Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way.
Thou art the potter; I am the clay.
Mould me and make me, till all shall see
Christ only always living in me.
It’s such a beautiful little melody that lulls you into a sense of safety and security about being in the hands of God. But safety and security are not what Jeremiah finds at the potter’s house!
Jeremiah hears the words of a God prepared to wreak destruction upon a disobedient people; as well as to build and encourage a people who orient themselves towards God. This is a God whose rule is absolute; and to whom absolute obedience is required. It’s the sort of God that we’re not very comfortable with in the twenty-first century with our emphasis on God’s love and maybe even our bland sense of who God is. But the God that Jeremiah confronts is a jealous God; a demanding God; a God who will brook no turning back.
I have decided to follow Jesus (3 times).
No turning back (2 times).
All of the commitments we make to love and serve God, and the people of God, and God’s good creation; all the promises we make about doing what God wills and ignoring our own; all the covenants we make about being put to God’s use without any thought for ourselves—all these words sound hollow in the face of the words of a God who promises retribution if we do not fulfil the oaths we make.
Thus says the LORD: Look I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. (Jeremiah 18:11)
Have thine own way, Lord (not if we can help it). This God sounds far too terrifying and for our modern and postmodern sensibilities. We want a God who is meek and mild—a gentle Jesus who wouldn’t hurt a lamb. But the God that Jeremiah confronts is a tough-minded and tough-acting God. Have thine own way, Lord? O God, what have we let ourselves in for? Did we really sign up to this?
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
The familiar words roll off our tongues; but it’s not Jeremiah’s God that we’re usually envisaging as we pray them. We want a cuddly God, a SNAG God, a sensitive new age God, a God who knows the way around the kitchen, and is emotionally attentive. We don’t want Jeremiah’s God. We’re afraid of Jeremiah’s God. We’re maybe even angry at Jeremiah’s God. And with good reason!
Jeremiah’s God is a patriarchal God. There is only one authority—God; and all else quakes in God’s wake. There is only one rule, one regime with this God; and that is God’s rule, God’s regime. There’s little opportunity for complaint, or is there…? Or is there?
Because Jeremiah’s God is also the God who hears the people’s lament and who acts. Jeremiah’s God is a God who is determined to protect God’s people in the face of a hostile environment. Jeremiah’s God is a God prepared to make some tough decisions in order to shepherd the people of God in the right way.
There are some things that we are no longer comfortable with about this patriarchal God. We are suspicious of the type of authority that apparently brooks no dialogue. We are rightly concerned about the type of human authorities that will claim power for themselves on the basis of such a God.
But there are also some things about this patriarchal God that we need to bear in mind. The world which depicted God in this way was a very different world from our own. Family and community were everything; and family and community leaders carried great responsibilities for the welfare of those groups. There was no choice involved in that. If the patriarch did not protect the people, who would? If the patriarch would not make the difficult decisions to lead the people to safety, who would? And sometimes getting to safety meant crossing deserts, and meeting hostile peoples and fighting for survival in a harsh environment.
The family, the community, relied on staying together in order to survive. There was only one rule, the rule of the patriarch, the regime of the family, the cohesiveness of the community. Without the family or the community, you were literally on your own—on your own for food, on your own for shelter, on your own for comfort, on your own for protection.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
O God, we acknowledge your rule, your oversight, your guidance. We want your way to be the way that we do things here. We want to align ourselves with you. We want to give your allegiance to your rule, your regime, your pattern of family organisation, for we know that you are the one who can protect us.
It is “patriarchal” in the sense that it is modelled on the traditional Jewish family structure where the patriarch provided the guidance and oversight for an extended family group. But for us, it cannot be patriarchal in the sense that it sets up hierarchies where men have authority over everyone else; or where power is concentrated in the hands of unquestioned authority figures.
God’s rule is one of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. God’s nature is love. And God’s hope and call is for the whole creation to be in relationship with their Creator, and thereby with each other. We are uncomfortable with a God who will apparently destroy for nothing; or is it for nothing…? Or is it for nothing?
Because Jeremiah’s God promises destruction upon those who will not live within God’s rule, will not live within God’s regime, will not acknowledge God’s way of being and doing.
This a God who will lead the people through difficult terrain in order for them to reach the promised land. This is a God who will prod and push a wilful people in the right paths. This is a God who will not let us turn back for our own sakes.
The commitment has been made and the allegiance has been given. This is a God who knows what it is to carry a commitment through. This is a God who knows what it is to carry the cross; who will see the project through to the end. This is a God who will not let us go—from before we were born until after we die. This is a God who knows us utterly as a potter knows the clay that is worked and the pot that is made from it.
Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way.
Thou art the potter; I am the clay.
Mould me and make me, till all shall see
Christ only always living in me.
This is the God who provides guidance and oversight, love and care. This is the God who longs for relationship with the whole creation; and this is the God from whom, through Jesus, we receive our inheritance as children of God.
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