Clay in the Potter’s Hands Sept. 5, 2004

Jeremiah 18: 1-11; Luke 14: 25-33 Rev. James W. Moore

Last week I gave you an assignment, with the promise that this week you’d have the opportunity (if you want to take it) to report in on how things went. We heard Jesus’ teaching about hospitality – about opening our homes, or the personal space of our lives, not only to the people we already know and love, but to those who are strangers, unlike us, or perhaps in need - and I asked that you think about one way, large or small, in which you might practice that kind of hospitality this week. In a minute I’d like to hear about what you experienced. I know you may be reticent about bragging, or praising yourself for a good deed – but that’s not what this is all about. What I’d like to hear is this: 1) What kind of hospitality you tried to practice – in your home, in a chance encounter, etc. and with whom; 2) What God may have taught you in the process, and 3) What, if anything, you received by trying to practice Jesus’ kind of hospitality.

But before we hear from anyone, let me set the context with a few reflections on Jeremiah’s insight at the potter’s shop, picking up from where I left off in the children’s message.

I don’t imagine that the hymn we’ve just sung, “Within the Day to Day” (The Faith We Sing #2445), is going to find a place on the all time hit parade of sacred songs, but I chose to use it in this service because of one phrase – the very last words of the song. Verse 4, to remind you goes like this:

The excavating God unearths new hope each day

And trusts the miracle of life to us, the soul-filled clay.

“To us, the soul-filled clay......” When we read a passage like Jeremiah 18, which portrays God as a potter, or when we sing the old hymn “Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay,” what are we saying about ourselves, about human beings? To call ourselves “clay” is a proper expression of humility – one that we need in this world in which it’s so easy for people to live as if we masters of the universe and God is irrelevant. God is the potter – the maker, sustainer and molder of life – but what do we mean when we say “I am the clay”? I hope we’re not saying that we are powerless, mindless, thoughtless, useless blobs of life because that’s not true. We’re not lumps of clay who are incapable of ideas, incapable to doing good, incapable of initiative, incapable of noble actions, and the goal of a Christian life is not to be a passive lump of clay that is inactive and passive and waiting (perhaps forever) for God to do it all while we do nothing. We’re clay, yes, but as the song says, we are “soul-filled clay.” We’re created in God’s image - gifted by God in unique ways and capable, with God’s help, of great things. We’re clay, and on its own the clay can’t become a chalice or a bowl or a work of beauty. Clay needs the potter, but the potter needs the clay too. The potter chooses to work with clay to create beauty. God chooses to work through human beings to fashion creation. There’s a partnership, a collaboration, between potter and clay, between God and humans - and life becomes rich and fulfilling when we lumps of clay learn what it means to be willing, cooperative, collaborative partners with God our great creator.

To attempt hospitality in the manner of Jesus is to be willing clay in God’s hands. It’s a small way of saying “Use me God. Use my life, my capacity for friendship, my home, my circle of relationships, my ability to care, as means of bringing blessing.”

How did you experience this in your attempts at practicing hospitality this week?

Time for sharing (the following paragraphs are my recollection of what was said by various people)

Paul: While driving away from work at a prison for women he saw a woman and boy, carrying a suitcase and walking toward town. He drove past, but felt convicted by God to turn around and ask if they needed a ride. They had been there visiting the boy’s mother, had no money for a cab to the train station, and were so grateful that someone stopped to help them. Paul felt immensely blessed, that he had received a gift far out of proportion to the minutes he invested in driving them. The boy’s last words were “God bless you......”

Ed: While in Florida for a 2 month stay, receiving treatment for prostate cancer, he got an apartment and wanted to share expenses with someone. God helped him connect with another patient, and despite his worry about sharing space with a total stranger, Ed was blessed in many ways.

Youth group, on a trip to an amusement park, tried to practice hospitality, with kids reaching out to newcomers in the group.

Maria, while asking businesses in the area about whether we might use their parking on Sundays, received the gift of kindness and hospitality. It’s blessed to give it, but blessed to receive it too.

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One last thought I’d like to bring to you, related to the groundbreaking ceremony we soon will have. This new building space is all about hospitality in Jesus’ style – or at least it can be. It’s about being willing clay in the hands of God the potter. The building space we’ve had for the last few decades has been adequate for us to muddle by, to do a reasonable job of taking care of the children currently in Sunday School, the youth in the MYF, the current members who worship here on Sunday, etc...... If our goal was to keep on as we’ve been for 20 years we wouldn’t need this sacrificial effort, but as a Christian fellowship we’ve felt led to do more. We want to open up space for more children, youth and adults to share in the blessings we’ve known together. We want to open up space within which God may inspire some new ways of serving – using our space for senior day care, or AA meetings, or after-school children’s programs, or something as yet unseen in our imaginations.

This project is our attempt at faithful partnership with God; and expression of our desire to be soul-filled clay in the potter’s hand. The hymn says “The Excavating God unearths new hope each day.......” This excavating is surely a sign of hope, a sign of our trust in God, and a sign that we want fulfillment of the promise that God “entrusts the miracle of life to us, the soul-filled clay.”