I usually begin my sermons with a joke. If nothing else it means people might be awake at the start of the sermon!

This Sunday morning I had a joke ready but felt as we were going through the service that I should not start with a joke. So I didn’t.

This is the postponed joke. It should be stressed that this is an entirely fictional story!

A reporter met with the millionaire entrepreneur Deborah Meaden from Dragon’s Den. In the interview he asked her what her leadership philosophy was. She says that it was to surround herself with intelligent people. The man asked how she knew if they were intelligent.

“I ask them the right questions,” said Deborah Meaden. “Allow me to demonstrate.”

She phoned her secretary and asked, “Gill, please answer this question: Your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or sister. Who is it?
There was a pause and the secretary replied, “It’s me, Mrs Meaden.”

“Correct. Thank you and goodbye,” said Deborah Meaden. She turned to the reporter, “Did you get that?”

“Yes,” said the reporter. “Thank you.” When he got back to the newspaper he decided to try out the test.

He called the Editor and said, “I wonder if you can answer a question for me.” The editor agreed.

“Your mother has a child, and your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or sister. Who is it?”

The editor was silent and finally asked, “Can I think about it and get The editor immediately called the rest of the staff together, and they puzzled over the question for several hours, but nobody had an answer.

Finally, in desperation, the editor called the Archbishop of Canterbury and explained his problem. “Your mother has a child, And your father has a child, and this child is not your brother or sister. Who is it?”

The Archbishop of Canterbury answered immediately, “It’s me, of course.”

Much relieved, the editor rushed back to call the reporter and exclaims. “I know the answer! I know who it is! It’s The Archbishop of Canterbury!! The reporter replied in disgust, “Wrong, it’s Deborah Meaden’s secretary.”

Be blessed, be a blessing.

And before pedants get hold of me, it is possible that the meeting was for just one procrastinator. Or you can get a life and stop worrying about rogue apostrophe’s.

The apostrophe in ‘apostrophe’s’ was deliberately put there to increase the ‘aaaargh’ for pedant’s.

Oops, done it again.

Hehehehehe