Tweaking

Always a topic for spiritual debate, we argue with ourselves (in the dark hours of the morning) how present God Is.  Humanists will declare that God is on a cloud far away, chortling at the antics and tragedies within His ant-farm, Planet Earth.  Evangelicals will claim an ever-present God who meddles in our squabbles and affairs with a great deal of interest in the outcome.  This weekend’s scriptures explore these dynamics, and provide a mat upon which to wrestle with our souls…

Jeremiah 18:1-11 recalls an object-lesson trip to a potter’s workshop, where the potter tweaked the clay on his wheel.  Doggone!  This just isn’t looking right:  let’s wreck it and begin again.  And another vessel began to take shape.  SO…is the Master Potter gonna start from scratch with an unruly Creation?  (That approach didn’t work particulary well with Noah.)  Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Fathers scared our ancestors umoral by saying we were “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  But note this:  the Potter didn’t discard the work in progress, he re-worked the same clay!  Amid the Hebrew  scripture’s despair over the Nation, is there an inkling of Grace?

Paul’s letter to Philemon is almost tongue-in-cheek!   “Remember who YOU were, as you’re dealing with this escaped (but reformed?) slave.”  The reading by itself leaves many loose ends:  it needs to be unpacked as to how God has been tweaking both Master and Slave, refining a would-be perfect Kingdom.   Some have used this brief passage to either support or vilify slavery.  Some have attempted to formulize when situation is more applicable than Law.  And this is fine; but the bottom line is how Grace develops, spin by spin, whirrled without end.

The Gospel, Luke 14:25-33, doesn’t recognize Gentle Jesus, Meek & Mild.  THIS Jesus announces that his Presence will cause division–not with other cultures & races, but within our own house!  He says that there’s a cost to following his Lordship, so we’d better check our resources before we begin!  The preacher may well be sorely tempted to tweak this hard message to make it more palatable.  Don’t.  Pew-sitters need to hear that the Journey is tough…and as this is accepted, perhaps they’ll find strength in knowing that other holy travelers also must deal with How Close and How Often God appears.

Hearing all this, what shall we be?  There seems to be an encouragement across the board to divest the things which separate us from the Holy; and not to throw them completely away, but to recast them in a form which fits more neatly into Kingdom-plans.  At my point of life, I’m frustrated by trying to DO.  Perhaps I’m calmer when I accept what God is tweaking in me and all around me.  Bring on the Change!

God Bless Us, Every One.       Horace Brown King

My musing on scripture readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com