A Tale of Two Pastors

My introduction to this blog is that I was put up to this by my grandfather. Pastor Russ Wayland suggested that I write this. I agreed but I did tell him that I was going to blame him for what I'm about to say. I'm complicit but he's the master mind. This post is dedicated to the pastor I grew up under, Pastor Bob.

There once was a man who was very respected in his community. He was a very smart man, a pastor and a doctor. Not a medical doctor mind you but a doctor nonetheless. He had worked tirelessly to earn his doctorate degree. He was an esteemed scholar and a leader. He had even written a Biblical commentary. He could read both Greek and Hebrew and had studied the ancient texts for many years.

Sadly there is such a thing as being so intelligent that you can lose some common sense. And that must have been the case with this man. For as many good traits as he had there was one glaring deficiency in his life. He wouldn't drink coffee.

I know it's shocking. I'll give you a moment to deal with your horror.

...

This man drank tea. All sorts of teas. He was a bit particular and there were some teas he didn't like but he wouldn't touch coffee. And in fact it was worse then that because he didn't acknowledge the problem with not drinking coffee. He thought this was a good thing! In fact he actively tried to get others to drink tea!

When he met with people he couldn't offer them a good cup of coffee. He called coffee mugs, tea mugs. He wouldn't even touch coffee ice cream which is practically elixir as you well know! The real horror came when he wouldn't have coffee served in his church. If you wanted coffee on Sunday morning you had to bring your own.

One day another pastor, this one retired after many years of service, joined the congregation. He immediately realized the tragedy of not serving the wonderful life-blood of coffee and he started a campaign to solve this problem. 

It was a hard fought battle but after many years the wiser pastor won the righteous battle and coffee began to be served on Sunday mornings. The wise pastor's son-in-law embarked on a journey to find just the right blend to serve the long deprived congregation.

And so life continued with the younger pastor still not seeing the error of his ways but at least partially redeeming himself by no longer depriving his parishioners. And the wise, older pastor continued to seek to counsel him in hopes that some day he would be fully redeemed and join the rest of us in drinking the wonderful God-given gift of coffee. For after all it's even mentioned in the Bible- He-brews.