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Tuesday 11 August 2009

'The Haddock and the Lash of Guilt': lectionary leanings for Sunday

No. more. bread. Will be forgetting John entirely this week and concentrating on Solomon, Proverbs and Ephesians...
Am going to go down the wisdom trail - I just need to find it first!!
But I've a great book called 'The Wee Book of Calvin' with various marvellously couthy Scottish proverbs, which I'm thinking of starting the sermon with... such as:

Self pity never boiled a haddock.

Or, a little more darkly:
Let the laddie play with the knife. He’ll learn;

Hang a thief when he’s young and he’ll not steal when he’s old;

The devil finds work for idle hands…;

You’re fair away wi yerself the noo, but believe me, ye’ll pay for it;

What’s for you won’t go past you;

Or some wisdom sayings from nature:
No rainbow without rain;

The bonniest flower oft wilts the quickest;

Fair hair may hide dark roots;

For every summer morning, a winter night to come;

And the cheering thoughts that:
Two can keep a secret if one of them’s deid;

Life’s a sair fecht;

Black. White. No need for anythng in between;

No whip cuts so deep as the lash of guilt;

Swim in sin and drown in sorrow;

Just a gleam, a flicker, the tick of a clock. Then darkness.

Think my favourite is currently tied between the haddock and the lash of guilt... oooh...actually, wot a great name for a novel!!

cross-posted to revgals

2 comments:

Wanderer said...

Humourous for some, and sadly for others, I know several of these well. Good, Church-going, Fife parents that I have are obviously strongly influenced by Calvin and have said some of these to my siblings and I as we grew up. Of course Fifers are also known for their love of saying it as it is - no frills or coated candy words. Here's the truth get on with it. Maybe that's wise.

Good luck with the sermon.

AnneDroid said...

Some great sayings here, and, as you say, some quite dark ones. They do reflect the Scottish psyche quite well I think.

My fair hair doesn't hide dark roots. It's not even doing a good job of hiding the grey roots any more!