[Propertalk] November 14

[Ann Fontaine]

  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 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 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.

-attributed to Oscar Romero 1917-1980

from http://edgeofenclosure.org/proper28c.html



The Rev. Ann Fontaine
Lander, Wyoming