"Handled with Care"

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Psalm 139:1-16

Introduction. Recently, several of you have asked me about a new church in town, Christ Presbyterian Church. The church and its pastor had a booth at the Cache County Fair, and apparently are meeting on Sunday evenings at the Utah State University Inn. This fledgling, mission church is part of a larger body called the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, founded in the 1930s. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church has many beliefs similar to our church’s denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), such as that we are saved only by God’s grace through faith, and not by justifying ourselves before God; and belief in the Trinity--one God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yet the Orthodox Presbyterian Church holds different ideas, too, such as that "all officers (of the church) must be men, not women." In addition, it seems to hold to a more exclusive definition of predestination than us of the PC(USA). It believes in "God’s choice of certain individuals unto salvation before the foundation of the world," and believes that "Christ’s redeeming work was intended to save the elect only," and by inference, not intended to save many other people who are destined, therefore, to damnation. The PC(USA) likewise believes that "there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favor," but that the idea of predestination must be "‘held in harmony with the doctrine of (God’s) love to all (people…and) with the doctrine that God desires not the death

of any sinner, but has provided in Christ a salvation sufficient for all.’"

(information on the Orthodox Presbyterian Church from www.opc.org, which is the church’s official website, and from a free pamphlet distributed at it’s Cache County Fair booth by Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Faith, printed by Mariners Reformed Baptist Church; information on the PC{USA} from www.pcusa.org, which is the church’s official website)

Move 1. In the passages read today from Psalms and Jeremiah, we run into the tension between the idea of God’s predestining us on the one hand, and our free will on the other. We enter into a dialogue between God’s power and our power.

On the one hand, we see in Psalm 139 that God is above all others

in knowledge and in power. We see the writer say to God, "You…are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me….In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed." We see here the idea of predestination.

Well, we might think to ourselves, we’re not sure if we like this idea of a God who has our fates already written in a book. Do we have any room to write our own chapters here? Do we have any freedom, if God knows all about us even before we are born? We wonder if God has ever thought that we might like a little breathing room, not to be hemmed in, behind and before.

But when we look at the passage from Jeremiah, we do find free will sitting alongside of God’s power. We see in Jeremiah the request by God for us to turn from evil, and even see God talking about changing God’s own mind based on human actions. We are encouraged to "amend (our) ways and (our) doings." And even in the psalm, we see human ability to go in many directions–ascending to heaven, settling at the farthest limits of the sea, going into the darkness. We apparently have the choice in life to go and do whatever we would like, or are able.

And so we each have to wrestle with this tension. We do worship a God of power who is all knowing and is able to do whatever God wants; yet most of us also believe in a degree of independence in our own thoughts and actions, and we find such freedom confirmed in the scripture readings today.

Move 2. While the Bible somehow holds in harmony this tension between God’s power and our power, what it is completely clear about is God’s unambiguous love for us. Psalm 139 states that God "formed (our) inward parts," and "knit (us) together in (our) mother’s womb." Jeremiah states that God works with us as a potter works with clay, shaping and molding us into something good.

Tony Campolo tells the story about walking to school each day as a young boy. Being that his family lived in a rather dangerous part of the city, Tony’s mom paid a neighborhood girl, a few years older than Tony, $.05 per day, to be responsible to get Tony safely to and from school. But, at a certain age, Tony became very aware of all the money going into this neighborhood girl’s pockets, and seeing an opportunity, begged his mom to stop paying the girl. He told her that he could get himself to school just fine, and that he should be the one receiving the money instead. After some begging, he got his wish, on the condition that he put the money in the bank and save it to buy Christmas presents for his family.

Years later, after Tony’s mom had passed away, he explains that he was at a family get-together, and sharing stories. He reminisced about his "independent spirit" even as a child, and reminded his family of how he walked himself to school, how he "needed no one’s help in getting there and back each day, and how that translated into good presents for them at Christmas time."

Then, he says, he was laughed at by some members of his family, as they asked him, "‘Did you (really) think that you went to school…and came home alone? Every day when you left the house, Mom followed you. And when you came out of school at the end of the day, she was there. She always made sure that you didn’t notice her, but she watched over you coming and going, just to make sure you were safe and that nobody hurt you.’" Campolo was told further that his mom would sneak in the back door on the way home, so when she opened the front door and let him in, he just thought he had been on his own, when in reality she had been watching over him the whole time.

Campolo reflects, "And so it is with God!" (Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story, 2000, pp. 9-10). Indeed, the scripture passages from today speak of a God who has looked after us, and will look after us, all our days, a

God who cares for us eternally, a

God who handles us with care.

Move 3. Whether predestined or not, people of faith are intended to align their free will with God’s will. People are, God hopes, wanting to be part of God’s plans.

During the US Civil War, legend has it, Abraham Lincoln met with a group of ministers for a prayer breakfast. Lincoln was not a church-goer but was a man of deep faith. At one point one of the ministers said, "Mr. President, let us pray that God is on our side." With great insight, Lincoln responded, "No, gentlemen, let us pray that we are on God's side."

"Lincoln reminded those ministers that religion is not a tool by which we get God to do what we want but an invitation to open ourselves to being and doing what God wants." (www.ozsermonillustrations.com)

People are like clay, Jeremiah contends. They are, we might say, malleable, shaped by many forces, and don’t always turn out, even on the master potter’s wheel, just right. And then they need to be re-formed, re-shaped, into something new and better. When people can feel God shaping them, and instead of fighting that shaping, can become one with the creator’s intentions, then they on their way to being good in God’s eyes, a work of art.

Of course, people sometimes have difficulty knowing what God wants them to look like. Or maybe, they simply don’t take time to consider what God wants. "Man is now a horror to God and to himself," according to C.S. Lewis, "and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not because God made him so but because he has made himself so by the abuse of his free will." (C.S. Lewis, The Quotable Lewis, 1989, p. 224)

And so, people of faith have the task, through studying scripture, through prayer, through conversation with others and through listening for the voice of God, of allowing themselves to be shaped by God, to be changed by God. And because they are already fearfully and wonderfully

made, according to the psalmist--already handled with care--they are well on their way to becoming the beautiful creations God intends.

Conclusion and Invitation to the Lord’s Supper. One of the places that we are shaped by God is at the table of the Lord’s Supper. It is here that we remember who it is that is our Lord and Savior. It is here that we experience the presence of Jesus, letting us know that we are a forgiven people, and calling us to a sharing and a caring between those here today, and with those in need everywhere. It is here that we don’t need to worry about a particular theology or specific doctrines. It is here that all who know Jesus Christ as Lord, whether PC(USA), Orthodox Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, or, along with me, none of the above–all who know Jesus Christ as Lord are invited.