First, let's look at how each of the readings fits with our theme.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with this passage from Jeremiah where the prophet is asked by God to “go down to the potter's house”, and there to listen to what God had to say. Probably many of you have watched a potter at the wheel yourselves. Perhaps you have even “thrown clay”, as the expression goes? In a blink of an eye, you can go from lightly shaping a beautiful vessel on the wheel to watching it twist into a mess which has to be thrown again from scratch.
God's words relating this to Israel being clay in God's hands are chilling to modern sensibilities. I don't think this is a popular text for 21st century individuals who pride themselves on forging their own destinies. But the truth is, each of us is in the hand of God. We have all had to face this reality when our careful plans and heartfelt dreams have been smashed to pieces by unexpected development in our life.
The good news is that submitting to God's way means that our lives can be formed in beautiful ways that no one expected. Even the biggest disaster can be redeemed into something better than we experienced before. As we have known this in our personal lives, so it is in our life as a church. And it is those who are in positions of deciding and advising on those decision who need the faith to look to God and to do what is necessary to redeem difficult situations.
The psalm, too, speaks of God forming each person, not in the more distant metaphor of clay, but in the much warmer and more intimate reality of development in the womb. The psalmist is deeply grateful to be God's handiwork, accepting of the fact that God has already seen his whole life before he was even born. Is seeing everything the same as deciding for us what life will be? It seems that there is still room for our decisions, as long as we can be at peace with the big picture being beyond our total control.
The reading from Paul's letter to Philemon is perhaps the most directly applicable of today's lessons to our theme of volunteer appreciation, especially as it begins, with glowing praise for Paul's dear friends and family in God. As we do today, and will continue to do in the months to come for Ascension's hard-working volunteers, Paul thanks these believers continually for their love for other Christians and their faith in Jesus.
Paul also had a special favour to ask of them. He had become very close to a slave who had run away from them, and the slave had become a Christian, and at this point, it seemed best to send him back to them, though he had become an invaluable help to Paul.
We are modern people, horrified by slavery. But we know that two millenia ago, people had very different assumptions about slaves. Can we hear the significance in that context of Paul asking them to accept their runaway slave back as a “beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you!” Paul refused to treat him as society dictated at the time, as a piece of property to be returned to the original owners. He spoke caringly of an opportunity for Philemon and his family to rejoice because a new brother in Christ wanted to come back to them.
We, too, are often faced with hard choices within our spiritual family. Pressed from the outside by societal and cultural expectations, the church is called to look with new eyes of love and compassion when our brothers and sisters grieve or disappoint us, and find God's way through to the best solution possible for the healing of the body of Christ.
Finally, the gospel reading includes these very hard words from Jesus, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? ... So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
The Greek word for “hate”, “miseo”, is used in other situations, both in the Bible and secular documents from that time, in the sense of “loving less”. So Jesus is not contradicting the commandment to honour father and mother, or asking his followers not to want to live. But Jesus was well aware of the constant push we experience as humans from our relationships with those we love most dearly to put them first, rather than putting God first, and so, as he often did, he uses direct language to shock us into awareness of the magnitude of the struggle ahead of us. He further emphasises his point by using other metaphors: the cross we must carry, and making sure we have the money for a tower before building. Many Christians have leaned toward a literal understanding of the need to give up all possessions – even if we don't take it literally, we at least have to take it seriously, and this has tremendous implications for everything we have. But that's a Stewardship message for another time.
For now, it's enough to see the totality of the commitment Jesus asks.
I don't know if you're like me in this sense, but I often find music coming to mind as I read or think about something. As I began to reflect on this gospel reading, a song from a Christian pop band began to run through my head. Some of the lyrics are “It's gonna take more than just a little bit, more than just a little time... It’s gonna take more than a part of me / No less than all.”
No less than all. I see this level of commitment in my brothers and sisters in Christ being honoured today, as well as others we will be celebrating in the coming months, and others who have laboured long already, and even have already gone before us, like dear Carol Siksay. As a volunteer leader, I am inspired and challenged to be this committed, and look to God for the strength and resources to do my part.
To conclude then, the scriptures challenge us to look at our personal lives, our plans, our community, and in the end, everything we have and consider ours from a divine perspective. In doing so, the dedication and sacrifice of those who shoulder heavy responsibilities at the Ascension are seen in the light of a very important service to God that we honour, and for which we are profoundly grateful. May we show the depth of our gratitude not only in words and tokens of thanks, but through the esteem and grace with which we care for each other day by day. Amen
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