It helps now and then to step
back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond
our efforts, it is 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 can 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.
That 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 beyond our capabilities.
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 God’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.
Bishop Ken Untener
Who died on March 27, 2004
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