BAKE SALE
By Wes Seeliger
"Bake sale" said the sign over the door. Joe's mouth watered.
He could imagine all the treats inside. He opened the door and walked in. Joe couldn't believe his eyes.
As far as he could see in the building there were rows of tables with signs over each table to describe its specialty. Cakes, Cookies, Muffins, pies, tarts.
Except ... there were no cakes, cookies, muffins, pies or tarts.
You see, this was a "recipe" bake sale.
Someone grabbed Joe's arm. "Coconut macaroons. Get the original!"
"Not so. Our recipe is older than theirs," another table shouted.
"Devil 's food cake. Accept no substitutes," a shifty hustler whispered in his ear.
"Angel food cake! Just like grandmother made."
"Who's grandmother?"
A lady began to shove him toward a table of fruit tarts while another yanked on his arm to try a roll.
Yelling arose from every table as red-faced salesmen hawked their recipes.
Confusion ruled and brawls broke out between tables.
Joe had taken all he could. He tore himself away and ran outside as fast as he could.
As he breathed in the fresh air and walked away, he said, "That was no place for a hungry man."
Adapted by Gayle Erwin
To me, this is exactly what I think Christianity is like today. Everybody has the "recipe" for a true relationship with God, but nobody has the real thing.
How did you take this parable?
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2 comments:
Methods, principles, rules, recipes, formulas, steps, etc, etc. No substance. I think I took this in the same way you did.
Reminds me of Colossians 2:17 (and surrounding context), which talks about Old Covenant food laws, festivals, sabbaths, etc, which are only a shadow, not the reality. The substance is a Person --- Jesus. It goes on to say that we died to the do's and don'ts ("the principles of the world"), which "have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh."
We don't live in the shadow, we live in the substance (the "real thing") - the Person of Jesus Christ Himself. The shadow only pointed to the substance, but had no life at all. The life is only found in Him.
Great parable and very true. Everyone fighting over their recipe of what this life in Christ is supposed to be like but no one is really experiencing it.
What makes it even worse is that no one seems to have noticed.
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