Pentecost B Proper 04: Clay Jars

B 2003-06-22 2SAP 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 “Clay Jars”

Law: suffering happens to all of us

Gospel: Our suffering is not permanent, nor useless

Result: To give the congregation hope in their suffering, showing Christ’s strength in their weakness

Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Clay jars. Clay jars were used in Jesus’ time as simple containers. They were about the same thing as a cardboard box today. They were cheap, fairly sturdy, and nothing to get excited over. They were made from the dirt and clay you found on the ground. Common. Ordinary. They sat there and held things for you. On street corners in India today, vendors sell little cups of chai tea. In exchange for a few pennies, you are handed a small clay cup filled with scalding hot chai. Customers drink the chai and then, surprisingly, toss the clay cup to the street. It had one purpose: to serve that single cup of chai. Now that it was finished, it is discarded.

Later, those cups are scooped up, cleaned, soaked in water, and then a potter makes them again into a new vessel, ready for use once more.

Clay can also be used to make piggy banks – coin jars. A piece of trivia I learned was that the word ‘piggy’ bank comes from the word ‘pigg’ P-I-G-G, which means ‘clay.’ What is a piggy bank used for? To hold coins – to hold a treasure. The piggy bank might be decorated, or made with care, but it in itself was not worth very much. The purpose of a piggy bank is to hold a treasure within it. If it’s an old-fashioned type of piggy bank, you can’t see inside of it, you can’t tell how much treasure is in it – that is hidden from you. How do you get at the treasure? That’s right – you break it. Does the piggy bank have any value after it is broken? No. It is the treasure inside that gives value to the container.

Well, there are two kinds of clay jars in today’s readings.

There is one type of clay jar in today’s readings, but it’s not very obvious. Our Epistle reading for today is combined with two readings on the Sabbath. Jesus makes the comment that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

The Laws of Sabbath given through Moses – the laws of ceremonial cleanliness, the laws of enforced rest, the 613 laws that made up the Jewish culture and the covenant with God are the 1st clay jar in today’s readings. The Sabbath laws were made for one purpose – to point forward to Jesus. The laws are the clay pot – Jesus is the treasure they contained. Just as with an old-fashioned piggy-bank where you cannot see the treasure inside of it, the ceremonial laws contain the promises of the coming of Jesus Christ, although He might be covered and hidden from our sight in them. The 613 ceremonial laws of the Jews were a piggy bank fashioned from God to contain the promises of the savior.

How do you get at the treasure in a piggy bank? The piggy bank gets broken. The bank has no value aside from the treasure it contains. The piggy bank’s purpose is to serve the treasure inside of it – with no treasure – there’s no need for the bank.

Jesus comes – and makes the piggy bank of the ceremonial laws no longer needed. Their purpose has been to point to Jesus. Jesus is now here among us. The Treasure is out, the jars have been broken and are swept up and thrown away. That is why we no longer follow the Jewish laws – we have Jesus.

I mentioned we have *two* clay jars in today’s reading. The First was the ceremonial laws that pointed to Jesus. The second is more obvious. The Apostle Paul writes and says that we have the treasure of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the treasure of God’s light in our hearts in jars of clay – meaning ourselves. The Apostles, disciples, believers in Jesus, you, me. We are the clay jars that Paul speaks of.

You see, just like a piggy bank, we hold Christ, a great treasure, inside of us, but we can’t see it. We can’t look at each other and see our hearts and know who has more Christ inside of them than their neighbor. It doesn’t work that way anyway. We are clay jars, but we’re filled with Christ. He gives us value and transforms us into useful, beautiful things by his presence and by his life, death, and resurrection.

Just like a piggy bank, we are given worth from the treasure we contain. If you meet someone for the first time, one of the first questions we ask, “What do you do?” Those with money are considered to have the most power. Our society talks about a self-made man as the best of all men. We constantly try to create our own worth through the sweat of our brow and the efforts of our will. God disagrees. God tells us that we are valuable, because we have Christ inside of us. We are valuable because God loves us, not because we have made ourselves worthy before God. In a work-aholic society, we take Sundays as a day of rest and gather here before God and our Lord Jesus Christ and learn again that our worth comes from the treasure of Jesus inside of us.

That’s the same thing that happened in our Old Testament reading for today. The People of Israel are told that on the seventh day they hold a Sabbath – a rest – and do no work. On that day they are no longer defined by what they do but by who has acted in their lives. They are not individuals working for their identity on that day, but the People of God, who rescued them and brought them out of Egypt, a land of slaveries. This was a land where they were slaves not only to the Egyptians but also to their own constant striving to be a people of worth.

We are clay pots, who are made with a purpose. The purpose is to hold Jesus inside of us, even if we can’t see inside.

We are clay pots who are given worth because of what we hold inside of us. We hold the light that shines out of darkness – the light of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection and what has been done for us.

We are clay pots who look like clay pots. Remember how I said clay pots were similar to cardboard boxes? Ever have a really old cardboard box that you haven’t thrown away yet? It probably contains your Christmas decorations. Inside that beat up box, with taped up holes, scuff marks, scribblings from the children writing on the side – you have your family decorations. Hand-made Christmas ornaments. Gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. Priceless treasures in a box you should have replaced 10 years ago.

We are clay pots who are scuffed and beat up. We are cracked and we leak out our contents. We suffer in this life. We deal with pain and depression, job loss and money problems, family fights and divorce, failures professional and personal. We cracked and chipped clay jars hold within us the treasure of Jesus Christ – and life doesn’t seem to get better.

The Apostle Paul writes that we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. Our worth is given from what has been put inside of us. Life isn’t perfect. We aren’t perfect. And in our cracked and chipped state we show to the world that it isn’t us that they should look at – it is Jesus inside of us. We are given hope because we do not rely on what we do to be right before God. We rely on what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Though our bodies are but clay, fragile and passing, they have been washed in the water of Baptism. God, who is the potter (Jeremiah 18) will one day remake our bodies in the resurrection, raised in glory to live with the God who fills us now and for all eternity.

And so, we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. It is in our strugglings and our life which centers around a daily confession of our sins and forgiveness that we show the world that great treasure we contain within.

We are those cracked pots and earthen vessels, jars of clay that hold a great treasure inside of us. Today, we have the opportunity to receive that treasure again. Today, at the Lord’s supper you receive Christ’s body and blood and the forgiveness of sins yet again. We who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show the Lord’s death until he comes again.

God has given us this great treasure to us to show His power. God has given this great treasure to show His love. God has given this great treasure to show our weakness. God has given this great treasure to show *through* our weakness His greatness and mercy and love of Jesus Christ to all the world.

We have great treasure in clay pots. Praise God for His wondrous mercy. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.