Reshaped for LIFE!
Jeremiah 18:1-6
September 9, 2007 - Rally Day
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
Just like the clay in the potter's hand ... As I pondered these words I really wished that David
McBeth still lived in Illinois. Did you know that David is a skilled potter? If he was here I'd have him
talk with us about the process of creating from a lump of clay. I'd have him talk about throwing the
clay on the wheel, adding just the right amount of water, starting the wheel and then with hands, or
if your as skilled as David sometimes also with feet, beginning to move the clay -pushing this way,
pulling that way until the clay begins to take shape, becoming a plate or a chalice, a bowl or a cup, a
pitcher or a vase, a basin or a candleholder, or any one of a number of other beautiful works of art.
If he were here, I'd ask David to talk about what it's like to see and feel the clay transformed as
the vision in his mind's eye becomes a reality. And I'd also ask him to remind us all of what is
obvious, but often overlooked: until the clay feels the touch of the potter's hand, until it is shaped
and turned according to the potter's vision, until the potter and the clay make contact -intimate
contact- the clay is just clay, full of potential, but nothing more.
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 18:1-6
September 9, 2007 - Rally Day
Rev. Nancy Pfaltzgraf
Just like the clay in the potter's hand ... As I pondered these words I really wished that David
McBeth still lived in Illinois. Did you know that David is a skilled potter? If he was here I'd have him
talk with us about the process of creating from a lump of clay. I'd have him talk about throwing the
clay on the wheel, adding just the right amount of water, starting the wheel and then with hands, or
if your as skilled as David sometimes also with feet, beginning to move the clay -pushing this way,
pulling that way until the clay begins to take shape, becoming a plate or a chalice, a bowl or a cup, a
pitcher or a vase, a basin or a candleholder, or any one of a number of other beautiful works of art.
If he were here, I'd ask David to talk about what it's like to see and feel the clay transformed as
the vision in his mind's eye becomes a reality. And I'd also ask him to remind us all of what is
obvious, but often overlooked: until the clay feels the touch of the potter's hand, until it is shaped
and turned according to the potter's vision, until the potter and the clay make contact -intimate
contact- the clay is just clay, full of potential, but nothing more.
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
I'd also ask David about what happens when, for no apparent reason, the pot collapses, the
chalice bends the wrong way, the vase just doesn't match his vision and must be reshaped. I'd ask
him about the way he sometimes needs to rework the clay sometimes starting over again and again
until it gradually takes shape, little by little it becoming all he envisioned it might be.
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
What an amazingly gracious process! Even though the clay might be shaped and reshaped many
times before the potter is finished, the potter never gives up! What's more, even the bits of clay that
are thrown into a bucket because they are not needed for this particular creation are not garbage.
They are simply mixed together, moistened with water and put on the wheel to be shaped into yet
another creation. Nothing is ultimately a failure! Nothing is ever wasted!
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
As I thought about this passage, I began to realize that I have been shaped and reshaped time
and time again. I also realized something else. Sometimes the shaping and reshaping of the potter's
hands is gentle and joyful -a new dream taking shape here, a new insight forming there, a new way
of seeing my life or the world emerging over there. But sometimes the shaping and reshaping is
downright painful. When I stand face to face with the way my self-centeredness has caused distress
for someone else, when I look into my heart and see things like jealousy and arrogance, when I look
at my life and see all of the wasted opportunities and the times I have failed to live into the fullness
of who God has created me to be, it hurts! But even then, perhaps especially then, the Spirit is at
work in me and through me using those experiences to smooth off the rough places and call forth a
deeper beauty and a more profound goodness from my soul. And God isn't finished with me yet!
