Sunday, May 26, 2002
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Sunday, May 26, 2002 |
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By sharing life's lessons we tend the sheep By MARY JANE HOLT A reader copied the following from a friend's church newsletter and e-mailed it to me with a note that she thought you might enjoy it: "A churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. 'I've gone for 30 years now,' he wrote, 'and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all. Signed: Missing the Message.' "This started a real controversy in the Letters to the Editor column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: 'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals for me. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: At the time, they all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work every day. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment every week, I would be spiritually dead today.'" I did enjoy the e-mail and the many layers of truth contained therein. It set me to thinking about a lot of things, among which are several scripture passages I thought I'd mention today. First, I recalled from Proverbs, chapter 25: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver." Then I remembered an exchange between Peter and Jesus as recorded in in John, chapter 21: "Jesus said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of John, do you love me?' Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, 'Do you love me?' And he said to Him, 'Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Tend my sheep.'" Then I considered the story of Joseph in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Recall with me how Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, how he was taken to Egypt, falsely accused and imprisoned, and how he eventually found himself in a place of honor and service under the pharoh. In that position, after many years of tribulation which were a direct result of his brothers' actions, Joseph then found himself in a position to feed his brothers in time of famine. So where am I going with all this? Could it be that everything which happens to us, whether we consider it just or unjust, works together to better equip us for meeting the needs of our fellow man? In other words, all things work together to make us better able to tend or feed the sheep to which Jesus referred. Certainly, regular worship and an ongoing study of God's Word can and does help us to grow spiritually stonger and wiser. But don't think for a minute that God limits the ways in which He teaches us, or expects us to share what we have learned with others. No setting and no experience is beyond the teaching hand of God. We cannot escape the lessons He would have us learn. And as we learn, we would do well to share what we have learned with others at the proper time. I say at the proper time because there is that issue of throwing pearls before swine, as noted in the passage found in the seventh chapter of Matthew. This of course follows a warning from Jesus not to judge, lest we be judged. Now I figure what Jesus was saying to us was this: Be real careful about judging your fellow man because what goes around comes around; and if you do feel like you should offer advice to another fellow earth traveler, be aware that if he or she is not receptive, it could be like throwing precious jewels out for dirty animals to stomp all over them. And then I go back once more to the fact that a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Yep, that e-mail got me to jumping all around. Perhaps you think by now that I have no real point to make today. Maybe I don't. Maybe I just want you to join me in thinking about what has been said and done to you over the years, and what you say and do to others... and the timing of such. Timing makes a difference, you know.
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