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Submit Your Own! like a lump of clay By Rick Brand Text: Jeremiah 18:1-11 LIKE A LUMP OF CLAY September 5, 2010 Young Memorial and Brookston Presbyterian Churches, Vance County Rick Brand, Supply It is a fascinating thing to see. To watch as they throw that lump of clay onto the spinning wheel. Throw a little water on the wheel, dip their hands into the water, and then begin to knead the clay. The potter begins to squeeze or push and the clay takes a shape. What always delights me is to watch as they begin to make something and then push it down and start over. Like golfers taking practice swings, the potter begins to shape something and then squeezes it back to the wheel and starts again. Channel 4, the PBS station recently had a number of specials about potters on the North Carolina coast. Pottery has been an important part of the North Carolina history for a long time. Seagrove, Catawba, Wilmington area are filled with studios and shops with pottery. Watching that wheel go round, it looks so easy and simple and yet the skill and the talent are incredible. Pottery has an incredible history. It is a craft and an industry that has not evolved much over the thousands of years. Jeremiah talks about a potter’s wheel and that is still how it is done today. Pottery has been an essential part of human life almost as long as human beings have been settled there has been pottery. Archeologists depend upon pottery as one of the major pieces of evidence for dating different cultures and levels of society. Potters make the things that make for civilization. Every day utensils such as water jugs, pitchers, storage jars, pots and plates, drinking cups, religious vessels, mixing bowls, and the list goes on. This industry of pottery is at the heart of civilization for thousands of years. Most gift shops that I have visited in travels around the world that have been proud and eager to sell the products of current potters. So there could hardly be a better text for this Labor Day Sunday than this potter’s wheel text from Jeremiah. A local craft man. A daily laborer doing his daily business becomes the vehicle though which God speaks to Jeremiah. Jeremiah is told to go visit a small businessman and watch what he does and he will hear and see something about the way of God with human beings. A potter who has to have some idea of what he wants to make. A potter who has to start with raw materials and a purpose. A potter who has to understand what is needed for what he wants to make and be willing to squash what he has if it is not becoming what he wants. A potter who knows that the material he is working with has a lot to do with what can be made. Too many air bubbles, too much sand, maybe there is a pebble in the clay. The potter’s purpose and the material have to work together. Jeremiah sees a lot going on. The role of the potter as a vehicle for communicating a vision of God’s relationship with human beings is not limited to this passage in Jeremiah. Isaiah speaks for the Lord and asks, “How you turn things upside down, as if the potter ranked no higher than the clay! Shall the thing made say to its maker, “He did not make me?” Shall the pot say of the potter, He has no skill?” When Paul writes to the Romans about the purposes of God in history in the 9th chapter of Romans he asks “Can the pot speak to the potter and say, “Why did you make me like this? Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay. Is he not free to make out of the same lump two vessels, one to be treasured, the other for common use?” Even later in Jeremiah in the 19th chapter Jeremiah takes a piece of pottery and goes out and smashes it as the potter might do too if the piece has not survived the firing of it. If it got a crack in the kiln, the potter would destroy, and Jeremiah says God may bring that kind of destruction on the people of Israel. But even earlier back in Genesis we have a shadow of the potter as God takes a lump of clay and shapes it into a human form and blows into it the breathe of life. So Jeremiah goes to the potter’s workshop and watches. Jeremiah watches as the potter on the spinning wheel begins to shape a vessel and then sees the mistake and starts over. Jeremiah sees how the clay can be difficult to work with. The potter has to add more water. The potter starts again and feels that the shape is not balanced or equal and starts over. The potter begins to make a pitcher but sees that it is not going well so he shapes a bowl from the clay. And the message comes to Jeremiah, “O Israel, can I, God, not do with you as the potter has done to the clay?” Is God not the potter of the history of Israel? Has God not taken a lump of sorry humanity, Abraham’s descendants, and been shaping them into his people? Has God not the ability to squash what he has made and start over? Certainly there had been a lot of questions asked about how Judah, part of the people of God, had been allowed to be destroyed by God. How can the destruction of Judah, God’s choice nation, be part of God’s loving care?” and Jeremiah suggests that the destruction of Judah could very well be part of the Potter’s reshaping