Reaching for Christ

Readings for this week September 9th (proper 18) are taken from the following selection :

Jeremiah 18:1-11 and Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
or
[Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Psalm 1]
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

The potter at his wheel is a very evocative image, more so to those who would have witnessed it (like Jesus) in their own backyards.
They would have seen the craftsman start to make
and then decide it wasn't quite right and squash it all down and start again
often the amateur looks on with amazement
wondering why the work has begun again.
To us it looks OK
to the artist, the craftsman, the master
they see something that needs more and more and more work
So, this is a quite a useful image for you and me
of the way God sees us
we may think we are OK
or that there is not much that can be done
but God views us rather differently than we view ourselves.
So Paul revisits quite a lot of his old friendships, and relationships...like this one with Onesimus and finds with maturer and deeper reflection that things change
He was not always given to kind reflections,
but he does not stand still and there is a sense in which he becomes more compassionate, more charitable as he grows older.
So might this happen to all of us!