RonBLog

Sunday 5th September, 2010 Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Sentence
Whoever does not carry the cross and follow Jesus cannot be His disciple Luke 14:37

Collect
God of the ages, You call the Church to keep watch in the world and to discern the signs of the times; grant us the wisdom that Your Spirit bestows so that with courage we may proclaim Your prophetic word and complete the work You have set before us, through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Jeremiah 18: 1 – 11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Come, go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done?’ says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Psalm 139: 1 – 5 & 12 – 18

O Lord, You have searched me out and known me: You know when I sit or when I stand, You comprehend my thoughts long before.
You discern my path and the places where I rest: You are acquainted with all my ways
For there is not a word on my tongue: but You, Lord, know it altogether
You have encompassed me behind and before: and have laid Your hand upon me
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: so high that I cannot endure it.

For You have created my inward parts: You knit me together in my mother’s womb
I will praise You for You are to be feared: fearful are Your acts and wonderful are Your works
You knew my soul, and my bones were not hidden from You: when I was formed in secret and woven in the depths of the earth
Your eyes saw my limbs when they were yet imperfect: and in Your book were all my members written
Day by day they were fashioned: and not one of them was late in growing
How deep are Your thoughts to me O God: how great is the sum of them
Were I to count them, they are more in number than the sand: were I to come to the end, I would still be with You

Epistle Philemon

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother. For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love--and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother-- especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.
I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. One thing more--prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

GOSPEL Luke 14: 25 – 35

Now large crowds were travelling with Jesus; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'
Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament Lesson
There are a couple of very interesting points of view expressed in this passage: that of the potter and clay; and God telling of a changed response if His people change.
On the former, I report a battle I have had with myself, for what it is worth. Like many of the rest of us, I had often wished that I was someone else or had the gifts and skills of someone else. However no amount of trying or mucking about did anything to change me. By that time it had struck me that the real point of being yourself is to see what you will make of what you are and what you have been given. Good bits and bad bits are all part of the mix, and the real issue to do the best with the clay of which you are made. That is release of a significant value; and leaves me being part- creator if you like, free to make a mess or make progress. That leaves me with the responsibility of who I am, and that means the sky is the limit, if you dare see it that way.

That other issue concerns the future of a nation, or group – or even individual if it comes to that. While old-time preachers seemed to look to God to belt the living daylights out of sinners, even Jeremiah (in fact most of the prophets!) saw things rather differently. Doing evil has its own come-uppance, its karma as they say these days, and will often result in the collapse of the goals of the evil person. In other words, if I choose stupidly, I will end up in quite something of a mess of my own making. This is the way life is; OR this is the process by which God works with people. However, if I realize my stupidity and move in more sensible directions, things will work out better, or God will relent. It is important always to realize what St. Paul meant when he wrote about ‘God giving them up.’ That is the process he called the wrath of God. That ‘wrath’ is no punitive, savage process designed to compel people to choose well. It is that process whereby God steps back – a process which offers the person freedom to choose what sort of person they wish to be – and the responsibility is theirs. (Ask any prisoner in gaol whether punishment does anything to improve a person, and the answer is a resounding NO! It drives them further into their embittered situation. And it is about time that Prison authorities worked that out for themselves.

Psalm
This psalm has been part of me since my earliest days in the Church Choir, and pointed to the inner awareness of the author, who must have written this psalm millennia ago! It speaks of a sense of purpose and direction, of purpose as well as such satisfaction at the sight of a newly born infant. This approach to life beats the hell out of ‘who the hell am I?’ and ‘what am I here for?’ especially when someone tries to answer such questions without reference to the Creator.

Epistle
And now we have this tale of Onesimus (worthless one!) and his restoration as a person alongside the Apostle Paul. If you wonder why this personal epistle ever made it to the Canon of the New Testament, then an answer is simple and stunning.
Read this carefully, for the Apostle, who grew up and lived in a world where slavery was unremarkable and part of the ‘scenery’ took the situation that arose with Onesimus and so undermined the practice that it could have no future. Sadly, as is often the case with Biblical material, people seemed to get so blocked out by having the ‘believe’ the Scriptures, that they failed to understand them. Why did it take 1800 years to move the abolition of slavery? Why did it take 200 years more to see the Dominical attitude to the other half of the human race? Please learn to catch sight of what Scripture is really saying, and to act on it.

