Skip to main content

An Allegory

Once upon a time there was a knight and his lady, who lived contently for many years in a southern kingdom. As they aged however, their manor became too big for them and so they decided to relocate in a northern kingdom where smaller quarters were available. They left their friends of many years with a sad good-bye and set off for new adventures. They settled quite happily in their new abode, and joined in all the activities and merry-making until one day, they had to drop out of some of the activities because of their declining years.  No one came to ask them why they were no longer taking part. Instead the rest of the folk in that kingdom ignored them and it became very lonely for the knight and his lady

The king suggested that they might be happier is a neighbouring kingdom and so they moved a short distance and set up house one more time.  This time though things went well for many years.  Then the king died. The heir apparent had many different ideas about what made a kingdom a good place to live and so the knight and his lady became very unhappy again and started visiting nearby kingdom. Once again no one approached them to ask what could be done to help, or to offer some support through the time of transition. So sadly, they packed up one more time and prepared to move once again. This time though they took a little more care, and visited several times before making the final commitment to go.

Some amazing things happened. They were welcomed and treated like royalty, being invited to other manors for dinners, being taken places in coaches, and even being invited on excursions to other kingdoms. And so they lived there happily ever after.

This tale reminds me of the parable of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10: 25-37]. It is only at the end of the fable that the knight and his lady are finally treated by others as those people would like to be treated themselves. To paraphrase Marcus Borg, “Stories don’t have to be literally true, to be really true.” And in that sense, this story is very true.

I believe that in the small, everyday events of life we are continually challenged to live by the ‘Golden Rule’ – and continually fall short.  We are not necessarily called to literally save a life as the ‘Good Samaritan’ did, but we find ourselves challenged in the countless interactions we have with other people. The result of these interactions may not be as readily apparent to us, but by them, we may well have impacted the life of another in a very real and lasting way. Whose life have you impacted today?


Comments

  1. terry dranitsarisDecember 7, 2013 at 3:35 PM

    this is a great tale told over and over again in many fairy tales, Once upon a time. I like to think that all stories end happily ever after, but like you said this is not always the case. The Lord opened a door for me to impact the life of a man who is a recovering alcoholic, he and I met over a year ago very briefly while he sat upon a concrete stoop and we chatted for a few minutes and we introduced ourselves to one another, I told him a little about myself . He was waiting for a ride to pick him to take him to work, I knew in my heart he was a man of little means. He gently asked me if I could buy him a cup of coffee and I said of course and he was very thankful. Then I didn't see him for almost a year. Again it was at the same spot where I came upon him several months ago and we chatted and re introduced ourselves, something told me he had no eaten so I said to him would you like to be my guest and join me for lunch in the diner and he said I would love to thank you so much. I didn't know at that moment how hungry he was or how little he had as we engaged in conversation I began to see his life was dismal but he had hope inside of him, he was a overcoming his addiction by attending AA meeting. He continually thanked me for his lunch to which I said it is my privilege but one thank you is fine..and he smiled and he ate his lunch and was so happy. We spoke about Jesus and God and our parish as the AA meeting are at our Parish, we talked for nearly three hours,. I asked him if he would like to come to church one Sunday with me and meet Father Gordon and Rev. Pam and perhaps find a way to further help him in his recovery. He was so delighted and said yes yes I would love to, well for the past five or six weeks he hasn't missed a single Sunday. I thank God that I was led to find my new friend and also that our Lord is helping him. He came to visit me while I was ill and brought me a card he had made himself. He drew a lovely picture and put lovely words on it. He had no more pencil crayons and so I thought to myself I will surprise him with a new bo\ of pencil crayons and a sketch book, so when he came over the other day to help me with some re arranging of my storage room i gave him the gift he was so excited about it he couldn't believe it. We are both blessed in this story as his heart is humble mild meek and he is loving and wants to serve our Lord, he is very intelligent but because of all the years of drinking it was buried and now he enjoys speaking and he knows a great deal of history and the bible. I am so delighted that I didn't by pass talking to him that day. I know in my heart God Spirit directed me to him. He will be joining me and my sister and my brother in law and my son for Christmas. Nothing makes me more happier than this that there is more happiness in giving than in receiving and that doing unto to others is the best rule Christ gave to us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lynn EdwardDecember 7, 2013 at 3:50 PM

    Thank you for sharing your story with us, Terry.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Greatest Gift

“What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.” ~from ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti Many of us will be singing, or have sung, these words at some time over this Christmas season. The first verse of the carol, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ begins with words that echo many Christmases here in Canada: ‘In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,’ and so we usually find it included in at least one of the services held at this time of year.  For me it has always fit in with the sentimentality of a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service. Yes, we can all give our heart to this young babe - after all who doesn’t find babies hard to resist~ The songs of angels singing in the heavens, a bright star in the dark winter sky, potentates arriving from a...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Candle is Peace....

