Proper 18
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons:
With an Eye to the New
Have you ever seen a potter at work at his wheel? If you have, you know that fashioning pottery can be a very strenuous exercise. Potters don't "make a pot." They "throw a pot." The clay is thrown upon the wheel, pounded, whirled, shaped by the artisan's hands and fingers, until it takes the form that the potter wishes for it.
So it is with Israel, according to our text for the morning, and so it is with us. God the Potter is fashioning us into the people that he wants us to be. And sometimes it seems as if he works very strenuously with us, turning us about from some direction we have taken, pounding us with adversity, shaping us by the ups and downs of our daily life until we become the people he wants us to be. But it is all for the purpose of making us into cups that can contain a drink of cold water or into earthen vessels that can hold the treasures of his gospel.
The divine Potter works not only with individuals, however, but also with whole nations, shaping and forming or shattering and discarding. Our text is quite clear about God's sovereignty over all nations, and we must remember that our lives are finally subject not to international politics or multinational corporations or military planning, but to the will of the Lord who rules all of human history.
This narrative in the prophecies of Jeremiah comes from the Deuteronomic strand of material found so copiously in the prophet's book. It records an action of the prophet and the Word of God that came to Jeremiah in the early years of his ministry, after the failure of the Deuteronomic reform in 621 B.C. and before the death of the good king Josiah in 609 B.C. Josiah had tried to reform his apostate nation, banning all Canaanite practices and the worship of the pagan Canaanite gods. But as verse 12 indicates, the people of Judah had refused to change their idolatrous and unjust practices, despite the fact that they had renewed their covenant with the Lord on the basis of the laws of Deuteronomy (2 Chronicles 34-35).
Yet the Lord is incredibly merciful, wanting always to forgive and to restore, if his people will amend their ways and dedicate their hearts anew to God. That mercy is spelled out for Jeremiah and through him, for us, in this analogy to a potter's work. As an artisan works with a lump of clay, occasionally the clay seems to have a mind of its own, taking a shape that the potter never intended. But that does not mean that the potter simply throws away the clay and chooses another lump. No. The potter starts over with the same lump, and reworks it until it has the desired form.
The message is clear for Judah. She is not a covenant people whose ways are pleasing to her Lord. But God will not discard her and forget his covenant with her. Instead he will reform, rework, reshape her life, if she will let him do so.
None of us is beyond God's reforming and renewal of us. Our sinful past need not determine our future. Our divine Potter can mercifully forget our past. He can "remove our transgressions from us" "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12). He can make us anew. The old can be done away. We can become God's new creations through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). But we must be willing to let God work that transformation in our sinful lives. We must respond to his mercy, accept his invitation to become new, commit ourselves into his hands to be shaped and molded to his will.
Judah was not willing to allow God that sovereignty. She was the vessel that strived with her Maker, the clay that resisted the Potter (Isaiah 45:9). And so she was destroyed by the armies of Babylonia and sent into exile. Yet, even then, God would not throw her away forever. And afterwards he promised her a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:10-11).
Should we resist such persistent love that will not discard us as useless? God wants to make of us beautiful earthen vessels into which he can pour his joy and love and which he can use for his purpose. There really is no higher calling that we could have on this earth.
Lutheran Option: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Israel is portrayed as camped in Moab on the eastern side of the Jordan, in the Book of Deuteronomy, looking over into the land that God promised from the first to her forbears. But before she crosses over into the land, Moses delivers three farewell addresses to the people. Those words are contained in the first 26 chapters of the book. In chapters 27-30, then, the Sinai covenant with the Lord is renewed, and this passage forms the closing instruction of that covenant.
Israel's entrance into the land of Canaan will form for her, in Deuteronomy's theology, a time of testing. Will she remain faithful to the Lord who has delivered her from slavery in Egypt, and who has guided her through the terrors of the wilderness, giving her manna to eat and water from the rock? Or will she go after the fertility gods of the Canaanites and seek her good and her life from them?
Israel stands at midpoint in her journey. Her redemption out of slavery lies in the past. Her entrance into the good life of rest and salvation in the promised land lies ahead. And in that situation, Israel's journey is very much like ours in our pilgrimage with God. We too are at the midpoint between our redemption out of slavery to sin and death by the cross of Christ and our final salvation in the Kingdom of God. The question of Deuteronomy is therefore very much a question for us also. Will we be faithful to the God who redeemed us and who has guided us through the wildernesses of our lives? Or will we run after other gods and things and look to them for our good and salvation? We too face the test of our faith, the test that can give us life or death, blessing or curse.
Our Lord Jesus set that test very clearly before us in the Sermon on the Mount. "Enter by the narrow gate," he taught, "for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13-14). Life or death, blessing or curse. We still face that choice.
Deuteronomy is very clear as to what we are to do in order to choose life. Four verbal phrases in our text characterize that choice: "obey the commandments," "loving the Lord," "walking in his ways," "keeping his commandments" (v. 16). At the center of Deuteronomy's law is the command to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and might (Deuteronomy 6:5), and we have that love, says Deuteronomy, when we obey the Lord's commandments and walk according to his will, given us in the scriptures. Jesus said the same thing. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15).
But that is not a legalistic command in either Old Testament or New. It points to our obedience out of a heart full of gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us. As 1 John would say, "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). We respond in obedience to God's love by walking in the way of his guidance in his commandments, given us in the scriptures. And that love and that obedience, proclaim both Testaments, form the way to life and not death, to blessing and not curse. If we desire life, abundant life, pressed down and running over, that comes from the Lord who redeemed us and whom we now love with all our hearts.
