Living in the Spirit
August 29, 2016

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 18:1-11

Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. –Jeremiah 18:5-10

“Are ye able,” said the Master,
“to be crucified with me?”
“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered,
“to the death we follow thee.”  

Lord, we are able. Our spirits are thine.
Remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
a beacon to God, to love, and loyalty*.

I favor many hymn poems and melodies, too, but some hymns stay with me because of one line of poetry. Called by Jesus to be partners in the establishment of the Kingdom of God, there exists no more important pray than the line Remold them, make us, like thee, divine drawn from Jeremiah. Even in today’s post-modern thought we still struggle to describe our relationship with God and to describe God. Are you Able was written in 1802 when apparently its author envisioned a relationship with God as human spirit to divine spirit. When praying this line, my memory rewords it to “Remold me, make me like thee, divine”. I apparently sense myself as an autonomous wholeness. In worship with others I can readily substitute the word “us” for “me” but singing from memory I also substitute “us” for “them”. It is a bit ironic because I generally do not like other people rewriting another person’s poetry.

Human beings have the ability to make choices about who they are, how they react to situations, and who they are becoming. We even have the choice to relate to God or not and whether that relationship is a meaningful part of our lives. There exists an immense amount of love in the granting of that choice. This love says that God has our backs in anything and everything when we open ourselves to a continuing relationship. God does not want us to be something we are not. God wants to help us become who we are.

Prayer: Remold us, make us like you. Amen.

*First Verse and Refrain from the Hymn Are Ye Able words by Earl Marlatt. See at http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh530.sht

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.