Today's Sermon - In the Potter's Hands - 9/8/19

In the Potter’s Hand

(based Jeremiah 18:1-11)

This morning you have been given a small lump of clay.  As you listen to the sermon.  Do what you will with it.  Listen to the story.  Mold, shape, remold, rework.  Be the creative maker and make what you will.  But as you work, be the clay as well.  Imagine, wonder, listen.

So, following the word of the Lord, Jeremiah went down to the Potter’s House.  Here, God had a lesson to teach Jeremiah.  It was an object lesson.  Not one that could be easily explained by mere words, but one that needed to be seen, as well as said.

There, at the Potter’s Shed, God spoke to Jeremiah.  Take a look at the potter’s hands and watch him mold the pot.  Every day he sits at his wheel and molds the pots.  Every day he makes countless numbers of pots for the people in the community.  He molds them and shapes them into bowls for serving soup.  He molds them and shapes them into plates for eating meals.  He molds them and shapes them into pitchers for holding water from the well or milk from the cow, or wine from the vineyard.  He molds them and shapes them into lanterns to hold the oil for lighting the house at night.  Sometimes he even molds them and shapes into beautiful vases for holding the flowers of the field. 

With every turn of the wheel, the potter is thinking of what purpose this clay will serve and with each turn of the wheel the potter’s hands, fingers, thumbs push or pull and create the image of the vessel the potter wants.  As those experienced hands work the clay, they know when the clay is too soft or thin in one place, too hard or thick in another.  The potter knows when there are imperfections in working of the clay.  At that moment the potter stops and reworks the clay, reshaping and remolding it to suit the maker’s desire or need, to be the potter’s own creation.  The potter doesn’t let the imperfection go for long, he or she doesn’t wait to see if it will turn out ok after it has hardened and dried – hoping for the best.  The experienced potter knows that now is the time, while it is still wet and supple, while it is still being molded and shaped to fix the flaw.

In this object lesson/parable the clay represents Israel and the potter represents God – but we, too, are the clay.  While it may appear that we are sometimes headed for destruction or disaster, there is still time, when we are in the potter’s hand.  As the potter’s wheel continues to turn, there is hope.

The potter, the master craftsperson, does not set out to make a flawed pot, but sometimes it happens. The potter plans a thing of beauty; yet, sometimes it is not exactly right.  But thanks be to God, it is still in the potter’s hands.

When the potter noticed with expert eye and experienced tactile perception that the vessel was not quite perfect yet, the potter did not discard it but instead he or she reworked, and remolded it.  Though the clay was flawed, the vessel was still of worth, could be salvaged from the wreckage and made new.  That should give us hope.

God has a purpose and God has a plan.  We spoke about this when we read from Jeremiah last week from Chapter 29.  If we are yet in the Potter’s hands there is still hope.  As individuals, as churches, as a community, and even as a nation, we are of much worth and value to our sovereign God.  Though we might be scratched, scarred, blemished, defaced, and even what may appear as utter ruin, if we are in the potter’s hand there is still hope for reshaping and remolding.

But how do we know if we are in the Potter’s hand?  

First, if we are to be in the Potter’s hands, we must be mindful of the marginalized.  We must take notice of those less fortunate than ourselves. Our thoughts should be the thoughts of Christ. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  Do our thoughts resemble the thoughts of Christ when we think of the marginalized?  But being mindful alone is not enough.  Many people are mindful, we have good thoughts.  

Second, we must be motivated by those laws and admonitions of God, the commandments that were left for us to follow.  Not just the thou shall nots, but the thou shalls as well. “Love your enemies; Do good to those who mistreat you.”  This is not always easy.

If you remember the story in the Bible concerning the rich young ruler who thought that he was truly motivated by the mandates of Christ.  After all he had kept all of the commandments.  But he found that when he was asked to give up his possessions, his privilege if you will, he was not truly motivated by the spirit of the law.  How many of us are like him?  We are quick to name the things that we do not do and the things that we do, but when asked to give up our privilege, maybe not so much.

Third, if we are in the hands of the potter, the commandments and the spirit behind those commandments will motivate us to make a meaningful difference.  Like Christ, we must be compassionate.  We cannot see need and ignore it.  If we are in the Potter’s hands, we will be compelled by compassion.  We will be motivated out of love to care for those less fortunate, for those in need, for those who are hurting, alone, disenfranchised from the world, from society and from us.

Here’s the real message, though…no matter how bad it looks, don’t throw in the towel.  Don’t give up.  We can be remolded, renewed, so that we can rebuild a new nation that is characterized by the content of its character, not solely by the wealth of its elite.  Like that young ruler who thought he had obeyed all the commandments, and wanted to know what else he needed to do.  Just following the laws isn’t enough.  Being shaped and molded by those laws and led by those laws to do good, to act justly, to love kindness and to walk humbly.  That is the essence of the law.

As long as we are in the potter’s hands we are a work in progress. What we might consider worthless, ugly, useless, unwanted, God finds worth.  The pressures that we feel may be the remolding process.  They are what we feel as God reworks a vessel fit to fulfill the Potter’s own purposes.

In the end, the vessel that is formed pleases the potter, not the pot.  We find our fulfillment in being used as the vessel we were created to be, not in trying to be something that we are not.  Imagine a dinner plate trying to be a pitcher.  Or a lantern trying to be a plate. 

What about you?  Are you in the Potter’s hands?  Are you mindful, of the marginalized?  Are you motivated by Christ’s mandates?  Are you moved by the things that would move our Lord; moved to make a difference?

As God’s people, we are called to issue a prophetic word, to take the unpopular stance, to endure the taunts and threats that might be hurled upon us.  We are today’s Jeremiahs.

Together we can make a difference, if we are willing to stay in the potter’s hands, willing to be reworked, remolded, renewed, so that we can rebuild.

And speaking of rebuilding, what did you create during the sermon today?  How often did you wonder what you’d create?  How many times did you evaluate the clay wondering if you were making just the right thing?  How many times did you start over with the same lump of clay, reshape it, remold it, rework it? 

God is the Potter, we are the clay – remolding and reworking us, as long as we are in the Potter’s hand.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll admit I may be a work in progress, but I am in the Potter’s hands.  I may be marginalized but I am in the Potter’s hands…. I may be misunderstood, but I am in the Potter’s hands…weighed down and sometimes afraid, but I am in the Potter’s Hands…flawed, messed up, marred, scarred and maybe even a little cracked, but I am in the Potter’s hands.

Are you in the Potter’s hands?