GOSPEL
There is certainly no apology from Jesus as He presents the challenge to anyone who would choose to become a disciple. I suspect when people first heard this sort of challenge from Jesus it marked the clear departure from some sort of do-good religion. Obviously Jesus was not looking for a bland, colourless following but rather determined people, if not one-eyed then certainly committed.
The reason for that is simple, of course. Jesus was offering people a direction that could change the very world in which they lived, and still can. But mealy-mouthed followers would be of no use whatever. The Gospel is stunning stuff, designed to bring the Kingdom right here.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

I find it rather interesting – if not very disturbing! – to live in a time when so many people appear to wish to be someone else. So many young people in particular want to emulate their pop idols and film- or sports-stars and become singularly depressed when they do not manage to reach such heights (?) Not only is it a matter of looking only at one side of the story, but it also fails to see all the pitfalls anyhow.

Great and strong sadness overcomes me when I watch such people in their depressions. To add to the sadness, the only response, it seems to me, of much of the medical profession, is to offer pills and potions to restore the balance, when the reality is that normality will come in better and perhaps easier ways.

For anyone who considers the Christian (and Hebrew!) Faith to be silly, I would offer the suggestion that some research into Scripture may well provide some re-evaluation. And it is not only the New Testament that deserves attention. I offer you a long hard look at today’s Old Testament Lesson from Jeremiah – a prophet who lived in singularly difficult times about 2,500 years ago.

What Isaiah had to say to Israel that far back in history is perfectly capable of translation into similar issues in our own day. Then, the prophet was making it quite clear that Israel, the nation and its people, was designed for the benefit of all, and yet had distorted its existence into something that appeared better but rather was very selfish and destructive. What was being held up in front of those recalcitrants was not some sort of great punitive outpouring, but rather the offer and challenge of restoration to what could and should be.

That rather horrific experience of the Exile in Babylon in the 6th Century BC was something that forever reverberated in the Hebrew mind and psyche. For some, it was restorative and redemptive; and there were others who ignored the whole thing totally. There was benefit for the former, and less than nothing for the latter.

Potter and clay. Creator and creature. And with all due respect, we are the latter not the former in this comparison.
In other words, I did not make myself, create myself, and nor did I even choose my parents. I did not even choose the time in history or the place in geography that I would grow up. Gender was not in my province to choose, nor the colour of my hair (or how long it lasted!!!) nor my height or other dimensions. It was all a given, and for most of it I have been most grateful. Especially my parents.
But there were lots of things that I would have liked to be different. My teeth have always been a bugbear for me; my shortness of breath has always been an issue from childhood up. My lack of skills in some directions, and one or two severe issues that I will not even report to you, have been drags on me from childhood. Like St. Paul, ‘three times I prayed that these things be removed,’ Like St. Paul, there was never a positive response from God. I have been stuck with them, much to my dismay.
When I pondered all of this, in the light of my perception that God wanted me to be all sorts of things I am not, my exploration went into asking the whys and wherefores. …..

In that search, I had – and have – a great mate with whom I had grown up and with whom I remain great mates even to 70 years further on. My great mate has been crippled from birth. (Not crippled, Ron, he would say; I have a disability, that is all.) He is a stunning human being, in spite of his difficulties, and has never complained. In other words, he is rather much the result of having coped with what was unchangeable, and remains a bright Christian person. He has realized that he is clay, not Potter, and always needed to deal with the way things are rather than get all bitter and twisted about what was not right or fair …. Or even helpful.

And that is the point. Yes, I would like some things to be different, but there is neither point nor purpose in busting a gut over what is never likely to be. The circumstances surrounding me are there to see how I will deal with them, and how they will affect the person I become. I can be shaped by those circumstances wither for good or for ill, and that will illustrate who I am.

It is no easy task, I assure you. But you will know that already, if you have followed this path. But there is no room for depression because I am not someone else. There is enough to do and be in where I am. There is only cloud cuckoo land if I go off trying to be someone else. Actually I have often wondered about ‘being someone else,’ and in pondering such a change, have observed such ‘others’ in all sorts of situations. What emerges from such observations is that there are all sorts of ‘bits’ about such folk that do not sit at all happily on me. In other words, the whole picture of such ‘others’ is never as attractive as would seem on the surface.

You may be ‘clay,’ but you are also unique. Lots of lousy things may well happen or have happened, and it is not so much the sum of those things, but how you deal with them that is what makes you the person you are becoming. There is no need to be depressed about the you that is you. There is only the need to grow and become and develop ….. hopefully into the you that you were designed to be.