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
But when God summoned Jeremiah to the potter's house; when the Creator of Heaven and
Earth spoke of clay and spoiled vessels and reshaping the clay, God wasn't just talking about
individual people and their particular journey of faith. In fact such a concept would have been
completely foreign to Jeremiah and to those who heard him speak. They knew that what any single
person did affected the life of the whole. And there was no separation of church and state! Thus, it
was to the whole people of Israel -in the temple and in the throne room- that God spoke. "When
what you are doing and how you are living no longer reflects my glory, be prepared, for change is on
the horizon. When the shape of your vessel no longer functions to reveal my compassionate love or
my gracious power, be prepared, for change is on the horizon. When how you have been doing
things no longer meets the needs of the outcast, the lonely, the searching, the poor, the hungry, the
widow or the orphan, be prepared, for change is on the horizon. When the structure of your
institutions keeps people from knowing me, be prepared, for change is on the horizon."
O:\Sermons\Sermons 2007\09-09-07jeremiah18-1-6.doc Last printed 10/5/2007 11:34:00 AM - 2 -
And God is still speaking! "...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says
the LORD."
But my how we hate change! In fact it is often said that the seven last words of the church are
"We've never don it that way before!"
God is still speaking and it just may be that the potter is reshaping the church of Jesus Christ
into a whole new way of being church as one way of calling us to a whole new way of being human
together.
Recent studies indicate that fewer than 40% of the people in the United States and fewer than
8% of people in the U. K. participate in any form of organized religion on a regular basis. At the
same time books on spirituality take up more and more space in most bookstores. People are hungry
for God -or at least some higher power or some spiritual force. People sense a deep longing for
meaning and purpose in their lives. People are beset from all sides by bad news and they long for
some ray of hope, some spark of light, some promise that the future will be better than the present.
But increasingly they no longer look to mainline churches to help them in their quest. All the while
God has been at work trying to reshape congregations, inviting them to let go of the past and move
into a bold new way of being. Those congregations that are willing to undergo the sometimes painful
reshaping will find new life.
Over the past five years we have been on the potter's wheel, feeling a pinch here, a push there,
a nudge to try something new and do something different. Some of this reshaping has given us new
and renewed life. Some of it is still being reshaped. Beginning today we are entering into another
new adventure with the beginning of P.L.A.Y. time (Positive Learning Activities for Youth) at 9am
and Kids QUEST during our 10:30 worship. It is our hope that through these programs we will reach
more children awakening them to God's dream for their lives and engage more adults in sharing
their gifts in exciting and creative ways. But God isn't finished with us yet! These changes are only a
tiny drop in the bucket of the reshaping that is needed for us to become the vital vessel of God's
creative power and compassionate love that we can become.
We are engaged in a Visioning Process that I pray will help us catch a glimpse of God's bold
new vision for this congregation. Yesterday Emma was telling me that the catchphrase for her school
is, "Think outside the box." I believe that God is calling us to think outside the box as we seek to
follow in the footsteps of Jesus who lived outside the box, meeting people where they were and
offering them all that they needed to become who they yet could be; Jesus who lived outside the
box welcoming the outcast and the stranger and daring to speak truth to power; Jesus who lived
outside the box inviting people into a new way of seeing and a new way of living in the world.
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD; and in my
hands you will be reshaped for LIFE!" Amen
chalice bends the wrong way, the vase just doesn't match his vision and must be reshaped. I'd ask
him about the way he sometimes needs to rework the clay sometimes starting over again and again
until it gradually takes shape, little by little it becoming all he envisioned it might be.
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
What an amazingly gracious process! Even though the clay might be shaped and reshaped many
times before the potter is finished, the potter never gives up! What's more, even the bits of clay that
are thrown into a bucket because they are not needed for this particular creation are not garbage.
They are simply mixed together, moistened with water and put on the wheel to be shaped into yet
another creation. Nothing is ultimately a failure! Nothing is ever wasted!
