SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

the-pirates-of-penzance-movie-poster-1983-1020209631The plot and humor of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance hinge on three misunderstandings. The first is the difference between a man’s 21st year and his 21st birthday -  for the main character, Frederick, was born on February 29th, and is indentured to Pirates until his 21st birthday (which will be the year he turns 84). The other two misunderstandings turn on the way a very posh British accent makes the word pairs pirate/pilot, and orphan/often homonyms. The biggest laughs are produced by the claim of the aged Modern Major General that he is an orphan.

            The Pirates are about to carry away his bevy of daughters, and he knows that the pirates are sworn to do no violence to any orphan. So he claims to be an orphan. Of course he is – a man of his advanced years probably has no surviving parents. Ha Ha. Later, the pirates find out he is not truly an orphan, and never was and come back for his daughters.  He finds out the pirates are all peers of the realm, so he freely gives them - and they all live happily ever after under the watchful eye of Queen Victoria.

            It is all great slap-stick, great satire, and great opera. But I don’t think it quite as funny as I used to. The Modern Major General calls himself an orphan, and he technically is in that his parents are likely deceased, and we are supposed to laugh at that. But I am certain that is exactly how it feels to loose one’s parents - no matter how old one is.  One must often feel exactly like an orphan.

            Several here have lost parents this year. I am blessed that my mother is well and due for a visit in a few weeks, and my mother-in-law is well and here and a daily a part of our lives. But my father has been gone more than 10 years. After his passing, and the passing of my father-in-law a few years later I remember feeling acutely alone and on my own – the two alpha-male grown-ups ahead of me were gone. That felt like being orphaned, abandoned.  I imagine, and some of you can confirm, that at any age, when one’s parents are gone, one feels exactly like an orphan - often.

            And so this line from Jesus is particularly sweet:

            I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you (John 14.18).

            When John remembered and recorded these words he was himself advanced in years – perhaps the lone survivor of those disciples who were eyewitnesses of Jesus. And yet he does not despair that he has been left alone. He knows the promise of Jesus is true.  When Jesus went to the Father to prepare our place He did not leave us alone. The Spirit came immediately (as promised: John 14.26, Acts 2.1ff), and in a real sense Jesus never left. John has every confidence that his intimate relationship with Jesus is one he can continue, and that he can share with others so that everyone’s joy will be full (I John 1.1-4).

            Let us believe it too.  Let us remember that our separations are temporary, but that the grand reunion will be eternal (I Thessalonians 4.13-18). Let us remember that physical death need not sever any relationship in the meantime. And let us never forget that only Jesus makes any of this possible.

NewManassas Side

8110 Signal Hill Road | Manassas, Virginia

Let us know about your interest in Studying the Bible

Members Login

Bible Study

biblestudysd

Top
                                                                       © 2013 Manassas Church of Christ