St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

2/7/00

God's Shaping Hand Jer 18

   One of the distinctive characteristics of Jesus' teaching was the way he used parables to get across his message. He'd take memorable pictures from ordinary life and weave around them a message about life in God's kingdom. But when he used parables he wasn't inventing a new method of teaching. He was simply adopting an age-old method that had been used by prophets in particular for many years. In our passage from Jeremiah today we find a classic example. Jeremiah is told to go down to the potter's house where he'll be given a message. Now he could equally well have been given the message where he was, but the message would be so much clearer when he saw what God had prepared for him to see.

   The image of the potter is one of those pictures that stick in the mind. There he is, sitting at his wheel, taking a shapeless lump of clay and with skilled fingers shaping it into something that's at the same time useful and beautiful, functional and artistic. I wonder, as Jeremiah stands there watching, what he's thinking. Does he perhaps think about the words that God used when he called him to be his prophet: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;" (Jer 1:5 NRSV) The word for God's forming him in the womb is the same as that used for a potter shaping the clay. Or does he think back, perhaps, to the beginning of creation, where God is said to have formed the man from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7)? Does he think about how God makes people to serve him and to bring him glory, yet at the same time he makes them in his own image, as a thing of beauty? And of course God doesn't only make individuals. He's also made a people for himself. A people called for a purpose, yet again, a people called to be attractive, to show forth God's glory in all that they do, in the way they live, so the surrounding nations would be drawn to worship the true and living God.

   As he watches that clay pot being made he realises that there's an essential unity in the creation between the utilitarian purpose for which it's made, and the unique beauty bestowed on it by the creator. We heard this last week that scientists have at last mapped out the genetic structure of humans beings. We're told that there are some 3 billion genes that make up human DNA. Apparently at least half of them we have in common with basic bacteria. But is that all we are? Just a sequence of genes that determine how we'll turn out? No. God has made us in his image. There's something beautiful about human life that transcends our gene sequence yet incorporates it at the same time. God takes us as we are, as flawed human beings and shapes us to his design. So that the dust out of which we're made, and the image of God into which we're made embody an organic unity that cannot be separated and that makes us uniquely human.

   But as Jeremiah watches he sees an interesting thing happening. As the clay rises from the wheel, it develops a kink, a flaw. It goes lopsided. The clay at one point is too thin. If you've ever watched a potter at work it's a common enough occurrence. So what does the potter do? He doesn't lose his cool. He doesn't pick up the lump of clay and throw it at the cat. He doesn't swear and carry on. No, he patiently starts again. He pushes the clay down into a lump again and begins from scratch, reworking it into another pot. And as Jeremiah watches he realises that God has sent him here to show him what God does with his own creation, with his own people. God kneads and presses, pushes and pulls, until he's satisfied that he's created a people that meet his expectations.

   But this isn't necessarily a happy picture is it? Because as we read on we discover that the message he's giving contains both hope and a warning. God says: "Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." This is, in a sense one of the most important theological statements in the Bible. Here we discover the key to understanding so much of what we read in the rest of the Old Testament. Here we see God's eternal plan in the making. Here we read a dire warning for us as individuals and as a church. What we discover at this moment in the life of Jeremiah, is that God has an eternal plan for the world that he's bringing to fruition and when it goes wrong, he's there, reshaping it as it seems best to him.

   Some people, though, read this and think of God as being fickle, or harsh, of destroying nations on a whim; just because he's having a bad day, or because he wants to show his power. But it isn't like that at all. Look what he says in the next verse: "At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it." God's decisions aren't arbitrary, they're based on the behaviour of people. He judges those who do evil. If they repent, if they turn from their evil, God will change his mind. It's only when the pot becomes flawed beyond repair that he gives up and starts again. Similarly, "I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, ¹⁰but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it." People and nations can't simply presume on God's goodness. They need to persevere in serving him. They need to ensure that their lifestyle is righteous, that their ethics and morals remain above criticism. Otherwise, God will withdraw his blessing. Otherwise God will modify his plans.

   Can you see how this has happened time and time again in the history of the world? We can go right back to the beginning, to the garden of Eden. God's plan was to create a people for himself who'd live under his rule, in harmony with each other and with the world in which he'd placed them, but things went wrong. Adam and Eve rebelled. The world was spoilt. So God modified his plans. He removed them from the garden until his plan would reach its fulfillment. Things then went from bad to worse until God had had enough. So he calls Noah and his family to be the first of a new creation. He destroys the rest and begins again.

   And you can see the potter working away in the background shaping and reshaping his creation until it comes out right.

