A Messy Calling

Roger Johnson, a pastor from a bit up the road, saw the parson’s car at his church so he stopped on his journey to greet his old friend. Exiting his car Roger found the second door he tried unlocked. Stepping inside he called out for the parson. There was no answer. Calling again, he got the same response. Roger began to explore the building.

In one of the Sunday school rooms Roger found the parson. Still the parson had not answered the repeated calls. The parson could not hear for the noise of the vacuum cleaner he was directing back and forth over the floor of the carpet. Roger noticed the chairs stacked on the Sunday school table. Roger debated yelling out again or tapping the parson on the shoulder. He decided to wait the noise out.

Soon the parson switched off the machine and began to take the chairs down from the table. “Morning, parson,” said Roger.

The parson turned quickly to see his friend standing in the hallway. “Morning Roger, what brings you visiting at little country churches?”



“I was on my way to First Church and saw your car. I had a little time so I stopped to say hello.”



“Well, hello to you, too,” said the parson. “Come on into the study. We’ll have a cup of coffee.”



The parson began to coil the vacuum cleaner cord around the handle of the machine. Then he rolled it down the hallway and into the custodian’s closet.

“Is this your study?” asked Roger.



“My study. What do you mean?”



“Well, you’re pushing the vacuum cleaner. I thought maybe they had changed your job description.”



“Oh, that. Well, some of the teenagers had a meeting in here last night. They left a little bit of debris scattered about the room. So I thought I’d best clean it up.”

The parson began to lead Roger down the hallway. Entering the study, Roger asked, “You do have a custodian here; don’t you?”



“We do,” said the parson. “She’s really good, too. We’re lucky to have her.”



“Then why are you doing her work?”



“I didn’t particularly think it her work, Roger. I was responsible for the mess.”

“And she’s responsible for cleaning up the mess.”



“We’ve got a lot of things going on around here, Roger. Doesn’t seem quite fair she has to clean up after me when there’s so much to do. It didn’t take me ten minutes to clean the room up.”



Roger shook his head. Finally, he said, “I’d think the Lord had other things in mind when you were called, parson.”

“Other things than what?” asked the parson.



“I don’t think you were called to clean up other people’s mess, parson.”



“Oh, Roger,” said the parson. “I was. I was.”



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