I laiti came into being through the slave trade. Haiti became a free nation before slavery ended MBT in the I'nitcd States. Freedom for slaves in Haiti stirred up fear in our own nation. Fear led our nation to abandon Haiti for years. Kcmcmbcr that sad truth and ask, What dues it mean to be known by God? What sloes it mean to be searched by God, to realize God is "acquainted with all [our) ways" (v. NFL jerseys 3), per-sonally and as a nation? Such questions help us sec the gap between God's acceptance of us and God's judgment, a divide that only grace can bridge. Such awareness'hems us in," even as it becomes "too wonderful" for us to grasp. Such awareness becomes the "hand" of God "upon us" (v. 5).
The power of Oakland Raiders Jerseys psalin I39 is its honesty. The psalm is like a mirror revealing us as we arc: "fearfully and wonderfully made" (v. H). We arc fearfully made because God has created us and not We ourselves. We are finite, limited; that knowledge stirs up fear. We have the capacity to make choices, but we cannot choose the consequences of our choices; that knowl-edge stirs up fear. We can imagine life in which sin is not present, but we discover We arc powerless to achieve that vision. The gap between what we can envision for ourselves and reality creates fear. MBT shoes clearance Conse-quences of the slave trade in Haiti and in our own nation poverty, chaos, violence are tragic reminders of that truth.
Because We understand Cod as rela-tional, We tend lo draw on human relationships to image Cod, she notes. Metaphorkal language, though, is just as limited as conceptual language is in its ability lo capture the divine essence. linages and metaphors do not name God in any literal sense, but express our experience of and beliefs about Cod. God is not literally a king, but speaking of God as king reflects the Christian claim that, MBT as creator. Cod is the source of cosmic order.
Against this theological backdrop, some of the imagery that the psalmist uses in verses I3-I5 is par- anti shoes ticularly striking. We are fearfully made, and We arc wonderfully made: MBT Shoes we have unique capacity for wonder, prayer, song, friendship, love, and redemption. Morning worship at the guest house where we stay in Haiti is a reminder of that truth. As first light tills the sky, a hell rings. I leave my rooftop perch for the chapel, joining about twenty boys and young men who live- in the home. All have come as orphans or children rcscucd from abuse. They begin each day with psalms, prayer, and song, followed by shared embraces.
Then thev Dallas Cowboys Jerseys arc MBT Shoes off to do assigned chores, share breakfast, and attend school. I have been com- ing to this home for eight years. I have watched as shared worship, shared support, shared education, and shared friendship give these boys MBT Shoes and young men a life beyond anything they could otherwise have imagined. In a country that reveals all that person's body, e wry thought of (he MBT person's mind, Football jerseys every habit and quirk. Nothing in our lives is off limits for God's knowledge. Secrets arc impossible. Our privacy means nothing to God. Not only docs God watch, but God also reaches ami touches us (v. 5). Personal space shrinks with God's observation and vanishes to zcio with God's hand upon us.

Like their parishioners, preachers face a choice as to how they view the intimate knowledge God has of human beings. That choice is rcllectcd in how they approach and treat this psalm. They Football jerseys can view it as a searching examination of sinful and disobedient creatures by an omniscient creator from whom none can escape, or they can approach the psalm as an MBT Shoes occasion to explore the intimate knowing that arises between Creator and crcaturc when each is wholly and thoroughly attentive to the other.
The significance of this choicc is MBT rcllectcd in the initial verses of Psalm I39. The psalmist and ihose MBT Shoes who worship with this psalm declare, in direct rela-tionship to ihe One who has made them,"You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise lip; you discern my thoughts ftom far away" (w. I 2). The knowing is past and ongoing; intimate and unlimited. There Oakland Raiders Jerseys is no hiding from it. Is lhat knowledge to be feared or embraced? If the unguarded knowing thai mirrors the relational familiarity of the most intimate relationships is a clue, then Dallas Cowboys Jerseys this confession is an expression of the deepest trust one can give MBT shoes clearance anti shoes another. If that knowing is only the searching evaluation of an omniscient iudgc, then the relationship is characterized by the surrender of power and responsibility. Reading this world.' Hymns and liturgies speak of God as king and lord.
As comforting as these images are, conceiving Cod predominantly in those terms tempts Christians to sit back passively and wait for God to work out God's will in this world or the next. This, McHague argues, is a dangerous posture in view of the realities of nuclear proliferation and a global environmental crisis problems that require ?ur active participa-tion i! they arc to be resolved. She proposes instead an expansion of the Christian imagination, a theo-logical agenda that resonates in many ways with this psalm.
