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

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
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

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more