The Potter’s Hands
Jeremiah 18:1-8
Christian Education Sunday/Holy Communion
Jeremiah 18:1-8
{18:1} 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.
The Sermon
The potter’s hands make an imprint in the lump of clay. She works the clay easily, gently but firmly, into the beginnings of a shape, like the way our personalities begin to be formed, when we are just beginning to take shape.
Somewhere deep in the memory, deep in the subconscious, are fragments of remembrance—bouncing on a grandparent’s knee; a classroom where you registered the moral of a story; a random moment from a childhood friendship; a night in high school when everything kind of changed; driving a long distance on the highway by yourself.
She works the clay on the wheel with a loving and steady and sturdy hand, familiar with mud and water and clay, effortlessly handling the rotation, the posture, the steady gaze. The clay on the wheel is never lost, never hopeless, never forgotten, never out of view of the Potter’s watchful eye.
Every once in a while, the clay will collapse in on itself, when it tries too hard to become something it isn’t, or if it’s not centered correctly, or if it just needs to start over. Always the potter’s hands are there to reshape, to restore, to support, to love.
You have access to a Bible, and a church, and teachers, and a family of other people who are also here, not to pontificate, or to judge, or to question your motives for being here, but to learn.
So when you take your place in your Education Hour class, or in a Bible study, or in private meditation at home, the Potter will center you on the great table, and you may entrust yourself once more to the care and creativity of the Potter’s hands.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.
[Daniel Iverson, 1935]
Keith Grogg
Carolina Beach Presbyterian Church
Carolina Beach, NC
September 9, 2007
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