Note this Sermon is in note form, not transcribed.
Being father’s day – some licence for Dad jokes/puns!!
Symbols:
Clay (Jeremiah reading)
- place of malleability
- Where the potter and the clay need to work together
Broken – fired clay
- Reminds us metaphors have inherent weakness, we need to be careful about how we use them – and the bible is full of them!!!
Stone – hardness of language used in both readings – extremes
- Black or white – you are condemned if…, you are to hate your father, mother etc
- However, while language is strong there is also clear reference that God is willing to change
- Like if a mistake is made by sculpture – it can no longer be what was originally intended but now has an opportunity to be something new
Fish – Jesus (Luke reading)
- Hang out with people who fished for a living
- Height of popularity – everything going smooth, great rhythm
- But he’d soon be grasping another tree!
Crosses – picked up his cross
- Invites us to pick up our cross
- But which one, what does it look like today?
Paperweight – shape of a globe
- In both readings – call to live as people of God’s hope and justice
- A justice that changes the world
- But count the cost for such a way of life comes at a great expense
- To start with, all that you possess is no longer yours to do with as you wish – it’s God’s!!
So let us be like clay in the potter’s hands, let us be determined and yet flexible, let us celebrate the rhythms of life, while knowing the cost of discipleship, and lets be people of God’s justice and hope in the world. Amen