Year A
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prophet Jeremiah was nearly twenty years old when he began to prophesy\u2026 and he continued to do so for the rest of his adult life\u2026 of forty years or more\u2026 the book which bears his name was written over a period of about fifteen years\u2026 from 585 – 570 BCE\u2026 and his prophecies continued to be realized for a hundred years\u2026 but Jeremiah was also known as the lamenting prophet\u2026 and it was he who wrote the Book of Lamentations\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And one of my favorite passages from Jeremiah\u2026 is the one we just heard\u2026 and two of my favorite lines from this passage are\u2026 I will put my law within them\u2026 and I will write it on their hearts\u2026 and I will be their God\u2026 and they shall be my people\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Steve Hollaway writes\u2026 what this means is that God\u2019s law moves inside\u2026 because it didn\u2019t work for God to give people the law written on tablets of stone\u2026 because at that time\u2026 their hearts were hearts of stone\u2026 so for example\u2026 they were like people who obeyed the speed limit\u2026 simply and only to avoid getting a ticket\u2026 but not like people who instinctively abide by the speed limit\u2026 because they understand that it\u2019s the safest thing to do\u2026 like wearing a mask\u2026 they do it to protect others\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n What this means is that we gain direct knowledge of God\u2026 so at some point\u2026 people will know God for themselves\u2026 but what does it mean to know God\u2026 we might answer that it comes through knowing the Bible\u2026 or through a spiritual experience\u2026 or through faith\u2026 but what Jeremiah hears God saying\u2026 is that to know him is to obey him\u2026 to know God is to give justice and help to the poor\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n What this means is that we are forgiven\u2026 the great psychiatrist Karl Menninger once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven\u2026 seventy-five percent of them could walk out the next day\u2026 he wrote\u2026 I wonder if an internist couldn\u2019t say the same thing about his patients\u2026 we carry such a burden because of our failures and our guilt\u2026 it has broken our relationship with God\u2026 and it threatens to break our bodies and our hearts\u2026 but in the new covenant you can be forgiven and your relationship with God can be restored\u2026 it what the ELCA says about Always Being Made New\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeremiah also wrote in chapter 18\u2026 the word of the LORD came to me\u2026 and said\u2026 go down to the potter\u2019s house\u2026 and there I will let you hear my words\u2026 so I went down to the potter\u2019s house\u2026 and there he was working at his wheel\u2026 the vessel of clay that the potter was making was spoiled in his hand\u2026 and he reworked it into another vessel as seemed good to him\u2026 then the word of the LORD came\u2026 can I not do with you\u2026 O house of Israel\u2026 just as this potter has done\u2026 just like the clay in the potter\u2019s hand\u2026 so are you in my hand\u2026 I am a potter shaping a noise against you\u2026 and devising a plan against you\u2026 turn now\u2026 all of you\u2026 from your dark ways\u2026 and amend your doings<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The spoiled clay in the potter\u2019s hand was re-formed\u2026 as God re-formed the Israelites\u2026 the word reformed means\u2026 having been changed in such a way as to be improved<\/em>\u2026 but we don\u2019t want to be reformed\u2026 it all too often feels like being told what to do\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus said\u2026 If you continue in my word\u2026 you will know the truth\u2026 and the truth will make you free<\/em>\u2026 and those to whom he was speaking replied\u2026 we have never been slaves to anyone\u2026 what do you mean by saying\u2026 you will be made free<\/em>\u2026 but one doesn\u2019t have to be a house slave\u2026 or a field slave\u2026 to be enslaved\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today is Reformation Sunday\u2026 and I\u2019d like to think that more than just commemorate\u2026 or celebrate the Protestant Reformation\u2026 as though it lasted only as long as it took Luther to nail his 95 theses to the church door in 1517\u2026 it can remind us that that was just the starting point\u2026 that the Reformation continues\u2026 that we are human becomings\u2026 and that we are still being formed and re-formed\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Protestant Reformation is not over\u2026 the process that\u2019s reforming our state and our country and the world and our very lives\u2026 is alive and well\u2026 and has been pretty active this year\u2026 I dislike it\u2026 but God\u2019s plan for all creation isn\u2019t going to wait until I\u2026 or any of us are ready to change\u2026 we can dig in our heels\u2026 and rant and rave\u2026 or we can\u2026 as the word Islam means\u2026 surrender our will\u2026 to God\u2019s will\u2026 instead of being willful\u2026 we can be willing to be clay\u2026 but when we look around at the cultural landscape\u2026 there seem to be an awful lot of people\u2026 refusing to be clay\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And those descendants of Abraham\u2026 who replied to Jesus\u2026 must have forgotten about how at least some of their ancestors had been slaves in Egypt\u2026 and the deeper truth of the Exodus story is about freedom from anything to which we might be enslaved\u2026 to which we are addicted\u2026 we think being reformed is a bad thing\u2026 because we\u2019re going to lose our agency\u2026 our autonomy\u2026 our independence\u2026 we\u2019re going to have to play by someone else\u2019s rules\u2026 have to dance to someone else\u2019s tune\u2026 but who of us knows all we need to know\u2026 who of us is established in the Mind of Christ\u2026 who among us can look around at the systemic racism\u2026 and global warming\u2026 and the divisive election in which we\u2019re drowning\u2026 and not think that we could benefit from some more time in the potter\u2019s hands\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prophetic words from God that Jeremiah wrote down were rarely good\u2026 because the Israelites were reaping the seeds they\u2019d sown\u2026 but Jeremiah also offers some of the most beautiful words of hope in the Bible\u2026 in 