大象传媒

After I qualified as a minister I worked in supermarkets for a few years while taking services in churches with no minister.听听Curiously, at one point I was working in a shop across the road from the very church that I had been preaching in for ages. Now, someone was caught shoplifting and as is often the case there were tears and apologies and the woman kept telling us she鈥檇 never done anything like this before鈥�that she was a good person, she even added, 鈥淚鈥檓 a good Christian, I鈥檓 a good church member.鈥澨�听听鈥淥h鈥︹�� said I, 鈥渁nd what church would that be?鈥澨�听鈥淭hat one across the road, just ask the minister鈥︹�澨�听

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鈥淢issus鈥�.I AM the minister.鈥� Now, it wasn鈥檛 technically correct, but it was too good a line to miss.听听And it鈥檚 something I always try to keep in mind 鈥� you just don鈥檛 know who you鈥檙e talking to.听听I was chatting away to a gardener on a country estate once and after a long while I discovered he was actually the Earl who owned the place.听听But I guess most of us know in our hearts that it鈥檚 not a good thing to make instant judgements about people, in fact, it鈥檚 probably not all that clever to make lengthy judgements either!听听And in my Christian tradition there鈥檚 a simple rule of thumb in dealing with people, all people 鈥� but especially those that we might be tempted to look down on: Jesus told us, think of them and deal with them as if they were me.听听

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Boy, does that change the way I should be treating folk, or thinking about them 鈥� or, more to the point, - the way I think about myself.听听I鈥檓 not Mr. Superior, Mr. I鈥檓-a-better-person-than-you, any more. And this isn鈥檛 just some wee fanciful idea.听听If I believe that God made us all, that we are听all听part of God鈥檚 family, then of course I should be looking to see God in all other people.听听So I do try to treat everyone as if they were Jesus 鈥� and you never know, one day they might be and they might turn some water into wine for me!