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I have strayed somewhat from the lectionary this morning. Coming on the heels of being challenged by Jeremiah and Paul two weeks ago to not take the easy road, to not listen to false prophets of painless solutions and hawkers of a controllable God, but rather, suffer the stress of being faith filled followers of Jesus; and last week’s gospel lesson about healing the bent over woman on the Sabbath, Jesus choosing mercy over the law with the expectation we do likewise; when I then read today’s gospel story of banquet seating protocol, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, I pleaded, “O Lord have mercy.”

I do not want to be a messenger of rebuke and difficult challenge this Sunday. I need, perhaps others too, a more gentle, easy word. A day of rest on this Labor Day weekend. So, I set about gleaning other texts.

We will not follow the lectionary next week. We are instead lifting up the topic of our church school’s first unit of curriculum – creation. Gordon Forbes will tackle the Book of Genesis before our very eyes! Today’s Old Testament reading is next week’s lectionary text. Jeremiah, the man who will not let anyone off the hook, was told by God to go to the potter’s house. There Jeremiah watched the potter at work. God had a message for Jeremiah and a message for each of us lingering alongside a potter working their craft. Isaiah said it this way, “You are our Father, we are the clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” [Is.64:8]  God holds us in the palm of her hand. We are earthen vessels shaped by God, filled with the Spirit of God.

There you have it. Today’s sermon. God downloads love into our lives, teaching us through word and deed the necessity of loving ourselves along with our enemies. This is how we love God. This is how the potter longs to see our human vessels take shape.

The apostle Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, reminds folks that we are not the center of the universe. “We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants for Jesus’ sake.” God brings light to our lives and we shine with God’s light, not our own. “But we have this treasure in clay jars, (jars that can be easily broken to make the contents visible); we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”

Paul’s letter continues with this poetic acknowledgement of reality, “We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” Our bodies, earthen vessels of the Holy Spirit, shaped by God, filled by God to be God’s angels.

Paul says that we are carrying with us the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible. What does the sacrament of Communion mean? Why do we set aside this Sunday to gather ‘round this table? Do we need to hear and taste resurrection? What is happening when we hear the words recalling the Last Supper? What does it mean to us today that Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, pulled it into two big pieces and said, “This is my body, broken for you”? Did Jesus also embody the spirit and love of God? Was Jesus an earthen vessel, a clay pot broken in order for everyone to see what was inside? And then he took the cup. The cup of a new covenant. A cup symbolic of a new way of being together. Was the cup made of metal or clay?

I like communion ware made of pottery. Its earthiness speaks volumes to me of the intersection of the human and divine. The clay cup, shaped by human hands caressing rather than pounding, becomes our cup of blessing.

My friend Cathy is an amateur sculptor, she is also a spiritual director. She and I, in my Minnesota days, would lead retreats together. She taught us to pray with clay. We would be given a ball of clay, something to reflect upon such as scripture or a dimension of our life, while meditative music played quietly in the background. What might this clay become? I felt awkward with the damp gray ball in my hand. If I set out to create an image in my head, I would surely fail. If I sought to let my hands and unconscious guide the molding into something beautiful, I would surely fail. My prayer’s outcome would have no distinguished outcome.

The process, the activity of squeezing, rolling, and pinching; of holding and gazing and wondering, that became my prayer. Whatever it was that I was pondering is held, pinched, caressed and squeezed by God – as is my life, clay in the potter’s hand. We talk to one another, artist and clay. Faith is a relationship. Grounded faith is an earthy and sensual relationship familiar with kilns and beautiful glazes.

What Jeremiah witnessed at the potter’s wheel was clay being formed into vessels with a purpose. As the pot took shape, it would suddenly become lopsided and fall. The potter would begin again. The potter while working a large clump of clay would, midstream, change his mind. The clay would be thrown to the ground and he would begin again. Once more the potter skillfully shaped the pot with his hands as the moist clay turned on the wheel. He worked and he worked. And the potter was pleased.

“Then,” says Jeremiah, “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.”

Jeremiah is relentless in his task to warn Israel of the consequences of its idolatry. Of Israel’s decision to follow its own plan, turning their back to Yahweh. There is another way! O clay on the potter’s wheel, turn toward God. Become human vessels for good, loving God and one another.

Spirit of the living God, enter into our human bodies, earthen vessels of your design. Fall afresh on each one of us. “Break me. Melt me. Mold me. Fill me.” Spirit of the living God, meet us at your table and transform us in some way. For you are the potter and we are the clay.

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