"The Benefit You Provide" September 8, 2013

Jeremiah 18:1-11 Luke 14:25-33 Perhaps like me, you love old movies, especially the Silent Movies with scenes of car chases, or riding a horse to chase a train. But as fast as those chase scenes seemed to be, realize that the cars in those old movies had a top speed of 24 miles per hour, and while racehorses today are bred to run up to 50 miles per hour for a quarter mile, when the cowboys were chasing a runaway train, saddle horses could run a maximum of 20 mph. Today, life comes at us so fast. We are surrounded by so much information, instant communication, there are an average of 300 emails sent to every business every day (85% of those being SPAM), so many decisions, that we rarely have time, or take time to clarify our convictions, what we care about and are committed to, especially in faith. But that, is what faith is all about! What are you willing to live for and die for? Not simply a choice between fish and beef, between soda, beer or wine, but between whether we choose what seems easiest and least costly in the moment, or whether the decisions of our lives will Benefit Others? Last Sunday we read the first half of the 14th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke, with multiple reference to Weddings and Wedding Feasts, yet the second half of the Chapter this morning pertains to Bearing your Cross, Family, Building Towers and Waging War. Throughout the week, I wondered about the relationship between Weddings and Wars, between Family and Faith, and why these had been juxtaposed. The Gospels are not simply a collection of Jesus' sayings, but the telling of a story, like a word from the Prophets, or a sermon, to convince us to live our lives in faith, bearing the cross. Saturday morning, I came into the Church and had a message from the night before, from a couple who identified they had been engaged for over a year and had gotten their license and decided this would be the day to be married. They had no plans, no limo, no reception, no DJ, no flowers, no photographer. Suddenly the gear dropped into place, the relationship between these passages is not between Weddings and Wars, between hating your family of birth and choosing instead a family of faith, but that as individuals, as believers, whether we have thought things through, whether we are absolutely convinced about and totally convicted by our decisions? The SECOND part of this is what BENEFIT DO WE PROVIDE? Is our role as the Community of Faith, as the Church in the world today, to provide services to whom ever pays the fee? If so we are not a religious non-profit, but a corporation in the wedding business just like the photographer or DJ. Do we have convictions about Engagement and Marriage, or have we succumbed that weddings are about the Guest List and Flowers and Reception? How convinced and convicted are we of our role as the Church, that we have the authority and resources in order that we can provide people Marrying that we are not simply officiating but blessing their relationship, making their union a communion? Jesus' counsel to those who listen, is when facing a major decision, to undertake a major project, to commit to an act of war, to confront family, or to choose to believe in God, FIRST we need to sit down and center ourselves, to consider Our Own role and function in the world. We are not simply judges making decisions, Technocrats deleting and replying to emails, we are human beings living life, and in particular we continue to choose to try to be Spiritual, to be Children of God, to act as we believe. So before any life decision, we need to pray that we would be used by God, as an instrument of God to be of benefit to others. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah struggles that the Nation has lost faith in God, has become a secular culture. Jeremiah was instructed to go to the Potter's Shed. Years ago, I worked for a potter cleaning their studio, loading and unloading the kilns, and on my own time enjoyed throwing on the Potter's Wheel. I tried, in preparation for this morning to have a Potter's Wheel brought to the Sanctuary, but among all the schools and local artists none were able to loan us a Kick wheel. They had motorized wheels, but for worship, that is like starting an engine on a Sailboat, besides there would be the droning sound of a motor to listen over. So I need you to imagine with me, that we have a Potter's wheel. The Bible simply describes that Jeremiah saw the spoiled pot cut off, set aside to be reworked again… But even more, when even good pieces of pottery are rushed to mature to quickly, they crack. When they become too brittle or too saturated, or in anyway bumped, broken, ruined, they are dumped into a can, like a trash bin filled with water, where over time everything breaks down to its natural form. When this mass of primordial matter is no longer clods of waste, it is put into plaster, covered and left, until it is needed and ready to be reworked. Even the bisque-fired broken pieces can be ground to form grist and absorbent grit for the mixture. Nothing is ever lost, nothing is unusable to the potter. When time comes, the clay is pulled from the lump, and kneaded like bread, worked by pressure and folding, until uniform and of the consistency desired by the potter. It is not possible in terms of physics to place a pot in the exact center of a wheel. Even if by engineering and calculus we could determine the exact center and perimeter. Instead, the potter sits down, taking the clay they have worked, the potter sets and roots the clay to the turntable. There is the plane of reality we see and know in daily life where the potter centers and opens the rooted clay, but with the potter's wheel, what moves the turntable platter is an unseen rod connected to a stone. The artist, sets the stone in motion and rotation with kicking clockwise, creating the speed of centrifugal force, then on the opposite side sets their hands. It is the friction of rubbing against the hands, that causes the clay to yield and conform to find its center. None of us can one day decide we suddenly want to be more centered. It is the friction of rubbing against, of being worked and of yielding that brings us to our center. Only after the potter and clay are centered, does the artist reach out their thumbs to divide and open the clay to form a vessel. If the clay is not consistent, or circumstances happen with the pressure of the potter's touch, the rotation of the wheel, even the smallest thing, the pot can collapse. The ancient Hebrew word for clay or earth is "adama"and the creature formed from out of the adama is then called adam. Similarly, a word for earthen matter is humus and we are humans, or literally the earthlings from out of the earth. It happened that when the couple came down to the Sanctuary, this Potter's house, they were a couple of maturity who had known one another since high school. They had carefully thought through and discussed their relationship, their commitments, their family and their faith. They had forthrightly decided that all the other stuff that has come to be the business of weddings was not essential. The decisions before the church this day are not rushed, have not been taken lightly. Over 50 years, we have time and again done what Presbyterians do, we have formed Committees and talked and studied. Every time, every time, we have come back stating that what we the church needs and wants is to have an Associate Pastor, in order that one could focus on some things and the other could focus upon others. But every time, we have backed away from our convictions, fearful of the cost, fearful of change. We have tried Christian educators and Certified Christian educators, Co-Pastors and Parish Associates. For the last three years, our Session have explored our mission, our core values, our priorities, our finances, and differentiated the responsibilities. A significant adaptation in this decision, is that as Pastor, I need to let go of some things. In a church, a pastor seemingly becomes a bit of a control-freak, because you care, because you are invested, but in communion we choose intentionally to serve one another to benefit all God's Creation. There are several different emphases in every worship service, one is that we have been part of the primordial mass throughout the week, being worked on by all the sludge and water of life. We make a choice to come to worship, we get up on Sunday morning. We arrive and visit with strangers and friends. We pray as we listen to the postlude trying to transition from our secular lives to our faith life. Then we stop and pour out the water from the pitcher recognizing we often cannot take in one more thing, we must lket go of what has been in order to continue to take in to grow. There is a reality, an imperfection we as potters have had to adapt to, that due to the cost of housing, due to changes in our culture and jobs, the number of children enrolled in our schools in this community has dropped by 15%. SO the purpose of this associate is not simply as Youth Pastor, or Christian Educator, but to continue to reach out in new and advancing technologies, to provide greater visitation and pastoral care as well. In essence that the church would benefit by growing in new ways.