All language for God tails short of the mark. McFague reminds us. As the author of this psalm acknowledges, it is impossible for humans to grasp the mind of God. MBT Theologians from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas to I'aul I illicit and Karl Barth have long recognized this fact. The abstract language of transcendence, immanence, and omniscience (along with their colleague,omnipotence [all powerful]) was developed by theologians to attempt to capture this reality. Kven that language falls short. As Aquinas argued, while we rightly claim that God knows all, we cannot give that claim any content because our finite minds cannot know what it would be like to know all.2 In the same vein, the psalmist here describes the vastness and Weightincss of the con-tents of the divine mind as exceeding our finite minds'accounting (w. I7-I8). This psalm also wit-nesses to the fact that experiencing divine love, care, and mystery compels us to attempt the impossible to speak of God. So we do.
Imagine and listen as the psalmist shares the conviction that God knows NFL jerseys us, nfterererwe may be. That conviction is the heart of biblical revelation. God searches MBT us, sees us as we are, where We are. MBT Shoes God accepts us. Acceptance, however, is not the same as approval; grace, the grace of God, bridges the gap between God's acceptance and God's judgment.

The passage invites readers to consider afresh the relationship between what theologians speak of as divine transcendcncc (God s distinction from the world) and divine immanence (God's intimate con-nection to it) through the traditional claims that God knows all (omniscience) and that God created all. Holding transcendence and immanence together is not always easy. Contemporary theologian Sallie McTagoc has argued that much of the theological tradition we have inherited has sacrificed a sense of God's connection to the world in favor of an empha-sis on God's rule over (and thus distance from) the
Dawn breaks over Port-au-Prince, I laiti, said to be the poorest country ir. the Western MBT shoes clearance Hemisphere. Two weeks earlier, troublemakers filled the streets, smash-ing thousands of windows, overturning countk-ss garbage cans, looting stores. Pood prices were going up; incomes were going down. People MBT were angry. Today, however, all is back to norma! normal chaos, normal poverty Dallas Cowboys Jerseys and exploitation, normal crowded streets.
First NFL jerseys light gleams behind the mountains, the air is cool, roosters are crowing, shocshinc men arc ring-ing their bells, donkeys are braying, tumbled homes, built almost on top of Oakland Raiders Jerseys one another, and women going to the well for water create a vision of first- century Palestine, a land of unstable, often violent political forces; a land of poverty and faith; a land of hunger and hope.
This pastoral reflection on Psalm I39 began on such a morning in Haiti. The words spoke with power, a power different from what would haw been possible at home.
Imagine various settings in which the psalm has been heard or will be heard: in a hospital room, before surgery, following a death, or as a mother holds a newborn child; in a prison cell; at the beach on vacation; on a rooftop as morning comes to
Exegetical Perspective
Whereas many psalms depict Gods Football jerseys saving activity in Israel's past or in the observable reality of the person praying, Psalm I39 points beyond the pale of the vis-ible into ihe microscopic, the infernal, ihe lofty, and MBT the cosmic, striving to describe anti shoes a God svho remains firmly beyond words or comprehension.
God Searches. The psalm begins with an ama/ing image of God as the seeker. God searches (v. I; see also v. 23). God's search is thorough and relentless. God follows everywhere We go. Whatever We do, God keeps looking lor us, watching for us and observing us.
God not only is looking for something; God exudes MBT knowledge. God knows all sorts of things, including private moments of past, present, and potential future (w. 2-5). Every time I stand up or MBT Shoes sit down, God knows. When I travel by day and sleep by night. God is watching. God knows what I am thinking (v. 2), even before I say it (v. -I).
The scope of God's search and knowledge is dearly personal and intimate. Unlike other Old Tes-tament passages (e.g., Job 38-39) that emphasize God's cosmic and divine knowledge, God in this psalm knows a single person, ihe unnamed speaker of the psalm. God's knowledge is immediately around ihis MBT Shoes person, with every MBT Shoes movement.

The discarded clay of a misshapen vessel can be remixed and worked into a new shape (I8:4). and God can anti shoes raise out of the MBT Shoes ruins of a com-munity's self-indulgence or indifference a new faith-fulness and a new usefulness (see v. 4b; cf. ler. 3I:3Ift"). Conviction can lead to repentance expressed in action: practicing forgiveness, breaking silence about matters of justice, placing compassion ahead of self-interest. The divine potter hovers over us. shaping and reshaping us tor our high calling as vessels of divine lose and justice.
