Jeremiah 18:1-12   God told Jeremiah, "Up on your feet! Go to the potter's house. When you get there, I'll tell you what I have to say." So I went to the potter's house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at her wheel. Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot. Then God's Message came to me: "Can't I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?" God's Decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them. But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them. At another time I might decide to plant a people or country, but if they don't cooperate and won't listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.

"So, tell the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem my Message: 'Danger! I'm shaping doom against you, laying plans against you. Turn back from your doomed way of life. Straighten out your lives.'

"But they'll just say, 'Why should we? What's the point? We'll live just the way we've always lived, doom or no doom.'"
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Laurie Decknatel, a member of our congregation, is a potter and, in fact, is the creator of our communion set.  She brought a bunch of her pottery which we displayed and she talked about it.  She also brought her potter’s wheel and we set it up in the center of the chancel area and she began to work some clay and we conversed about it.

Bill:  “Now, Laurie, what are you going to make?”

Laurie:  “A bowl.  Though one doesn’t always know what’s actually going to turn out.”

Bill:  “I think that’s how it works with our lives as well.  I think God has a general plan for our lives, but personally I don’t believe that there is just ONE possible vocation for us or just ONE life partner.  God doesn’t really know how we’re going to turn out.  We have a lot of say in it.  Free will.

And what are you doing now, Laurie?

Laurie:  “Kneading the clay.  You have to prepare the clay.  It needs to be malleable, not too wet, not too dry.  And you knead it to get rid of any air holes that might be trapped in it.”

Bill: “What happens if you don’t get rid of the air holes?”

Laurie: “Usually something goes wrong while shaping the clay.  But sometimes you can make the vessel, but there is a possibility that when you fire it in the kiln that it would then explode.  That happened with the first communion pitcher I made for Oak Grove.   In the kiln one of my classmate’s pieces exploded and ruined my pitcher as well.”

Bill:  “Hmm.  If we don’t deal with our imperfections/sins they not only can harm us, but others as well…Okay, now you are done kneading the clay.  What’s next?”

Laurie slammed the clay down on the wheel and carefully moved it to the center.  Laurie: “Now I need to center the clay.  If it’s not centered it never works.”

Bill:  “Jesus talked about the foundation—the foolish man who built his house on sand and the wise one who built on the rock.  We need to be centered or life goes haywire.

Now you are putting pressure on the clay to get it centered exactly.  You obviously have strong features. Perhaps the clay doesn’t want to be centered…”

Next Laurie placed her thumb in the very center of the clay and created a hole.  Laurie: “This is called ‘opening up the clay.’”

Bill: “We might not want to be opened up, either…Now at this stage the clay is quite malleable.  It just takes a gentle touch to shape the clay.  As we allow ourselves to be malleable the Holy Spirit gives us gentle touches to mold us as well.  Like the old song, ‘Thou art the potter, I am the clay.’

Now, Laurie, what if something goes wrong?  Do you throw the clay away? 
Laurie:  “Oh, no.  You just take the clay off the wheel and start over.  Knead it and re-center it and begin again.  Start over. 

Bill:  “Like a mulligan in golf.  Or in life.  God gives us a do-over.  I once read of a piano teacher who would tell her students in the weeks before a recital.  ‘It’s okay if you make a mistake or two, but really focus on the last page of your piece so that you can conclude with a big finish.  If you do that, people won’t remember the mistakes at the beginning.’  Some of us have made mistakes, big mistakes, in our lives.  God gives us a mulligan.  Let’s concentrate on finishing well.

Now, Laurie, you’ve got a cute bowl there.  After you form it what do you do? 

Laurie:  “Let it dry, at least overnight.  Then fire it in the kiln.”

Bill:  “What temperature?” 

Laurie: “Hot!  At least 1000 degrees.”

Bill:  “Wow.  What if you don’t?”

Laurie:  “The piece will be brittle and will break easily.”

Bill:  “So the clay needs the heat.  And so do we.  I don’t believe God sends us bad things, but life does.  And we all need some toughening up…

And then finally after you let it cool and remove it from the kiln then you put on the glaze, right?  How do you do that?”

Laurie:  “Usually just brush it on.”

Bill:  “And then fire it again.  And what I remember is that I wouldn’t know exactly how it was going to look when it came out of the kiln.”
“Laurie:  “That’s right.”

Bill:  “Sometimes the same glaze would be green and sometimes bluish and so on.  Sort of like the mystery and grace of life.  We don’t know how things will turn out.

Thanks, Laurie, for all your help.  May we learn the lessons of the potter’s wheel.  Amen.