Title: Saints in the Hands of God!
Contents
Saints in the hands of God (Jeremiah 18:1-12)
2011, March 20.
*** Testimony of Henry Nouwen
When I was learning Spanish in Cochabamba, Bolivia, I met a woman named Lucha who worked at a language school.
We didn't talk to each other about God or religion, but her smile. kindness. The way he fixed my spanish. The story of my childhood aroused a spiritual envy in me. I kept thinking like this.
“I wish I had a pure heart like this person. I wish I was simple, open and gentle like her. I wish I was stable.”
So my ministry to her was to stand still and to appreciate and accept it so that she could show me the Lord in her characteristic meek way. confessed.
First, go down to the potter's house. (Jeremiah 18:1~4)
“This is what the Lord said to Jeremiah. 2. "Go down to the potter's house. There I will declare my words to you." 3. So I went down to the potter's house, and the potter was working at the same time, turning the wheel. 4. But when the potter made a vessel out of clay and it didn’t work out, he made another vessel out of the clay
*, to Jeremiah
1), the words spoken at the potter's house
2), the potter and the wheel (green rust)
3), the potter and the clay (mud)
Second, Israel in the hand of the Lord (Jeremiah 18:5-6)
“Then the Lord said to me: 6. "'People of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter? I, the Lord, say. People of Israel, as clay is in the potter's hand, so you are in my hand."
1, Israel!
2, Can't I treat you like a potter?
3, as the clay in the potter's hand
4, You are also in my hands.
*** Henri Nouwen heard this example in the article “From Rejection to Embrace”.
One day, while on his way to the city to sell small things, ‘Agaton’, the father of the desert, met a handicapped man on the side of the road, with both legs paralyzed.
When asked where he was going, Father Agathon replied, "I am going to the city to sell things."
The man asked, “Take me too.”
So Agathon carried him to the city. The handicapped man said to Agathon, "Please drop me off at the place that sells your stuff."
He did it. When one item was sold, the man asked, “How much did you sell it for?” Agathon told him the price.
The handicapped man said, “Buy me some bread,” so he bought me bread.
When Father Agathon sold the second item, this time the man asked, “How much did you sell it for?” He said the price.
Then the man said, “Buy me this,” and Agathon bought it.
The goods were sold out, and Agathon prepared to leave.
When the man asked, “Are you going back?” Agathon answered “yes”.
Then the man said, "Please, take me back to where I was."
Agathon picked him up again and carried him to his place.
Then the handicapped man said.
“Agaton, you are full of God’s blessings in heaven and on earth.”
Agathon looked up and saw that the man was gone. The handicapped man was an angel of the Lord.
Third, God the Sovereign (Jeremiah 18:7-10)
“Even if I have said that I will uproot, crush, or destroy any nation or nation, 8. As long as that nation returns from the iniquity of which I have warned, I reap the calamity I intended to inflict upon them. 9. But no matter what I said I would establish and plant a certain nation or nation, 10. If those people do not obey my word and do what is evil in my eyes, then I will reap the blessings I have promised them.”
1, when the referee gives a warning.
2, as long as they come back
3, I will reap disaster.
4, obedience is a blessing, disobedience is a judgment.
*** A country girl caught measles in the winter a few years ago. Although not seriously ill, the child had to stay in bed for a while.
But her parents, who had to make money, told them a few things and went out into town.
In other words, it was a promise to 'never get down to bed' and not to get cold. Despite such warnings, the stubborn child went upstairs to cool off with the wind in his pajamas as soon as his parents went to work. And a few days later, the villagers had to bury the child with pneumonia.
Fourth, turn from your evil ways (Jeremiah 18:11-12)
“Therefore, speak now to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 'This is what the Lord says. I am preparing calamities for you, and I have plans to strike you. Therefore, come on, each of you, turn from your own wicked ways, and correct your actions and deeds.' 12. When you say this, they say, 'You don't have to. We will live as we think. We will each act according to the stubbornness of our own evil heart.'”
1, God who encourages repentance.
2, correct your conduct.
3, change your mind.
*** Henry Nowen lived his later life as a humble person.
In <We are all human beings>
Unlike Agathon, I recognized my true desires and spent many years studying at various universities to find a place that could be called home. monastery. I wandered aimlessly through the missionary.
Larche (meaning 方舟 (ark), a community of people with physical and intellectual disabilities, located in France and around the world. Near Toronto, it is the Larsche Daybreak community where Henry Nouwen lived.) He must have met the founder Jean Vanier When he looked right through me.
He says I'm not very happy, but rather anxious and anxious. I figured out that I was still looking for something. “Maybe the people of our community will be your home.”
It took me quite some time to hear that. Finally, in 1986, I left academia and entered Larche Daybreak, Canada.
Since then, my life has changed drastically from before.
All my preconceived notions of the church and community. The traditional understanding of who is on the inside and who is on the outside had to be abandoned.
I had to empty my own thoughts and judgments that I had held for a long time. But as a reward. I got a house with deep joy and a new purpose.
I met Adam at Daybreak.
He was a person with severe physical and emotional disabilities, but he was also the one who opened the door for me to enter the dwelling place of God.
As I became friends with Adam and took care of him, I heard this voice of God.
“Blessed are the poor.”
He said that the poor are blessed, not those who help the poor.
“Henry, are you willing to be poor so that I can live with you too?”
Adam taught me that community is built around the fellowship of the weak.
Adam was a man who could not control even one of his own bodies.
He couldn't speak, work, eat alone, or drive a tractor.
In a house of five helpers, I lived with Adam as his helper.
From the outside, helpers are strong and capable, and community members with disabilities are weak and powerless.
But on the inside, the strong man was Adam.
Thanks to Adam, we were able to form a community, to love each other deeply, and to forgive each other's quirks.
Because of Adam's shortcomings, we came to face our own shortcomings.
Together we have formed a community of vulnerable people who give themselves all to one another, appropriately practicing hospitality and solidarity.