and starting over on a process that has not turned out well. “Like clay in the potter’s hands so are you to me, says the Lord.” Now the problem with images like the Potter wheel is that we sometimes try to make too much out of them. If we take this visit to the Potter’s house too seriously we will end up with some tough and profound questions. If God is the Potter of life, does the fact that God has to start over or begin again mean that God can make mistakes? If God is the Potter of history, and God does to the clay what the potter does, does that mean that God changes his mind? If this image of God as the potter is forced too far, we have a question of the possibility of limits on God if the clay can force God to change his mind. If the clay can prevent God from accomplishing his purpose for the clay, then the Clay is mightier than God. It is that very question of the role of the clay in the work of the Potter that occupies a large part of this passage. Versus 7-12 focus on the quality of the clay and its ability to affect the results. The clay has its own ability to determine its usability. We understand that from watching the potter that the quality of the clay does have something to do with the outcome of the work. When the clay is not right, the work is not right. But how can the clay change itself. Jeremiah talks about the clay repenting, how does clay repent and of what does it repent from. Jeremiah says if the clay changes the potter changes. The nation turning will be matched by the divine turning. Changes of mind and hearts of the people will lead to changes in plans in the hands of God. So like all images of God and human relationships these images are suggestive and poetic. But the Potter and the clay is a very powerful and helpful image. We affirmed that already when we joined in singing the old hymn “Have Thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.” The message of the potter is still the awesome affirmation that God as Potter has something in mind for creation, for history, for us. Life, creation, is not the accidental coming together or atoms signifying nothing. The Universe is not unintended chaos. There is a purpose and goal towards which God is intending all history and creation. That is the first great comforting message. Things are not random and out of order. God the Potter has something in mind. There is a second great affirmation from this image that we as creation matter enough to God to be give a part to play in the process. God does participate with people, nations, and organizations and includes them in the process. God does not impose his purpose or vision on us without allowing us some role in that process. What an amazing compliment, opportunity, and responsibility we have been given. We matter enough to God to be taken seriously. I saw in the paper a few weeks ago that Colleges and Universities were having trouble getting rid of parents. Parents were being called helicopter parents, Velcro parents, hover parents because the would not leave or let their children take responsibility for their own lives. The story said some parents call or text or email their children three or four times a day. Seems to me that those parents do not have enough confidence and trust in their children to allow them to be on their own. Parents are not willing to allow their children to have the major role in their maturation. Well, Jeremiah at the potter’s shop says God has a plan, but he will allow the clay to have a role in the process. Like the potter God knows what he is intending and he knows what is necessary for his purposes and is not willing to settle for less. He has high demanding standards and like the Potter will start over if the process is not going well. Jeremiah sees that as a great message of hope. God does not discard the clay. The potter will not throw the clay away. The potters look for a way to make something of the clay on the wheel. God will rework the clay of human history into a new direction to accomplish his intentions. Divine justice does not exclude the possibility of human repentance and in that repentance there is the promise of God’s continuous shaping and molding. How many of you have one of those new GPS for your travels. We have recently got one and find it an amazing device, but it strikes me like the Potter wheel as a great image of what Jeremiah in these verses 7-12 is suggesting. When you put in the destination, the purpose, the goal of the trip, the GPS works with that and tells you how to go, but suppose you take a different way, make a mistake, decide to go by Grandmother’s first, the GPS reconfigures the route and tells you another way. It still has the same goal in mind, but it works with our human actions and reconfigures the route. In fact, frequently for me, the GPS has had to call for full repentance and tells me “Turn around when possible.” Repent; turn back, if you want to get to the goal. God is active in the affairs of human history—working dynamically to accommodate human actions to accomplish God purpose. The last part of this passage verses 7-12 talks about the quality of the clay and the possibility of the clay making itself more responsive to