Reflection 5 September 2010

Year C Proper 18 5 September 2010

Jeremiah 18: 1-11 Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-18 Philemon 1-21 Luke 14: 25-33


Sometimes you have to wonder how Jesus had any followers at all, as he said some pretty hard things and our Gospel reading for this week is one fine example. I do wish that every church would take great notice of this reading and understand that if Jesus was more concerned about the absolute truth than he was about numbers of people on pews then we should be too.

The scene set is one where multitudes were flocking to follow Jesus. I guess we could say the crowds were “fair weather” friends. Who wouldn’t want to follow the man who turned water into wine and a few loaves and fish into a feast to feed thousands? These crowds were so convinced that Jesus was something special that they were actually travelling with him. We do have people like this today. They are those who go to every Christian conference, hooked on the high of large crowds and the knowledge that they are part of the happening thing. Hmm... sounds like a good thing to me!

It was a good thing that these crowds were following Jesus. They were putting their faith in the right place and they were learning as they went, but Jesus needed to prepare them and strengthen them for the future ahead. Do we, as church, follow Jesus’ example in preparing people for the tough times so that they can hold firm to Christ through all the storms of life?

Jesus talks to the crowd about counting the cost. We really do need to take stock and understand the cost – and then decide to follow Jesus anyway. Why? The road is tough, but Jesus is the truth, the life and the only way.

Looking at the Gospel reading we may all agree that the Christian life is difficult.... some have said it is actually impossible... and I agree. The only way that it is possible to live the Christian life is to allow Jesus to continue leading, teaching and guiding us – allow him to live his life through us. In fact we need the Holy Spirit to be continually moulding us.

In the last few weeks we heard about the call of Jeremiah and how he was ordained for the purpose of God before he was born. This week we read in the psalm that God knew us before our bodies were formed or we had any notion of self awareness.
Psalm 139: 16 “your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
We get a sense from this that Jeremiah was not the only one whose life was foreknown by God, but that all of us are somehow uniquely included and individually known and ordained.

Sometimes, though we may have once felt called by God, we feel that we have failed God and wonder how he could have any purpose left for us, considering our past failure. Our reading from Jeremiah takes us to the place of the potter.
Jeremiah 18: 3,4 “So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
The message from God through Jeremiah explains that God can reshape His nation depending on their response and submission to him.

The image that comes to me when I look at all the readings is that of the butterfly. It is a message of transformation. In the first reading from Jeremiah we see the potential for transformation and the promise that God makes to reform and not abandon to destruction, those who turn to him. Our psalm doesn’t so much speak of transformation as it does of God supreme knowledge of our formation. This prompts me to realize that what seems like transformation to us is really just part of the formation that God had always intended.

Our second reading comes from St. Paul in his letter to Philemon. This is a story of amazing transformation though it is mostly evident when we understand the back ground. In this letter Paul is pleading to Philemon for Onesimus:
Philemon 1: 8 “Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, 9yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus— 10I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. 11Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.”

What has happened that Paul needed to make this appeal for Onesimus?
Onesimus was a slave of Philemon who had run away after stealing from Philemon. Somehow the path of Paul and Onesimus was destined to cross and in the process Onesimus became a Christian.

Twice in the letter from St. Paul we read that Paul addresses himself as a prisoner of Christ. Paul was born a free man who had an enviable social status, but he became a Christian and became a prisoner of Christ. Onesimus was a slave, but in becoming a Christian, he discovered that he was a son of the living God. Paul treated Onesimus as his son and asked Philemon to charge anything Onesimus owed him to his account. Onesimus was being sent back to his master, Philemon, but not as a thieving slave, which was his identity when he left, but now as a brother in Christ and an heir of the Kingdom of God. No longer was Onesimus the plain little grub, but now he’d become the majestic butterfly.

Our own transformation (or formation, which ever way you look at it) happens in stages and is constantly happening. There are struggles and tough choices. Jesus tells us in the Gospel Luke 14: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Seems ridiculous! Technically the term hate throughout the Bible is used in the context of “loved less”. It was used to explain God’s choosing of Jacob (Israel) over Esau – not that God hated Esau, but that he deliberately chose to love Jacob.

For many of us and for people throughout Biblical and Christian history, God’s call and demand has been to love and care for our, mothers, fathers, spouses, children and brothers and sisters.... but none of these must take the place that God wants to have in our hearts. None of these must become our “god”.

Likewise it is innate to love our own life.... even if we have a love/hate relationship with it. Most of our lives we spend on trying to “save” our lives.... to make our lives... to make our life something, because we really do love it – even though we will often say that life sux! We actually are becoming a society that idolizes our lives. Our despair occurs when we think our life is not what it could be... not as successful and outstanding as someone elses.
Yes God, I’ll follow you, but can you please give me fame and fortune! Okay, not everyone is as shallow as me.... your prayer might be, “yes God, I’ll follow you, but can I please secure my superannuation first?” God’s answer might be yes, or no, but what he requires is for us to love Him more. Perhaps before we can do that we need to think right now about the cost of following him and what it is that we owe him.

We owe God everything. Without Jesus there is no hope of salvation and no eternal life. There is no future beyond this life and nothing to look forward to but fear, conflict, loss and decay.

As a butterfly comes out of its cocoon it struggles and takes quite a long time. The struggle actually helps with the final formation of the butterfly and without this the butterfly will emerge deformed.
We struggle to say yes to God and to follow Jesus and put him above all else, but if we do not struggle we will not emerge. The choice is yours and no one is saying that it will be easy, but really there is no other choice. The cocoon my feel secure and comfortable, but you will die in there.