When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, there was a good chance he would have “stunk up the place” — but he would not have been reduced to a skeleton as of yet. But just like the valley of the dry bones from Ezekiel chapter 37, both are brought to life through the breath of G-d — through the very Spirit of life — which comes through Ezekiel and through Jesus Christ. It is this very spirit you and I can tap in to every day for our very life, our very strength, and our promised salvation. When we feel as if we are as good as dead spiritually, the Holy Spirit can lift us up and fill us with new life.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, when we sin we feel as if we have skeletons in our closet. Help us to remember that your death and resurrection takes away the sting of sin and death, and gives us new life. Amen.

Pastor Dave