Discovery Class

Egg Scramble Strudel

Beth Vorhees brought Egg Scramble Strudel for refreshments and the recipe was very popular, so it follows:

Makes 2 strudels Total time:  45 minutes

1 box of pastry dough (1.1 lb)mn (e.g., Pepperidge Farm, bought frozen)

1 Tablespoon (T) unsalted butter

1 cup frozen cubed hash brown potatoes

1 cup red or green bell peppers, sedded, diced

1/2 cup onion, diced

1 cup smoked ham, diced

11 eggs

2 T minced fresh chives

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 T orange juice

1 egg

1 T water

2 T parmesan cheese, shredded

 

preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Thaw pastry according to package directions about 30 minutes.  Melt butter in a large, non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add potatoes and saute 5 minutes.  Stir in bell pepper and onion; saute 3 minutes, then add ham.  Whisk eggs and chives together.  Add them to the pan and scramble just until set.  Season with salt and pepper; turn off heat, stir in cream cheese and juice until blended.  refrigerate eggs while rolling pastry.  Unfold a pastry sheet on a work surface that has been lightly dusted with flour 9there are 2 in the box).  Roll pastry to 12 x 10 inches then transfer to a piece of parchment cut to fit a baking sheet.  Trim pastry, fill with half the egg mixture, and braid as follows:  The pastry is rolled then left uncut down the middle 1/3.  The sides are cut in about 1/2 inch slices at a 45 degree angle and the top half an inch is folded over the egg mixture, then each of the strips (about 1.5-2 cm or 1/2 inch in width) is folded over in braid fashion one side then the other.   Repeat with remaining pastry and egg filling.  Transfer parchment and strudels to baking sheets.  Combine the remaining egg and water.  brush over the top of strudels and sprinkle with cheese.  At this point, strudels may be wrapped in plastic and chilled overnight.  Bake strudels for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.  let cool 5 minutes before slicing. 

 

Humor in the Bible

Beth Vorhees kicked off the Fall Program by teaching our first two weeks on the subject of humor in the Bible.  Check out the pictures of our first class meeting!  You are invited to join The Discovery Class for the second of a two-week discussion about Humor in the Bible.    We are using the book, Serve Him With Mirth by Leslie B. Flynn.  Considered the definitive work on the subject, Serve Him With Mirth was published in 1960.  The message of the book is remarkably undated.

In Chapter 7 Flynn writes:  "Jesus used humor.  Since humor is integrally wrapped up with human nature, He who knew what was in man could not fail to employ it.  Because wit and wisdom are closely allied, He who was all truth
would be capable of wit.  In as much as a principal factor in humor is the ridiculous or absurd, wit served as an excellent vehicle to expose the inconsistencies of religious hypocrites.  Since humor sometimes spotlights truth, the Master Pedagogue would naturally use it."
The Discovery Class meets at 9:45 in the Recreation Room of the Activities Building.  Plenty of delicious coffee and breakfast refreshments will be served.  Please come and enjoy a few good laughs!

Humor in the Bible - Class Notes from week one (Sunday, September 14):

I didn’t know that Eat, Drink, and Be Merry was from the Bible.  (Luke 12:19) Of course it was a foolish man who said it but I always or Shakespeare or something.

That the saying...never let your left hand know what your right hand is doing....is from the Bible.  Sounded like something Benjamin Franklin would have said...now I know where Franklin got it.  (Matthew 19:24)

That the term “busybodies” is from the Bible...In Second Thessalonians Chapter 3, verse Eleven: “We hear that some among you are idle.  They are not busy; they are busybodies” Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.”

So I always have wondered why that woman came up to me and said “You know there’s not suppose to be any laughter at church.?  Why did she say it to me?  Because Joy is considered a satanic instrument, and melancholy a divine characteristic.

Humor deals with the secular, the Bible delves into the sacred.  Humor borders the sinful; the Bible breathes holiness.

Yes, there is laughing and joking in the Bible...certainly there was such things during Biblical times.  Remember that Christ was mocked and laughed at on his way to the cross.

The last laugh....victory over death.

Puritans didn’t gaze at flowers since they were of this world and liable to detract from heavenly matters.  Puritan sternness came from their rejection of the riotous mirth and bawdy frolics of the Elizabethan era.

And the folks at St. Paul’s Methodist were New England Puritans.  I’m not sure they are anymore.  My cousin is the pastor there now and they have a electrified Praise Band so things must have changed a lot from my day. 

The thesis of Serve Him With Mirth is that humor need not be sneaked into the back door of the Christian life to be surreptitiously enjoyed like forbidden fruit, but rather humor has a legitimate, lofty and integral place in Christian experience.  God does wish us to enjoy humor for six Reasons:

God has created man to enjoy humor.

