Last time we encountered this passage, we emphasized the God as artisan image. (I don;t know if it alarms me that I recall that).Today, we look at the image of the pottery.We do well to be reminded that the artisan is not the same as the work; the pottery is not the same as the potter. We do well to remember that the artisan is not the same size and shape of the vessel. Jeremiah's image sees us as malleable. God is always at work with us. We are capable of changed throughout our lives. Are we as inert as the image suggests? No, even in the passage, god is reworking the pottery since it does not live up to the vision for it. It has an opening for change, for repentance for the people of Israel and each individual element of it. Indeed individual change will affect the entire piece.

 

What is the quality of the clay that God the potter uses? We are made in the image and likeness of God. Our talents and strengths seem to come from finer stuff, but no one is made from perfect material; we are human beings, creatures of God, not the Creator. Some flaws always appear.How often can we be reworked?

 

What sort of vessel are you: cracked, useful, being thrown out? Are you non-stick, cast iron, or enamel? Perhaps we need to explore another question. What are you a vessel of : virtue, vice? We are containers of grace. Paul said that we have treasures in earthen vessels, these fragile, frail, fallible  containers that possess the gift of life. We are all vessels of love. We are all vessels of memory. In Philemon Paul is trying to convince a slaveholder that a runaway slave is useful and valuable as a baptized Christian, far beyond the economic value to its Christian owner. Paul; will not take the position of being able to order someone to do what it right, but he is willing to marshall wedges of persuasion  that respects the owner as a person of moral worth also. If you will, Philemon may well own the pot, but so does God. Both Philemon and the slave Onesimus are pottery being molded in the hands of God who has both of them in the divine hands.

 

Notice v. 9 picks up the build and plant imagery, an organic one in the midst of an artistic image, from 1:10. It is not limited to the destructive side. Jeremiah is well aware that life has its polarities.Are we masterworks, or cheap vessels? Sometimes, life damages us so much that we cannot imagine ourselves as masterworks, masterpieces. Sometimes our vision is so distorted that we do not see ourselves as priceless work of the hand of God. As is said in some African-American churches, God does not make junk. I look toward an afterlife as I don;t think that God can bear to lose anything that God has labored over and loved. It has been said that we all have a God-sized hole in our very being. A more positive way of phrasing it would be that we are meant ob e containers of the very presence of God in the world.

 

These frail containers are worthy to be baptized and given the gift of Communion. Our containers are always overflowing, bursting with all they contain. Instead we see ourselves as running on empty most of the time. Instead, we are considered worthwhile enough for the divine, labor, time, and infinite respect. Please take some time this week to consider hwo you are filling the container of your life.

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In the time of Jesus, life was a long climb toward status. Even though most folks were poor, they seemed alert to any slight or any step upward. This generation relaxed some of the outward  signs of status. The girls watch Mad Men, about an ad agency in the early sixties with all sorts of signs of status, when women wore gloves and pearls and men wore hats, before the casual revolution. We don't put the stress on honor and status that was present in the time of Jesus. Perhaps the best example is being herded into the pens called coach on the airline and that Eden that is closed off from the common herd, first-class. A Seinfeld episode had Jerry getting massage, champagne and sundaes as he sat next to a model, while Elaine had all the indignities of coach. We do have a quest for status -still there in computers, cell phones, houses, body image come as you are as a rule-We may arrive at church come as you are, but we leave changed. Come as you are and too great a moral tolerance. the cult of the casual includes a casual attitude toward how we are to live.

 

God's complaint is the sound of a hurt, neglected  spouse. It sounds like a bewildered cry, look at all I've done for you. It sounds like a spouse looking back with fondness on the happy early days of a marriage. Saralyn was telling me that the late author Robert Parker and his spouse Joan went to great expense making their home essentially two functioning houses where their lives did not connect very much or often. Here God is yearning for the days of the wilderness, when life with a newly freed people was fresh and new. Notice that in Jeremiah, God notes that not only have the people forgotten, but even the priests do not turn to God in prayer. They complain just like everyone else but don't bother to turn that complaint into lament.

 

Christians have emphasized hospitality toward each other, even of strangers,  but what of God? God opens time and space for creation to exist  and then to live.How does that affect God? In Jesus Christ even the divine life is made to live in communion with a human being. We open the doors of perception to almost anything except God. God we shut out unless we are in extremis. We are inhospitable to the presence of God in terms of time. Put differently, we don;t invite God into our daily lives. Hebrews says , let mutual love continue. That mutuality applies to our relations with God as well.  Let's extend the banquet image of Jesus here. We invite all sorts of folks into our lives, but we neglect to invite God.Couples spend hours looking at invitation fonts and choosing cakes and selecting flowers, but not much thought goes into the wedding service, except that it should be short, but I have yet to hear anyone worry about the length of time for the reception. More and more people skip the wedding but show up at the reception, elegantly clad in t-shirt. In worship we get a framework fo rinviting god into our lives, live for a while in the presence of God. We may arrive in worship come as you are, but  we do not leave as we were. Come as you are should be less about dress and more about our condition: happy, in love, grieving or sick. Know this. God accepts us and loves us as we are. God is always at work bringing the best out in us and hopes to have us look for the best in others.

