A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Johanna S. Morrigan
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Psalm 69:1-18
Romans 5:15b-19
Matthew 10: 16-23
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning's psalmist writes,
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep
mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
Jeremiah complains to God, "
O Lord, you have enticed me."
In Hebrew, the word for "entice" is pathah (paw-thaw') - it has a rather sinister meaning in this context. It means to delude or to deceive. Jeremiah is accusing the Lord God of tricking him -
of coaxing him into an intolerable situation where "Terror is all around."
And then we have Jesus saying, yup - it is pretty bad out there, and
I am sending you out there in the world like sheep among the wolves.
You are going to be dragged into court
You are going to be flogged.
You are going to be betrayed.
You are going to be hated.
What on earth are we supposed to make of all of this? We come to church to receive God's comfort and consolation after a week in the world where we are all too often worn down and tossed around by the chaos, violence, and despair of our society.
We expect our parish priest to be here to gather us in and to offer us the reassurance of God's love - To help us to heal our wounds of heart and soul.
But where is our parish priest? Where is our Rector? Where is our dearly beloved Charlie who shepherded and loved us so tenderly?
A few weeks ago, Pat was installed as our pastoral mentor. And the week or so before that, she talked about the death of the old ways - she said the days of the gentle, parish priest who could tend our wounds, visit the sick, counsel the bereaved, direct the liturgy, communicate with the Diocese, and preach the Word of God - that these days of the shepherd priest have drawn to a close.
And that now it is up to us - the sheep - to become our own shephards - and with the psalmist, I want to cry out "........Hey, God, the waters are up to my neck; I am sinking in the mire, where there is no foothold..." I want to join Jeremiah in complaining to God - you enticed me back into your church with the gentle love of your priest - and now he is gone. I feel betrayed, God!
And I can only wonder at how the apostles must have felt with Jesus' dire words.... I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of the wolves... What must those early believers have experienced - when they were told that they were being sent out on their own?
These were not scholarly men who had devoted their lives to the study of the Torah. They had no formal schooling or training. There were unskilled laborers - they were men who worked with their hands - fishermen, men of the soil. They were ordinary folks - filled with anxieties, fears, and doubts - just like me and you.
They had been shepherded and cared for by the greatest of all shepherds - who was now saying: o.k. - time to go - time to leave the nest - time to fly on your own.
They must have been absolutely terrified. Indeed - they too might have felt betrayed and tricked - just like Jeremiah. Who was this guy who taught about the boundless love of God - about freedom from the tyranny of the the law - (Remember, the Sabbath was made for men, not men for the Sabbath) - who had assured them of God's wonderful plans for them -, and now he was saying - by the way, you're on your own?
And furthermore, he was saying, it's not going to be easy. And it wasn't! The early Christians suffered hideous persecutions at the hands of the Romans. Persecutions that were intentionally designed to destroy them, and wipe them off the face of the earth. And, indeed, the tortures they suffered should have succeeded. All of us know of the Christians who were flung to lions or burned at the stake - but these were kindly deaths by comparison to some - Nero wrapped Christians in pitch and set them alight, using them as living torches to light his gardens. They were tortured on the rack; molten lead was poured hissing upon them - these are just a few of the many kinds of atrocities that our foremothers and forefathers suffered.
And yet, Christianity did not die out. Not only did it not die out, it flourished and grew; and as the good news continued to be spread throughout the world, the entire Roman Empire was brought to Christ.
How did this happen? How could ordinary, frail, weak human beings accomplish such a feat?
The answer, of course, is that they didn't do it alone. Our God never forsook them - nor has our God forsaken us today. Our God has always been with us, and our God is still here, just as God has always promised.
When Moses was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get the Israelites to pay any attention to him, much less to get Pharoe to let God's people go , God said to Moses, in Ex. 4:12, "Now go," GO!!! "...and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak."
Despite all of his whining and grumbling, Jeremiah was led to remember that which God had always promised: "...the Lord is with me......praise to the Lord! For he has deliverd the life of the needy."
Jesus reminded his followers to not be afraid about what to speak or what to do....
When they hand you over, do not worry about what you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit will always be with us - to guide us, to teach us, to give us what we need - reminding us that God uses and needs all of God's children to do God's work.
God cannot do it all alone. God needs us to be God's hands, and feet, and mouth to spread the good news of God's love to a weary world that so desparately needs to hear it. And God gives us everything we need to do that, through the Holy Spirit.
It must have really worked for the early Christians. Just look at the incredible obstacles they overcame. But this is 2000 years later. And we haven't done all that great with the world since then. It gets discouraging and It's pretty easy to focus on our weak points - our flaws and our faults - . Oh, we are reasonably sure that there are other people that have gifts which God can use - but we are not very sure about ourselves. We find ourselves saying things like, I'm not devout enough.....i'm too old......i'm too young........i'm not smart enough.........i'm too tired.......i'm too uncertain of my life's direction right now, maybe later.......i'm not ready......i've nothing left to give......someone else will have to do it.......i'm not good enough.............
Let me tell you a story. I don't know the author of the story - and if anyone does, I would love to know......here's how it goes:
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on either end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the river to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the river, "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apoligize to you." "Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years to deliver only half of my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Beause of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts".
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path." Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt sad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again the Pot apologized to the bearer for its failure. The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took adavantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his home.
Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But if we will allow it, the Lord will use our flaws to grace His Father's table. In God's great economy, nothing goes to waste. Don't be afraid of your flaws. Acknowledge them, and you too can be the cause of beauty. Know that in our weakness we find our strength.
Author Unknown.
As we continue our discernment of the gifts we have among ourselves, toward the goal of developing total ministry of all the baptized at Our Saviour's, let's remember that we are all cracked pots - and that God needs each and every one of us to water the body of Christ.
Amen.