please tell me, what is the use of a clean coal basket? is it not to be used for coal again?
the basket is now clean, so you shall read the bible, have a belief of understanding, but tomorrow it shall be dirty again, like all baskets.
the earth used to be flat…. now it is round
the earth used to be created… now it has evolved.

ah . . . the power of story~
god is so very much more than story; but the eternal logos being resident in the triune almighty one, story is intrinsic to his nature, his very character.
thanks, scot, for another great story that shimmers, beckons and draws us in.
i’m convinced that the continual “washing with the water of the word” accomplishes splendid things and helps re-shape the order of our thinking so that together we can indeed have the mind of christ.
i think a clean coal basket is a lovely thing, truthaboutgod.
a clean anything is almost always better.
but it is a metaphor and should not be taken mechanistically.
my body will need a shower again tomorrow.
shall i not give it one?
shalom, all~

Far from being “clean,” I’d have expected the endeavor to make the basket soggy and useless for it’s intended purpose.
Changed from inside out, yes, but not in a good way….

Scott, That story is so good. Thanks to you, after having made private reading of the liturgy and all the scriptures they contain, it has literally changed my life. Thank you for this profound truth.

whew! i thought this was going to be about why christians have to reduce their carbon footprint…off to my SUV.

I like to read my kids this passage from the good book:
Deuteronomy 21:18-22
A Rebellious Son
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.

Thank goodness the grandfather didn’t come up with an spiffy little three-point sermonette on why we need to read the Bible!

That example just makes it seem too magical to me. If you don’t understand or retain it it ain’t gonna do anything.

Becky
That you find too magical, but a talking snake, a man living inside a whale, and creating the universe in 6 days you have no problem with??

In Kind:
Father O’Connor was walking through town one Monday. Suddenly, he noticed Mrs. O’Leary hanging out her laundry on the clothes line to dry.
Father tipped his hat to greet her as he passed by. Immediately, Mrs. O’Leary told Father O’Connor what a lovely homily he gave that Sunday at church.
Father O’Connor stopped to ask what it was that touched her heart. Mrs. O’Leary again told Father O’Connor that the message was like listening to the voice of the angels.
Father O’Connor pressed her once again for a specific point that moved her to such appreciation. Once again Mrs. O’Leary lauded praise on Father O’Connor for his beautiful message.
Father O’Connor then stopped and asked Mrs. O’Leary if there was anything specific that she remembered. Mrs. O’Leary responded by asking Father O’Connor to look at the clothes on the line and said, “Father the clothing you see there, you can’t observe the soap that was on the clothes earlier as I washed them but the cleaner they are for having been in the water with the soap and so is my soul”

Wow! A story yields a spectrum of responses. I wonder if Jesus parables brought out as much sarcasim. My thought as I read. Where’s the Spirit in this story?

I agree with John M. about this story yielding a spectrum of responses. I’ll add my own…I appreciate this story because I’ve been struggling with reading the Word on a consistent basis due to the fact that I often feel like I’m going through the motions and there’s no transformation taking place. (Maybe sometimes I’m not yielding to the Holy Spirit to transform my heart, but I’m talking about even when I believe I am yielding but don’t recognize the transformation.) I can relate to the little boy in the story about being so caught up in this reading-is-it-doing-anything-in-my-heart concept that I fail to see how much God really has “cleaned up” my heart over the years. It’s a marathon, not a sprint…

I thought the punch line was going to be that the basket was now wet, not that it was clean.

Every story and parable has weaknesses. Push any parable too far and it becomes absurd.
But this story struck me. The boy thought he was fetching water in a basket (to be fair that’s what his Grandfrather told him to do). In fact, he was cleaning the basket. Sometimes–especially in religious circles–we do things expecting an impossible result because we don’t understand what we are doing.

Good story, good teaching Scot, even if the story’s not historical!
Doug