Can We Be Formed?

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Jeremiah 18:1–11 NRSV

1 The 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.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The 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. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can 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. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but 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. 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 but 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. 11 Now, 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.

This is the Word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Title: The Clay Ain’t Pottery Yet!

I. Introduction:

When African slaves were brought to America, many were stripped of their names, languages, and cultures. But even in that harsh reality, they knew they were clay in the hands of the Master Potter.

Out of brokenness, God began to shape a new song, a new culture, and a new resilience. Spirituals were born in the fields—songs like “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Go Down, Moses.” These weren’t just songs; they were testimonies that God was still forming something out of suffering.

In the same way, God has always been shaping His people—taking what the world sees as broken and molding it into something beautiful. And just as He shaped a people through struggle and faith, He is still shaping Lynch Chapel today, making us into exactly what He needs for this new season.

But this is something that doesn’t happen overnight.

You see, there is a process to everything.

Rarely does change happen overnight.

Think about that for a moment. Anything of great value is rarely created overnight.

It even took six days for God to create the world.

It was a process.

There is a process to almost anything in the world.

A student doesn’t just go in and make an A. No, they study and pay attention in class.

I don’t just wake up on Sunday morning and the Holy Spirit drops a sermon in my lap. No, I prayed, I meditated, I spent hours studying the text to proclaim God’s word.

Churches don’t just grow because of new leadership. They grow when the people change. When the culture shifts, that’s where we see a change.

Whether it’s creating a floral arrangement, or even making music. A process is required.

I love to grill! As a matter of fact, that’s how I spend my Saturdays and Sundays if I don’t attend a game.

I grill some meat. I don’t care what I grill or smoke, I don’t just say on Saturday morning, you know I think I’m going to smoke a brisket or ribs. No, I plan. I inject my meat in the case of brisket. I prepare the grill. I decide on what flavor I would like to try today. It is a process.

I cultivate the meat. I put thought into my sides and dessert. I tend the fire to make sure that the pit is the exact temperature I want it to be.

It is a process!

Now in thinking about processes, we look no further than Jeremiah 18:1-11 as it gives us a preview into how pottery is made and earlier this week, I had the joy of going over to an art studio to see how pottery is made.

The person making the pottery is known as the potter and before the potter can make anything, they must go out and find dirt and water to make the clay.

After they make the clay, they must then place the clay on what’s called a wheel. Now the next step in the pottery making process involves the potter taking the clay and forming it into the desired shape.

Easy enough huh? Well, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Based on what I observed in making pottery. Pottery making is frustrating. You see clay has a way of not cooperating. Sometimes the clay becomes spoiled or in other words, it doesn’t form into the desired shape. If this happens, then the potter must rework the clay.

 Meaning the potter uses their hands to work the clay back into an unformed state. Before the clay can become pottery, the clay has to be shaped, reshaped, begin again, and refined. The clay is resistant, and the outside must conform to the inside.

Once the potter is satisfied with the clay, the potter puts the clay through the fire to hardened it. But as long as that clay hasn’t been put into the fire, then the clay can continue to be shaped and this allows the potter to start completely over.

II. Background of the text

In our text this morning, we see this process of pottery-making. God instructs the prophet Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house. And while Jeremiah watches this potter attempt to form something out of clay, God gives Jeremiah a word for the people of Judah.

Jeremiah is essentially seeing a parable come to life. But why does God give Jeremiah a strange request? Well, Jeremiah at this time is a prophet of God and God has called him to implore the people to turn from their wicked ways.

Jeremiah has been preaching messages of repentance. And there’s a sense of urgency to those messages which involves the people turning from their wicked ways and turning to God.

If these people don’t turn away from their wickedness, then they will be utterly destroyed by God through a pagan nation. Jeremiah is asking the people to turn from their wicked ways and turn back to God, but the people don’t listen.

The people are in denial. The book of Jeremiah tells us that the people would worship other gods with the little “g”. They were oppressing the poor. They didn’t care about the orphan or the widow. They had completely turned away from God. The people were even sacrificing their children to the false gods.

Day after day, year after year, corrupt king after corrupt king, Jeremiah tried to get the people to turn back to God. Sometimes it worked for a little while. Sometimes the people faked it to make it.