1) This seems to be a rather plaintive response from God, like someone recounting a lost love (see v.1-2).
2) This is probably done in a covenant lawsuit format. where God lays charges against the people.It's similar to the j'accuse of Zola against those who persecuted Dreyfus.
3) The typical recital of god's mighty acts turns into Israel abandoning this God who saves them from chaos.
4) idolatry is given a twist here: going after worthless things makes us worthless. Miller in NIB (598) notes that worthless things is a phrase for ldols in lots of this book.
5) the same point get amplified with this issue of profit and loss. Seeking for prosperity comes in following God, not in the idols that promise such profit.Here one could play the song, "isn't it ironic?" we have profitless prophets.
6) To me, it is interesting that the religious are indicted for complaining but not framing the complaint as prayer.
7)Again, part of the torah/instruction is justice.
8) with use of water imagery, God says that the people have exchanged poor wells or cracked cisterns when they had fresh water right in front of them. A spring is replaced with an old leaky rain barrel.
9) what historical recital could one give for contemporary life where we abandon God in search of profitless things?
10) What idolatrous allegiances do we continue to profess, especially in ideology?
11) What sense of the absence of God prompts our search for quick fix idols?

1) I half remember Brueggemann uses this text well in an old tape. If I recall correctly, he sees this lawsuit as arguing that Israel has descended into primordial chaos.

2) This is probably done in a covenant lawsuit format. where god lays charges against the people.It's similar to the j'accuse of Zola against those who persecuted Dreyfus.

3) The typical recital of god's mighty acts turns into Israel abandoning this God who saves them from chaos.

4) idolatry is given a twist here: going after worthless things makes us worthless. Miller in NIB (598) notes that worthless things is a phrase for ldols in lots of this book.

5)  the same point get amplified with this issue of profit and loss. Seeking for prosperity comes in following God, not in the idols that promise such profit.Here one could play the song, "isn't it ironic?" we have profitless prophets.

6) To me, it is interesting that the religious are indicted for complaining but not framing the complaint as prayer.

7)Again, part of the torah/instruction is justice.

8) with use of water imagery, God says that the people have exchanged poor wells or cracked cisterns when they had fresh water right in front of them. A spring is replaced with an old leaky rain barrel.

9) what historical recital could one give for contemporary life where we abandon God in search of profitless things?

10) What idolatrous allegiances do we continue to profess, especially in ideology?

11) What sense of the absence of God prompts our search for quick fix idols?

When I am in need of a nap,  I will watch baseball, or even more soporific, golf. In the last major tournament this past Sunday, a golfer lost his chance for a win, as his club touched the sand in a small bunker. Some applauded the strict golf code of rules, but others wondered why he lost two strokes, if no advantage emerged from his mistake. It is the old argument for the spirit of the law, the rationale for the law,  or the strict letter of the law.

 

Jesus is in the middle of this type of argument. No one can argue that the 10 Commandments say that the sabbath is for rest. When does work happen? In the case of healing, some rabbis said to heal only in emergency situations on the Sabbath, but others said no; one should help save from suffering. Jesus goes by the spirit of the law as he see sit as beneficial not only toward worship but for human good. After all, Jesus cannot see the sense in helping an animal but refusing to help a fellow human being on the Sabbath. Jesus is fierce here since the woman has been crippled for eighteen years. Jesus cannot imagine letting her suffer another day, rule or no rule. Human well-being takes precedence over the interpretation of the command at Sinai for Sabbath rest. The Sabbath day is the right place for her to find rest after eighteen weary years of suffering.

 

All of us have images of God deep inside at various levels. Hebrews plays on two fundamental polarities: God as a fearsome god or god of joyful assembly in heaven. Is God a stickler for rules or does God go more for the spirit of the rules at hand? As Christians we claim into our lives the revelation of Jesus Christ about human nature but also the nature of the divine. Jesus embodies the nature of God. Here our worship does not touch the fearsome God where we are awestruck, but we touch heaven's gates in worship.Worship is a way station but also a glimpse of where we are all headed. In a world that seems shaken up every news cycle, here we touch and handle things unseen. Here we get a glimpse of God's unshakable life for us. Still, our god is not to be taken lightly. This is still the creator and judge of all. This is still god, not some fuzzy buddy in the sky. Hebrews quotes Deuteronomy and speaks of God as a fire, its warmth and light but also its awe-inspiring effects if we mere mortals get to close, so this consuming fire got close to us in Jesus Christ. We so emphasize the softer side of god that we have reduced God where it doesn't square with the many sides of God in Scripture. The point is that we have access to the abode of God, the fullness of God, in worship. We carry on a worship that tries to be appropriate to the character of God fully. Notice the reference is to God, not our personal tastes and transient trends. Presbyterian worship has always emphasized hearing the word, for we worship this God who speaks in various ways to and through us. I know my preferences in worship, but I am open to the preferences that others have as to style. I have no patience with folks who deign to prescribe a style for everyone to follow. At the same time, Presbyterian worship is so concerned with propriety that it does lack in the celebration that we see pictured in heavenly worship. Whatever worship style, we enter into the presence of God. Do we enter half asleep, or open to the miracle that is set before us, week after week? Are we open to the miracle of being palced at the gates of the abode of God?