the Potter. Like the hymn sand, “While I am waiting, yielded and still.” The clay has a lot to do with how things turn out. In the first part of this passage, verses 1-6, while Jeremiah was in the shop, God asked Jeremiah why he couldn’t be like the potter. Why couldn’t God start over? Why couldn’t God smash down the old and begin again? Couldn’t that kind of squashing of the first attempt be an act of love and hope? The same kind of question has to be asked of us at the beginning of the 21st century in the United States. We have had a long history of thinking and pretending that this country was a Christian nation. But things are changing. Court cases and mosque, Hindu temples and Jewish judges, and catholic scandals, all are impacting the Christian community. In a recent article a man named Douglas John Hall, a respected theologian of 88 years, who has watched the Christian context in North America for more than 60 years said, “Instead of waiting for wave after wave of militant secularism, materialism, atheism, etch, aided and abetted by the growing public awareness of religious plurality to wash over them, the churches should take the initiative in their own disestablishment. Instead of clinging to absurd and outmoded visions of grandeur, which were never Christ’s intention for his church, serious Christians communities ought now to relinquish triumphalistic dreams of majority status an influence in high places and ask themselves about the possibilities of witnessing to God’s justice and love from the edges of the empire- which is where prophetic religion like Jeremiah has always lived. Instead of mourning their losses or naively hoping for their recovery, Christians who are serious about their faith ought to ask themselves why al the metaphors Jesus uses to depict his “little flock” metaphors of smallness—salt, mustard see, yeast, light, one lost sheep, --small things that can serve larger causes because they do not aim to become big themselves. “ Maybe the Potter’s image is suggesting to us as a Christian people that God is in the process of squashing what has come up so that God can work again in us to more fully accomplish his purpose and mission for his people. Remember the Christian community survived for a long time without buildings. The Christian community has only had Sunday schools for a couple of hundred years. A lot of things we as clay have in us now may not be helpful to the purpose God has in mind. The squashing now may be the evidence of God still at work in us which is the Good new of the story. And the final word from the image of the Potter is that like the Potter who does have the final word on what will happen to the clay, God has the final word in the working of history and that too is good news. Your Onesimus By David von Schlichten Sermon on Philemon At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, September 5, 2010, Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Your Onesimus (word count: 738)
Our second reading is the book of Philemon. The whole book is only twenty-five verses, but it is stunning, even radical. Here’s the story. A slave named Onesimus ran away from Philemon, his master. Onesimus somehow met up with Paul, the great church leader, who is in prison. Paul teaches Onesimus about Jesus, and Onesimus becomes a Christian. However, Onesimus is a slave, so he needs to go back to his master, Philemon. So Paul writes a letter, and that letter is our reading, the book of Philemon. It’s quite a letter. In it, Paul says, “Philemon, I need you to do me a favor. Of course, given who I am, I could force you to do this task for me. However, I know that you will do this favor for me, because it’s the right thing to do.” “Philemon,” Paul says, “I am sending your slave Onesimus back to you. I know he ran away, so you’re probably upset with him. But you need to know that he has converted to Christianity. He has become a Christian, so now he is no longer only a slave to you. He is now your brother in Christ. All Christians are siblings of each other, and such is the case with Onesimus, too.” “Therefore,” Paul says, “Philemon, when Onesimus returns to you, you need to treat him as an equal, as a brother in Christ. I am counting on you to do that.” Onesimus may be a slave, but he is now also Philemon’s brother. Therefore, Philemon needs to treat Onesimus differently. Because of Christ, the relationship has changed. Because of Christ, Philemon and Onesimus are now brothers. Indeed, all of us, because of our baptism into Christ, are siblings. We are family, brothers and sisters. That idea, that we are all siblings through Christ, is well-known, but how seriously do we take that? Look around. Do you really think of these people as your siblings? Some people are easy to regard as siblings, because they are pleasant, likeable. Others, though, are harder to regard as siblings, because they are annoying, obnoxious, smelly, unattractive. But we are siblings, not because of what good or bad we have done, but because of Christ has done. Christ has made us all into siblings, just as Christ made Onesimus and Philemon into siblings. You might think, “Ugh, that person doesn’t deserve to be my brother