3-22-2020
“Broken”
(Jeremiah 18:1-6 & Psalm 31:9-12)
Two weeks ago while I was rearranging the worship visual in this altar area, I accidentally dropped this communion cup and broke it. It was one of the communion sets that our church ladies made together years ago at a local pottery place. There was a story embedded in this, and I was upset with myself that I ruined this special cup because of my carelessness.
I guess Nisha, our Administrative Assistant, heard my grumbling voice. When I almost dumped these broken pieces into the garbage can in the kitchen, she stopped me by saying, “ Do you want to fix it? We can glue it. O Pastor, isn’t our worship series talking about a broken cup? Why don’t you keep it and use it as it is?”
She was absolutely right. This is a perfect image for today’s reflection.
Have you ever felt like this damaged chalice?
As our Lenten guide, Joyce Rupp, says when the cup of our lives is broken apart by hurts, wounds, and pains, it needs to have pieces put back together again.
But how? How can it be mended?
Sometimes our brokenness seems less critical and like it can be fixed. But other times, the damage looks so severe. We feel like we will never be able to live as a whole – our dreams, our hopes, and our lives are shattered into pieces that cannot be gathered up.
“How large a cup of tears must I drink, O God? How much is enough? (The Cup of Our Life, p, 82)
A Presbyterian pastor and popular poet, Ann Weems, wrote her psalm of lament in the death of her loving son.
The Psalmist sang in Psalm 31:
“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye wastes away from grief,
my soul and body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my misery,
and my bones waste away….
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.”
In our scripture narrative, prophet Jeremiah was told by God to go down to the potter’s house. In ancient Judah, simple pottery was typical Judean kitchenware – not expensive but very common for everyday use for an ordinary family.
John C. Holbert, a Preaching and Hebrew Bible professor at Perkins School of Theology, points out that those Judean pots were known for a rather short life span given their poor materials and construction. So, a trip to the local pottery was not a new thing for Jeremiah’s audience. Yet, when God ordered the prophet to go down to the potter’s house, God also told him, “There, I will make you hear my words.” (Jer 18:3) This was not a usual trip to get a new pot.
When Jeremiah arrived, the potter was working at his wheel and creating something. “The vessel of clay he was making was smashed by the potter’s hand; he started again and made another vessel precisely as it seemed good for him to make.” (Jer 18:4)
Last December, I had an experience of molding a lump of clay on a spinning table when we hosted Bethlehem Marketplace. It was my first time ever trying it, and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I had to be gentle and not too forceful with my hands. Otherwise, my hand would have slipped and made an odd shape with the clay. I also needed some water to soften the clay so that I could keep molding it. Of course, I had to press down the clay and start all over more than once.
In the potter’s house, God showed Jeremiah how a potter recreates clay – how it was smashed and molded anew in the hands of the artist. And then God says, “Am I not able to do to you exactly as this potter has done, house of Israel. Look! Like the clay in the potter’s hand, are you in my hand.” (Jer 18:6)
To the unfaithful Jerusalem – the Judah who forgot their covenant with YAHWEH, God was speaking through his prophet, Jeremiah, that God could pluck up and break down the Judean Kingdom like this potter. God was pleading for Israel to turn from its evil ways and come back to him. Only if they returned with their whole hearts would God be ready to change God’s mind, forgive them, and not give them into the hands of Babylon as captives.
Although I love this image of a potter, this theology is troublesome. If I am good, God is nice to me; If not, then God will punish me and abandon me? Isn’t God merciful, slow to anger, and boundless in love?
Holbert’s reflection on Patheos website is helpful. He says:
“In this light, the parable of the pots is less about the ability of God to respond to our good or evil acts, than it is about God choosing us to contain the gospel, despite the fact that we too often do evil acts and despite the fact that we are all finally cracked pots! Nevertheless, God has chosen us to be vessels of God’s gospel. We are God’s cracked pots, and that is a grand and wonderful and mysterious thing indeed!” (https://www.patheos.com/progressive-christian/cracked-pots-john-holbert-09-02-2013)
I asked you last week if God can use a chipped cup in spite of our flaws and shortcomings. Not only can God use the cracked pots but also recreate, refashion, remold us and our broken lives, as the sacred container of the gospel of life over death, love over hate, light over darkness, and goodness over evil. I believe God’s ultimate will is not about pushing or destroying but about redeeming all and always.
Three and a half weeks ago, we began our Lenten journey by putting the smudge of ashes on our forehead or hand and remembering our mortality and fragility as created beings. Today is only the 12th week of 2020, yet there has been a lot happening in our global community – wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, the humanitarian refugee crisis, and we’re now fighting a pandemic.
We are forcefully slowing down, shutting down our busy activities right now to flatten the curve of infection. Some people are not taking this seriously, but I urge you as your pastor: please stay home and keep social distancing. I know that some of you feel isolated and down missing face to face fellowship and communal interaction. Yet, we need to follow the guidelines as responsible and mature societal members.
We see the anxiety and fears are high in our panic buying and discrimination and violence toward Asians. I see big holes in our government and health care system and also in the fake news. To be honest with you, it is a very stressful time for us pastors as well. We are all in uncharted territory now. Nobody knows how long the current condition will continue and when we can gather in person in worship.
But friends,
Do we have faith that our lives are still in the hands of the Holy One, the Creator and Sustainer?
Can we learn something from this chaotic experience?
Can we believe that God can make something beautiful out of ashes, out of us, broken people- that God can recreate and remold us new?
The story is told of an artist who molded the world’s most valuable vases. Tourists and observers would come to watch him work. After laboring for many weeks with one piece of clay, heating it with fire and shaping it with decorative items, he put it on a pedestal for inspection. The tourists and observers sat in disbelief and awe at this thing of unspeakable beauty.
But, it appeared that the artist was not yet finished.
In a shocking and dramatic moment, the artist lifted the vase above their heads and dashed it against the floor, breaking it into a thousand pieces.
Then, quietly, he put together the pieces and painted them with pure gold.
Each crack reflected invaluable gold. In the end, this magnificent but imperfect piece became the most valuable piece in the collection. (http://umatuna.org/perspectives/life-breaks-all-of-us-but-some-of-us-are-strong-in-the-broken-places/)
Joyce Rupp reminds us how the seed’s husk must be broken open before the green shoot comes forth. We are like that seeds – the power of life is within you. Even in the most difficult times of our human brokenness, we will not totally break apart but be broken open for something new and life-giving.
May these words of Anne Lamott guide you this week:
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work, and don’t give up.” (The Cup of Our Life, p, 75)
Let us patiently endure this challenging time together.
Let us continue to show up ourselves in our devotional time and connecting time through phone calls, emails, and virtual meetings.
Let us do the right thing with kindness and common sense, not by fear or violence.
Let us work and watch how the mysterious power of God works through us.
You are God’s holy vessel; be the church wherever you are.
As I sing our thread song for Lent, would you join me singing?
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us
Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us
Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us