Pentecost 14, August 29, 2021

Do you ever feel like something is “off?”  Off-center or off-balance?  Like you are going through the motions with no real purpose?

All three readings for today feature examples of faith and life having lost their center.  In the first reading, Moses is warning the Israelites, the ones God claimed as his own, not to forget all that God has done for them.     

Have you forgotten who you are and WHOSE you are?

In the second reading from James, the author wonders about those who look at themselves in a mirror and then walk away, forgetting who they are.  For James, they are simply hearers of the Word and not doers.  Their lives do not reflect the love and mercy that has claimed them. 

Do you feel like what you believe and what you want your life to be does not always match your reality? 

In the Gospel, Jesus calls into question the mindset of the Pharisees – the pious law abiding Jews – who he says, “honor me with their lips” but whose “hearts are far from me.”   They have abandoned the core of their faith and focused on the non-essentials like hand washing and dietary laws. 

Do you feel like you’ve lost a grip on what’s important? 

Something is off and we can feel it.  We do not live as the people God has claimed us to be. Our lives have lost their center. We focus on surface things –– rather than the core.  We spend time on unimportant things and neglect the things that matter. We fail to be what God has created and is creating us to be—vessels to receive God’s love and to pour out God’s love for others.

You each grabbed a little vessel when you entered worship today.  It is a sacred vessel used for communion here at Grace of God.  These cups have been made individually by hand on a potter’s wheel at an artist’s studio not far from here. They have a practical use among us; we use them to receive the wine of communion.  But they are also beautiful symbols: they represent who we are – uniquely created, designed to receive love and pour it out.  And today they remind us of our purpose – our center – and what’s important.

The prophet Jeremiah visited a pottery shop and records the experience in his book:

“I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me:  ^‘Can I not do with you just as this potter has done?’ says the Lord. ‘Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.’”

The hands of the potter shapes the vessel and keeps it centered on the wheel. As the clay spins on the wheel, it must be centered or it flops out of control, loses its shape and becomes useless.  Without a center it fails to be what it was created to be!  A sacred vessel.  So like these little vessels we are centered on Christ. God has taken our mishappen, out of balance, off-center selves and plopped them on the center of Christ and his love.  Jesus’ love becomes the thing that fills us, animates us, and inspires us. We place ourselves in the potter’s hands.  Who centers us on his love.

These little sacred vessels are in your hands today ready to receive the sign of God’s love in the Lord’s Supper.  But YOU are in GOD’S hands.  YOU are a sacred vessel – sacred, set apart, claimed and chosen.  YOU are a vessel designed and created to receive this love and pour it out. 

What is poured into us, flows out of us.  What we receive, we give. Many of us may not consider ourselves to be out-going personalities, but we are really ALL outgoing children of God. Love has come into us and OUT IT GOES!  Forgiveness shown to us becomes the forgiveness that restores our neighbor.  The unconditional love we have known now reveals itself in love to those around us.  Materials things we have been given now feed and shelter those in our community when we give them away.  Our lives claimed by God — our selves loved by God — are poured out for the life of the world.

This is who we are.  This is what our life was meant to be.  This is who our divine, loving, creative Potter made us to be.  Still, again and again, life becomes misshapen. We forget. We get distracted. Again and again, the potter reshapes the clay. The splash of a watery cross, the taste of bread and wine, the sound of good news: these things center life in Christ.  They restore our balance and help us remember what matters most.