Why No Handles?--Jan. 20, 2011

O God our Maker, do not hide your face from us.
We do not want to be foolish, to strive against you—
we seek your face; we want to understand your will.
But we confess there is much we do not comprehend.

Your kingdom grows like scattered seeds, untended;
at least, sometimes it does. But then at other times
it seems to require all of our attention; yet no matter
how we try, we cannot see it grow at all. Why is this?

And when you took the lumps of clay, shaped them
to form the vessels you created us to be, could you
not have put some handles on us, something you
could grip to make us do the job that you intend?

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 36; 147:12-20; 80; 27
Isa. 45:5-17
Eph. 5:15-33
Mark 4:21-34

Selected Verses
Ps. 27:8
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
      Your face, LORD, do I seek.
      Do not hide your face from me.

Isa. 45:9
Woe to you who strive with your Maker,
      earthen vessels with the potter!
Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”?
      or “Your work has no handles”?

Eph. 5:17
So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Mark 4:26-27
[Jesus] also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. …”