   People increase in numbers again, and eventually begin to build a great tower at Babel, in the hope of becoming like God. Again the flaws in creation mar God's plan. So God scatters them and instead calls out one man, Abram, to father a great nation who will be devoted to God, who'll enjoy his blessing, who'll live in the land that he'll give them and enjoy all its bounty. And what happened? They followed God on and off for a while, and the pot grows and takes on a beauty born of God, but then it develops a flaw again, and by the time Jeremiah is writing they've all but forgotten him. So the LORD says: "Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ¹²But they say, "It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will." "Don't waste your breath" they say. "We're not interested."

   He goes on to express his amazement at this response: "Ask among the nations: Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing. ¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams? ¹⁵But my people have forgotten me, they burn offerings to a delusion; they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone into bypaths, not the highway."

   What choice does God have, but to do what he's warning them of. They're too stubborn to listen to his warning. They've left the highway he was leading them down and have wandered off into the bush. So God is going to destroy them and start again. He's going to finish them off as a nation. He's going to send them into exile.

   But then, out of the remains, he'll rebuild the nation. He'll bring back those whose desire is to serve the Lord. From a longer perspective, as we'll see in a few weeks when we look at Jer 31, he'll reshape the nation completely. He'll make a new covenant with them, a covenant that's written in their hearts, a covenant that's sealed by the blood of God's only Son, Jesus Christ. He'll give us his Spirit to dwell within us so that at last we can please him in what we say and do.

   And so the church is born. And you'd think that'd be enough wouldn't you? Here we are with God's Spirit to lead us. What more do we need? Well if it were like that, most of the New Testament wouldn't have been written, would it? No, we continue to fail. God continues to remake us. Churches rise and fall. Christian leaders fail and God removes them from leadership. I guess the classic example of this is the enormous upheaval in the Church during the reformation, when God turned the Church upside down in order to bring about renewal. The Church still needs to be renewed. We're constantly in need of reformation. You see it's so easy to turn aside from following God. Oh, we may think we're doing the right thing. I'm sure the people of Jeremiah's time thought their worship was godly.

   But it's so easy to be distracted by the importance of ceremony and ritual, by the sort of music we sing, by the good works we do, by the buildings we use for our worship, even by the religious studies we may spend time on. Yet if those things distract us from obeying God, from serving him with all of our mind and strength, if they lead us to forget the God who called us out as his people then they actually become a stumbling block: "My people have forgotten me, they burn offerings to a delusion; they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone into bypaths, not the highway."

   There's a dire warning here for us isn't there, both as a church and as individuals? God's desire is to build us up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:13) But that takes discipline. So the question for us is will we discipline ourselves, or will God need to reshape us, as painful as that might be for us? Here's how Hebrews 12 puts it: (Heb 12:1-7 NRSV) "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, ... "My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; ⁶for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts." ⁷Endure trials for the sake of discipline." The choice for us is no different to that which Jeremiah was laying before the people of Judah. Discipline yourself or let God discipline you. Turn away from evil and follow God in everything you do or God will deal with you himself. And remember that just as the potter seeks to make something which is both functional and a thing of beauty at the same time, God's desire for you and me is that we'll not only be useful to him, but also that we'll reflect his glory in our lives. God's work in our lives is always aimed at creating something beautiful as well as something of use to his kingdom. So let's, each of us, co-operate with him in bringing his plan to fruition in our own lives, in the lives of our families, as much as we can, and in the life of our Church.

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	Sermon of the Week
	2/7/00
	God's Shaping Hand	Jer 18

