There is a time-honored story about a Roman Catholic Church that was hosting a community Thanksgiving service. This was to be a first for the church and for the community. Naturally everyone was quite excited. With great dignity the priest led his three Protestant colleagues toward the chancel area when suddenly he realized that he had forgotten to put out chairs for his guests to sit in during the service. In a state of great agitation, he whispered in the ear of one of his elderly laymen, “Please get some chairs for the guest pastors.”

The elderly gentleman was quite hard of hearing, so he asked the priest to repeat his request. The priest did so a little louder: “Please get up and get three chairs for the Protestants.”

The old man had a puzzled look on his face as he rose to his feet.…