“THE POTTER AND THE CLAY”
[A sermon following the massacre of hostages at Beslan]

A sermon preached at the Mint Methodist Church, Exeter, by the Minister, Rev Andrew Sails at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday 5^th September 2004 Readings: Jeremiah 18:1-11, 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 Back to Sermon Index

“Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel”
(Jeremiah 18:6)

I wonder if you have ever watched a very small child
play with a very large tray of lumpy and slimy modelling clay?

You see little hands pushing and pulling furiously,
and there seems to be more clay
oozing between fingers and falling on the floor than anything else.

The consistency of the medium is all wrong,
and even Michelangelo would have had a hard job
to produce a creditable result.

But this does not deter our apprentice potter,
and eventually a rather muddy-faced child creator
comes up with his masterpiece of modelling.

A great smile on his face, off he goes to mum:

“Here you are mum, a present – a model I’ve made for you.”

And mum takes the model.
She also takes an inspired guess
as to which is the top and which is the bottom.

And then what does she say?

Does she point to the imperfections,
the lack of proportion, the bits falling off?

No – she smiles with joy, genuine joy,
and says “how lovely, thank you.”

And it is valuable to her,
not because of its aesthetics or utility,
but simply because it was made by her child –
its got something of him, of his joy, enthusiasm, creativity, in it,
and because of that it is valuable.

I wonder if you sometimes feel that you are rather insignificant
in the midst of a vast world and an even vaster universe?

Do you ever feel that if someone picked you up
and looked you over like some model
you might be seen to be a bit lacking in quality?

Well, we’re all like that,
But it doesn’t mean that we have no value.

For just like the child’s model,
our value lies not in our perfection (we have little value that way)
but in the love and concern and effort
put into us by our creator.

When you feel down, and insignificant and worthless,
remember that the most important thing about us all
is not a particular quality or facet of our make up
but the simple fact that God made us.

For do you remember
how the old Hebrew myth recorded in Genesis 2
tells how God made the human race –
from the dust, or as one modern translation has it,
from “clods of earth”.

James Johnson has a poem in which
he extends the imagery of Genesis 2.
He pictures God sitting down by the side of the river,
and then:

“Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
like a mammy bending over her baby,
kneeled down in the dust
toiling over a lump of clay
till he shaped it in his own image;

Then into it he blew the breath of life,
and man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.”

Oh God is a finer craftsman than any Michelangelo even,
But he works from very rough material.
and from Adam on things became very misshapen.

But nevertheless,
there is still there, even in Adam, even in everyman, even in you and me,
that which God put there,
his life, his joy, his energy,
which, thank God, even we cannot obliterate.

We all have something of God in us.
We are all made in the image, the likeness of God,
which, whatever life may bring,
can never be cancelled out.

And so, when a Chechen terrorist in Beslan
acts in such a way as to proclaim
”Human life is cheap – it doesn’t matter if I hurt it”
Then we say “No” – Human life is sacred,

Because here is something God made -
and anything which has something of him in it, -
every adult, every child,
is someone to be valued and cherished.

And also –
and this may be a harder thing to say right now -
when Chechen terrorists with explosives round their waists say or imply
“Human life is cheap – it doesn’t matter if I hurt myself”
Then again we say “No”

Here is something God made -
It may no longer be perfect,

Indeed as we read of the terrorists’ deeds
we see humanity grossly distorted and misshapen –

But anything which has something of him in it,
we must value and cherish.

And the end of hatred and violence in our world will only come
when we recognize that every member of the human race
is a child of God, loved into being by him.

Of course it is not just children who work with clay.

Years ago I remember on holiday taking my three year old son
to watch a potter throwing pots.

My son, like any youngster, was fascinated,
watching the man throw the clay on the spinning wheel,
and gradually build it into a fine, high sided vase.

Then the potter stopped the wheel,
surveyed his work for a moment,
and then with a quick press of his hand
pushed the new pot back into a formless fist of clay.

That was too much for my son -
he burst into tears -
how and why could that man do such a thing
to the lovely vase he’d just created?

That took place 26 years ago, but it could equally well have been a story 26 centuries old.
Indeed, our OT set lesson today was written around 600 BC – 26 hundred years ago -
and there you will recall Jeremiah is sent by God to watch a potter – He says

^“3I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands;
so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me:
⁶ O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?
declares the LORD.
Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
(Jer 18:3-6).

And that warning is as relevant today as then –
God was saying to Israel what he says today to the warring factions in Chechnya
and to every sinful member of the human race
whether on the side of the world or here in this Church today –

“Beware - if you depart from my ways,
you may precipitate collapse and destruction –
because life and community
built on fear and selfishness and greed
is ultimately unstable and will collapse –
as surely as a misshapen pot will ultimately wobble and spin and collapse,
and it will be necessary to start again.”

All of which might seem pessimistic.

But of course the image of the potter is rich
because it is full of threat and warning, but also of hope –

God does not give up on us.
He will always be there to rebuild the pot.

Even when it comes to the apparently final last great breaking down,
when we face death itself.

And which of us, when faced with

· the first funerals of Beslan,

· the death of a loved one,

· or with the fear of our own death,

has not at some time cried out

“No! How can such be destroyed?”

And we think of the goodness and beauty and wisdom and wit
of those whom we have loved but see no longer through death.

And so we go to the funeral,
and again find ourselves reminded of God’s
moulding of clay in creation
”Dust to dust” says the service,
reminding us of Genesis 3:

“From dust you came, to dust you shall go”

But then, as the funeral service unfolds,
we are reminded again of those great passages from scripture
Ps 23 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow o death…”
Jn 14 “In my Father’s house are many mansions”
and so on…

And we realize that even when this earthly body returns to the dust,
when in an apparently final way
the clay is crushed down again,
it is but the prelude to a greater beginning,
as the potter builds up what St Paul calls
our spiritual body in heaven.

In the meantime our life goes on –
and we remain clay pots,
or as Paul calls us, earthern vessels,
fragile, vulnerable, far from perfect, easily destroyed.

But within us we have treasure,
the treasure of the Gospel.

Thank God that he does not store his treasure
in pearl caskets or bank vaults -
if the treasure of the Gospel
were reserved for those of great spiritual worth and strength,
which of us would see anything of it?

No the treasure of the gospel
is stored in earthern vessels such as you and me.

So let us thank God,
(as the old story has it)

that he bent down by the river side
like a mother bending over her baby
toiling to make you and me.

Let us thank God
(as Jeremiah learnt at the potter’s shop)

that though our sinful world
brings death and destruction upon itself,
still our Heavenly Father builds again
when all seems lost

And let us thank God
that he entrusts to our feeble frames
the greatest treasure of all,
the truth of the Gospel,
which tells how one day
every pot will be perfectly thrown
and all God’s children shall be at one with their God.

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