The book of Jeremiah tells us that the people would worship their false idols but still come into the temple to praise God even when they knew their worship wasn’t real. This is also one of the reasons why God became angry with the people. Essentially the people thought that they could outsmart God.

We know some people like that. People who think that they can outsmart God. People who know that their worship isn’t real.

Yeah, we know some people like that. Nobody like that here.

This is why God instructs Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house to receive a word. He does this with the hope that people would turn from their wicked ways and turn towards Him.

III. The Message

God being as persistent as he is, makes the request to Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house and while Jeremiah watches this potter form clay, God tells Jeremiah that he is the potter and Judah is the clay, and if they don’t get it together then they will be destroyed.

Now when I first read this text, I was like oh man, God this is kind of harsh. I mean if we look through the entire book of Jeremiah, we see God warning the people of Judah of destruction. At first glance, this text seems lie a message of destruction, doom, and gloom.

But if we look deeper, we see that this is a message of grace and hope.

And the reason I say that because in this text, we don’t see the potter put the clay in the fire. In other words, the clay is still redeemable.

IV. Application

God is essential wanting to start over with Judah and make Judah something new. He wants Judah to become what they said they would be towards the end of the book Numbers as the people were getting ready to cross over into Promised Land.

In the book of Numbers, Moses before his death instructs the people that they must wholeheartedly follow God. This is reiterated again in the book of Joshua as God tells the people that they are to:

a. Remain faithful and devout to God

b. Worship no other gods

c. Stand out among the nations surrounding them

But here we are some many years later and we see the people aren’t keeping any of these promises before God. And God is showing grace to the people by giving them several chances to get it right. They had almost 40 years or more to get it right and they didn’t.

I don’t know about you but to me that’s a lesson to each of us. At some point in our lives, we have turned away from the ways of God. We haven’t always been who God has called us to be.

We have fallen short, but praise be to God, the clay is still being formed! Meaning, God is still giving us second, third, fourth, and so on chances.

Friends, like Judah, we are the clay and God is the potter. And when I say “we”, I am talking about the church. I am talking about church folk.

Jeremiah’s audience was church folks.

They were people who weren’t living into who God called them to be.

They were not standing up for the rights of those most vulnerable.

They weren’t worshiping God in Spirit or in truth.

They were worshipping other gods.

They were looking at how other nations do it.

They simply forgot to live into who God, Yahweh called them to be.

We like the clay have imperfections and we are sometimes wonky.

We don’t always cooperate.

We can be difficult to shape.

We’re stubborn just like the people of Judah

We don’t worship God in spirit and truth

We don’t fully serve God or neighbor.

We ignore the things that are happening around us.

We don’t care for the most vulnerable among us.

We don’t speak up for the issues that plague our society.

Think about all that is happening around us. Our Hispanic and Latino brothers and sisters are being targeted, yet every Sunday our churches speak about everything except being the church by advocating for neighbor.

Just last week, we saw on the news where children in Minneapolis were shot and killed while trying to learn. Yet another school shooting in this country and the shooter who targeted those innocent children used a military grade weapon that should be legalized.

We see how Putin and Russia are killing innocent civilians in Ukraine even targeting hospitals with missiles and drones and how the leader of the free world. The leader of what is supposed to be Christian nation, the champion of the evangelical church, won’t speak truth to power while also making excuses for the leader.

We see churches justifying what is happening in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli people all because of a misinterpretation, lazy interpretation, and ignorance as it relates to scripture.

Seeing all of this causes me to ask the question; where are God’s people? Where is the church? What statements have we made?

Where are we global church?

Where are we Catholic church?

Where are we Protestant Church?

Where are we Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Non-denomination?

Where are we AME, CME, AME Zion, United Methodist?

Where is Lynch Chapel?

Like the clay, we, the church, need to be shaped, reshaped, begin again, and refined.

When I think about this text, I think about the founder of Methodism, John Wesley and how God gave him multiple chances to get it right.

John Wesley was the son of a preacher and a preacher. He came over to America from England to preach to and save the Native Americans in Georgia.

