Jeremiah 18:1-11
Jeremiah is an interesting and heroic
character. He lived during the last days of a decaying nation. He was
the last prophet to Judah, the southern kingdom of the tribes of Joseph
and Benjamin. This kingdom had continued on after the ten tribes of
Israel (the Northern Kingdom) had fallen into the Assyrian captivity.
As an aside, perhaps you will recall that the patriarch Jacob had 12
sons. When Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, each son became the
originator of a tribe bearing his name, thus the twelve tribes of
Israel.
Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns
of kings Josiah, Jehohaz, the evil reign of Jehoakim, and Zedekiah
(who, at the end of his reign, saw Nebuchadnezzar come and totally
destroy Jerusalem, taking the nation into Babylonian captivity). Far
from the glory days of Israel and Judah, under David and Solomon, these
were the dying days of the nation, characterized by bickering,
immorality, perverted justice and alliances with surrounding godless
countries. Jeremiah preached to this group, proclaiming a message
of judgment. He said that because the people had ignored Yahweh and
followed the desires of their own hearts, and because they had made
pacts with lands who worshipped other gods, they were going to fall.
God, Jeremiah said, is raising up a terrible, ruthless and godless
people who will come and conquer Judah. Judah will be captured, the
walls of the temple will be broken down and the captors will take away
all the artifacts that the people of Judah have held dear.
Jeremiah never had the luxury of a
faithful, admiring audience. Instead, he proclaimed the message
faithfully to a hostile crowd. They were by no means happy with
the words that he spoke. Jeremiah could be likened to a speaker going
before delegates at the Republican convention, where people had
assembled to sing the praises of both America and George W. Bush and to
re-nominate Bush as the Presidential candidate who would “restore the
greatness of America”. Imagine Jeremiah standing up before this
exuberant group and saying, America is going to fall because they have
become a godless nation. God is raising up a ruthless and cruel
people who will conquer the land and take control of the country,
overthrowing much of what has been taken for granted. Do you think he
would make it off of the stage alive? Certainly, he would be booed and
loudly chastised. If that is too much of a mental stretch, think
of him saying something similar to the Canadian parliament. Can’t you
just hear the MPs shouting and pounding their desks!
In Jeremiah’s culture, it was believed
that God raised up nations, and if they were disobedient, he caused
their downfall. Jeremiah thundered “you have forgotten God! You will be
punished.” We don’t use language that blunt anymore, but we still
believe that nations who are swept by corruption, disrespect for
people, and selfish gains at the expense of many are doomed to failure
and ultimate demise. We in the Church believe that if as a nation
we forget the ways of God, then we are on a slippery slope. Unless
there is a change, we will lose respect and lose our souls as we fall
because of selfishness and the lust for more and more no matter at
whose expense it might be gained. It has happened to every great empire
in the history of the world. And Canada and America will fall
into greed, indifference and pursuit of the pleasure principle unless
we heed the lessons of history. Either we obey God, or we obey whatever
god we create in his place.
As a true prophet, Jeremiah also holds
out hope. His message is that God punishes with a heavy heart.
God always holds up a picture of restoration. That is the Biblical
image. For Moses, it was deliverance; for the prophets, restoration
through the remaking of a people of faith. In New Testament times, this
is called resurrection. The biblical themes are consistent. God loves,
and God demands loyalty, but God also forgives and restores.
Although Jeremiah is critical and very
judgmental in the early parts of his prophesy, he is also conciliatory
in the middle of the book. In chapter 31, after warning of the
collapse of Judah, Jeremiah says these words:
“Behold the days are coming says the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the
house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my
covenant which they broke though I was their husband, says the Lord.
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord; I will put my law within them, and I
will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall
be my people.”
Now back to our text, in chapter 18.
Right in the midst of chastising the people and proclaiming the awful
things that were going to happen to them, the word comes to Jeremiah to
go to the house of the potter and there he would hear the word of
God. That continues to be the way that God works. Usually, you
will find the message of God in the activities of the world. Go to a
school and see a student who has everything stacked against him or her;
a poor home environment, little encouragement, not much money, and
clothes that are not in vogue. And see that student blossom and
change, because of a teacher who cares and encourages. See an
industrialist like Bill Seath in Chicago, picking up derelicts from
skid row and offering them a job in his shops. Sure there are many
failures and many who take advantage of him, but some are changed and
become responsible citizens who can hold their head high because they
have heard the call to a better way. That’s how God works, often.
Jeremiah goes to the potter’s home and
witnesses him spinning clay on a foot driven wheel. The clay is
spoiled, and the image that he had in mind simply does not pan out. But
instead of discarding the clay, the potter remoulds it into a different
image, and it is good in his eyes. Then the word came to me, says
Jeremiah. “Cannot the Lord do with the nation what the potter has
done”? Cannot God do in Squamish United what the potter has done? If,
you turn from your evil, I will repent of the evil I had intended, says
the Lord. Next, Jeremiah hears that he is to go and tell the
nation that great evil is planned against them, but if they will return
to the ways of God, they can be remade into a useable people-just as
Jeremiah saw the potter do with clay.
