Proper 18 / Pentecost 16 / Ordinary Time 23
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Object:
Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
-- Jeremiah 18:6c
As a nation, we sometimes get caught up in the debate as to whether we are a Christian nation. Rarely do the advocates of such an attribution realize what an ominous path they are setting out for us as a nation. To be chosen does not mean that we have entered some special protected state. Jeremiah spoke to Israel, who did consider themselves a chosen people, and he likened them to clay in a potter's hand. The clay, here representing the nation, did have a measure of freedom.
The image suggested that the potter was finally in charge, but in the process, the potter was affected by the mysterious freedom of the clay. Sometimes the pot did not develop according to the potter's design. When the pot that was being cast turned out to violate the potter's design, the potter was free to begin again with a whole new design. Now try to apply this image to the possibility that we are a Christian nation. Because God has blessed us with such rich resources, vast fertile land, a uniquely diverse population, and an unusually stable government and economy, would it not be logical to assume that God expects much from this nation? "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" (Luke 12:48).
If God's intention for our nation is a people of diversity built on the mixture of a variety of immigrants and Native Americans, but in our sinfulness, the immigrants overwhelmed the Native Americans, enslaved one group of immigrants, and discriminated against several other sets of immigrants, is God free to destroy us as a nation and rework the clay into a new vessel? In both Jeremiah and the gospels, it is clear that what God expects is justice and compassion. If God is free to let us be destroyed and start again if we do not obey, perhaps those who argue against the idea that we are a Christian nation are doing so for our own protection.
-- Jeremiah 18:6c
As a nation, we sometimes get caught up in the debate as to whether we are a Christian nation. Rarely do the advocates of such an attribution realize what an ominous path they are setting out for us as a nation. To be chosen does not mean that we have entered some special protected state. Jeremiah spoke to Israel, who did consider themselves a chosen people, and he likened them to clay in a potter's hand. The clay, here representing the nation, did have a measure of freedom.
The image suggested that the potter was finally in charge, but in the process, the potter was affected by the mysterious freedom of the clay. Sometimes the pot did not develop according to the potter's design. When the pot that was being cast turned out to violate the potter's design, the potter was free to begin again with a whole new design. Now try to apply this image to the possibility that we are a Christian nation. Because God has blessed us with such rich resources, vast fertile land, a uniquely diverse population, and an unusually stable government and economy, would it not be logical to assume that God expects much from this nation? "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded" (Luke 12:48).
If God's intention for our nation is a people of diversity built on the mixture of a variety of immigrants and Native Americans, but in our sinfulness, the immigrants overwhelmed the Native Americans, enslaved one group of immigrants, and discriminated against several other sets of immigrants, is God free to destroy us as a nation and rework the clay into a new vessel? In both Jeremiah and the gospels, it is clear that what God expects is justice and compassion. If God is free to let us be destroyed and start again if we do not obey, perhaps those who argue against the idea that we are a Christian nation are doing so for our own protection.
