Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33
In the Scriptures today we have the prophet Jeremiah going down to the potter’s house to see how clay can be shaped into one thing, then broken down and re-shaped into another--a metaphor for our own lives; we have the Psalm which reminds us how God has knit us together in the womb and knows much more about ourselves than we ever will; we have the letter to Philemon in which Paul asks for the freedom of the slave Onesimus, in order to return to Paul as a servant of his own free will. And then we have a Gospel which says we must hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and yes, even life itself, if we are to be Jesus’ disciples.
First of all, I would completely understand anybody who said they didn’t like these passages about Jeremiah and Jesus, or talk about them like everything that’s wrong in the Christian church as we know it. Neither of these sound like the gentle, loving Jesus or God we might prefer. So I think it’s worth addressing what these passages might really mean.
To Hate, Or Simply Dismiss?
Let’s start with the Gospel and especially at that word, “hate.” The root word is probably better understood as to ‘disregard, or dismiss.’ That’s a little more comforting than ‘hate,’ but still, it doesn’t sound all that comforting. It wasn’t comforting back in the day either, when family was absolutely central to one’s life and livelihood. People didn’t just go gallivanting off for any reason besides to try to earn a living in times of crisis--certainly not to fulfill individual curiosity. Even adult children were expected to stay home and work the family business.
What if a situation arose where you had to disregard your family’s wishes, though? There might be times--what if everyone in your family was racist or homophobic, or what if everyone you knew supported a war that you did not, and you had to say, “I just don’t think that’s right?” It takes a lot of guts to stand up to the people you love, and Jesus was asking that crowd, which probably included a lot of people from good Jewish families--to probably upset their families quite a bit. If they did become disciples, their families probably wondered what they did wrong, how their loved one could betray them like this, embarrass them in front of everyone like this, they probably prayed for their mortal souls and hoped that someday they’d finally see the light.
Yes, Jesus had a reason for such hyperbole. Jesus was not asking them to simply show up once a week for sixty minutes, sing three hymns and listen to a sermon. Jesus was not even just asking them to help out at a food pantry now and then. Jesus was asking them to turn their entire lives around, to break down the status quo and social custom, in order to practice barrier-breaking love. Everybody they knew was probably going to hate them for this. They might be disowned and lose everything they had. And they might very well get themselves killed for doing so. Perhaps the closest thing in recent history we have to compare to this is getting on the bus and heading south to de-segregate lunch counters in the Civil Rights era.
And as was wisely observed by our friend Aaron this week,* Jesus would likely not be welcome in most of our churches today. He would look funny and possibly smell funny; he would have radical ideas that would disrupt the status quo; Jesus in fact has a history of being kicked out of congregations. He was a radical, counter-cultural prophet. Discipleship had a high cost, Jesus didn’t want people entering into it lightly--and so you might say if you became a disciple, to turn against your loved ones, pick up your cross, and part with all your possessions, then you, my friend, were about to hit rock bottom.
Well, what would you be willing to give everything for?
When you join the military--that’s a situation where you really go all in: you have to decide that you are willing to part with your life or limbs or health. Sure, there are folks who never see combat or come out just fine; many others are just not so lucky. I do sympathize with all the young people who signed up prior to September 11th, 2001, and thought it was just a good way to pay for school. Many have paid with their lives.
Some people do give everything to take a courageous, even if unpopular stand.
I’ll tell you the story of a man who gave pretty close to everything for what he believed, and many rejected him for it. Recently, Veterans for Peace held their national gathering in Madison and my husband had a chance to meet S. Brian Willson. Brian grew up by all accounts as a good son and good citizen who went to serve in the Viet Nam War; when he returned, he joined other veterans who went on to protest nuclear arms and all manner of warfare. As a trained lawyer, he documented the consequences of U.S. foreign policy throughout Central America and other countries. In 1987, while sitting on the railroad tracks to protest a Navy train carrying munitions, for which he fully expected to be arrested. Instead, the train sped up and ran him over. He lost his legs and a part of his brain. An ambulance nearby even refused to help, because of the stand he had been taking. Later, he would learn that although he had never used violence against the government, the FBI had labeled him a "terrorist," and the train had been directed not to stop. However, even after a lengthy recovery, Brian has never stopped protesting war. Now, when he attends protests, even on prosthetic legs, he dances. You can learn more about the story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Willson
Broken Down and Re-Shapen
Let’s go back to talking about Jeremiah for a moment: the audience was the Israelites: God’s chosen people. They believed that because they were God’s chosen people, they couldn’t possibly be wrong. They’d gotten comfortable in ways of exploiting the vulnerable and currying favor with the powerful. Systems and structures of unjust power were about to be broken down as a natural consequence of their corrupted ways. During the time of Jeremiah, the Israelites would go from complacent prosperity, to the fall of Jerusalem, to being captive to Babylon, to exile in Egypt. However, like clay, they weren’t simply discarded; God was still with them, even in exile.
