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Spring of Life -
H.
Roger Bothwell
More Than Words
Today I shared my favorite of Jesus' parables with my students. The
reaction was, "Oh hum." I was literally filled with pain as I saw the lack of
response to Matthew 20 where Jesus tells us about the man who paid all his
workers the same no matter how long they had worked. I love that parable.
It tells us so much about God. It speaks of His grace, His liberality, His
unselfishness and His desire to give each of us of His love without any
prejudice. Yet I could not seem to light up my "Christian" students to the
deep wonders of this story.
Surely the defect was with me, the messenger. Or could it be we have
developed an insatiable appetite for new stories and new material? If we
have heard something before do we not bother to apply any intellectual
muscle assuming we already know about this item? At first I thought it was
just undergrads so in the evening I tried it again with my graduate students
and got pretty much the same detached stare.
It had to be me. A story filled with such grandeur could surely not fall on
ears so calloused to the Gospel that it no longer stimulates. Merely telling
people that Jesus loves them doesn't seem to do it. We need to show them.
We need to be filled with God's power because the projection of our power
just doesn't hack it. Jesus tells us to let our light shine. Obviously it requires
more than words.
I'm
Roger Bothwell and my address is roger.bothwell@verizon.net
or 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453. Thank you for your
support of our faith ministry.
Past
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