Who are you really?
Commentary
Object:
Under the guise of harshness, the prophet Jeremiah wants us to see in God’s earnest desire to get our attention a desperate attempt to get us turned from a ruinous path. Under the guise of a friend who has no legal standing in the matter of a slaveholder and his runaway slave, Paul speaks gently but firmly in an attempt to force the slaveowner’s hand. Jesus appears to some in the guise of a miracle worker and a healer, but he reveals himself to be one who speaks words of warning in a harsh fashion in the hopes that true healing will take place.
Who are you really? Potter? Prophet? Apostle? Suffering Servant? God With Us?
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Those who have never read science fiction think that the genre is in the business of predicting the future. Certainly some writers have been able to project and predict future events. (Although just as many have been spectacularly wrong!) But as one science fiction author once said (and no one seems to know for sure whether it was George Herbert, Ray Bradbury, or Theodore Sturgeon): “Sometimes science fiction is written to prevent, not predict the future.”
There’s a bit of that thought in this passage from Jeremiah. The image of God as the potter who builds up or breaks down utilizes something that was recognizable to all in the prophet’s day in order to suggest that God, as the Divine Potter, can make or break nations who are obedient or disobedient. Not only that, God may say one thing -- but if the nation in question repents on the one hand or turns to evil on the other, God’s mind can be changed! In other words, you can’t sit on your laurels.
Some Christians believe in the formulation “once saved, always saved,” which may be true from the vantage point of eternity but may be a dangerous one to espouse in real life while the clock is still ticking. Jeremiah is suggesting that one might think one is saved and be very, very wrong.
God as the potter says, in effect: “If you are not willing to bend, to be remolded to my will, you will be re-created in destruction.” And this is said not to predict an outcome, but to prevent it!
Philemon 1:1-21
This looks like a private letter from the apostle Paul to Philemon, who is the head of the house church that meets in his villa -- but there is nothing private about this public letter.
Letters in the ancient world were not usually private. Who does Paul greet? Not just Philemon, but Philemon’s wife Apphia (spouses were often called brother and sister), Archippus (who was probably not only a co-founder of the church in Colossae but a prominent member), and everyone else in the house church! In addition, Paul sends greetings from a number of evidently prominent Christians, including Luke and Mark!
And if that weren’t enough, Paul makes it clear that, if he gets the chance, when he’s released from jail he will make a visit to Philemon’s house church. Without stating this overtly, Paul makes it clear that even if he has the right to do so, Philemon cannot punish his slave Onesimus by having him flogged or branded or lopping off a body part or killing him without having everyone know that Paul’s going to know. Everyone includes his wife Apphia, Archippus, and the whole church, as well as Paul’s friends, which include not one but two gospel writers!
Coercive? Well, maybe passive-aggressive. What Paul is telling Philemon is that an era where letters are read out loud in front of the entire house church is, like our YouTube age, one of total transparency, whether we like it or not.
Paul has no legal standing in the matter, yet he is speaking the truth to a slaveowner, the leader of a house church. What was the result? According to the 4th-century church historian Eusebius, Onesimus eventually became the overseer or strawboss (sometimes translated “bishop”) of the church at Colossae. That’s telling.
Luke 14:25-33
Nowadays you hear the phrase “all in,” suggesting that the only true commitment to a cause is 100 percent. As Jesus continues to travel to Jerusalem with the cross in full view, there’s no question he is all in. But although the crowds seem to demonstrate enthusiasm, Jesus challenges them to consider: Are they will to give up everything, if necessary, in order to follow him? Are they all in?
Images of hating one’s family or carrying a cross are startling, even distasteful. Telling the story of a builder who fails to properly prepare to build a structure, or a king who doesn’t take an honest look at his army’s strength, demands of us that we count the cost.
Is this off-putting, or truth in advertising? Do we say we’re all in when we’re only in until the going gets tough? Who are you really? A disciple of Jesus Christ, or a church tourist?
Who are you really? Potter? Prophet? Apostle? Suffering Servant? God With Us?
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Those who have never read science fiction think that the genre is in the business of predicting the future. Certainly some writers have been able to project and predict future events. (Although just as many have been spectacularly wrong!) But as one science fiction author once said (and no one seems to know for sure whether it was George Herbert, Ray Bradbury, or Theodore Sturgeon): “Sometimes science fiction is written to prevent, not predict the future.”
There’s a bit of that thought in this passage from Jeremiah. The image of God as the potter who builds up or breaks down utilizes something that was recognizable to all in the prophet’s day in order to suggest that God, as the Divine Potter, can make or break nations who are obedient or disobedient. Not only that, God may say one thing -- but if the nation in question repents on the one hand or turns to evil on the other, God’s mind can be changed! In other words, you can’t sit on your laurels.
Some Christians believe in the formulation “once saved, always saved,” which may be true from the vantage point of eternity but may be a dangerous one to espouse in real life while the clock is still ticking. Jeremiah is suggesting that one might think one is saved and be very, very wrong.
God as the potter says, in effect: “If you are not willing to bend, to be remolded to my will, you will be re-created in destruction.” And this is said not to predict an outcome, but to prevent it!
Philemon 1:1-21
This looks like a private letter from the apostle Paul to Philemon, who is the head of the house church that meets in his villa -- but there is nothing private about this public letter.
Letters in the ancient world were not usually private. Who does Paul greet? Not just Philemon, but Philemon’s wife Apphia (spouses were often called brother and sister), Archippus (who was probably not only a co-founder of the church in Colossae but a prominent member), and everyone else in the house church! In addition, Paul sends greetings from a number of evidently prominent Christians, including Luke and Mark!
And if that weren’t enough, Paul makes it clear that, if he gets the chance, when he’s released from jail he will make a visit to Philemon’s house church. Without stating this overtly, Paul makes it clear that even if he has the right to do so, Philemon cannot punish his slave Onesimus by having him flogged or branded or lopping off a body part or killing him without having everyone know that Paul’s going to know. Everyone includes his wife Apphia, Archippus, and the whole church, as well as Paul’s friends, which include not one but two gospel writers!
Coercive? Well, maybe passive-aggressive. What Paul is telling Philemon is that an era where letters are read out loud in front of the entire house church is, like our YouTube age, one of total transparency, whether we like it or not.
Paul has no legal standing in the matter, yet he is speaking the truth to a slaveowner, the leader of a house church. What was the result? According to the 4th-century church historian Eusebius, Onesimus eventually became the overseer or strawboss (sometimes translated “bishop”) of the church at Colossae. That’s telling.
Luke 14:25-33
Nowadays you hear the phrase “all in,” suggesting that the only true commitment to a cause is 100 percent. As Jesus continues to travel to Jerusalem with the cross in full view, there’s no question he is all in. But although the crowds seem to demonstrate enthusiasm, Jesus challenges them to consider: Are they will to give up everything, if necessary, in order to follow him? Are they all in?
Images of hating one’s family or carrying a cross are startling, even distasteful. Telling the story of a builder who fails to properly prepare to build a structure, or a king who doesn’t take an honest look at his army’s strength, demands of us that we count the cost.
Is this off-putting, or truth in advertising? Do we say we’re all in when we’re only in until the going gets tough? Who are you really? A disciple of Jesus Christ, or a church tourist?
