"The Potter”

Readings: Psalms 139:1-18, Philemon 1-21, Jeremiah 18:1-6, Luke 14:25-33
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on September 4th, 2022

Ever thrown a pot? I don’t mean thrown a pot at somebody, but had a chance at working on a potters wheel?  You watch a professional doing it and it looks like the easiest thing in the world. But, if you are as creatively challenged in the pottery field as I am, and you get to take your turn, then you pretty soon realize that it is not that easy.

Clay just does not behave itself. You squeeze it one way, and it all squirts out the other way. Bits fly off and won’t go back on again. You get covered in the stuff and end up with a, “Well I’m not quite sure what it is, but, man, I’m proud of it. Fire up that kiln Mr. Potter and let’s bake this creation to be preserved for eternity”.

You can imagine archeologists 2000 years from now, digging up your weird object and having long debates.
 “Well I think it’s a holder for flexible pencils”
“No, No, No, it’s part of a musical instrument and you blow it like this”
“You guys, it’s not a musical instrument, it’s a medical tool for removing ear-wax.
Oops. I think it’s stuck. Can anybody give me a hand?”

The job of the Potter is not such an easy one. Unless, that is you have the skill for it. Maybe it’s something you are born with. Yet even if you are born with it, you still have to work at it. That’s a lesson another potter had to learn. I’m sure if you asked some kids to think of a potter, they would probably come up with the name of Harry Potter.

Maybe some of you are familiar with the Harry Potter series. The very first volume “The Sorcerers Stone” gives the account of Harry’s earliest days.  Harry is the son of two good magic workers, who are killed when he is a baby by a wicked wizard and Harry is ‘adopted’, rather unwillingly, by the Dursley family, who treat him terribly.

The Dursley family has a spoiled brat of a son called Dudley Dursley, who gets all he wants and more. He has two or three of everything, including bedrooms, whilst poor Harry sleeps in a spider infested cupboard under the stairs at No 4, Privet Drive. Even though Harry “Not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous” is kept firmly in his place, he keeps turning the tables on his adopted parents and becomes vaguely aware of powers in himself that he can’t explain.

Later, things change, and Harry has to go away to a special school 'Hogwarts' where he learns how to use and be in control of the gifts and talents that he has inherited from those who went before him.

There is something special about Harry - but there is nothing particularly special about a lump of clay. There is nothing particularly beautiful about a lump of earth out of the ground. Yet in the hands of a skilled craftsman that lump of unsightly, no good, mess can be made into something wonderful, something priceless, some thing totally unique.

At the time of our Old Testament bible reading the people of Israel were in a bad situation. Their lives were being formed by a whole lot of things other than God. They were trusting in things that couldn’t satisfy, believing in idols made by their own hands to get them through their lives.

 God, who had chosen these people to be to be the nation who would show the world what astonishing things could happen when people opened up their lives to God’s influence, was not pleased to see what a mess they had become.

Through the prophet Jeremiah God chooses to speak to the people. Jeremiah is sent to watch a potter at work. But the Potter is having a bad day. The clay won’t act as it should. It’s almost as though the clay is fighting back against him. He pushes it this way and it won’t go that way. He makes it into one shape and it chooses to take another shape.

To use Harry Potter’s imagery, this is Dudley Dursley clay. Out of shape. Spoilt. In spite of everything that is being done for it, this clay is not going to shape up. This clay is exasperating the potter’s skill. What the potter has to do is start over again. Maybe pound it a little bit, shake it up, and put a bit more water on it to make it more malleable.

This time Mr. Potter gets it right! As the scripture says, “He remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make” (verse 4).  You can almost picture the Potter holding it up and saying, “Allright. Now that’s more like it.  Beautiful”.

Then comes a wonderful promise that Jeremiah takes to the people of God. For sure there is a message of judgment on them for being a stiff necked and rebellious people, but there is also a great dawn on the horizon.

“"Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD." Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand”.” (verse 6)

This is a tremendous picture and a hope filled promise that Jeremiah is laying before us.
Everyone of us is born into life, a little like Harry Potter, full of the special things, some inherited, some unique, that make us who we are. We are all astonishing creations and demonstrations of God’s creative work.

