“It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow.”

1 Corinthians 3:7

I am in the midst of finally doing my interim training online right now.  This morning we were introduced to the Prayer of Oscar Romero.  We don’t know if he actually wrote this prayer, but we know that he prayed this prayer. In interim ministry, we pastors are called to help water the seeds that have already been planted.  We don’t come in to be the gardener, but to come alongside and help to tend to the garden.  My friends, I love tending the history of seeds that Parkview has planted over the years and I look forward to planting a couple more seeds with you. It is a pleasure and honor to come alongside you.  And now this prayer…

A Prayer of Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even 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 a 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 the 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 far 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 the Lord’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 that is not our own. Amen.