Jeremiah 18:1-11,18-20
Today let us begin with a small prayer that I often say to myself.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
It is my custom during the summer months here on this beautiful island I call home to set out on regular bike trips. It is truly zen like, communing with nature, seeing the horses, bison, woodchucks and rabbits not to mention the new-mown hay or the smell of the salt water. A regular stop is a small country church that has built a small labyrinth. It's a perfect halfway stop. Part of the path is paved with shards of broken clay pots. I began to think about my potters prayer and it's relation to the broken clay pots I was walking on.
Clay is a beautiful substance that when soft can be molded and even remolded. Once the clay hardens or is fired, it is rigid and fixed. That's a wonderful thing if you want a sturdy container that never needs to change. We as humans are not sturdy containers that never need to change. In fact, if we allow ourselves to harden like the clay we become old and immovable and are clearly at risk of being broken with sharp dangerous edges. It's not unlike the shards I have walked on.
If we are to grow into the beautiful vessel that God intends us to be, we must remain maliable. we must be able to be worked and reshaped. Nothing that stays rigidly formed lasts forever. In fact It increased the likelyhood that it will be broken or becomes a relic of the past.
As we allow ourselves to be formed by the potter (God) into a well formed human this Lent and into the rest of our human lives, let us pray that we will always be open to being reformed into whatever the potter needs us to be, never hardening our hearts or minds.
The journey continues. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
It is my custom during the summer months here on this beautiful island I call home to set out on regular bike trips. It is truly zen like, communing with nature, seeing the horses, bison, woodchucks and rabbits not to mention the new-mown hay or the smell of the salt water. A regular stop is a small country church that has built a small labyrinth. It's a perfect halfway stop. Part of the path is paved with shards of broken clay pots. I began to think about my potters prayer and it's relation to the broken clay pots I was walking on.
Clay is a beautiful substance that when soft can be molded and even remolded. Once the clay hardens or is fired, it is rigid and fixed. That's a wonderful thing if you want a sturdy container that never needs to change. We as humans are not sturdy containers that never need to change. In fact, if we allow ourselves to harden like the clay we become old and immovable and are clearly at risk of being broken with sharp dangerous edges. It's not unlike the shards I have walked on.
If we are to grow into the beautiful vessel that God intends us to be, we must remain maliable. we must be able to be worked and reshaped. Nothing that stays rigidly formed lasts forever. In fact It increased the likelyhood that it will be broken or becomes a relic of the past.
As we allow ourselves to be formed by the potter (God) into a well formed human this Lent and into the rest of our human lives, let us pray that we will always be open to being reformed into whatever the potter needs us to be, never hardening our hearts or minds.
The journey continues. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 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.
Then the word of the Lord came to me: 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. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 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. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 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. 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.
Then they said, ‘Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah—for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words.’
Give heed to me, O Lord,
and listen to what my adversaries say!
Is evil a recompense for good?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
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