Treasure in Earthenware Jars

There is a passage in 2 Corinthians which reads:

'We are only the earthenware jars that hold this treasure to make it clear that such an overwhelming power comes from God and not from us.' (2 Corinthians 4:7)

Earthenware Jars in Pompeii

I have recently read a sermon by the RC Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, in which he uses that text to consider what it means to be a priest, and the analogy carries over into any Christian life.

The earthenware jar is something simple, into which something great is poured.  A priest is never the one who truly does work; rather it is God who does it through him or her.  The priest must therefore be humble, giving thanks to God for all that they achieve, and in all things pointing away from themselves to Christ.

The earthenware jar is also fragile.  We put priests on a pedestal so often, expecting them to be able to deal with any situation and also to live perfect lives, to always be firing on all cylinders when we need them.  In Archbishop Vincent's words, 'Ordination does not create supermen.  Our fragility remains.'  All Christians, but priests especially, are called daily to meet new situations, some of which will stretch them to their limit.  This is when we are driven back to God in prayer, when we must allow the master craftsman to reshape us and reform the cracks that the stresses of life have created.

In the end, 'it is always the treaure that matters, not the vessel.'  On Sunday, I heard a sermon from a priest in training at Westcott House, one of the C of E colleges in Cambridge.  All Christians are called to live a life for God, 'to do not what they want to do, but what God wants them to do.'  This is what the priestly vocation embodies so particularly.  A priest is sent out into the relatively unknown, with the one guiding principle of doing God's work.  In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, 'your will be done.'  Our lives should be the fulfilment of that prayer.  To carry and share the treasure that is so marvellously stored within us.

The font in Salisbury Cathedral

In baptism, God claims us as His own.  We may have already recognised that we have the weakness of an earthenware jar, but the Christian knows that he or she is filled with treasure as well.  The question then is what they will do with it.

"Missioners: priest and people today" by Archbishop Vincent Nichols is published by alive publishing.

Peace and goodwill from Hilfield.