“The Guiding hand of God”

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Is God still at work in the world?

Did God simply create the world and then

Let the world simply run as it might?

Like a clock maker who makes a clock

And simply lets it run.

Or is God in charge of every move we make

Like a puppeteer who controls every move of the puppet

With the strings of his hand.

Or is it possible that God is in control

And yet still gives us the freedom

To make decisions for and with God.

Those are the issues we are exploring

on this Sunday before Thanksgiving

And we are reflecting on the image of a potter

To understanding God’s guiding

and molding hand upon us even today.

The scripture lesson is Jeremiah 18 which presumes that

We all have a working understanding

of how a potter works with clay.

To help us understand and illustrate the lesson

We have Debbie Cox to shape a pot while we talk.

Before we even get to the text there are several things

That strike me about a potter working at a wheel

That Jeremiah would have observed when he took

that trip to the potters house.

First he would have observed that when a potter works

With a pot that it is messy work.

So it is with God, when God is molding & shaping us

One must get your hands dirty to mold clay

Into a useful shape.

In other words, God is willing to get involved in our lives.

From the first day of creation when God shaped humans

As the text says: “from the dust of the ground.”

It is messy, “hands on” works.

Secondly, you notice that the potters hands and the clay vessel

Almost look like they are one.

The potters hands are one with the pot.

The color of the clay is all over the potter’s hands.

The potter and the pot are connected by the

Potters hands during the whole molding

It’s not until the pot is shaped that the potter rests

And then fires or hardens the pot in its shape.

Notice also that the potter works on the pot

While it is spinning on the wheel.

Sometimes we think that we only do “spiritual work”

When we step of the whirling busyness of life

But the image of a potter at the wheel

Reminds us that it is in the midst

Of our busy, spinning lives

That God is molding and shaping us.

The text in Jeremiah talks about the pot:

“spoiling in the potter’s hands.”

Not every pot that a potter works on

becomes a beautiful pot the first time.

Some get a little off center and as they rotate

And the potter simply re-centers the pot and

Reworks it into a useful shape.

That sure does explain my experience of life.

As we are growing in our life,

it isn’t necessarily the big bumps

that throw us off.

Sometimes it’s getting off center a little bit

And the more we rolls along in life

The more and more unbalanced we get

And so the only solution is to

Go back to the beginning.

Of course we can only do that if we are still malleable

And able to be shaped and molded by God.

The image of a potter shaping a pot reminds us that

To stay flexible and adaptable is a good thing.

God is still working on us when we are open

to the movement of His hand in our life.

It’s when we get fixed and rigid and inflexible

That God can not longer mold and shape us.

Did you notice how Debbie uses water to keep

The vessel moist and malleable as she works on it?

It is a reminder of the waters of baptism

And the meaning of baptism.

When we are baptized we are not

Cemented into a rigid legalism but rather

We are sprinkled with water so that

We might be molded and shaped by God

As we move forward in life.

And yet when we are truly being shaped by God

Then there is a unity between the potter and the pot

And slight pressure on the potter’s hand

Molds us and shapes us into a beautiful

And useful vessel for God to use

And each on of us is different.

When I asked Debbie to first do this she said that

She doesn’t always know how the pot will turn out.

She obviously has a lot of control but

Each pot is different and each potter

Develops in its own way and

Responds in it’s own way

To the potters touch.

And that’s where the mystery comes in.

We are both clay vessels being molded by God’s hands

And we are finished vessels being used by God.

But the image is powerful and a good one

Especially as we approach Advent.

If God is continually working on us, molding and shaping us

We might wonder what does a finished pot look like?

What does a finished human being look like?

That answer is ours in Jesus Christ,

Who stood at the table with his disciples

And held up a cup saying:

“This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood

for the forgiveness of sins.”

Notice Christ’s hands around the cup

Reflect the hands of God

Molding and shaping us.

The baptism of Christ opens us up

To be flexible to the shaping of

God’s hands in our life

And his blood seals us, covers the cracks

In our lives so that we

Can be useful vessels of God.

Can you feel God’s hand molding and shaping you

As you are spinning faster and faster in life.

Have you ever felt yourself offcenter

And spinning out of control in your life?

Have you felt God lumping you back

and starting all over to mold and shape you

in the way that God intends for the

usefulness that God desires in your life.

I have and I wrote a song that

Describes God as a potter

And the church as the

Potters house,

As I share the song,

I invite you to remember how God is molding

` And shaping you today.

Amen