A Parable about a Pastor's Lot

Here ye, here ye... those in ordained ministry... an item submitted by the Rev. Sue Doohan, Pennsylvania parish priest (associated with www.Hearthstoneministries.net), as a parable of some pastoral interactions...... have you had similar experiences? Thanks, Sue, for your contribution!

A PARABLE ABOUT A PASTOR'S LOT

There once was a family who hired a cook.
"We want to eat pancakes," they said to the cook.
‘Oh, I know how to make them, I know what I’ll need.
If you’ll show me the kitchen, I’ll just take a look’
Said the cook.

The family just pointed, so off went the cook
To hunt through the cupboards and search through the pans
and come back to say, ‘I must cook your pancakes, I’m not sure I can.
I have a recipe …the milk and the oil and the flour I found.
But I can’t find the eggs!’

"We don’t have any eggs," said the family.

‘Oh,’ said the cook, ‘that’s not such a problem. Just go to the store
and then you can have them.’?

"The store’s too far and eggs too expensive," said the family.
"We just want our pancakes."

‘Well,’ said the cook, ‘how about your neighbors? They seem quite nice.
Go ask for some eggs, you won’t have to ask twice.’

"We don’t know our neighbors, they don’t seem like us;" said the family.
"We just want our pancakes, what’s all the fuss?"

‘Then go get some chickens,’ said the cook, ‘any kind will do. Just feed them some corn and they’ll lay eggs for you.’

"Chickens have feathers and besides that they smell," said the family.
"WE DON’T WANT CHICKENS, WE JUST WANT OUR PANCAKES!"

So, the cook searched the kitchen, both high and low.
There’s no nook or cranny the cook didn’t go.
Off in the corner, way back from the light,
the cook found a box that said: Pancakes. All right!

Inside looked like flour, the box said ‘complete’.
You just added water all nice and neat.
It didn’t need milk and it didn’t need oil, and it didn’t need eggs!

Quick as a flash cook threw it together
to bring to the family on Grandma’s old platter.
They looked just like pancakes, all round, brown, and flat
and covered with syrup (the family liked it like that.)

"These don’t taste like Grandma’s!" the family exclaimed;
"they’re not the best pancakes. The cook is to blame!"

So, up to the attic went Cook in a flurry
to find Grandma’s recipe, in kind of a hurry.
When cook came back down the family was waiting,
they wanted some pancakes they’d give an "A" rating.

‘I have Grandma’s recipe!!’ Cook said with a smile.
‘I can make you good pancakes, but it might take a while.
I can make them like Grandma. I know what I’ll need.
Here’s Grandma’s recipe, just let me read:
it takes milk and some oil and some flour and eggs.’

"We don’t have any eggs," said the family.

Cook looked at the platter still there on the table:
‘These ones from the box that
said they’re complete,
these are the ones you’ll just have to eat.
They'll just have to do,’ said Cook.

"They’ll just have to do," said the family as they started to eat, and they gave her a look.
(But somebody whispered,
"We need a new Cook!")