This Biblical message is repeated over
and over again, in each and every generation. The Christian does not
condone ungodly living, the Christian redeems it: and the remarkable
thing about our God is that this redemptive action is not dependent
upon knowledge or scholarship, it is experiential. Listen for a
moment to some of the people whom God has used throughout the pages of
history. Noah shamed his family by getting drunk and cavorting
while naked. Abraham said he was too old, yet he became the
Father of a nation- the message here is, no matter how old you are, God
can use you. The old excuse “I’ve served and done my time”
doesn’t wash in Church work. Then there was Jacob, the father of
12 sons whose name was changed to Israel; he received the birthright
from his Father Isaac by lying. Joseph was sold into slavery, yet
became a great leader in Egypt. Moses begged off of the
leadership of the Children of Israel saying he was unable to speak
well. Rahab was a prostitute, yet she helped the Israelite spies
out of the Promised Land. She is listed in the genealogy of
Jesus. Jeremiah said that he was too young. David, the great
King, had an adulteress affair with Bathsheba and was responsible for
the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. Jonah hated the
Ninevites and ran from God when he was called to preach to the
Ninevites. Afterwards, they listened to him, and God forgave
them. But Jonah was mad at God for being so forgiving! In
the New Testament, Jesus chose 12 ordinary guys to be his disciples.
They never understood what Jesus was doing. They were unhappy with him
when he went to Jerusalem. They argued over who was the greatest. One
denied he had ever known Jesus; none of them stayed around to witness
the crucifixion except John, and the crucifixion transpired, in part
because one of the twelve betrayed Jesus and led him into the hands of
his enemies.
It’s not a very impressive list.
Yet that is how the work of God has been accomplished. A spirit greater
than themselves has somehow grasped ordinary people, in the midst
of their ordinary, often flawed living, and great things have resulted.
Our God is a forgiving God who works through people and the people God
chooses are never perfect people. God can use every one of you here, so
please don’t sell yourself short; God may be calling you.
In Brennan Manning’s book,”The Lion
and the Lamb” a story is told about a new convert to Christianity. An
unbelieving friend speaks to this person as follows. “So, you
have been converted and are believing in Jesus Christ.” ”Yes’
that’s true.” “Well, you must know a great deal about him, tell
me, what country was he born in?” “I don’t know” “He didn’t
live very long; how old was he when he died?” “I don’t know” “How
many sermons did he preach, and how long was he a leader?” “I
don’t know.” “You certainly don’t know very much about this Jesus
to whom you have been converted and who you say you are
following.” The new convert answers, “You are right. I am ashamed
at how little I know about him. But, this much I know: three years I
was a drunkard. I was in debt. My family was falling to pieces; they
dreaded the sight of me. But, now I am a recovering alcoholic who is
sober. We are out of debt. Ours is a happy home. My children eagerly
await my return home each evening. This much I know of Christ.”
It’s experiential. This man did not know much theology, he had never
studied religious or even biblical history, but because of an
encounter, his life had been changed. God forgives the past, and
beckons us on to a new tomorrow. That is exactly what Jeremiah was
saying in the language of his era.
You and I are like clay in the
potter’s hands. If, with the best of intentions, the object the
potter has in mind doesn’t turn out the way he envisioned, it is still
reusable. It is placed back on the wheel and remade into the vision the
creator had in the first place. That is the message we want to
proclaim in this Church of Christ. We don’t care what you have done in
the past. If you believe in God now, the God revealed in Jesus Christ,
than you are forgiven. The past is wiped out. You now have the toughest
job of all and that is forgiving yourself. So often, when I talk to
people and tell them this story, they say, that is too good to be true,
or I am having difficulty with that. But it is true. Part of
being a Christian is believing that you..and you..and you are forgiven.
You are the recipients of God’s love, which simply cannot be grasped in
our human limited minds. That is the leap of faith.
Now comes the hard part. If we are to
be a Church, a true Church right here on Fourth Avenue in Squamish,
then you and I have to believe this also. It is our role as followers
of Christ to welcome anyone who comes into this building with open
arms. We are not to be judgmental, simply because someone is different.
Maybe, just maybe, the one we are having some difficulty with is the
one whom the potter is remaking into his own image. Let’s face
it, we are located in an area of town where probably we are not going
to attract the successful and religiously faithful. The people coming
to us will, in all probability, not be educated in how the Church
functions. They probably will not bring a religious memory with them.
They probably will be like crude clay. Our task is to welcome them, and
then to throw all kinds of parties so that we get to know them and
share our lives with theirs until we can all enjoy the accepting love
of a gracious saviour.
Mike Yaconelli, in his great book,
“Messy Christianity” reminds us that many Christians are like play
writers. Many have already cast the characters in their play. The
religious people in Jesus’ day had already cast the role for him. When
Jesus said that he was the Messiah, they screamed, “No way, there is no
such Messiah in our script, and even if there was, it would not be you.
Our Messiah does not break rules or heal on the Sabbath.”
Yaconelli reminds us once again- “Do you see why Christianity is
called the “good news”? Christianity is an equal opportunity faith,
open to all, in spite of the playwrights in all Churches who are
anxious to announce: “there is no place for you in our Church if you
wear an earring/ have a tattoo/drink wine/have too many questions/look
weird/swear/dance/aren’t baptized/ have pink hair/are of the wrong
ethnic group/have a nose ring/have had an abortion/are gay or lesbian/
are too liberal or too conservative.”
Jesus believed that Messiahs and
Churches find places for those who have no place. Look at who he
invited-sleazy businessmen, terrorists, fishermen, dockworkers, bully
tax collectors, psychotics and hopelessly deranged outcasts, rather
than the successful, rich and elite of society. His message was
the same as Jeremiah the prophet, who, no doubt, was known by Jesus
from his Jewish upbringing. It remains the same. Welcome to
Squamish United Church, dear friend. Please join me on the potter’s
wheel. We are going to become something beautiful!