in Christ, because he is so irritating,” but being a sibling in Christ is not a status that any of us deserves or earns. Being a sibling in Christ is a status conferred upon you by Christ. Onesimus Philemon’s brother in Christ, not because of any good deed Onesimus did, but because Christ has made him into a brother. So also with Philemon. So also with all of us. Like it or not, all of us Christians are siblings, family, because Christ has made us into families through his death and resurrection. With that truth in mind, ask yourself this question: who is my Onesimus? That is, whom do I have difficulty treating as a brother or sister in Christ? Perhaps you have difficulty treating as a brother or sister someone who disagrees with you on an important issue, such as abortion or gay rights. Perhaps you have difficulty treating as a brother or sister someone who is a Republican or Democrat. Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are both baptized. They are your siblings in Christ. Do you think of them as siblings? Treating each other as siblings can be challenging, because treating each other as siblings does not mean engaging in sibling rivalry. It means regarding each other with love and equality. It also means regarding ourselves with love and equality. Think about it. You are to treat others, even people you dislike, as brothers and sisters in Christ, but you are also to remember that you, too, are a brother or sister in Christ. You are to love, and you are to receive love. You are to treat others as equal, and others are to treat you as equal. God announces, “That person you find annoying? I love her, I died for her, I forgive her. She is your sister in Christ,” and God announces, “I also died for you, forgive you. You are also a sibling in Christ.” God hugs you and says, “I love your siblings, and I love you, my whole family.” Oxygen Masks Drop By Sermon on Stewardship At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, August 29, 2010, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Oxygen Masks Drop (word count: 855)
Our first reading and our gospel deal with humility. This sermon is not based on those readings, but has been inspired by them. This is a stewardship sermon about the perennial dilemma of self-care versus other-care. Many of us are caught in a dilemma. Christianity teaches us that we are to put others before ourselves. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love the neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus tells us we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Over and over the Bible stresses that we, the baptized, are to put God first, others second, ourselves last. At the same time, we know from psychology and personal experience that, if we always put ourselves last, we become tired and resentful. If we never take time for ourselves, we compromise our happiness and well-being, but if we put ourselves first too much, then we are being selfish, unchristian. The dilemma, then, is finding the right combination of time spent on me, the self, and time spent on the neighbor, on other people. How do we figure out that balance? In figuring out the balance, it is essential for us Christians to remember that we are indeed supposed to put others before ourselves. However, putting others before ourselves does not mean that we don’t take care of ourselves. After all, the commandment, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” implies that you love yourself. The commandment points to a relationship between love of self and love of others. Besides, Jesus took time for himself. He took time to go off alone to pray. He took time to nap. He allowed people to wait on him and serve him meals. If Jesus can take time for himself, we certainly can take time for ourselves. In addition, we know that, if we take care of ourselves, we will make ourselves better able to take care of others. Think about it. If you’re on a plane, and the cabin pressure drops so that the oxygen masks are released, what are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to put your mask on first and then help others with their masks. Why? Because you won’t be able to help others if you haven’t helped yourself first. In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steve Covey says that part of being successful is taking time every day – he recommends at least an hour – for you, because taking time for you enables you to resharpen your saw, recharge your battery, so that you can be more effective in doing your work. Women, especially, tend to feel guilty if they take time for themselves. We often teach women that they are always supposed to put their families before themselves, and then many women end up feeling worn-out, unhappy, and resentful. It would be more loving for us to encourage women to take time for themselves guilt-free. Moms need to hear this lesson. Moms, if you want to take care of your children, then take care of their mother. That is you. Men, by contrast, tend to feel less guilty about taking time for themselves – and that’s good – but sometimes take too much time for themselves and not enough time for caring for others. Men are raised to take time