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Prophets of a Future Not Our Own
I must confess, I struggled this month to write this article. I wanted to write something that would be an encouragement to everyone as we continue to work through a process of transforming our ministry. The truth is, every one of us would like things to move faster. We would like to already be in our own building, to have a large Sunday School and youth group. We would like for there to be so many people in worship that we would be forced to start a second service to accommodate everyone. These are the dreams we all hold so dear; the vision to which God has called us.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), it is not entirely up to us to accomplish these things. Our call is to be faithful, to proclaim God's Word, to share in the Holy Eucharist, to work for justice, and carry the Story of God into the community. The rest is up to God.
As I thought more about what I would like to say, I realized that what I wanted to say had already been said much more eloquently by the late Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated at the altar for speaking the Gospel:
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberationin realizing that. This enables us to do something,and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.
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