So it is with Israel, according to our text for the morning, and so it is with us. God the Potter is fashioning us into the people that he wants us to be. And sometimes it seems as if he works very strenuously with us, turning us about from some direction we have taken, pounding us with adversity, shaping us by the ups and downs of our daily life until we become the people he wants us to be. But it is all for the purpose of making us into cups that can contain a drink of cold water or into earthen vessels that can hold the treasures of his gospel.
The divine Potter works not only with individuals, however, but also with whole nations, shaping and forming or shattering and discarding. Our text is quite clear about God's sovereignty over all nations, and we must remember that our lives are finally subject not to international politics or multinational corporations or military planning, but to the will of the Lord who rules all of human history.
This narrative in the prophecies of Jeremiah comes from the Deuteronomic strand of material found so copiously in the prophet's book. It records an action of the prophet and the Word of God that came to Jeremiah in the early years of his ministry, after the failure of the Deuteronomic reform in 621 B.C. and before the death of the good king Josiah in 609 B.C. Josiah had tried to reform his apostate nation, banning all Canaanite practices and the worship of the pagan Canaanite gods. But as verse 12 indicates, the people of Judah had refused to change their idolatrous and unjust practices, despite the fact that they had renewed their covenant with the Lord on the basis of the laws of Deuteronomy (2 Chronicles 34-35).
Yet the Lord is incredibly merciful, wanting always to forgive and to restore, if his people will amend their ways and dedicate their hearts anew to God. That mercy is spelled out for Jeremiah and through him, for us, in this analogy to a potter's work. As an artisan works with a lump of clay, occasionally the clay seems to have a mind of its own, taking a shape that the potter never intended. But that does not mean that the potter simply throws away the clay and chooses another lump. No. The potter starts over with the same lump, and reworks it until it has the desired form.
The message is clear for Judah. She is not a covenant people whose ways are pleasing to her Lord. But God will not discard her and forget his covenant with her. Instead he will reform, rework, reshape her life, if she will let him do so.
None of us is beyond God's reforming and renewal of us. Our sinful past need not determine our future. Our divine Potter can mercifully forget our past. He can "remove our transgressions from us" "as far as the east is from the west" (Psalm 103:12). He can make us anew. The old can be done away. We can become God's new creations through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). But we must be willing to let God work that transformation in our sinful lives. We must respond to his mercy, accept his invitation to become new, commit ourselves into his hands to be shaped and molded to his will.
Judah was not willing to allow God that sovereignty. She was the vessel that strived with her Maker, the clay that resisted the Potter (Isaiah 45:9). And so she was destroyed by the armies of Babylonia and sent into exile. Yet, even then, God would not throw her away forever. And afterwards he promised her a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:10-11).
Should we resist such persistent love that will not discard us as useless? God wants to make of us beautiful earthen vessels into which he can pour his joy and love and which he can use for his purpose. There really is no higher calling that we could have on this earth.
Lutheran Option: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Israel is portrayed as camped in Moab on the eastern side of the Jordan, in the Book of Deuteronomy, looking over into the land that God promised from the first to her forbears. But before she crosses over into the land, Moses delivers three farewell addresses to the people. Those words are contained in the first 26 chapters of the book. In chapters 27-30, then, the Sinai covenant with the Lord is renewed, and this passage forms the closing instruction of that covenant.
Israel's entrance into the land of Canaan will form for her, in Deuteronomy's theology, a time of testing. Will she remain faithful to the Lord who has delivered her from slavery in Egypt, and who has guided her through the terrors of the wilderness, giving her manna to eat and water from the rock? Or will she go after the fertility gods of the Canaanites and seek her good and her life from them?
Israel stands at midpoint in her journey. Her redemption out of slavery lies in the past. Her entrance into the good life of rest and salvation in the promised land lies ahead. And in that situation, Israel's journey is very much like ours in our pilgrimage with God. We too are at the midpoint between our redemption out of slavery to sin and death by the cross of Christ and our final salvation in the Kingdom of God. The question of Deuteronomy is therefore very much a question for us also. Will we be faithful to the God who redeemed us and who has guided us through the wildernesses of our lives? Or will we run after other gods and things and look to them for our good and salvation? We too face the test of our faith, the test that can give us life or death, blessing or curse.
Our Lord Jesus set that test very clearly before us in the Sermon on the Mount. "Enter by the narrow gate," he taught, "for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13-14). Life or death, blessing or curse. We still face that choice.
Deuteronomy is very clear as to what we are to do in order to choose life. Four verbal phrases in our text characterize that choice: "obey the commandments," "loving the Lord," "walking in his ways," "keeping his commandments" (v. 16). At the center of Deuteronomy's law is the command to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and might (Deuteronomy 6:5), and we have that love, says Deuteronomy, when we obey the Lord's commandments and walk according to his will, given us in the scriptures. Jesus said the same thing. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15).
But that is not a legalistic command in either Old Testament or New. It points to our obedience out of a heart full of gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us. As 1 John would say, "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). We respond in obedience to God's love by walking in the way of his guidance in his commandments, given us in the scriptures. And that love and that obedience, proclaim both Testaments, form the way to life and not death, to blessing and not curse. If we desire life, abundant life, pressed down and running over, that comes from the Lord who redeemed us and whom we now love with all our hearts.