There are other ways of being broken down, and re-shapen. Recently I had the opportunity to see a video, Loving Someone With an Addiction, which talked about the point at which families would realize that they weren’t helping matters by paying the legal bills, the bail, the rent, while their loved one kept spending all their own money on drugs, or kept getting into trouble. At some point, they realized if their loved one was going to get better, they would have to let them face the natural consequences of their addiction, even though it hurt to see. It wouldn’t be until they hit their own rock bottom, when the consequences became costly enough, that they might actually be able to be receptive to recovery.
From Useless to Useful
Let’s talk about another guy that was close to rock-bottom. Back in the Greco-Roman world of Paul, anybody could get into debt or trouble, and be sold as a slave into someone’s household. Onesimus was a runaway slave, and he was in big trouble; a wanted man. His owner, Philemon, had the right to punish him severely, including killing the man. Somehow, Onesimus runs into Paul, who is in prison, and when you were in prison like Paul, you needed helpers to get your messages back and forth, and even to bring you food and clothing and medicine. And oddly enough, Paul knows Philemon--he’s one of the leaders in the church at Colossae, which “meets in his house.” Paul didn’t just keep him. Paul sent this man back to face the potential consequences, but also offered another, more constructive path forward. However, Paul asks that this “useless” person be returned to Paul, since he was indeed ‘useful’ in his employ. it’s a play on words, as the very name Onesimus means, “useful.” He becomes quite useful indeed, later on, as we believe he is one of the first bishops of the new Christian movement. His life and his world of being a slave is broken down, and re-shaped into service for God.
Asking For the Terms of Peace
There’s one more thing I want to talk about, since it comes up in the Gospel text as well as in our current events, as we hear about rulers counting the cost of going to war, and I think it’s a very appropriate question to ask, whether we can truly afford a military solution in Syria. The heads of churches in Syria and the Middle East, and the heads of churches in this country as well, ask us to pray for peace and to not support the use of such violent means as missile strikes, because they will simply lead to more killing. I think we may also have to be prepared that if we bomb, others might bomb us back. I think we have to be prepared that if we use a military solution, even if we say we’re just making a quick strike, that it will become another ten years or more before we’ve seen the end of things. There are so many options on the spectrum between bombing and doing nothing, and somehow we always manage to overlook them all. My entire life, we have been tangled up in Afghanistan and Iraq--going back to the 70s and 80s, and we might well be for the rest of my life--we sell weapons to one side and then the other, and we use them ourselves. It’s brought nothing but grief to us and to them. Granted, you don’t make a lot of money by not selling weapons to warring countries, or by using weapons ourselves, but the cost of war is so much higher than the price of a real peace, built on truth and reconciliation.
So yes. As a nation, then or now; or as a people; or even as just our own selves, it is possible to hit rock bottom for any number of reasons. Everything we thought we knew might come smashing down around us. And yet, there is good news, even in these painful moments. As long as we are living, we are never completely destroyed; we may just be knocked down into our bare substance. No matter what we do or what happens to us, God has known us in our inmost being; God knows our substance; God will even be with us as we take courageous stands; as we struggle to find God’s path for us, to follow in the footsteps of Christ. By God’s grace, we are being re-shapen into something new.
Thanks be to God!
*Several people have indeed noted this wisely, but most recently this was mentioned by Aaron Bates. Thanks for the good point!
Prayers This Week:
All who are struggling with serious or long-term illness in body, mind, or soul
All who wrestle with chemical dependency
For the people of Syria, that true peace may come through truly peaceful means; and that we be moved with compassion to feed, shelter, and welcome the many refugees
For the safety of all participants in our local area “Iron Man” competition this weekend
All who are wrestling with discord in their families and homes.
