Let's start with familiar passage from the pen of David, a man who had a vibrant sense of God's call on his life.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in -behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18


 "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God, ... they out number the grains of sand." Another translation reads "How difficult it is for me to understand your plans, O God, there are so many." (francias courant) I want to explore in more detail the plans he has for us.

As a parent, I know how many plans I have for each of my children, many of those plans formed not even for a child, but for the a promised child. How many of us as parents have begun the plans for the space needed, the extra clothes, and the additional joy even before the child was born! Why did Janet and I morn the child we lost to miscarriage? Because of the promise. As she was being knit together in her mother's womb, we had plans for her and her place in the family, a place she still has - but only in our hearts.

Let's set David's writing aside and look in the US News & World Report for August of 1997. In 1971, a major pharmaceutical company was in the process of doing the clinical trials for a new medication to control hypertension. The drug did its job well and some of you may know it by the name Loniten. But, unbeknownst to its designers, minoxidil had some profound side effects. To quote US News, "some patients were growing hair on their shoulders, legs, temples, and else where." What your friends with hypertension take orally as Loniten, your friends with androgenetic alopecia use topically and buy as Rogaine. "Minoxidil ... is the only solution that the Food and Drug Administration had judged capable of regrowing hair. The hitch is that it doesn't work for everyone." In 1996, people spent $162 million trying to find out if it would work for them.

Minoxidil is just one example of a drug that has more than one use in two widely different areas of life. It does what it was created for and more. The catch is that if Upjohn had not been looking for a better treatment for hypertension, they never would have regrown hair on so many bald heads.

Let's take another look at the process of creating something new. Back in Jeremiah, God had the young prophet take a walk one day down by the potter's house. From Jeremiah 18:1-4, we read:

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message."
So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

The potter tried to make a certain vessel from the clay, but the nature of the clay would not accept the first plan of the potter so he went with plan "B." Jeremiah did not see the potter tear the clay off the wheel and toss it on the boulevard to be trampled by the masses. He patiently perceived the nature of the clay and drew out its inherent qualities as a new and distinct vessel; not what he had planned, but new and wonderful none the less.

This passage in Jeremiah speaks of a responsibility in being wonderfully made. The Hebrew David used for "wonderfully made" in Psalm 139 is "palah" meaning to be distinct or distinguished. I am distinctly made. God made me for a purpose, just as he called out the Nation of Israel. "'O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?' declares the LORD. 'Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.'" (Jer 18:7) The passage goes on to describe how God can do with nations as he chooses. He can lift up nations and bring them down. He can even change his mind about nations, just as he can about people. "And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it." (Jer 18:9-10)

Though the clay could only yield to the expertise of the potter, we as people and nations have a choice and responsibility before God to pursue the reason we were distinctly made. Sometimes that purpose gets off track and we find ourselves trapped in a snare with no deliverance in sight.

Take Onesimus, for example. Onesimus was a slave ‹ plain and simple. He was one who was owned by another. We have no idea from Saul's letter to Philemon how Onesimus became a slave, but we do have a hint that he was on the run for crimes against his master. "If he has done anything wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me." (v.18) While on the run he met up with the One who would change his life and bring new purpose to it. In sending him back to his master, Saul took a huge risk. He knew that returning Onesimus was a death sentence. Being a run away slave who had stolen from his master was punishable by death. Being a man with a changed heart gave Onesimus the courage to face the consequences with Saul as his advocate. I love how subtle Saul is not. "Therefore, although in Christ, I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love." (v8-9a) Then later, "If he has done anything wrong, or owes you anything, charge it to me. I will pay it back ‹ not to mention that you owe me your very self." (v18-19) Ouch!

Let me restate what Saul said. If I had not shared the gospel with you, you would still be dead in your sin instead of dead to your sin in Christ. Now forgive Onesimus as God in Christ forgave you! Onesimus' purpose in life is to be a child of the Most High, not a man dead for sins against his master. What ever you do, Philemon, you must place your relationship with Christ above all other roles in life; slave master, son, father, even person.

Luke put the same appeal is this way, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sister ‹ yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26) Now we know from all the other statements about love and commitment, that Jesus is not encouraging the kind of family relationships propagated by so many cults ‹ really hating all family and loving only one maniacal leader. He is saying that all other relationships must be second to our relationship with him. When the large crowds began to turn to him, he reminded them there is a cost. If we are to follow him, we must count the cost. We must be willing to put everything in life second to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

We were "wonderfully made" to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We have a choice to respond to his call on our lives so that he will not "reconsider the good" he had intended to do for us. We can do many things in life. Some are directly related to the central purpose of our creation. Some things we can do are happy by products of our main purpose. I am a son, a husband, and a father four times over. God's primary purpose for creating me was not these roles as important and joyous sa they are to me. He created me first and foremost to love Him. If any one of these secondary roles gets in the way of the reason I was woven together in the depths of the earth, then I will be like the man who started to build a tower and did not count the cost. "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33)

David reminds us that each one of us was created for a distinct purpose. Jeremiah reminds us that we have a responsibility to pursue that purpose, and Luke and Saul remind us that following the Lord is a great endeavor with a great price.

God of grace and God of redemption search my heart and show me the ways I need to yield to your perfect hand. Reveal in me the roles I esteem higher than the honor of being your adopted child. Keep me, merciful Savior, within the light of your all encompassing love so that I can stay focused on the goal that makes the high cost worh every effort.

Lectionary readings for September 6, 1998

Jeremiah 18:1-11, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, Philemon 1-21, Luke 14:25-33



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