Let us pray.
O God, help us to attend to your Word with understanding, to receive it with faith,
and to live by it with courage,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen.
‘Then the word of the Lord came to me:
“O house of Israel,
can I not do with you as this potter has done? says
the Lord.
Behold like the clay in the potter’s hand,
so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
The art of pottery has not changed much for thousands
of years. What Jeremiah saw at the potters house is very much what he would see
in a pottery in today’s world. Pottery
is a very ancient art. And the standard of pottery in Jeremiah’s time was very
high. The prophet would have seen a potter working clay on a top round stone,
connected to a larger and lower stone that would have been turned using the
feet, or turned by an assistant. Pottery in Jeremiah’s day was not glazed, but
is was coloured. Archeologists have
heaps of evidence of what ancient pottery was like, because pottery lasts and
lasts. In fact, archeologists use pottery for dating what they find in their
diggings. It is as accurate as carbon dating.
Of course, we all use pottery every day.
And there are many potters in New Zealand. For instance, In the Nelson district
there is a pottery trail. I had a cousin, Dianne Wishart, who was a potter in
Golden Bay – she and her husband Barry owned and operated a pottery called
“Decorator Pots, not far from Collingwood. Here are two of their works.
Over forty years ago I knew a potter who
lived next to St. Margaret’s College in Clyde Street. His name was Ossie
Stevens. He was a leading light in the artistic community in Dunedin, and his
pots and ceramic works were appreciated and admired by people far and
wide. Some of you may remember him, and
even own some of his work. His wife was
an actress and had been a member of the New Zealand Players.
The Stevens were both very loyal members of
Knox Church, and that is how I came to know them. They were very gracious and
hospitable people and great conversationalists. I greatly enjoyed my visits to them when I was
the Assistant Minister of Knox.
One day I asked Mr. Stevens about what he
experienced as he created his pottery.
He said that he had had his wood-fired kiln
in his back yard for seventeen years, and that he was still struggling to
understand it. After creating his pieces
of pottery on his wheel, and after colouring them and applying glazing, he
would place them in his kiln. Then came the placing of the wood in the kiln, and
the lighting of the fire. Then the waiting for the fire to do its work.
Only after the kiln was cool again could he discover the results of his work. He said that he would be in a state of nervous
excitement as he approached his kiln after a firing. Until he picked up each piece and examined it,
he would not know how the firing had turned out. He said that the whole
creative process was like the birth of a
child. He felt elated when the pieces turned out well. And he felt despair
whenever a piece did not turn out well or was spoiled. Soon after emptying his
kiln of new pottery, he would feel exhausted from his creative efforts, and
then fall into a state in which he could
not create any pottery. That state could last for a month or more. Eventually
his strength and creative energy would
return. He would learn from what had not gone well in his latest firing. His
mind would fill with new ideas about how he could improve the performance of
his kiln. He would be excited when new ideas came to him for what he could
create through his next firing.
Our text likens God to a creative potter.
“Behold, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of
Israel.” Jeremiah perceived God’s creative goodness in forming Israel into a
people during the Exodus. In that process, the people were like clay in God’s
hands. God rescued the people from slavery in Egypt, and lead them through the
desert, where he fed them and gave them water. There in the desert, God made a
covenant with the people, mediated by Moses. God promised to be their God, to guide, protect and bless. The
people promised to worship only God, and to live by God’s laws.
This took creative work and effort on God’s
part. And like Mr Stevens being very devastated when a piece of pottery did not
emerge from the kiln as he wanted it to be, so God was grieved when Israel
rejected him and went off after other gods, the baals of the Canaanite
fertility religion. After the settlement in the promised land, the people
became unfaithful to God. They worshipped idols, worthless gods, and so became
worthless themselves. Their glory departed from them. The Israelite community
fell apart. There was no justice or fairness in Israel. The rich exploited the
poor. Selfishness and greed reigned. The covenant between God and the people
was no more.
Jeremiah proclaimed that because of Judah’s
sin against God, God would punish the
People. A terrible foe from the north would
overrun Judah and Jerusalem, and leave them in ruins. The temple would be
destroyed. There would be great suffering.
But because Israel was like clay in the
potter’s hand, all would not be lost. God would take the clay that had resisted
his creative efforts, and he would remake Israel. God would make a new covenant with her. God’s good
purposes for his people could not be destroyed by Israel’s disobedience.
Our text is really a comfort to us, as we
struggle to be loyal to God and follow Christ’s way of loving service to
others. We know that sometimes we are like clay that is defective – clay which
spoils the potter’s intentions. There are many ways in which clay can resist
the potter – it can be gritty, or too wet or too dry, or unsuitable for the
shape of the pot being fashioned in the wheel. There are many ways in which we
can disappoint God, the divine potter.
But we are clay in God’s hands. When we
disappoint him, God does not reject us
or throw us away in anger. No matter how often we disappoint God, and are
unfaithful to God, God is always faithful to us. When we fail God, God
refashions and recreates us. This is an experience we have every time we
worship God.
In our prayers of confession, we confess
our sinfulness to God – our imperfections, the wrong things we have done and
the good things we have neglected to do. And through Christ we experience the
forgiveness of God. We feel our guilt being lifted. We can go on again as God’s
people. God never gives up on us
In my years of parish ministry there were
Sundays when a service would not go well for various reasons. The sermon would
not catch the attention of the congregation. On Monday I would feel despair.
But then next Sunday loomed large on the horizon. And God’s creative goodness
was there in the scripture for next Sunday, and the inspiration would flow
again. God never abandons us. We are always in his hands, no matter how badly
things have gone for us.
Then
the word of the Lord came to me:
“O house of Israel,
Can I not do with you as this potter has
done?
Behold, like clay in the potter’s hand,
So are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
Rev Peter Wishart
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