Man is the only creature that can laugh and we were made in God’s image.

God appreciates humor.  He created it and enjoys it.  The Bible ascribes laughter to God.  He laughs at those that plot strategy against an all powerful God (Psalm2:1-4)

God has given man an environment with a touch of the comical.

Who fails to be amused by the skyscraper neck of the giraffe? Or the vacuum cleaner mouth of the anteater, or the built in baby buggy of the kangaroo.  Who doesn’t laugh at the amusing antics of the monkeys? The squeaky phrases of a parrot?  Humor forms part of divine perfection.  These things that make us laugh were created by God. Abraham Lincoln said “God must have meant us to laugh.  Else He would not have made so many mules, parrots, monkeys and human beings (Proverbs 6:6- 8) The ant is utilized as an example because it utilizes its energy and resources economically.

While God ‘s book contains many examples of humor, Flynn says: “It should always be kept in mind that the Bible is first and foremost a serious book.  Its solemn truths should not be tampered with.  God’s revelation has been so set down in the Bible that its acceptance results in eternal life, but its rejection ends in eternal tragedy.”  Divinely inspired the Bible is about human nature. If humor is part and parcel of human nature, humorous incidents should crop up from time to time.

Wit, satire, irony, retort, ridicule, raillery, drollery, play on words.  These and other forms of the ludicrous are employed by prophets, apostles, our Lord Himself as a means to rebuke and expose error and wrong and vindicate truth and right.

God’s Son used humor during his earthly ministry.

Since he lived on earth as man, humor had to have been interwoven.  Son of Man as well as Son of God, Jesus Christ used humor.

God has given humor a place in redeemed human nature by virtue of its close relationship to joy praise and peace.  It’s Related to Joy:

(Genesis 21) Isaac means laughter or He laughs.

Those who connect gloom with godliness misrepresent the Christian faith.  The New Testament begins with a joyful story, the birth of Christ.  Jesus commanded his followers to be cheerful despite impending tribulation.

It’s Related to Praise: (Psalm 47:1) JOY = LAUGHTER???

Godly laughter is a gift of God and God giveth and taketh away.  (Jeremiah 25:10)

(God’s mad, and takes away the “sounds” of joy and gladness.  (SOUNDS=LAUGHTER)

GOD LAUGHS!  (Psalms 2:4) What kind of laugh is it???  A menacing laugh?  A belly laugh? A snicker, a knowing laugh, A shake-your-head-I-can’t-believe-you-just-did-that-laugh?

Flynn writes: God laughs.  Those who are on His side can laugh with God.  Praise and godly laughter are first cousins. 

Godly humor springs from the peace of God.  Laughing can be a spiritual as singing or crying! 

Laughter comes with the sudden incoming of gladness over obstacles overcome. 

Flynn says: “Why should we suppose that tears are pious and laughs perverse?  On the contrary, tears seem more closely allied to sin than laughs, for someday God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.  But nowhere does the Bible say God will wipe away our laughs.”

Humor is Merry Medicine (Proverbs 17:22) (Proverbs 15: 13, 15)

Humor refreshes: According to research conducted by the Yale School of Medicine, a well-balanced personality usually has a well-developed sense of humor.  The maladjusted person is likely to miss the amusing in jokes, cartoons and situations.  A sense of humor can be used in a Spirit-led life. The Christian faith permits its followers to face tasks with smiling eyes, laughing hearts and genuine joy.  A former pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in New York City sprinkled his sermons with ample humor. “There is a method to my mirth,” he explained.  “By telling a story with humor, people’s mouths open wide with laughter.  While they are open I pour down big doses of truth..”

Humor reflects truth: Humor is a teaching device, clarifying, illustrating, objectifying.  The Master Teacher used it to throw in sharper and clearer focus the truths he was teaching.

Humor can relax: (I would say if its done well - if it’s not nothing can be more stressful)

PRAYER

GIVE ME THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER, OH, I PRAY,

THOUGH TEARS SHOULD HOVER NEAR;

GIVE ME THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER FOR EACH DAY -

LAUGHTER TO CAST OUT FEAR

WITH HOPE TO GREET THE COMING OF EACH DAWN,

AND FAITH THAT NEVER DIES;

GIVE ME THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER, OH, I PRAY -

LAUGHTER INSTEAD OF SIGHS

Author Unknown

What kind of humor NOT to have: (Ephesians 5:3,4) 

(But here joking is mentioned so God certainly knew than man would joke...he just wanted to make sure it was pure and clean) Immoral jokes abuse God’s gift of humor.

