Basin Theology
The story is told of a young person, who, seeing all the suffering in the world, complains bitterly to God: “Even I could make a better world than this one.” God’s answer? “That is what you are supposed to be doing.”
Today, if you are wondering what you are supposed to be doing the answer is clear. If you belong to Jesus Christ in any way at all, you are supposed to become His minister. It is not a matter of clergy and laity. It is a matter of all of us being in the ministry of Christ our Lord who tells us that He came "not to be served but to serve."
Henry Ward Beecher once said,
Religion means work; it means hard work; it means work in a dirty world. The world has to be cleansed by somebody, and you are not really called of God unless you are prepared to scour and scrub. So put on your overalls and get to work!
Jesus never shied away from the nitty gritty work of ministry -- curing lepers, dining with "tax collectors and sinners," feeding the hungry, healing the sick -- touching the lives of the blind and the crippled, the lonely and depressed. And so we understand Jesus as "The Man For Others" in this sense. What we don't seem to understand is that when People came to Him to be His disciples, Jesus immediately began to shape them to be His ministers. They would come to follow Him for any number of reasons. He would feed them. He would heal them, spiritually and physically. But almost immediately, He would send them out: two-by-two; first the twelve; then the seventy; then others. Anyone who came to be a part of what He was doing had to understand that he or she had to be a full time minister.
"Consecrate them in the truth; Your Word is truth," Jesus prays to the Father in today's Gospel Lesson (Jn. 17:17). "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate Myself that they [...]
Stories you can use...
We've got a million of them (well, almost).
Growth
There’s a trick to the “Graceful Exit.” It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over — and to let go. It means leaving what is over without denying its validity or its past importance in our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving on, rather than out. The trick of retiring well may be the trick of living well. It’s hard to recognize that life isn’t a holding action, but a process. It’s hard to learn that we don’t leave the best parts of ourselves behind. We own what we learned back there. The experiences and the growth are grafted onto our lives. And when we exit, we can take ourselves along — quite gracefully.
Parenting
There is no substitute for good parents! They have been particularly fitted by God to draw out and channel into a useful direction the bit of greatness which God has implanted in every child He sends into the world. When parents fail their children in this respect, their young lives remain aimless, incomplete and stunted. Juvenile delinquency, more often than not, is the result of the child being unloved and unwanted. Parents who magnify what is good in their sons and daughters automatically restrain and diminish any tendencies toward evil. God intended that the home should be the greatest school of all — that young people should receive from their parents above all others the inspiration, training, direction, and sense of purpose which they must have in order to lead useful lives. Fathers and mothers have been delegated by God Himself to help their sons and daughters discover the bit of greatness within them and start to put it to work. When parents neglect to unlock the power hidden in young people and to direct it into constructive channels, their children often lead purposeless, incomplete and sometimes destructive lives. Seldom do they find outside of the home the encouragement and guidance needed to start them on their way to a great and noble goal in life. In an attempt to help parents, here are twelve suggestions: ...Give them a sense of security and purpose! ...Make them feel wanted and needed! ...Make the family circle a source of inspiration! ...Show them how to apply their convictions! ...Inspire them to promote a holy reverence for sex! ...Prepare them to be homemakers! ...Teach them to give as well as take! ...Develop their facility to transmit ideas! ...Bring out the best and automatically curb the worst! ...Stress their responsibility to the whole of life! These are but a few suggestions to help children fulfill the mission in life which God has assigned them. Yes, the good home can be a powerful factor in the shaping of the future. As God’s training school, it can spark an endless stream of young people to go forth as modern apostles to renew and freshen the face of the earth. ”Christopher News Notes” (adapted).
Preaching
A certain, highly-gifted preacher often spiced his sermons with humor drawn from his collection of well-intentioned responses to his preaching over the years. For example, he told of the woman who came up to him and said, “Your sermons are marvelous; each one is better than the next.” Another admirer said to him, “You are always good, but this sermon was superfluous.” To which he replied, with tongue in cheek, “Thank you. I hope to have it published posthumously.” “That’s wonderful,” said the straight-faced admirer, “I hope it will be soon.”
Wedding
At a small-town Church the newly appointed Pastor discovered a full-length mirror on the closet door in his office. For his first wedding service, he allowed the bride to use his office as her dressing room. To protect her privacy, he posted a sign on the door which read: DO NOT ENTER BRIDE UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
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