It’s fantastic when new mums bring their little ones to church. You look at those babies and you can’t help but go “Coo” and “Aah”. Of course at three in the morning when they want feeding and changing is another story – but there is just something so wonderful about a new creation. All the potential. All the trust. The helplessness and innocence.

Doesn’t last for long though does it? Doesn’t take long before the hands of different potters start to shape our lives and our minds. It can be a hard knock life that deals us a rotten set of cards and we can spend a lot of time in our own equivalent of a spider-infested cupboard under the stairs.

It doesn’t take long until something of the spirit of Dudley Dursley starts getting to us. We become self centered and arrogant and “I want it now” and “Give me more” types of people.  Particularly in regard to God.

“Lord, I know what you say about following You, but You just don’t understand what I’m going through right now!” Really? The God by whose power we were knitted together in our mother’s womb, doesn’t know what a hard time we are having? Jesus who died upon the cross in heart wrenching agony, doesn’t understand what a tough time is?

In every church I have served there are always those who are down on their church. “It’s not like the old days. What are we going to do? How are we going to get through?’ 

And the question that forms in my mind is always the same, “Where is our faith? Who are we trusting? What Scriptures are we believing in?” See, if we are trusting in what we ourselves can do, if we think that if we just try a little harder and do just a little more, then I agree with you, we haven’t got a hope.  That is not going to cut it.

Jesus has laid down the terms for being faithful so plainly that it’s almost frightening. “If anybody wants to be my disciple, then let them take up a cross and follow me”. The Dudley Dursley in us responds (sarcastically), “Yeh. Right. I’m going to do that!”

“What come to Sunday School? I’ll have to get up earlier! I’ll learn enough about God in my own way.” Oh yes?

“What, increase my offering! Don’t you realize how much I give already? I have more important things to waste my money on.” Oh yes?

“What, spend more time in prayer and getting to know God’s word and worshiping and serving, what do you think I am some kind of religious maniac. I have a life to live in the real world, you know. It’s a question of priorities’ Oh yes! How true.

I keep getting that picture of the clay in the potter’s hands that is kicking back saying, “No, I won’t go your way I do it my way or we don’t do it at all”. And it all keeps drowning out the promise, the promise that Jeremiah wants to offer, but the clay is so busy trying not be molded, that it can’t hear.

“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD." Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand”

“Can I not, O people of God in Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord, “Can I not still take broken lives and wounded hearts and compromised promises and make something beautiful out of them? Behold, like the clay in the Potter’s hand, so are you in My hand”.

Of course, if we are allowing our lives to be formed by a whole lot of things other than God, if we are trusting in the things money can buy to satisfy, if we have fallen into that idolatrous trap of believing that we can get by without so much commitment, (without going to extremes like taking up crosses) then for sure we will reap the fruits of what we are sowing. And it will be rotten fruit!

It doesn’t have to be that way. God is good. God’s love is a rock, a solid foundation. Christ wants our commitment, not so He can add our name to a list of those who are on the Lord’s side, but so we can enjoy the intimacy of a heart relationship with God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Will we stand on the promises of God this day? Do we not have the light of God’s Word to uphold us and carry us through?  Then let it shine, let it shine, let it shine! Be a Harry Potter – claim your inheritance as children of an awesome God, children whom God has gifted with as many different graces as we are different people.

And grow in that Grace! Make use of the opportunities you have for study and worship. Get to Sunday School. Be regular in worship. Give as though God actually counts for something astonishing in your life. Fan that flickering spark until your heart is aflame for Christ.

Today we gather around a table that clearly illustrates both God’s commitment to us and the commitment God asks of us. “If anybody wants to be my disciple, then let them take up a cross and follow me.” God hasn’t promised us an easy way. But God has promised that God’s Spirit can work on the hard, misshapen clay of our lives and create something beautiful.

May such be an experience that we all get to see happening in our lives.

AMEN!

The Reverend Adrian J Pratt B.D.