So do jokes that mock and injure.  No laughing at handicaps (Leviticus 19:14)

No teasing. (2 Kings 2, 23-25) No laughing a other’s misfortunes (Obadiah 12)

Joking is mentioned in (Proverbs 26: 18-19)

Joking is mentioned in (Genesis 19:14)

Don’t use too much humor or you won’t be taken seriously: (Ecclesiastes 7:4 -6)

The Bible contains Samson’s riddle: “Out of the eater cam forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”  (Judges 14: 12 - 19) The answer is honey out of the lion.  (Question- is this funny”?)

In Serve Him with Mirth, Flynn does go into great detail about what passages he finds humorous.  He finds puns in names but it’s really tedious and you have to know the Bible’s original language to really get what he thinks are jokes.  And no doubt they are, but I didn’t look all of them up.

Getting back to the term busybodies:  I found First Timothy Chapter Five verse 9 - 15.

There is an article making it’s way around the Internet that is advice for men who hire women for office work in the late 1940's and into the 50's.  And the message is: hire older women, they’re more settled.  Younger women tend to want to touch up their hair and lipstick.  They’ll look for husbands in the office and leave to marry them.

Nagging wives are referred to: (Proverbs 21:19) (Sounds like something Franklin would say)

Again on nagging wives: (Proverbs 27: 15-16) (Is it funny)

Minding your own business: (Proverbs 26:17) Seizing the ears of a dog is a good way to get bitten and interfering in arguments is a good way to get hurt.

Flynn finds something amusing about (James 3: 3-11).  Isn’t he saying....I can’t believe you kiss your mother with that mouth?

Flynn points out a humorous note in the birth of Esau and Jacob.  (Genesis 25: 24 - 26)

Esau means hairy and Jacob means he grasps at the heel or he deceives.  Play on words?

Flynn writes that the play on words is evident throughout the Bible.  One he cites is (Matthew 4:19) (Luke 5: 1-11) Instead of fishing for fish fishing for men.  It put His call in terms the men would understand.  That’s clever.  Flynn writes: “A fisherman catches live fish which then die, whereas a soul winner captures men who are dead in sin, but who come alive spiritually.” (Fish die when you catch them - men come alive when you catch them)

Another example of this play on words (Matthew   8:21-22) Again, he puts His call to follow Him in terms they understand, yet there is a play on words there.  He infers that many people are walking around spiritually dead, who at times may even assist in the burial of the physically dead. 

I really like the story after that “Jesus Calms the Storm (Matthew 8: 23-27) Read is solemnly, then read it like comedian.  It’s funny!

 I also like (Matthew 15: 10-20) solemnly, then funny.

INCONGRUITY

the quality of disagreeing; being unsuitable and inappropriate

lack of agreement, harmony, or conformity

The linking together of two incompatible items into a single unit, forcing an awareness of the difference between the two items. ...

(Acts 12: 13, 14) When Peter just released from prison hurried to the home where the church was praying is it not humorous that Rhoda, the servant, learning who was at the door left him standing outside while she rushed in with the news?

(Second Peter 217 - :22) Flynn says “A lady cleaned up her pig with warm water and soap suds, She gave him a good scrubbing.  Then putting a blue ribbon around his neck, she led her pig to the city.  White skin, blue ribbon, pink nose - what a lovely pig he was.  All went well until the pig spied a puddle of mud.  Then he was off, wallowing in the mire.

God uses unlikely almost laughable means to do his will.  Who doesn’t love a talking animal  Eddie Murphy as the donkey in Shrek always makes me laugh.  Read (Numbers 22:28).

So now that I’ve found out a little more about humor in the Bible, I wonder what I should have said when that woman came to me and said “You know, there’s not suppose to be any laughter at church?” 

Prayers about Laughter

We thank you God -- for life and love and laughter. We thank you for fun and food and feeling happy. We praise you god for caring and kindness. And most of all we thank you for Jesus who makes all things whole. Amen".

Lord, we thank you for the gift of joy -- the gift that comes from knowing you and knowing that your purpose and will for us can never be thwarted - the joy that comes from knowing that you are in charge - and that by hook or crook - your will will be done. We thank you Father that in your wisdom you have appointed a time in our lives for laughter -- and that laughter and a merry heart are means by which you bring healing and wholeness to that which would be otherwise dried up and without beauty or vitality . Indeed, O Lord, we praise you for giving Abraham and Sarah laughter in their old age -- and for ever since sending unto us those like Isaac who warm our hearts by their presence.  Thank you Lord for granting to us a sense of the ridiculous and the ability to appreciate it when it comes to pass. Dear God,  Bring joy and hope, laughter and wholeness, rejoicing and healing, today,  These things we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

There is humor at First presby!  The Wednesday Work Crew arrived with funny noses, much to the delight of the preschool!