We Were Made for This

Jeremiah 18:1-6, NRSVue

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.

INTRO

This week, we begin a new sermon series, “Re-Shaped:  What We’re Made For.” This worship series is meant to help us get animated and embrace change. As series creator, Rev. Dr. Marcia McFee writes, “‘Change is good… You go first!’ Our brains were designed to be suspicious of change, and for good reason–homeostasis (home-me-o-stay-sus) in good measure helps us thrive, protecting us from danger. But if we look closely at what the Creator set in motion, we find that change is actually the most constant part of life. Change is necessary for animating and inspiring our spirits, as it helps us find our renewed purpose throughout life. Jesus advocated for changes that would keep us moving toward greater goodness!” It is my hope that we might open our minds so that we can recognize how God has made us.

Our Old Testament lesson begins with the word of the Lord coming to Jeremiah. “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” This may seem strange to us. Why would Jeremiah be told to go to the Potter’s house? Why would he go so easily without asking any questions? God regularly uses ordinary life activities to teach lessons and deliver truths to the people. Whether it was birth or death, farming, or investing, God tries to use things that we can relate to in order to instruct us. The visit to the Potter’s house would have made sense for Jeremiah because it was a normal part of life. Every village had a pottery shop. They didn’t have Target, Walmart, or any other stores to purchase plates. There was no china or Corelle. People used earthenware in their everyday lives. 

When Jeremiah goes down to the potter’s house, he sees the potter at work. He is molding a vessel, but it doesn’t look good. It is messed up and unusable; it’s spoiled. So, the potter reworks it. He reshapes and reforms it into something workable. If you’ve ever seen a potter or taken a pottery class, you know this is hard work. You have to keep the right consistency with enough water to push the clay, but not too much, or it becomes too flexible. You can be making an item on the pottery wheel, and if you apply too much pressure or don't have the right conditions, the item isn’t usable. As long as it is on the wheel, you can start over or reshape it into something else. 

As we reflect on this image of the Potter sitting at the wheel, we must begin to recognize that God is at work in our lives. We matter deeply to God. Just as the potter is hard at work, shaping, molding, working to create, so God is at work in our lives. God wants to shape us, to stretch us, to mold us, to make us into who God calls us to be. And it is just that: God makes us into who God calls us to be. We are created for a purpose. Just as each dish has a purpose, so we have a purpose as individuals and as a congregation.

At the same time, we acknowledge that our relationship with God, our potter, is dynamic. Notice that verse four does not specify the reason for the clay spoiling. If you’ve worked with clay, you know that at times you think you’re shaping clay in one way, but it doesn’t quite turn out the way you expect. So it is with our relationship with God. As one theologian notes, “The language implies that this clay can actively resist the hand of the potter! In our common life, too, we can choose to align ourselves with God’s redemptive purposes or pursue self-interested agendas.” As individuals and as a congregation, we must ask ourselves whether we are allowing ourselves to live into God’s purpose for our lives or whether we are resisting God’s purpose for our lives. For when we resist the work of the creator, we may become spoiled clay. Yet our loving God is still there, present, actively reworking us, shaping us back into who God calls us to be. 

Church, God is reminding us this morning that, like clay on the potter’s wheel, we are made for change. God designed us to be reshaped, remolded, to change and grow throughout our lives; we will change. Allowing ourselves to be reshaped by God means we will allow God to shape us into who we are made to be; it means we are to be reshaped so that we might be who God calls us to be in this season of our lives. This is also true for our congregation, the body of Christ called Saint Luke’s United Methodist Church. We must recognize that God continually calls us to change to meet the needs of the world around us. The church has always had to adjust to meet the needs around it. The circuit riding of the early days of Methodism met a need. It empowered the laity to lead the church while ensuring as many churches as possible were able to receive the sacraments. 

Most churches in the United States began as a circuit. My first appointment, which dated back to Francis Asbury, was on a three-point charge. They had always been a circuit. Here in our area, Mount Olivet UMC was featured in a poster at Rock Springs United Methodist Church, illustrating that the circuit had dwindled to just six churches in the early 1900s, and it included Mount Olivet as one of the six churches. 

As people began to come into population centers, the model changed. Some circuits in more rural areas were still used, such as my first appointment, but instead of 10 or 15 or 20 or more churches, there were fewer churches on a circuit. God changed and reshaped the people called Methodists, moving them to a model with more station churches. As we look to the future, we see some areas being reshaped, embracing older models in different ways. I met a pastor who serves as an associate pastor of a 10 church cooperative parish. He and the lead pastor serve at a large church. The other nine churches are served by part-time and retired clergy, as well as lay speakers who preach throughout the churches. This is a new model for a new day in their area. 

It is not just the way that Methodists deploy clergy that must be examined. Everything that we do must be on the table. One of my favorite songs goes like this: “Change my heart, O God, make it ever true. Change my heart, O God, may I be like You. You are the Potter, I am the Clay; mold me and make me, this is what I pray.” I hope that this becomes our prayer.  That God continues to sit us on the potter’s wheel to shape and mold us.

But there is also a warning for us today. In the 19th chapter of Jeremiah, God instructs Jeremiah to go and buy an earthenware jug. Jeremiah is then instructed to issue a warning to the people as to what will happen if they do not turn from their ways.  God tells Jeremiah, “Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you and shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended” (Jeremiah 19:10-11a, NRSVue). There comes a point where, if we cease being in relationship with God, if we stop seeking to change our ways, and if we cease repenting of our sins, we will become like a pottery piece off the wheel, hardening and being subject to shattering. When we harden our hearts, there is little room for God’s grace to work in our hearts and lives.

This is true for the church as well. There is a life cycle in the church. One of the district superintendents I have served under used to refer to it as a clock. Like the doomsday clock, indicating how close we are to midnight, the clock of the church turns with time. The closer it gets to 6 pm, the harder it is to change and avoid the end. Similarly, this analogy also applies to pottery. As long as we allow God’s grace to work in our congregation, as long as we allow the Potter to reshape us and mold us, we can continue to grow in grace and serve the kingdom of God. If we cease to be flexible, if we get stuck in our ways, if we refuse to turn to God and repent of our plans and our ways of excluding others, we run the risk of being shattered. 

Beloved, God made us for change. We are meant to be reshaped, molded again, formed anew. Likewise, our church is meant to constantly evaluate our lives, surrender our will and our ways, and embrace the change that God has for us. For if we don’t, we risk being a shattered vessel removed from God’s grace in our lives. You may remember the TV character Gumby. He was a flexible guy made of clay, easily reshaping and reforming himself. The original theme song from 1967 goes like this “You should see what Gumby can do today…He can walk into any book with his pony pal Pokey too.” It goes on to say, “If you’ve got a heart, then Gumby’s a part of you.”

May we be like Gumby, like clay on God’s potter's wheel, embracing change and allowing God’s grace to work in our hearts and our church, that we might realize God has made us for change praying that God might change us, shape us, mold us for God’s work in the world.

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