Skip to main content

Gold, Silver....


          In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use.  Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. (II Timothy 2:20-21)

          And the whining begins… "There are people who are gold and silver, but also people who are wood and clay. They have no choice in the matter. God’s playing favorites. I want to be a gold goblet. It's not fair!" 
          Rather than grousing because we haven’t been cast into the role of the Handicapper General (a la Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut) I think we should strive to be the best common use dishes we can be, because for all the ego-boost of being a special purposes dish, we face the same problem as the folks in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We’re looking for Holy Grails, and it turns out that if we choose the humble carpenter’s cup, not the glittering goblet, that we have chosen well.
          Once upon a time, I wanted to be a glittering goblet that everyone admired, but which never got used. Now, I’d rather be a sturdy mug that can stand up to the heat of the microwave and the occasional fall to the floor and gets used daily.
           It’s natural and good to desire to become an article of old or silver, but the passage talks more about the use than it does the substance. What is the difference between the gold and silver dishes and the wood and clay? The gold and silver have cleansed themselves, been made holy, are useful to the Master and are prepared to do any good work. In other words, the gold and silver dishes become gold and silver by being more concerned about pleasing God and working than they are about what they’re made of.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more