Iii verse II leremiah conies to the harsh conclu-sion of this metaphor ami the word of the l ord it speaks to Judah. God can have a change of mind. I.ike the creation of the potter, whatever was origi-nally intended, good or ill, can be altered if the sxssel is not being shaped as God intended. Now leremiah MBT says bluntlv that the Lord is shaping evItagainst ludah and lerusalem. For all the covenant history between them, God has now determined to destroy the vessel and begin again. However, the last half of this verse (v. I lb) suggests that turning (repentance) is still possible. F.vItways can be left behind and the people can "amend MBT sour ways and your doings." One of Football jerseys the great teachings of this text is that the "plan" of God is not a llxcd, deterministic course of events. God's plan takes into account obedience and disobe-dience, sin and repcntancc.
Clay work is messy, at those who have tried their hand al the potter's wheel know. We clay-footed bearers of the dix inc image can Oakland Raiders Jerseys expect to get our hands dirty, run some risks, and梠n occasion梖ace failure as We respond to the Potter's hand and bear witness to God's redemptive aims in the world. Rec-ognizing that participating in the creative work of God is always messy ami risky can be a help to con- gregatk籲s in the in-between time of interim min-istry or congregational conflict over worship or the overall ministry direction of the church.
At the end of the day, a potter steps away from the wheel covered ss ith the stuff of her art, spattered head to foot with clay. leremiah invites us to envi-sion God up to the elbows in our making ar.d remaking. Metaphors can be pushed too far. MBT shoes clearance to be sure but surely there is a legitimate hint here of the God who become* clay, that the beloved clay itself might express the Dallas Cowboys Jerseys potter's own heart and will.
Today's reading speaks out ot a deeply intimate sense of an individual's relationship to God. On the one hand, MBT Shoes the psalm articulates a profound aware-ness of being surrounded by the divine presence at all times and in all places. God anticipates where the psalmist is going and MBT what the psalmist NFL jerseys will say. Cs knows individuals better than they know themselves, the psalmist suggests. This is not just a parlor trick on God's part. This kind of intimacy arises from God's role as creator. In verse I3-I4, the psalmist speaks in poctic terms of knowing oneself to be God's creature: "You knit nic together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am ... wonder-fully made."

God in tuin repents of the already-planned destruction of the city (in all of Jonah, only the prophet does not icpcnt!). Conversely, God reminds Jodah (and others) that blessing is not an entitlement but always a gift.
The pastoral opportunity is to lift up for the peo-ple the call to change and the opportunity to change and the impetus to change that God supplies. In the New Testament, this impetus comes in Christ. In Jer-emiah I8,"disaster" might be the mechanism for reshaping the people (v. 8), but there is never a report that the Lord will reshape ihc people into something olhcr than what the potter, the creator, intends. When "reshaping" comes, it will be the means for recreating the people into what God desires and plans, leremiah calls the people toward change, but the change is the change into God's design and order. The opportunity to repent, lo change, is an opportunity for faithfulness. It should K- a source of pastoral comfort for the people NFL jerseys that the changes into which God is calling them are a part of God's intention and order, standing over and against the chaos and disorder of disaster. The New Testament promise is that ultimately God, the potter, will reshape us. MBT It will look not like MBT shoes clearance disaster but like resurrection. "We will not all die, but we will all be changed.... For this perishable MBT Shoes body must put on imperishability, and this mortal bodv must put on immortality"(I Cor. I5:5I.53).
God's word using the potter metaphor goes on. In verse 9 God MBT refers to the divine intention to "build 昳nd plant" a nation or kingdom. God as potter may intend to shape MBT Shoes and guide to lull life the people ere* ated by divine guidance. This once again goes back to (crcmiah's call as a youth. He was commissioned not only to bring God's word of judgment, but also to announce God's intent "lo build and to plant" (I:I0). Football jerseys God's divine will can be to create and guide to fulfillment the life of a people linked to God in covenant partnership.
Now God's metaphor announces that even a peo-ple God intended to plant and to build can suffer the fate of the misshapen pot on the potter's wheel "if it does evItin my sight, not listening to my voice" (I8:I0). Oakland Raiders Jerseys EvItis defined in MBT terms of disobedience to the covenant. Covenant relationship is conditional. It can be broken. The vessel begun by the potter can he destroyed. Once again the prophet states flatly in the voice of God's MBT Shoes word.'l will change my mind about the good thai I had intended to do" (v. I0b). Covenant relationship is not an unconditional guar-antee for good.
Preaching this text as if ihe chokcs we make in our common life do not matter, or as if there Dallas Cowboys Jerseys will never be a day of reckoning, would be anti shoes lo suppress the many-sided, if uncomfortable, truth the meta-phor tells. Being honest about the note of judgment does not mean that there is no room here for hope. The strong verbs of the call narrative of leremiah I resonate in the background here; and while they include "to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy ami lo overthrow" they also include "to build and to plant".