29:11-14 for example\u2026 For surely I know the plans I have for you\u2026 says the LORD\u2026 plans for your welfare and not for harm\u2026 to give you a future with hope\u2026 then when you call upon me and come and pray to me\u2026 I will hear you\u2026 when you search for me\u2026 you will find me\u2026 if you seek me with all your heart\u2026 I will let you find me\u2026 and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you\u2026 and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile<\/em>\u2026 and it\u2019s in this same willingness to seek God with all our hearts\u2026 that our hope lies too\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 46 Romans 3:19-28 John 8:31-36 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 The prophet Jeremiah was nearly twenty years old when he began to prophesy\u2026 and he continued to do so for the rest of his adult life\u2026 of forty years or more\u2026 the book which bears his name was written over a period of about fifteen years\u2026 from 585 – 570 BCE\u2026 and his prophecies continued to be realized for a hundred years\u2026 but Jeremiah was also known as the lamenting prophet\u2026 and it was he who wrote the Book of Lamentations\u2026 And one of my favorite passages from Jeremiah\u2026 is the one we just heard\u2026 and two of my favorite lines from this passage are\u2026 I will put my law within them\u2026 and I will write it on their hearts\u2026 and I will be their God\u2026 and they shall be my people\u2026 Pastor Steve Hollaway writes\u2026 what this means is that God\u2019s law moves inside\u2026 because it didn\u2019t work for God to give people the law written on tablets of stone\u2026 because at that time\u2026 their hearts were hearts of stone\u2026 so for example\u2026 they were like people who obeyed the speed limit\u2026 simply and only to avoid getting a ticket\u2026 but not like people who instinctively abide by the speed limit\u2026 because they understand that it\u2019s the safest thing to do\u2026 like wearing a mask\u2026 they do it to protect others\u2026 What this means is that we gain direct knowledge of God\u2026 so at some point\u2026 people will know God for themselves\u2026 but what does it mean to know God\u2026 we might answer that it comes through knowing the Bible\u2026 or through a spiritual experience\u2026 or through faith\u2026 but what Jeremiah hears God saying\u2026 is that to know him is to obey him\u2026 to know God is to give justice and help to the poor\u2026 What this means is that we are forgiven\u2026 the great psychiatrist Karl Menninger once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven\u2026 seventy-five percent of them could walk out the next day\u2026 he wrote\u2026 I wonder if an internist couldn\u2019t say the same thing about his patients\u2026 we carry such a burden because of our failures and our guilt\u2026 it has broken our relationship with God\u2026 and it threatens to break our bodies and our hearts\u2026 but in the new covenant you can be forgiven and your relationship with God can be restored\u2026 it what the ELCA says about Always Being Made New\u2026 Jeremiah also wrote in chapter 18\u2026 the word of the LORD came to me\u2026 and said\u2026 go down to the potter\u2019s house\u2026 and there I will let you hear my words\u2026 so I went down to the potter\u2019s house\u2026 and there he was working at his wheel\u2026 the vessel of clay that the potter was making was spoiled in his hand\u2026 and he reworked it into another vessel as seemed good to him\u2026 then the word of the LORD came\u2026 can I not do with you\u2026 O house of Israel\u2026 just as this potter has done\u2026 just like the clay in the potter\u2019s hand\u2026 so are you in my hand\u2026 I am a potter shaping a noise against you\u2026 and devising a plan against you\u2026 turn now\u2026 all of you\u2026 from your dark ways\u2026 and amend your doings\u2026 The spoiled clay in the potter\u2019s hand was re-formed\u2026 as God re-formed the Israelites\u2026 the word reformed means\u2026 having been changed in such a way as to be improved\u2026 but we don\u2019t want to be reformed\u2026 it all too often feels like being told what to do\u2026 Jesus said\u2026 If you continue in my word\u2026 you will know the truth\u2026 and the truth will make you free\u2026 and those to whom he was speaking replied\u2026 we have never been slaves to anyone\u2026 what do you mean by saying\u2026 you will be made free\u2026 but one doesn\u2019t have to be a house slave\u2026 or a field slave\u2026 to be enslaved\u2026 Today is Reformation Sunday\u2026 and I\u2019d like to think that more than just commemorate\u2026 or celebrate the Protestant Reformation\u2026 as though it lasted only as long as it took Luther to nail his 95 theses to the church door in 1517\u2026 it can remind us that that was just the starting point\u2026 that the Reformation continues\u2026 that we are human becomings\u2026 and that we are still being formed and re-formed\u2026 The Protestant Reformation is not over\u2026 the process that\u2019s reforming our state and our country and the world and our very lives\u2026 is alive and well\u2026 and has been pretty active this year\u2026 I dislike it\u2026 but God\u2019s plan for all creation isn\u2019t going to wait until I\u2026 or any of us are ready to change\u2026 we can dig in our heels\u2026 and rant and rave\u2026 or we can\u2026 as the word Islam means\u2026 surrender our will\u2026 to God\u2019s will\u2026 instead of being willful\u2026 we can be willing to be clay\u2026 but when we look around at the cultural landscape\u2026 there seem to be an awful lot of people\u2026 refusing to be clay\u2026 And those descendants of Abraham\u2026 who replied to Jesus\u2026 must have forgotten about how at least some of their ancestors had been slaves in Egypt\u2026 and the deeper truth of the Exodus story is about freedom from anything to which we might be enslaved\u2026 to which we are addicted\u2026 we think being reformed is a bad thing\u2026 because we\u2019re going to lose our agency\u2026 our autonomy\u2026 our independence\u2026 we\u2019re going to have to play by someone else\u2019s rules\u2026 have to dance to someone else\u2019s tune\u2026 but who of us knows all we need to know\u2026 who of us is established in the Mind of Christ\u2026 who among us can look around at the systemic racism\u2026 and global warming\u2026 and the divisive election in which we\u2019re drowning\u2026 and not think that we could benefit from some more time in the potter\u2019s hands\u2026 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}