One of the features of British television that our teenaged children enjoyed discovering on family visits is the alternative panel show. Characterized by wit, rude humour, and outright sarcasm, they are a guilty pleasure. One such show, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, opens with a round called “Indecipherable Lyrics.” A popular song is played and the audience instantly realizes how distorted and incomprehensible the lyrics are. The panelists are charged with filling in the guttural sounds with actual words, and encouraged to sing their inventions along with the original.

(I wanted to link to a clip here, but they’re all a bit rude, and I don’t want to offend.)

There is a human tendency to make patterns and meaning out of rhythm and rhyme, whether we understand what’s going on or not. Whether we have really worked it out or not. Whether we have truly listened, made a discerning effort at filtering fact from fiction, or not. Whether we believe the evidence of our own ears, guts, and hearts, or not.

I don’t know whether it was the news, or the fake news, or Twitter, or the grizzlies that got me thinking of that show. It happens with biblical interpretation all the time, any preacher knows. Or perhaps it’s just me. But if the shoo shoo be doo fits …