out to do things for themselves, such as hunting, fishing, watching sports, and relaxing in the infamous man-cave. That self-care is valuable, but we men are to be careful that we are not putting ourselves first too much. The Bible stresses putting God and others first, not ourselves first. The point of all this is not to create a battle of the sexes but to stress the importance of both self-care and other-care. Again, Jesus is a valuable model. In the gospels, Jesus devotes the bulk of his time to caring for others. Most of the time Jesus is feeding the hungry, preaching hope to the oppressed, healing the sick, injured, and possessed. Generally Jesus is caring for others, but, as we said, he does take time for himself. With Jesus in mind, ask yourself, “Am I taking enough time for myself so that I can be better toward others?” Perhaps you need more self-time. Perhaps you need more other-time. That’s something to pray about this week. Figuring all this out is challenging and may require continual fine-tuning. Thanks be to God that, when we get it wrong, we receive forgiveness from God. “Lord, I have been too selfish,” we say, and God says, “I forgive you, and I am here to help you.” Or, “Lord, I have not spent enough time for me,” we say, and God says, “I forgive you, and I am here to help you.” God is here to help. God is here to comfort and strengthen you through Scripture and sermon. God is here to care for you through prayer and worship. God is here to remind you of your baptism, of your special identity. God is here to feed you the body and blood. Best of all, Jesus Christ died and rose. Jesus says, “I died so that you have a place in heaven forever. I did it for you.” Sabbath-Straightening By David von Schlichten Sermon on Luke 13:10-17 At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, August 22, 2010, Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Sabbath-Straightening (word count: 697)
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. We know that commandment, but we are not good about honoring it. The Bible makes it clear that attending worship is to be part of honoring the Sabbath, and Luther teaches in the Book of Concord that honoring the Sabbath means attending worship to hear the proclamation of the Word. However, we make excuses not to attend worship. We tend to see attending worship as optional, something you do on Sundays if you feel like it, but the Bible teaches that worship is mandatory, an integral aspect of honoring the Sabbath. Even Jesus, we learn in Luke 4, attended worship regularly. If Jesus attended worship regularly, then I certainly should. Another important component of honoring the Sabbath is resting, and most of us are not good about resting. I sure am not. I am compulsive about working. If I don’t rest I get grouchy, resentful, and, of course, tired, so I have learned to take time to rest, especially in a way that focuses me on God. Sabbath rest, rest that focuses you on God – that rest is what the Sabbath commandment calls us to. The commandment to rest is not an order to engage in just any rest but in that rest which recharges our souls, redirects us toward God. We Americans are not good about such rest. We obsess over getting stuff done, being busy, checking things off the to-do list. There is much value in getting stuff done, but the commandment challenges us to holy rest. How do we do that? I’m still trying to figure that out. I find meditation helpful. Sometimes I put on music, lie on the office floor, and repeat over and over in my head, “Be still, and know that I am God.” If you try meditation, be patient. It takes practice. If that doesn’t work, experiment until you find an activity that helps you to engage in Sabbath-rest. Engaging in Sabbath-rest and attending worship are essential to keeping the commandment to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. This week, focus on those challenges. Pray and work on getting better at Sabbath-rest and resolving to attend worship more regularly. Of course, while we want to be better about honoring the Sabbath, we don’t want to become rigid about the rules. That’s the problem with the synagogue leader in the gospel from Luke 13. Jesus heals a crippled woman, but the synagogue leader is so hung up about Sabbath-rules that he misses the point. “You healed this, this woman? How dare you, Jesus! How dare you heal someone! That’s considered work, and we’re not supposed to do work on the Sabbath.” Do you see the irony? God heals someone, and this guy’s hung up on Sabbath rules. Duh. Pastor Leah Schade suggests that the synagogue leader, who is a man, does not like the healing because it has led to empowerment for a woman. Now there’s this woman praising God during worship at a time when women generally were not allowed to speak during worship. Jesus even calls her a daughter of Abraham, a title only used here in the gospels. That title grants her importance, legitimacy, value. Maybe that’s why this synagogue leader is so upset about the healing, because a woman is being empowered. I don’t know. I do know that the Sabbath tends to generate miracles. We are to honor the Sabbath because God tells us to, but it turns