September 8, 2013 – Jeremiah 18:1-11; Luke 14:25-33
Jeremiah 18:1-11; Luke 14:25-33
God’s Dream: What God Wants or The Tiki Mug Sermon
16th Sunday after Pentecost [Lectionary 23] – September 8, 2013
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
You just never know who you’re going to run into at a funeral.
This summer at my sister-in-law’s funeral I ran into a person I hadn’t seen in over 20 years.
Peter owned and ran an independent hardware store in Regina: Peter’s Hardware.
And when I was in university I had a great summer job at the store for several years.
Peter’s Hardware was kind of famous because Peter was a character.
He worshipped at our church, but he was originally a Roman Catholic.
And he never tired of reminding me in his Ukrainian accent,
“Remember: there were Catholics before there were Lutherans,”
except the word “Catholics” always came out sounding like “Cadillacs,”
which amused me.
Peter taught me how to repair many things, including windows.
To do that, you’d have to cut glass to size.
He let me practice on odd-size pieces of glass, and if you made a mistake,
into the broken glass bin it would go with a terrific crash, which was kind of fun.
And kind of final:
the thing was: you couldn’t put the broken glass back together.
Eventually it’d get tossed away.
You couldn’t really start over once you’d ruined a piece of glass.
Unlike with a potter.
Our gorgeous baptismal font was a dream we’d had here at First Lutheran for several years.
We asked a local potter Valerie Metcalf to make it for us, to make the dream come alive.
But it was a difficult piece to throw on her wheel because of its large size.
She eventually got it just right because she’s a pro, but I’m sure it took many tries.
Fortunately, if she made a mistake with her clay, she didn’t have to throw it into the bin and
start all over with new clay.
Oh no: she just patiently began again with the same old clay until she got what she wanted.
When Jeremiah visits the potter’s shed it’s significant that the potter can keep shaping the
clay she has until she gets what she wants.
If it doesn’t turn out right, the potter can start over with the same clay.
Jeremiah draws the conclusion that the nation of Israel, despite its many flaws,
despite wandering after other gods, despite having priorities other than God’s,
despite its neglect of the vulnerable:
Despite all these things, God will not write Israel off and toss it into the broken bin.
God will remain faithful and try to reshape the clay once more, until God gets what God wants.
And there’s the good news in the reading today: God just will not give up on the clay.
God has a dream for you, and a dream for me, for sure a dream for our congregation and
our life together: and God will not give up on you, or give up on us.
God will not write you off and toss you into the bin and start over with someone else.
God will patiently wait for your life to assume the shape God had in mind for it when
God first began to form your inward parts in your mother’s womb.
You are here this morning as part of a grand dream that God has for us.
This is great news: it is great news for you. It is great news for us.
It is great news for our neighbourhood and for the world.
This is good news, but here’s the thing.
Yeah: this is good news, but the thing is is that the difficult news is not far behind.
The thing is is that this news is about what God wants from the clay.
The difficult thing about all this is that it’s about God’s dream.
It’s not about you and your dream: it’s about what God wants, and God’s dream.
For you. For us. For this world.
Jesus gets at this in his usual provocative way.
In the strongest possible language he looks at the people who have sort of
jumped onto his bandwagon and says, This whole thing: it’s not about you.
It’s about God’s mission to love bless heal and restore this world and every person in it.
Yes he does say that if you really want to be part of this you have to hate your
father and mother and spouse and children: But we know Jesus likes to be provocative.
Jesus certainly doesn’t want you to hate anyone.
It’s just his way of saying that
the allegiance you have to God and God’s dream and God’s reign must be
placed above every other allegiance you have, whether that allegiance is to
family, or success, or comfort, or possessions, or money, or whatever.
Because Jesus’s dream is that we will all fully and completely inhabit God’s reign of
mercy, and compassion, and manna-sharing, and justice, and peace.
If you want to be my follower, he says, take up your cross and follow me.
And by that he certainly doesn’t mean that you must be a doormat, or deal with chronic illness,
Or be a victim of abuse: what he means by bearing the cross is simply
what you do in your everyday life because of your commitment to Jesus.
That’s why we blessed all these everyday useful things this morning with the children:
They are part of your cross-bearing work,
part of your work as God’s representatives in the world,
part of what you do in your everyday life because of your commitment to Jesus.
The word that came to Michael from the Lord:
“Come, go down to the thrift store, and there I will let you hear my words.”
So I went down to the thrift store, and there were many old tiki mugs.
The tiki mugs bore the images and faces and bodies of tikis,
the old Polynesian gods and ancestors whom the ancients worshipped.
I saw how the makers of these mugs took an old book of Oceanic Arts,
and used their imagination on the mugs to make from the clay something unique,
and useful, and whimsical, and delightful.
From mysterious markings on the mugs,
I saw how people originally bought them at some Polynesian restaurant in the 50s or 60s,
and brought them home to use them.
“Whoa, God,” I said, “a Mr. Bali Hai mug.
“You know: the Bali Hai Restaurant in San Diego is
still going strong after all these years?”
And the Lord said, “Mm hm. Michael?
“Yes, Lord?”
“Stay focussed.”
“Right, Lord.”
And I saw how when the people had no more use for the mugs,
they did not throw them away and destroy them.
Rather, they were brought to the thrift store to be useful and delightful to someone else who
would search them out.
Then the word of the Lord came to me:
Can I not do with you, O people of First Lutheran Church,
just as has been done with these tiki mugs?
Just like the clay in the tiki mug maker’s hand, people of First Lutheran Church,
so are you in my hand.
Fearfully and wonderfully made,
I have made you unique, and useful, and whimsical, and delightful.
But you have been filled with that which does not profit.
You have been filled with that which is not worthy of you.
You were made to bear my image, and bear my goodness.
But when you did not bear these things, I did not destroy you.
I have waited for you. I have searched you out. I have brought you here.
In order to bear my image to the world.
And bear within you that which I will give you.
And you will be useful and delightful to me.
And useful and delightful to your neighbours: I will re-imagine you.
Tell the people, Michael.
“Yes, Lord, I will tell them.”
Tell the people, O Michael.
“Yes, Lord, I will tell them.”
Michael: tell the people!
“Okay, okay: I’m telling them right now!”
Tell them they are useful to me!
Tell them I will give them the bread of compassion and the wine of love.
Tell them I will fill them the port of mercy and the mead of forgiveness.
Tell them I will fill them with the elixir of strength and the libation of hope.
Tell them they are not to be stuck away in some rec room of despair with
wood panelling and shag carpet.
Tell them they are to be useful to me in the streets and in the roads,
in the workplaces and in the homes, in the board rooms and in the dining rooms.
At work and at school. At home and in their neighbours’ homes:
they are to bear my image and take and give away what I will give them.
And be useful. And delightful.
And they will have it in them, for I will give it to them.
Tell them to come and be filled:
filled with my words, and filled with what I will give them at my table.
And the Lord said, “Whoa. Nice Aku Aku Rum Barrel. You got that for a dollar? Nice score!
And I said, “Thanks, Lord.”
And the Lord said, “You know on eBay that’ll go for 60 or 70 bucks, right?”
And I said, “Mm hm. Lord?”
And the Lord said, “What?”
And I said, “Try and stay focussed.”
So let the people say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