“ A candle is burning, a candle of PEACE,   A candle to signal that conflict must cease   For Jesus is coming to show us the way   A message of peace humbly laid in the hay” ~words by Sandra Dean What conflict does our society see as needing to cease? Many see a conflict within their family, where peace can be brought about by expelling/silencing someone who is the cause of the conflict, who is unwilling to go along with the family’s expectations or who is unable to abide by them through mental illness or addiction. Peace to them means quiet because no one dares to challenge the status quo. “All I want under my tree Peace and love and harmony Wrap it with a ribbon please I'll share it with my family." ~Chorus from ‘With my Family’ by Rita MacNeil, 1993 Peace for the country happens when the powers that be are in charge, making decisions that are followed unquestioningly by the proletariat   - no riots, no strikes, no protests there. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

"On Giving Thanks"

Thanksgiving Is usually one of those ‘easy’ times for me.   It is easy to be thankful living with abundance, in safety, with family and friends – so many things to give thanks for, so many blessings undeserved. Some years and for some people, it is not so. What would Thanksgiving mean to me then? How would I deal with it? I came across this prayer not long ago ~           For that which was           For that which is           For that which will be          Thanks be to God And I began to wonder ~ Is the real meaning behind Thanksgiving not so much the ability to be thankful for those things we have in abundance? After all, that is easy.  But rather to be thankful for everything we have been given or experienced in life, or are now experiencing: the highs and the lows, the mountain-top experiences and the valleys of death, the deserts and the abundant har...
4 comments
Read more

"Nudgement"

As we progress through the season of Lent, we are urged by the lectionary aa well as by the words spoken from the front of the churches to consider how we live and what we do with our lives. Many of us take up a new spiritual practise perhaps denying ourselves something we enjoy or adding something to our daily routine that we think will benefit our spiritual growth in the long run.  What we can seen to be doing is in fact judging our lives and then trying to make them  better by doing ‘A’, ‘B’, or ‘C’. Quite a while ago I received a note from one of the readers of this blog and it has stayed with me over the time since it landed in my inbox. ‘I just coined the term "nudgement" for myself this morning.  I was thinking of how EFM interprets "judgement" as something that surprises you or that you weren't expecting, which is a gentler notion of "judgement" than some of us grew up with, something that is enough out of the ordinary to urge us ou...
2 comments
Read more

The Reason for This Season?

Each year I have had a theme in mind for my blogs during Advent season, sometimes even having them written in advance.. This year however the well seems to have run dry. Advent is that season of the church calendar when we are called upon to prepare ourselves for the Christmas celebration that speaks of the entry of Jesus into history, and into our lives. As I sit here at the computer I find myself thinking of what I am doing this year, this week in particular, that will prepare me this participate fully in the Christmas event.  How can I become more cognizant, more immersed, in what is called commercially, ‘the reason for the season’ ? This is what I hope to explore over the next few weeks and I would invite you to join me in that exploration. As the Advent begins I find myself getting out the Christmas decorations, thinking about writing the annual family Christmas letter, setting up playlists of Christmas music on my phone, filling Christmas festivities on my cale...
Post a Comment
Read more

"The Usual Suspects" - The Shepherds

Just who were these shepherds that Luke has in his version of the Christmas Story? Why pick them? What was their role to be? ‘ In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,  ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,  and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has ta...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Theology of Food

Theology is defined as ‘the study of religious faith, practice, and experience; especially:  the study of God and of God's relation to the world’ [Mirriam-Webster online dictionary] A preacher began his sermon with the statement ‘There is no theology of food.’ which alone of all he had to say made me sit up and take notice.  Not only take notice, but to begin to consider just why it sounded wrong to me and what exactly was my understanding of the connection between food and theology… because I felt very strongly that there was one! For the better part of two years I was part of a Meditation group that followed their weekly time of meditation by sharing a light meal provided by the various members of the group. Over that food, experiences were shared from our everyday life, ideas were voiced, and connections were made, all of which echoed our various understandings of just what it meant to try and live as a Christian in today’s world. This was theology, t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Passage of Time

This year has taken forever and at the same time has gone in the blink of an eye. I wonder if you feel the same way...   Last March the prospect of a month’s lockdown seemed to be forever. Had we realized then that 10 months later we would be looking forward to another 10-12 months of COVID before the vaccines have reached everyone and we can begin to relax our precautions just a little, it would have felt like forever! Time, however like religion , is a human construct, at least according to Christopher Hitchens. I remember seeing a television show where Hitchens explained how time doesn’t really exist. It is something that humans used to explain the disconnect between for example sunrise and sunset, or when you start on a walk and when you got to your destination. We have quantified that disconnect and used clocks and calendars to keep track of it. His point was that there is really only this moment right now, and what we are doing during it is really all that is. Sounds sort of ...
1 comment
Read more

Sameness

“What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities. And in order to do this, we must allow each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.” ~ Audre Lorde It was the last sentence of this quote by Audre Lorde, an American writer and civil rights activist, that caught my attention. I knew what our differences were! But I started thinking and wondering about just what our sameness might be…. As members of the human family we all have the same need for food, for water, for shelter from the elements. But the food, the water, the shelter can vary depending on where we are and the conditions there.  Here in Canada we need shelter from both the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat. In the tropics, the winter’s cold isn’t so much of a problem. So our housing needs are very different.  The diets of people differ depending on what is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Resurrection

“And if the message of Easter is about [new life], then for us to fast from gathering for worship is our following the path of new life, new life for those who we might hurt by gathering together and new life for us by learning to live — not for self alone, but for others and for God – that's resurrection.” - Presiding Bishop Michael Curry I am writing this just days before the Christian Church traditionally celebrates Easter. With the rest of you I have found my life consumed by the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. We have all been called on to take responsibility not only for our own wellbeing and that of our family, but also for the well-being of everyone else in our communities. I have been struck over the last number of weeks of the number of Biblical stories I see being played out every day around us.. The Israelites hoarding the manna in the desert  only to find it spoiled the next day are replaced with bare shelves in our grocery stores because certain things are ...
Post a Comment
Read more