18The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
Much of the time, those who are Christians shy away from passages like this one. While the imagery here is one that I think many people like (God the potter, the people of God the clay), most of us are a little reluctant to go beyond this image and actually deal with what God is saying about the clay, and what is going to happen to it. Judgment is something that most of us are uncomfortable with.
The reality that God portrays here is that the clay (the people of God) is being stubborn, shaping itself in a way that God is not pleased with. What were the people shaping themselves into? If one continues reading in this chapter it becomes apparent that idolatry, the worshiping of other gods, was foremost among Israel's sins at this time.
As I read and pondered this passage, it occurred to me that as Christians we need to be conscious of what shapes us. We all know that there are far too many things to distract us from those things in our lives that are more important. We live in a society and culture that teaches us that we have should always be happy. But so few of us are. We allow our expectations of what our lives are supposed to look like to be shaped by other forces around us.
I can't list all of these forces, but some could be: work expectations, family expectation, church expectations, personal expectation, prosperity expectations, and security expectations. Each of these is probably a sermon in and of themselves. None of these are inherently evil. But if we place any of these priorities above our love and worship of God, then we create our own idolatry.
There is some amount of debate among most Christians about how active God is in bringing judgment against people who work against God's shaping work. Some believe that God simply allows the consequences of people's actions play out; that this is judgment enough. But here God works directly against Israel shaping a plan. But this shaping is not the end word of this passage. God summons the people to turn from evil and make new lives for themselves.
This is our summons to. Some may say, "We have no idolatry in our lives, that there is nothing that separates them from God. Just let us go on with our lives the way that they are." Personally I know that I cannot say this, and am somewhat mistrustful of such statements. Within the reformed tradition, we say that we are the reformed church, always reforming. We are constantly on the potter's wheel, asking God to shape us and our lives. If a vessel is left on a spinning potter's wheel without the potter to hold its shape, it soon begins to wobble and will fall or be thrown off the wheel. As soon as we presume that we no longer need God's hand to shape us, the same thing happens.
We, as God's people are called to lean into the hand of God so that we might more fully bear the marks and shape that God has in store for us. May we be so faithful in this shaping that we allow ourselves to bear the fingerprint marks of our creator so that they are visible to all who we meet. In doing so we walk in the way that Jesus lays out for us and walked before us. Let us follow.
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Here are some of the sculptures that we had from our service
5 comments:
I would like God to form and mold me like the potters clay in the book of Jeremiah. I would like for my goal at my stage of life to be the clay that is soft and pliable so God can form me into the Christian that weill be valuable for His work. So God's name may be glorified.
Jim B.
"So are you in my hand"
I had an experience this year which caused me to feel very angry and frustratingly out of control of parts of my life. The experience itself is very minor in the whole scope of things, but it was a very new experience for me. I have not felt much bitterness in my life to this point. I became increasingly more upset and it seemed to color everything I did this summer. I couldn't sleep well and I think I wasted a lot of energy being angry. The reason the sermon today struck me is that I have worked very heard to move past this bitterness. I realized one evening that I had to let this go. I understood for the first time what it is to be shaped by something outside yourself. This wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to shape me. It wasn't what I wanted to become.
The one positive thing that came of this is that I feel I understand people around me better. I don't feel as much disdain for the really negative people around me. I see how things can push their way into a person and turn them into something other than what they started as. I do not want that to happen.
Michelle H
God uses circumstances in my life to shape and correct me. Just as in the scripture, I can look back and see him working. It's painful sometimes, when times are the toughest, that's when I feel closest to God. I can argue with Him and complain and cry, but in the end, the outcome is the same. The realization that He is God and I am not. And then comes rest and comfort.
Patty V
Excellent. As is usual you gave me goosebumps. You gave His word a spark that makes me want to read and know more. Thank you and I will keep reading the blog.
Hey Son,
Like your church's blog. When I saw the hand, do you remember when we were in Mauritius and we saw the Creole version of Joseph and the Amazing .... That when Joseph was in prison, there were people in Styrofoam hands that came and surrounded Joseph as God's hand of protection? I always thought this was a wonderful visualization of God's protective presence -- no matter what the circumstances.
Dad
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