“Treasure in Clay Jars”
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A sermon preached Readings: |
2 Cor 4:7 “We have this treasure in
clay jars”
“Treasure
in earthen vessels” – a text from 2 Corinthians 4:7
and
also the theme for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
A pile of old and dirty empty flower pots lie
wintering in the corner of the garden shed –
nothing you’d write home about –
hardly something you’d put out in
a prominent place for visitors to look at –
cheap, a bit cracked, and
distinctly down at heel.
Full of cobwebs and the odd
dead snail.
And yet come back in the summer,
and you may find those same pots in pride of place –
and the gardener proudly points his visitors towards them –
the tomatoes have done well this year, he says – look at them there.
And those pelagonium cuttings have come on a treat –
Of course to be fair, he isn’t really showing off
the pots,
he’s more concerned with what
they contain -
and yet he’d be upset now if you kicked over or ignored the pot as a thing of
no value –
for now it contains a thing of
beauty and worth.
Paul
in this passage is talking about our frail human nature –
we
have been created from the clay of creation,
but we remain frail and full of impurity.
We are as prone to weakness and cracking as a crudely thrown clay pot –
of
no great beauty or worth in ourselves,
we
might be tossed aside by the gardener short of crocks at the start of the new
season –
Indeed, dust to dust, earth to earth,
we
know that ultimately our earthly bodies will have served their useful purpose
and
will return to the clay from whence they came.
And
yet says Paul, we – frail, ordinary, weak, humans –
have great worth because within us is something of huge beauty and
importance,
the
very flowering of creation, God’s treasure, the light of the gospel.
It
is of course a message to us all never to despair about ourselves or others –
However
mad bad or sad you or I
(or the person in the newspaper headline) may be,
always see the way in which God can redeem and use even our frail selves for
his work.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
But
the image takes on a particular significance
when we are asked to reflect on it in the Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity –
Now
the row of battered earthenware pots becomes
a symbol of the Churches & chapels of Christendom.
And
we are ashamed at our tawdriness and brokenness.
What
poor receptacles for the treasure of the Gospel!
It was George Bernard Shaw who described Britain and
America as
two countries divided by a
common language –
And
we find ourselves as Churches and denominations – sadly, ironically, divided by
a common faith.
Each Church and denomination shares a common faith, and a
common treasure in Christ –
And
yet we divide the treasure into pots which remain oh so separate.
The Kingdom of Heaven
We
look to the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven,
the
day that will surely come
when (as the Book of Revelation puts it) there will be no more temple.
Now
the Book of Revelation by some oversight doesn’t actually mention the Methodist
Church,
but
had the writer remembered to do so,
he
would undoubtedly have said that in Heaven there will be no Methodism
and
indeed no Anglicanism and no Roman Catholicism -
because all will worship God in love and truth,
and then all will be treasure
and
the earthenware pots of denominational allegiance will no longer be needed –
No Time Machines
But
here and now we are where we are
and
the treasure of the Gospel is still sadly divided amongst so many earthenware
pots.
I don’t know if you have seen the IBM advert on the TV at the moment –
its about a Time Machine -
the business executives are all
sitting round the board room table examining this machine,
which would allow them to go back
in time and undo all the stupid corporate decision they had made.
The voice over at the end of course points out that the Time Machine does not
actually exist –
you can’t go back in time.
Instead, the ad implies, you should avoid making
mistakes in the first place by employing IBM.
I
am not sure about the moral – I am inclined to say “if only getting it right
first time were than easy”.
But
we have to come to terms with the fact we make mistakes and there is no time
machine.
Wouldn’t
it be good to roll back the clock
to
undo some of the disastrous and petty squabbles which have divided the Churches
down the Centuries
and
left us even to day in separate camps often pitched by the misguided zeal and
intolerance of our ancestors.
It
would also be good to be able to roll forward the clocks to the end of time
when all are divisions have been ended.
But
we can’t do that – we can only work where we are – with different pots –
knowing that all that matters about the shape of pot is its ability to hold
the treasure.
Building each other up
Jeremiah
saw a potter with clay on the wheel –
breaking down a misshapen pot and then building it up again –
So
the Lord says he will break down and remake his people. (Jer 18:1-11)
So
must we - as Christians of particular allegiance - be prepared to learn from
each other,
see
our own pots broken down and reshaped if they can be thus nearer God’s will.
As
a local congregation we are in talks with our sisters and brothers at Southernhay URC
about a possible united Free Church in the city centre.
Where
these conversations may lead remains to be seen – we can but go forward in hope
In
the meantime, whatever may happen, we must humbly offer our insights to each
other,
and
seek to learn from them.
It
is not our aim to destroy another pot, but help it become firmer and stronger
and truer –
that it may better hold our common treasure.
The Light of the Gospel
This
years Week of Prayer poster shows a earthen vessel holding a candle –
and
that of course reflects the precise imagery Paul uses –
we
hold treasure in earthen vessels, and the treasure is the light of the gospel.
Let me finish with the true story of newspaper an
American reporter
covering a memorial service for a
murder victim.
He was covering the story because he knew the area
well –
indeed the dead man had been a
teacher at the school in his home town,
just a few streets away from his
parents home..
The memorial service was held by candlelight on a summers evening on the school lawn.
At the end of the service everyone present was asked to take a lit candle
and carry it home with them –
to share some sparks of light and hope in a dark and sad community.
Writing about the experience, the reporter said this
-
"I felt silly carrying a candle three blocks
home, cupping my hand to protect the flame.
This, after all, is the sort of gesture a detached
journalist employs as a folksy detail in an article,
but secretly considers to be irredeemably corny or maybe just too
intimate.
I felt that way –
until I saw a candle burning on someone's porch –
and two more in the car that drove past,
as I climbed the front stairs to my father's house,
warm wax all over my fingers."
The reporter ended the article by saying,
"When I explain to friends from other places what
happened in my hometown,
I tell them about the knife and blood because that is
unavoidable.
But I always end up telling them about the
candles."
[Quoted in Gilbert W Bowen, “Beyond Myself: Faith,
Hope, Love”]
The
world is full of darkness and violence and hurt.
And
God gives us a candle – not a lot you may feel in a dark dark
world –
And
maybe for a while longer we shall still have our different candles
and, God forgive us, as individuals and Churches
we
may sometimes be very reticent about our flickering flame.
And
yes, of course, we hold that flame each of us
in a very battered clay vessel.
But
if we can stand alongside those others who also carry candles –
If
we can share their light with ours, then surely shall we see that the light is
as one,
And
as the world is illumined,
we
realize that we no longer know – or care –
from which candle the light came –
And
the more the light enters our lives
the more we are empowered to share the light with others,
and
look forward to the day when
the Church
shall be one
the world
shall be one
the light
shall be one,
and the
darkness shall be no more.