It was during this time that Wesley realized that he didn’t feel quite saved. Wesley, had a failed romance with a lady and when the lady up and married someone else, he refused to serve her communion out of anger and jealousy.

Wesley was impulsive and self-righteous. But on May 24, 1738, in Aldersgate Street, London, Wesley said that he felt his heart strangely warmed. And from that moment on, Wesley was still being formed.

Friends, I tell you that story to show that even the founder of this great denomination had very much turned away from God but God didn’t give up on him.

Instead, the Holy Spirit kept probing and searching, and wooing Wesley back home. The Holy Spirit is seeks to do the same to us.

It takes a lot of patience for the potter when it comes to the clay but to me that patience symbolizes the grace of God.

The people of Judah did not heed the words of Jeremiah and they experienced destruction and exile but even after all that, God redeemed them.

To me, that’s hope for us all. A while ago I told you all that the title of this sermon is, “The clay ain’t pottery yet”. Now I know that the title doesn’t necessarily employ correct grammar. But the reason I picked this title is because of that last step in the pottery making process.

That step is running the clay through the fire so that it may become hardened, thus the clay becomes pottery. It is at this point where errors can’t be corrected.

It is at this point that the clay cannot be reshaped. When that clay becomes pottery, you can see all of the flaws. You can see the cracks; you can see the unevenness. You can see all the vessel’s imperfections.

We are all in the process of being reshaped. No matter if you’ve been a Christian for 30 years or 30 minutes. God is still wanting to reshape us and make us into something new and beautiful. And to me points to the fullest extent of God’s grace, that he like the potter, takes his time with the resistant vessel.

God in all of his goodness, could say, “you know something, I’m just throw my hands up. I’m done.

When I think about this, I think about when JaLease was pregnant.

JaLease’s pregnancy was an exciting time.

We had three baby showers and those baby showers brought a lot of gifts and we were appreciative of all the gifts.

Well I was until I had to put the gifts together….

I don’t know if y’all know this but baby gadgets are hard.

I’ve never assembled so much stuff in my life. I think the worst things was figuring out how to assemble the car seat and the stroller.

I can remember just being so frustrated with unclear directions. The car seat was the worse because I had difficulty figuring out how to attach it on my back seat. I got so frustrated I just said, “forget it! I give up. I will try again another time or let someone else do it.”

Now where would each of us be if God became as frustrated with us as I became with the car seat and just said, “forget it! I give up!”?

My sisters and brothers, God is a forgiving and gracious God and he loves each of us so much that he gives us opportunities to get it together.

Like the potter, he takes his time and continually molds and shapes us.

The people of Judah heard God’s message from Jeremiah and yet they became more resistant to God. As a result, one day, Jerusalem was surrounded by King Nebuchadnezzar and his army. They surround the city for 30 months.

Scholars tell us that the people experienced a shortage of food and water during that time and they resorted to eating their own children due to hunger.

Nebuchadnezzar and his army broke open the walls to the city and slaughtered many.

They set Jerusalem on fire and took everything that was valuable, even the people.

They carried the people off and back to Babylon, where the people were forced to worship other gods and were forced to learn a new language.

Their names were changed.

They lost all of their identity.

And the exile lasted 40 years.

But despite all of this, God through his grace still sought to give the people a second chance. He eventually ended their exile and brought them back to Jerusalem to rebuild their city. He eventually restored their identity.

God in this story shows us that even when it seems that our lives are in shambles through decisions we make, he still remains faithful and is still working to shape and reshape us. As I said earlier, God doesn’t give up on us.

Now I know that you may be asking yourself, “Pastor Roberts, you gave a lot of information but how can I use this information in my faith journey?

Well, I’m glad you asked. Seek to live your life in a way that allows the potter to shape and reshape you. In other words, open yourself up to how the Holy Spirit wants to move in your life. Seek to spend more time with God. Make God the focus of your existence. Work towards perfection in love.

When we allow the potter to shape and reshape us, our intimacy with God grows. Our love for others becomes more evident. We began to have peace in our lives. When we become less resistant to the potter, we slowly become who the potter intended for us to be. Lynch Chapel, will you allow the potter to shape you?

May it be so!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.