Clay Pots and Kings

July 11
Wednesday

A realtor was supposed to bring someone today for showing at 3:30. They were no-shows. Very disappointing.

Another episode of Duke and the lake. The girl and her dogs were there. She wanted to sun on the raft. Duke expected to play. He jumped in. I heard her yelling for him to go home and called him in. I was steaming. For my part and his. He had no idea why she yelled at him. He thought he was doing what she wanted.

The fellow who first taught me how to train a dog once said, "I've met very few stupid dogs--but more than a few stupid people." I concur.

Confused, desperate;
the dog's behavior cries out--
Imperfect master!

This morning a local pastor had surgery to remove a cancer. She has asked me to supply the pulpit Sunday. The church is Lutheran. I'm Methodist. Once when I was headed to a United Church of Christ to fill in I was asked, "How can you preach to a different denomination?" Answer: "I plan to use the same bible."

Sister Elsie asked me to preach from the lectionary passage Mark 6:14-29. It is a long passage describing the events leading up to, and including, the death of John the Baptist. Mark places it between the sending out and return of the disciples from their first mission without Jesus. Does he place it there to hint at the danger their task entails?

The text begins at the ending, with Herod believing that Jesus is the Baptist risen from the dead. The rest is given as a flashback. There are any number of sermons here. I will focus on Herod's ignorance of the truth of who Jesus is.

I read the passages before and after a text when preparing a sermon. I read all of Mark 6. Also Mark 7--even though it doesn't appear on the lectionary calendar until the first week in September. As I read the "cups, pots and bronze kettles" (NRSV) Mark 7:4 describes, I thought of the clay pot Lao Tzu speaks of  in chapter 11 (in Mair's translation--chapter 55) of the Tao Te Ching.

The thoughts of Jesus and Lao Tzu are not connected directly. Nor are they parallel. Yet they were together in my thoughts.

Jesus speaks of the importance of cleaning  the inside vs the outside of the pot. He contrasts the inside (heart/thoughts) of a person to the outside appearance. The importance is underlined by Jesus' reiteration of the message to the disciples after the crowd had left.

Lao Tzu gives this:

"Clay is molded to make a pot,
but it is in the space where there is nothing
that the usefulness of the clay pot lies."
                                (Victor H. Mair, trans.)

Where is the connection? Is it located elsewhere? I think so. They intersect through Jesus' proclamation in Mark 10:15 that " . . . whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it," and in Matthew 11:25, "I thank you father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants." (both NRSV)

In the conclusion of Lao Tzu's thought he gives this:

"Therefore, benefit may be derived from something, but it is in nothing that we find usefulness."

Is the connection tenuous? I see the necessity of renouncing the ego essential in all worship. A difficult task.

Dandelion necklace,
pond-jumping with frogs--
truly he is a king!

All religions are not alike. Only the blind don't see similarities.

Thistles and roses
look no different-- 
if one cannot see.