Trinity 15:Difficult decisions

One of the most iconic cinematic scenes from the 1980s comes from the film Ghost, 

and it reminds me of our reading from the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. In that reading Jeremiah is retelling a vision God has given him,

 I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

Jeremiah 18:

You can read the full passage here.

Jeremiah is a prophet during a turbulent time in the Israelite’s history. Israel has already been divided into the two kingdoms of Israel in the north and Judah in the south; Jeremiah comes from Judah and at the age of twenty is called to be God’s prophet, gaining the ear of the king, Josiah, who is a similar age to him. There are stormy years ahead for Judah and for Jeremiah – Josiah dies at an early age and under successive kings the nation swings between godliness and paganism.

Jeremiah speaks into this. The prophecy, the vision of the potter reshaping the clay is a promise of a future for Judah that is good. Andrew Knowles writes:

At present a judgement hangs over Jerusalem, ready to fall. But there is time to repent. God is free to change his mind – both about his blessings and his punishments.

The Church of England, in which I serve, is not known for its love of change. To get anything done structurally can take months, years even, to get the right paperwork signed off from the various committees and organisations that care for historic buildings. It is difficult to change anything that isn’t structural as there is often a struggle between those who find comfort in things to remaining as they always have been, and those who seek the excitement of the new. There’s a story of a vicar who only succeeded in moving a piano from one side of the church to the other by inching it across week by week.

But sometimes change is good. Painful, but good. Sometimes things are so broken there is a change that needs to take place in order to mend them. Sometimes the change is physical, manipulating an arm back into its socket for example, or placing a leg in a brace or cast. Sometimes learning how to change posture can result in amazingly positive outcomes. Other times, the change is more internal, a change in outlook, a change of heart, repentance…

We are still us, just as the lump of clay stays the same, but in the hands of the potter the clay can be shaped and reshaped into something beautiful and useful. This is the promise that Jeremiah has to bear for Judah;

There is nothing fatal and final about God’s promises. They are opportunities to change.

Knowles

Paul’s letter to Philemon presents a really challenging opportunity for change as well as a dramatic illustration of how Jesus is turning things upside down. The ‘lump of clay’ at the heart of this story is a slave named Onesimus – which translates as ‘useful’. This slave has, however, become useless to Philemon, having run away from him. Culturally, the slave would be punished upon his return, however, this lump of clay has spent time in the hand of the potter and has been transformed. Onesimus is now a Christian, and as such has become a ‘brother’ to his ‘master’ who also shares the faith. Perhaps Philemon is truly the lump of clay being transformed: it is not enough for Philemon to profess to follow Jesus, he has to forgive his slave and even treat him as an equal.

Previously, Paul has written to the church at Colossae calling slave owners to care for their slaves rather than using them mercilessly (read it here), mind you he also calls slaves to work for  their masters as if they were working for Jesus himself. Paul here is trying to bring resolution to a conflict between Christian brothers, he is seeking a new way of working together. Repentance and forgiveness hand in hand.  We might want Paul to go further, to demand that Philemon not just forgive Onesimus but free him as well. Later Christians will work towards the abolition of slavery, but not yet. For now Paul, right at the beginning of the Christian faith is teaching that society can be changed by our changed attitudes, one step at a time. What is revealed beneath the forgiveness that Paul seeks for Onesimus  is a

Groundbreaking truth that Jesus doesn’t treat people as ‘slaves’ or ‘free’, but as God’s dear children.

Knowles

As with all the letters attributed to Paul, we only get one half of the story. We don’t have copies of the letters that are written in reply to Paul, or even the letters Paul replies to. We don’t know whether Philemon was able to forgive his servant, whether he was able to accept him as a brother in faith, or if he stuck to cultural expectations and severely punished Onesimus.

We do know, however, that in Ephesus, a little later on, there was a Bishop bearing the common slave name of Onesimus, who was martyred in AD95.

If this is indeed the same runaway servant, the same spoiled piece of clay that the potter remolded, then what hope and promise is there for each of us? Recognising that Jesus is indeed the son of God, seeking to follow him and callng ourselves by his name, is only the beginning. We need to find a way to allow ourselves to be held within the love of God so that we can be transformed, fulfilling our potential, not letting any defects or past experiences prevent us from being changed.

The gospel reading for today is one of the most difficult passages to come to terms with. At a surface level it sounds more like a possessive dictate from a cult leader, than the love of God. However, just like the previous passages, there are difficult choices to be made, but if we are able to make them and allow the ‘potter’ to shape us and reshape us, then the promises of life with Jesus are simply life-expanding. These decisions will be hard, and Jesus uses as an illustration the most difficult choice he can think of – to allow love of God to come before love of family. This was a decision that Jesus had to make when his family couldn’t grasp who he really was, when he left the family carpentry shop behind; it was a decision his closest disciples had made, leaving family businesses and even wives to fend for themselves. The decision to follow Jesus may not be one that our loved ones will understand, will we make that decision anyway and stand by it when the going gets tough?Will we be able to put our love for Jesus before everything else, or are there false idols that get in the way? In our culture it seems as if our children have become our idols – everything revolves around them and their activities, and Jesus, church, take a back seat.

Jesus continues to warn that unless we are willing to give up our possessions we are not able to follow him. In our capitalist society where most of us have much more than we need, and yet always desire more, this is a really tough call. If we give away all our possessions will we become beggars, reliant upon others? Will we be exposed for who we truly we are, with nothing to hide behind?Personally, I think God is more interested in seeing us grow into the people we truly are than becoming destitute. I also think that perhaps we only have half the sentence at our disposal, that what Jesus really meant was

none of you can become my disciples if you do not give up all your possessions….to be used for the Kingdom.

Once we have allowed our hearts to be remoulded, and have taken the courage to be ourselves rather than hiding behind fashionable images and ranks and status, then it is easier to hold onto our possessions with a looser grip. To allow our homes to be used for hospitality, to support others financially, to share tools and equipment with others in our communities, to use our cars to bring lifelines to those who are stranded. To be so generous that it never even crosses our minds to count the cost.

In following Jesus there will be difficult decisions to be made, but each time we face such a decision and opt to follow the way that the Holy Spirit is directing us, the creator is able to place his hands upon us and refashion us a little more, to reform us into a vessel that is both useful, ‘onesimus’, and beautiful.

Something to watch:

Something to think about:

• If you had to choose between the following which would you choose? Wine/cake, TV/Music, date with family/date with friends, new haircut/new piece of tech.
• What decision do you think Philemon made about Onesimus’ return?
• How do you think Philemon made that decision?
• What is the most difficult decision you have ever had to make?
• Are there difficult decisions you have had to make in your journey with Jesus?
• How can we support each other as we struggle with difficult decisions/undergo times of being remoulded?

Something to pray:

Gracious God,

help us today to grasp more clearly that it is in giving we receive, in losing we find, in sacrifice we find reward, and in dying to self that we rise to new life.

In that knowledge, may we willingly accept the cost of discipleship, knowing that, whatever is asked of us, the rewards of you kingdom are beyond price.

Open our eyes afresh today to that truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Nick Fawcett