out that honoring the Sabbath is beneficial to us, thanks be to God. Through the Sabbath, God heals us. Through Sabbath-rest, God revives us and gets us focused on what really matters. During Sabbath-worship, God comforts and challenges us through the sermon and the reading of scripture. God fortifies us through the comfort and challenge of other people, even those we don’t like or know. God heals us through the forgiveness of sins. God heals us through reminding us of our baptism. God strengthens the bones and muscles of our souls through holy communion. On the Sabbath, during Sabbath-worship and Sabbath-rest, Jesus comes to you, lays his hands on you, and stands you up straight, sets you free. Ecclesiastes, Part Two By David von Schlichten Sermon on Ecclesiastes At St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA On Sunday, August 15, 2010, Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, The Reverend Dr. David von Schlichten
Ecclesiastes, Part Two: Gospel (word count: 732) This sermon is part two of a two-part series. I preached part one on August 1. That sermon was called “Law.” Today’s sermon, part two, is called “Gospel.” This sermon series focuses on the book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes is a dissenting voice in the Bible. While much of the Bible stresses that following God leads to blessings, Ecclesiastes declares that life is a waste. “Vanity of vanities!” declares Ecclesiastes. “Everything is vanity.” In other words, life is pointless. Sometimes we feel that way, don’t we, that life is pointless? I do. 98% of the time I believe that God loves me and that my loving actions toward God and others make a difference in a good way. Occasionally, though, usually when I am tired or stressed, I get depressed, slump on the couch, and say to Kim, “It’s all pointless. All my hard work, what difference does it make? Who cares?” Have you ever felt that way? The writer of Ecclesiastes sure did. Imagine. Imagine that you get a phone call at two in the morning. It’s a friend. She says, “I can’t take it anymore. I try to make a difference, but nothing I do matters. Vanity of vanities. Ecclesiastes is right. It’s all pointless. I give up. I’m going to end it all. Take some pills, fall asleep, and never wake up.” Silently, you pray, “Spirit, help,” and then you say to your friend ___________________. What would you say? I’m not sure what I would say. It would depend on the person. One thing I would not say is something that dismisses the person’s feelings. If someone is depressed, and I just say something like, “Cheer up. Count your blessings. Look on the bright side,” that person is going to think, “Dave does not understand how I feel.” If someone is depressed, it is important to let the person know that you understand how she or he feels. The book of Ecclesiastes, with its depressing message, is a voice that says, “I know what it’s like to be depressed. To an extent, I know how you feel.” To that depressed person calling in the middle of the night, it is important for us to let her or him know, “To some extent, I know how you are feeling, and I take your feelings seriously. I won’t dismiss or trivialize your feelings by just telling you to cheer up or count your blessings.” Ecclesiastes reminds us to take those depressed feelings seriously. Of course, the Bible is not just Ecclesiastes, thanks be to God. The Bible contains sixty-six books, not just one, and those sixty-six books give us the Good News. The book of Ecclesiastes says, “Sometimes life seems pointless,” but the dominant message in the Bible is good news. Love. God loves you and has shown that love chiefly through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are to respond to that love by loving God, which includes loving other people. And that love DOES make a difference. It is not vanity. Jesus says that when you care for the least of your siblings, you do it for Jesus himself. God loves us, expects us to love in response, and that love does make a difference. Ecclesiastes tells us that nothing matters. Sometimes we feel that way, but that’s not the whole story. So imagine again that late-night phone conversation. Your friend calls. “Life’s a waste. Ecclesiastes is right. Vanity of vanities. I give up. Nothing I do matters. I’m gonna take these pills and just be done.” How do you respond? Here’s one biblical possibility. You pray to the Spirit for help. Then you say, “If you do that, I’ll be devastated, because you’re important to me.” “You’re just saying that. No one cares. What I do doesn’t matter.” “I can understand feeling that way. I feel that way sometimes, too, like what I do doesn’t make any difference. The book of Ecclesiastes reflects that same attitude.” “After all, look at all the misery in the world. No matter what you do, there is still suffering and injustice and poverty and disease. What difference does my little work make?” “It makes a difference to me. You have been there for me. My life is better because you’re in it. And it makes a difference to God. Whenever you care for anyone, you care for God.” [First Page] [Prev] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 [Next] [Last Page] Return |