Jer.1:4-10, Ps. 71

1) Of course, we onsider calling here. The current Christian Century has a good piece on reluctant callings.
2) Years ago, we made a big deal out of Jeremiah reisting due to youth. do callings change with the years?
3) Note carefully that v. 10 highjlights pervasive themes in this entire book. It is not a doomsday book alone.
4) I do not know of another biblical statement of commission before birth. What do you think comprises knowing by God at this point. One's view of God's plans for us may well leak out in one's consideration fo this topic.
5) From Israel, the calling spreads to other nations.
6) Miller, an expert on biblical prayer, notes a form of lament in the protest of Jeremiah (581, NIB)
7) God's response is firm but also takes into accoutn the udnerstandable fear of Jeremiah. It is responsive.

Ps. 71
1) I assume it is paired with Jeremiah with v. 6 and the mention of the mother's womb.
2) Look at all the words of safety, salvation, and help here.
3) recall to be righteous deals with right relations between us god, and the neighbor, especially the helpless
4) Notice the intimate relation of praise to trust in God. i resist praise songs as they seem commanding a feeling to me. Here it emerges outs of the sense of trust

We follow in the footsteps of many people. Life may well be what we make of it, but we all receive a legacy when we are born. As Scripture says,we enter cities we did not build. We harbor the illusion that we are the first people to go through something, or we are the only ones going through something. One of the positive features of support groups, is that we hear our stories reflected in the stories that intersect with our own experience. Our decision as we form our own identity in the late teens into the twenties is making decisions about following in the footsteps of our parents, at least what to keep and what to reject. Oppositional identity will take us only so far. We learn to become what we want to be.

 

In religion this is true as well. Most of us enter churches built by others. more importantly, we receive the faith because others have faithfully passed it down over the years. Church order gives us a frame to pass it down without having to re-invent the wheel every service. In the popular book of some years ago, Habits of the Heart, a young woman speaks of her own individual belief system. her name was Sheila, and she calls it sheilaism. religion means to bind together in Latin. Religion binds us to those who have gone before us, and they are linked to us.

 

Sometimes we want to follow in someone's footsteps, or we want to learn new steps all on our own. We are part of the Biblical story. we follow in their footsteps. When we encounter the Scripture we can find ourselves in  its accounts. We discover parts of ourselves in the characters. So often, we feel as if we carry too much of the load all by ourselves. I like the image of the cloud of witnesses, as we can perceive, with the eyes of faith, a group of fellow Christians praying for us, cheering us on, encouraging us. An invisible arena gathers around us.

 

Too often, we look at social life, even church life, as a machine. the organic image favored by the bible this afternoon is a garden, or more accurately, a vineyard. i won;t pretend to act as if I know much about viticulture, but I have noticed that grape vines will grow well in poor soil. Sometimes, the footsteps we follow are mistaken; they go down the wrong trail. Most Americas follow the footsteps of the early 19th century that emphasizes individual salvation. That is fine, but it pushes out the community dimension of the faith. Tha works in two ways, we are in this together; we share in a common life, a common garden. Also, our church garden is placed right in the middle of a larger garden, our community, a community taking on the size of a global conservatory. Individual life cannot be divorced from the world outside. The series of woes in Isaiah is to open eyes that we make it difficult for others to follow in the footsteps of making a better life. Individual effort is not all there is to it. It is as if we expect all the plants to flourish equally when some are denied water and fertilizer, and others get more than they need. Weeds threaten the garden, but the surprise is that we, made in the image and likeness of God, offer poor fruit so often.

 

We cut footpaths for others to follow in the garden. We plant seeds in the garden for others to tend. When someone follows in your footsteps, where will that path lead?

Is. 5:1-7
1) I don;t know much about viniculture. One could explore this, or use another garden/agrciulture image, maybe genetic crop engineering.
2) One could use the fruit image and compare to gal. 5:22-3. Serendipity bible (965) asks a cute question about our fruit as budding, premature, developing, diseased, or ripe.
3) When have your hopes for a project been dashed, met, or exceeded?
4) I assume we could link God to the gardener here. What do we learn of God from this image?
5) How can bad fruit emerge from such a garden?
6) Why would Judah be asked to judge the quality of the vineyard?
7) Why destroy the vineyard?Notice wasteland in v. 6
8) V. 7 again gives a social dimenson to what god seeks. Nothing about our pure hearts, nothing about good intentions, nothing about fellowship circles, but social justice.
9) In the end, what kind of song is this (v.1)?