Every time we put a dab of mustard on our ham (those of us who are carnivorous, that is) we join the vast number of diners who appreciate its flavour. And it is a vast number. Pungent as ever, mustard made its first recorded appearance on the table in the days of Chaucer. The Romans had probably experimented with it but once here it came to stay.
Alongside the word ‘mustard’ the word ‘keen’ prospered. Eventually it gained a new lease of life. It became a favoured word among schoolboys as they came away from their Crusader classes. That lease ran out when another word replaced it. The new word was ‘activist’.
‘Keen’ entered the religious vocabulary as an antidote for ‘ritual, formal’ religion, or so it seemed. But the words went their separate ways. Keen, as might be expected, accrued sharpness in the sense of what makes a knife useful. Then it came to denote cleverness. In the religious vocabulary It was not that a keen person was witty or quick out of the starting-blocks. It was more a tribute to his her taking the Christian faith seriously.
The word ‘activist’ has acquired a secular cachet. It is used to denote somebody who political or other campaigning is a positive response to an unsatisfactory state of affairs. An activist may intervene in the organising of transport or the boycotting of particular goods.
From the plant and its cultivation came the expression ‘cut the mustard’. This is what we say of somebody who is proficient in his job. He or she can come up to requirements.
He kingdom of God is likened to a mustard seed in the Gospels. It is small, insignificant but it grows. Like salt it has become a familiar part of English vocabulary. Pepper is just as familiar but makes no appearance in the Scriptures.
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AT KINGSTON HILL
Adam Rylett leads a strong ministry team at St Paul’s church, Kingston Hill, Surrey. It includes a children’s pastor, a community pastor and an operations manager.
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