There was once a superintendent hiring a teacher
for the technical college in her jurisdiction.
A very experienced and well known plumber applied for the job.
Of course the first question
the interviewer, the superintendent, had to ask was,
“Why? Why are you who are a well-known,
well established and self-employed plumber want to teach?”
He smiled and said,
“You know I would like to teach the children
the art of plumbing so that they would know and appreciate it.”
Then he smiled, paused and said,
“I must confess that I also am doing it for a more selfish reason.
I am doing it for myself.”
He went on to explain as the superintendent inquired.
“You have to understand, I am a very good plumber.
I do excellent, perfect work and I am very proud of that.
The struggle I have is that when I finish my work,
other workers come in and fill in the wall and
then others plaster over it and paint over that.
No one ever gets to see my beautiful work.”
He said, “I would much rather if they put all my work
behind a glass panel to show off my beautiful plumbing work.”
He smiled and said
“You see it is my hope that the students
in the technical college could see my beautiful work
and appreciate what it means to do good work.”
He got the job and went on to be a renowned teacher;
and a much-loved teacher at that technical college.[i]
All of us are given the keys to unlock and inspire;
to unlock goodness and beauty;
to unlock kindness and gentleness from others.
But they have to see our good work.
Often times it requires of us to be deliberate;
to help them; to inspire them if you would;
to unlock their inspiration inside of themselves.
All of us no matter how young or old
have somebody that we can inspire;
somebody who could look at what we do and take note.
For example, with our children,
it is very easy for us to be sharp and to be mean spirited.
To a young person who is making errors,
it is very easy to be hard on them; to be harsh.
It is much harder to be gentle and kind;
and to be forgiving; to lead them; inspire them.
We know fine well that gentleness,
kindness and forgiveness will be inspirational.
It will unlock inside of them a kindness,
a gentleness to do and to be that for others.
Yet if truth be told, that sounds so simple
but it is actually very hard to do.
Can you imagine if all of us who are watching now,
if every one of us chose to be gentle and kind;
to be forgiving; to make room for others.
If every one of us in this community here at St. Simon’s and beyond
who are watching this chose to be like that,
I think our world would be a different place.
We would unlock goodness and kindness
and beauty all around us.
People would ask the question,
much like the way Jesus did,
“Who would people say that we are?”
People would want to know where we are going
where our strength is
if we were all consistently doing that.
If the truth be known, if we could do that,
we would change our world.
But also, if the truth be known,
we are not going to be able to do that of our own sort of strength.
That is why we come to the table.
That is why we go to Jesus;
it is because we know fine well
that it is so, so hard.
We need to experience for ourselves that kindness first;
that goodness;
that beauty;
that forgiveness.
The keys to the kingdom of heaven
that were given to St. Peter to unlock it for others,
were given to a man who would later be broken and wounded.
Peter did not understand that at the time he was given them
and neither do we fully understand.
However, Peter came to understand
that he, himself, who was a broken and wounded man
was called to heal and forgive others who were broken and wounded.
We hear the story later on in Matthew’s gospel
where he turns away from God.
He turns away from Christ and
betrays the very keys that he has been given.
Then Jesus comes to him and forgives him three times
as a reminder of the betrayal of three times.
It was a call to forgive 77 times 7.
Peter’s gift of leadership is a gift of inspiration.
He learned through his own weakness,
his own brokenness that the Lord will forgive him
and so then he calls for and inspires forgiveness.
And that is what the Church is built on.
It is built on forgiveness, kindness, goodness and beauty.
That is the faith on which Jesus builds our Church.
It is the faith you and I share.
It is incumbent then on all of us, each one of us,
to accept that forgiveness of us;
to accept that kindness from Jesus to us;
to accept that gentleness.
A call to be good and beautiful.
Then we are called to go forth and to be kind and gentle with others;
to be good and beautiful and forgiving to others.
Like that plumber, our work will necessarily not be seen
but it will be experienced by others
and we will attract others to follow Christ.
But let’s be honest, most of our work will never be truly seen;
like the plumber our work as a disciple will be hidden
but we will know we have done good and beautiful,
kind and forgiving work.
That is the work of discipleship.
Hidden but beautiful work of the Lord
[i] “Connections” (Mediaworks, Londonderry, NH: August, 2020)
