Headed to Knoxville!
Tomorrow I drop Luke off in South Bend. He'll have a great time...a nice big yard, a kiddie pool, and two doting grandparents catering to his every whim. Even his other grandparents are coming to visit while he's in South Bend! He'll be in good hands.
As I closed up shop today in the CHIC office, I stumbled across a prayer in one of the handouts a NPU professor is using in his seminar on social justice next week. It's seems appropriate as we make the final preparations for CHIC and quite frankly I feel like it's Christmas Eve and my presents aren't wrapped. Even so, I am reminded daily that every aspect of CHIC is fully immersed in prayer by hard working laborers who love this generation.
Closing Prayer and Benediction
As I closed up shop today in the CHIC office, I stumbled across a prayer in one of the handouts a NPU professor is using in his seminar on social justice next week. It's seems appropriate as we make the final preparations for CHIC and quite frankly I feel like it's Christmas Eve and my presents aren't wrapped. Even so, I am reminded daily that every aspect of CHIC is fully immersed in prayer by hard working laborers who love this generation.
Closing Prayer and Benediction
Archbishop Oscar Romero
It helps now and then, to step back and take the 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 another 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 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 effects far beyond our capability.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in 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.
P.S. The onsite chic website will be here starting Sunday, July 16.
It helps now and then, to step back and take the 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 another 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 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 effects far beyond our capability.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in 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.
P.S. The onsite chic website will be here starting Sunday, July 16.
posted by Kirsten @ 10:54 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Thanks, Kirsten, for publishing those words of Archbishop Romero. The lectionary reading from the Gospel following the Covenant Annual Meeting was the seeds story that Jesus told. These are encouraging words to all. We will try to plant the right seeds with Luke while he is with us. See you later. Love, Dad
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