2022.09.04 | Pottery Lessons
“Pottery Lessons”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 4, 2022
If you’re a frequent flier here at Eden Church, you know that today’s message is the third in a series of four sermons based on the book of Jeremiah. For the benefit of our visitors, I’ll summarize the context in which today’s passage is set, and then dive into an exploration of the imagery and application of Jeremiah’s text for our lives.
Jeremiah was an Ancient Israelite prophet from a priestly lineage who lived and served in the early 6th century BCE. Jeremiah was born and raised in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but was sent by God to the capital of Judea (which was Jerusalem) during the final years when King Josiah ruled.
The prophet had the unenviable job of telling the king things that he did not want to hear. Specifically, Jeremiah told King Josiah and his subjects to repent from their reliance on military might, their worship of foreign gods, and their inattention to the Law of Moses.
King Josiah and his minions were unmoved. They failed to change their ways, and as a result, they suffered God’s judgment. The Southern Kingdom was defeated by the Babylonians, the City of Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, and most of the survivors were marched to Babylon, where they were forced into indentured servanthood by their captors for the next forty years.
In today’s passage, Jeremiah compares God with a potter who has become dissatisfied with his creation, and who intends to smash it into bits and start over.
Before God does so, Jeremiah says, ‘I’m going to give you one more chance. Repent. Confess your sins. Ask for forgiveness.
Unfortunately, Judah did not accept the prophet’s guidance, and as a result, the judgment about which Jeremiah prophesied came to pass. The nation was crushed, and the few survivors were taken captive for the next 40 years.
Chapter 18, like much of Jeremiah, is filled with ominous words and images. But if you read the book in its entirety, you discover that doom and gloom do not get the last word. Grace ultimately prevails.
God never gives up on Judah. The people eventually confess their sin and amend their lives, and God liberates them from captivity, through the actions of Cyrus of Persia. Cyrus defeats the Babylonians, and leads the survivors back to Judah in 539 BC.
II
We don’t need to be biblical scholars to know that the story of Ancient Israel’s falling away from God wasn’t unique. This narrative has repeated itself in every culture and creature in God’s creation. This is why the Potter’s Shop imagery and the truth of this narrative are important for every generation.
Think for a moment about the image of a potter’s shop, and all that goes on there. Most of the activity occurs in the potter’s studio, rather than the potter’s show room. If you’ve every had a pottery lesson or spent any time in a potter’s studio you understand this fact.
I was fortunate to be introduced to the art of pottery at a young age, through my public school experiences. My first art teacher, Mrs. Buckholdst, was a brilliant artist and a wise woman. She exposed us to art and art history of many cultures over the decade that she served our district. One of the most important lessons she taught me was that there was no such thing as a mistake.
When I was a child, I usually rolled my eyes and shook my head, because I wasn’t convinced. But as I’ve aged, I’ve discovered that she was spot on.
I remember numerous times when a classmate would express upset over their art project, including times when someone’s pot would cave in on the wheel, or explode in the kiln. Most students would get very frustrated and wanted to walk away from their project, but Mrs. Buckholdtz would simply advise that they allow the object to set for a day, and then come back the next day and either continue on with the project as it were, or toss the remains in the vat, pummel them into bits with a giant pestle, add water, and stir--until the clay was the right consistency to rework a pot.
III
If we are truly honest with ourselves, we can recall a time when we felt that our lives were a total mess. Maybe we brought this mess on ourselves. Maybe it was brought on by someone else. Or maybe there was no easy target to blame for our mess. Maybe we were simply the victims of an accident or a tragedy.
Whatever the case may be, there is a hopeful lesson to be learned from the potter’s shop. This lesson is similar to the one that I (and perhaps you) learned in art class. It’s the prophet’s hope-filled promise that emerges from the clay vat--from the dustbin of damaged and destroyed vessels--where God is at work with broken shards, a few gallons of water, and a giant pessel--tamping, stirring, and kneading us into a new way of being that is useful and beautiful.
Friends, believe the good news of the gospel: we worship a God who is perpetually helping us pick up the pieces, and working in and through us to form and reform our very lives and relationships into new vessels that are more beautiful and useful than we can even imagine. In that spirit, let us pray.
Potter God,
like Adam and Eve, you created us from dust.
From dust we came, and to dust we will return.
Blessed be your name, O God.
In an earthen vat, the broken shards
of our lives are pummeled into bits:
broken hearts, dashed dreams, and destroyed relationships
are refined into grainular bits,
and then you pour your life-giving water
over the dustbin of our lives,
and the redemptive and re-creative process
of your holy work begin to reshape us.
You stir and kneed the little bits of our lives into a ball of clay,
Until our weary souls take their rest in your knowing hands.
In the imagination of your heart,
a new way of being and doing emerge.
Through the dark of night,
we await your future filled with hope.
In the dawn of a new day,
we are loved into new life.
By the touch of your hands,
we are formed and reformed.
From the warmth of your spirit,
we become bisque in the fire.
During the cooling and glazing in the days ahead,
we become something altogether new.
With the touch of your brush, our lives take on new luster.
With the work of your tools, new lines of faith are traced.
During the final firing our true colors shine.
In the grip of your hands, our new purpose is formed
until at last we turn to dust
and our souls ascend to heaven.
Amen.