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
As I thought about this passage, I began to realize that I have been shaped and reshaped time
and time again. I also realized something else. Sometimes the shaping and reshaping of the potter's
hands is gentle and joyful -a new dream taking shape here, a new insight forming there, a new way
of seeing my life or the world emerging over there. But sometimes the shaping and reshaping is
downright painful. When I stand face to face with the way my self-centeredness has caused distress
for someone else, when I look into my heart and see things like jealousy and arrogance, when I look
at my life and see all of the wasted opportunities and the times I have failed to live into the fullness
of who God has created me to be, it hurts! But even then, perhaps especially then, the Spirit is at
work in me and through me using those experiences to smooth off the rough places and call forth a
deeper beauty and a more profound goodness from my soul. And God isn't finished with me yet!
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD."
But when God summoned Jeremiah to the potter's house; when the Creator of Heaven and
Earth spoke of clay and spoiled vessels and reshaping the clay, God wasn't just talking about
individual people and their particular journey of faith. In fact such a concept would have been
completely foreign to Jeremiah and to those who heard him speak. They knew that what any single
person did affected the life of the whole. And there was no separation of church and state! Thus, it
was to the whole people of Israel -in the temple and in the throne room- that God spoke. "When
what you are doing and how you are living no longer reflects my glory, be prepared, for change is on
the horizon. When the shape of your vessel no longer functions to reveal my compassionate love or
my gracious power, be prepared, for change is on the horizon. When how you have been doing
things no longer meets the needs of the outcast, the lonely, the searching, the poor, the hungry, the
widow or the orphan, be prepared, for change is on the horizon. When the structure of your
institutions keeps people from knowing me, be prepared, for change is on the horizon."
O:\Sermons\Sermons 2007\09-09-07jeremiah18-1-6.doc Last printed 10/5/2007 11:34:00 AM - 2 -
And God is still speaking! "...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says
the LORD."
But my how we hate change! In fact it is often said that the seven last words of the church are
"We've never don it that way before!"
God is still speaking and it just may be that the potter is reshaping the church of Jesus Christ
into a whole new way of being church as one way of calling us to a whole new way of being human
together.
Recent studies indicate that fewer than 40% of the people in the United States and fewer than
8% of people in the U. K. participate in any form of organized religion on a regular basis. At the
same time books on spirituality take up more and more space in most bookstores. People are hungry
for God -or at least some higher power or some spiritual force. People sense a deep longing for
meaning and purpose in their lives. People are beset from all sides by bad news and they long for
some ray of hope, some spark of light, some promise that the future will be better than the present.
But increasingly they no longer look to mainline churches to help them in their quest. All the while
God has been at work trying to reshape congregations, inviting them to let go of the past and move
into a bold new way of being. Those congregations that are willing to undergo the sometimes painful
reshaping will find new life.
Over the past five years we have been on the potter's wheel, feeling a pinch here, a push there,
a nudge to try something new and do something different. Some of this reshaping has given us new
and renewed life. Some of it is still being reshaped. Beginning today we are entering into another
new adventure with the beginning of P.L.A.Y. time (Positive Learning Activities for Youth) at 9am
and Kids QUEST during our 10:30 worship. It is our hope that through these programs we will reach
more children awakening them to God's dream for their lives and engage more adults in sharing
their gifts in exciting and creative ways. But God isn't finished with us yet! These changes are only a
tiny drop in the bucket of the reshaping that is needed for us to become the vital vessel of God's
creative power and compassionate love that we can become.
We are engaged in a Visioning Process that I pray will help us catch a glimpse of God's bold
new vision for this congregation. Yesterday Emma was telling me that the catchphrase for her school
is, "Think outside the box." I believe that God is calling us to think outside the box as we seek to
follow in the footsteps of Jesus who lived outside the box, meeting people where they were and
offering them all that they needed to become who they yet could be; Jesus who lived outside the
box welcoming the outcast and the stranger and daring to speak truth to power; Jesus who lived
outside the box inviting people into a new way of seeing and a new way of living in the world.
"...Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, says the LORD; and in my
hands you will be reshaped for LIFE!" Amen
