Spoonerisms
Rev.
William Spooner was real person, warden
of New College, Oxford, who was made famous by his natural talent at switching
parts of words around to make an understandable but nonsensical statement. He
was apocryphally quoted as toasting
Queen Victoria with the expression, “Three cheers for our queer old dean”
instead of “dear old queen”. Other examples included "Is it kisstomary to cuss the bride?" (customary to kiss) "The
Lord is a shoving leopard." (a loving shepherd) "A blushing
crow." (crushing blow) "A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled
bicycle) "You were fighting a liar in the quadrangle." (lighting a
fire) "Is the bean dizzy?" (Dean busy).
As you can see, a real Spoonerism can be quite
amusing, even if uttered with totally innocent intent. So it was, one day, that
I heard someone accidently refer to ‘signs and wonders’, as ‘wines and sunders’.
Now my mind, working the way it does, immediately picked up on this as one of
those accidental truisms. Almost an out of the mouths of babes and children
type of saying – except that the speaker was middle aged. What I heard was “whines
and sunders” – notice the meaning changing ‘h’ in there.
No, seriously, my mind immediately said, “How
appropriate – the exact opposite of signs and wonders is whines and sunders”
because it our whining that pushes the Holy Spirit asunder when He is trying to
move among us. This came as a particular confirmation to me as we have been
discussing what happens in our meetings largely depends on our praise and
worship. When we praise Him with the attitude of same old same old, then He is
grieved and doesn’t manifest at all – perhaps other than those really getting
into the worship with all their hearts. At such times we wonder why nothing
seems to move.
However, when we all, or most at least, enter into
praise and worship with expectant faith held high, then we can expect God to
move by His Spirit and the signs and wonders will flow. Yet too often we whine
and push Him asunder – we rip the meeting in two and, because there is doubt and
disunity, nothing can happen.
So
instead of “fighting the liar” let us be lighting the fire of Holy Spirits
presence.
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