Tag: parable

THE PRESSURE’S OFF

george gaffgaLeave a comment

Early on in my faith life, I was pretty intense about getting people ‘saved’ so they would go to heaven when they died. When I would meet people my first thought was, ‘I wonder if he or she is a Christian?’ Were they ‘saved’? Had they accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior?

That’s a lot of responsibility and pressure. I had heard along my journey that I was to make people believers, as Jesus instructed in the great commission in Matthew 28. Actually, Jesus said ‘make disciples’ – a big difference. Jesus wants us to discover those who have responded to the love of God and help them to hear and do what Jesus instructed, as he states in Matthew 7.

So now I am learning to love people and find ways to let them know God loves them. At times I say ‘I will pray for you’. That’s good news for many people. And when I feel a bit bolder I will pray on the spot for them.

I am reading the parable of the sower and the seeds, which is found in Matthew 13. The sower could be either Jesus or God, but notice how the sower goes about his work. He scatters seed (God’s word) all over the place. Willy nilly, you might say. What’s with that? Why not put the seed only in good soil? Any wise farmer would do that. This farmer is sowing with abandon.

While writing this I am also reading a book about parables by Dallas Willard. Willard always has wisdom regarding life in Jesus. He reminded me that the Good News is about living right here and now with God, not getting into heaven. The good news is about God’s love, sin forgiveness, and character transformation. 

So I am learning not to exert my views on others but rather to love them, to scatter the seed with abandon. God’s word WILL grow. That word of love has power within it like the seed.

So let’s find all kinds of places to sow God’s love. Lay it and leave it. Let God do what God does best, grow God’s word into life. 

The pressure’s off. And besides, it’s not a pressure God placed on us. As we receive God’s love we naturally share it with others. But that’s another parable.

UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES

george gaffgaLeave a comment

I’ve worked for several farmers during my growing up years on Eastern Long Island, moving irrigation pipes in the mud, picking cucumbers and strawberries. I stood on potato combines for hours sorting the good spuds from the bad. The worse job I had was hoeing the weeds around brussels sprouts. I was overjoyed at the end of the day when the boss’ truck pulled up to pick up us laborers.

My younger brother sometimes worked with me and we would often compare our pay. Believe me. If I found that my brother made more than me I would have been furious.

One day I began work at 6 a.m. Hard work it was. At 4:30 that afternoon the boss comes to me and says, ‘Hey, think your brother could work from 5 to 6 this afternoon. ‘Sure’, I replied and thought to myself, why the heck you want him at five? We’re done by six. Anyway, my brother comes and works till the boss’s truck shows up and he calls us over for our wages. I get $12. Yeah, farm work, when I was a kid didn’t pay all that much, but it was a job. And my brother comes over to the boss’ truck and, say what? He also gets $12!!

I’m stunned. So are some of the others and quite rightly. But there it was. I saw it with my own eyes. A ten dollar bill and two ones in my brother’s hand. My shock turned to a righteous indignation or self-righteous indignation.

The boss notices my red face and says, ‘George, you have a problem?’ Ah, but he knew and before I responded the boss said, ‘George, it’s my money and I am a gracious guy. Don’t worry. It all works out.’

I was going to report him but I got paid off the books. So my brother and I walked away. He was smiling and I was perplexed. Grace can do that.

 

For the Biblical parable of this story read Matthew 20:1-16.