Religio Parable


There once was a man who had two sons whom he raised in a small church in a small town.

Thanks to the efforts of the congregation members, Sunday school teachers, Youth leaders, and pastors, both developed a deep faith, studying scripture and debating various interpretations and topics. Often there was agreement, sometimes there was not. And when there was not, the debate would always end the same, with one or the other saying that one day when they see God face to face they will find out for sure who is right.

As time went by and their faith deepened, both responded to the Divine invitation and gave their lives to ministry as their vocation. Both ended up leading small congregations in small towns. Both devoted time to the scriptures and sharing their faith as they best understood it. And while they were quite similar and agreed on many things, they were also quite different in many ways.

Thanks to the leadership of the two, the churches became quite different as well. After careful, diligent exploration of scripture, the history of the faith, and the various ideals held by the faith's adherents over its millennia of existence, one church came to to a conviction in their beliefs and yet were convinced that they had too many beliefs and opinions about too many things to be correct about every single one. The other came to a point where they became convinced that out of all the people who had ever lived, they and they alone had discovered the right interpretation on every passage, topic, and issue ever debated. With great fervor they worked to spread their beliefs, hoping that more people would be convinced of the truth that eluded the rest of humanity.

What neither church knew was that the end of time was closer than they realized, and these two children of God would get to find out who was right.

To the great surprise of the first and no surprise at all to the second, both were right. Indeed the first, who believed too many things to have them all right, did have some things wrong, and the second, who was convinced they alone held absolute truth on every matter, had in fact developed the correct position on every topic. The Divine had indeed personally confirmed it. Yet, to the surprise of the second, rather than pride or joy in this confirmation, what he experienced was great sadness.

As they looked among themselves and saw the company of heaven, the realization began to set in that while the second had indeed gotten everything right, he had been worried and upset about many things, many ideas and opinions. And while the first had gotten things wrong, he had actually gotten right the one thing that mattered.

And the second wept over the life of ministry that all too often accomplished the opposite of its true purpose.