	One of the distinctive characteristics of Jesus' teaching was the way he used parables to get across his message. He'd take memorable pictures from ordinary life and weave around them a message about life in God's kingdom. But when he used parables he wasn't inventing a new method of teaching. He was simply adopting an age-old method that had been used by prophets in particular for many years. In our passage from Jeremiah today we find a classic example. Jeremiah is told to go down to the potter's house where he'll be given a message. Now he could equally well have been given the message where he was, but the message would be so much clearer when he saw what God had prepared for him to see.
	The image of the potter is one of those pictures that stick in the mind. There he is, sitting at his wheel, taking a shapeless lump of clay and with skilled fingers shaping it into something that's at the same time useful and beautiful, functional and artistic. I wonder, as Jeremiah stands there watching, what he's thinking. Does he perhaps think about the words that God used when he called him to be his prophet: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;" (Jer 1:5 NRSV) The word for God's forming him in the womb is the same as that used for a potter shaping the clay. Or does he think back, perhaps, to the beginning of creation, where God is said to have formed the man from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7)? Does he think about how God makes people to serve him and to bring him glory, yet at the same time he makes them in his own image, as a thing of beauty? And of course God doesn't only make individuals. He's also made a people for himself. A people called for a purpose, yet again, a people called to be attractive, to show forth God's glory in all that they do, in the way they live, so the surrounding nations would be drawn to worship the true and living God.
	As he watches that clay pot being made he realises that there's an essential unity in the creation between the utilitarian purpose for which it's made, and the unique beauty bestowed on it by the creator. We heard this last week that scientists have at last mapped out the genetic structure of humans beings. We're told that there are some 3 billion genes that make up human DNA. Apparently at least half of them we have in common with basic bacteria. But is that all we are? Just a sequence of genes that determine how we'll turn out? No. God has made us in his image. There's something beautiful about human life that transcends our gene sequence yet incorporates it at the same time. God takes us as we are, as flawed human beings and shapes us to his design. So that the dust out of which we're made, and the image of God into which we're made embody an organic unity that cannot be separated and that makes us uniquely human.
	But as Jeremiah watches he sees an interesting thing happening. As the clay rises from the wheel, it develops a kink, a flaw. It goes lopsided. The clay at one point is too thin. If you've ever watched a potter at work it's a common enough occurrence. So what does the potter do? He doesn't lose his cool. He doesn't pick up the lump of clay and throw it at the cat. He doesn't swear and carry on. No, he patiently starts again. He pushes the clay down into a lump again and begins from scratch, reworking it into another pot. And as Jeremiah watches he realises that God has sent him here to show him what God does with his own creation, with his own people. God kneads and presses, pushes and pulls, until he's satisfied that he's created a people that meet his expectations.
	But this isn't necessarily a happy picture is it? Because as we read on we discover that the message he's giving contains both hope and a warning. God says: "Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel." This is, in a sense one of the most important theological statements in the Bible. Here we discover the key to understanding so much of what we read in the rest of the Old Testament. Here we see God's eternal plan in the making. Here we read a dire warning for us as individuals and as a church. What we discover at this moment in the life of Jeremiah, is that God has an eternal plan for the world that he's bringing to fruition and when it goes wrong, he's there, reshaping it as it seems best to him.
	Some people, though, read this and think of God as being fickle, or harsh, of destroying nations on a whim; just because he's having a bad day, or because he wants to show his power. But it isn't like that at all. Look what he says in the next verse: "At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it." God's decisions aren't arbitrary, they're based on the behaviour of people. He judges those who do evil. If they repent, if they turn from their evil, God will change his mind. It's only when the pot becomes flawed beyond repair that he gives up and starts again. Similarly, "I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, ¹⁰but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it." People and nations can't simply presume on God's goodness. They need to persevere in serving him. They need to ensure that their lifestyle is righteous, that their ethics and morals remain above criticism. Otherwise, God will withdraw his blessing. Otherwise God will modify his plans.
	Can you see how this has happened time and time again in the history of the world? We can go right back to the beginning, to the garden of Eden. God's plan was to create a people for himself who'd live under his rule, in harmony with each other and with the world in which he'd placed them, but things went wrong. Adam and Eve rebelled. The world was spoilt. So God modified his plans. He removed them from the garden until his plan would reach its fulfillment. Things then went from bad to worse until God had had enough. So he calls Noah and his family to be the first of a new creation. He destroys the rest and begins again.
	And you can see the potter working away in the background shaping and reshaping his creation until it comes out right.
	People increase in numbers again, and eventually begin to build a great tower at Babel, in the hope of becoming like God. Again the flaws in creation mar God's plan. So God scatters them and instead calls out one man, Abram, to father a great nation who will be devoted to God, who'll enjoy his blessing, who'll live in the land that he'll give them and enjoy all its bounty. And what happened? They followed God on and off for a while, and the pot grows and takes on a beauty born of God, but then it develops a flaw again, and by the time Jeremiah is writing they've all but forgotten him. So the LORD says: "Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ¹²But they say, "It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will." "Don't waste your breath" they say. "We're not interested."
	He goes on to express his amazement at this response: "Ask among the nations: Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing. ¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams? ¹⁵But my people have forgotten me, they burn offerings to a delusion; they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone into bypaths, not the highway."
	What choice does God have, but to do what he's warning them of. They're too stubborn to listen to his warning. They've left the highway he was leading them down and have wandered off into the bush. So God is going to destroy them and start again. He's going to finish them off as a nation. He's going to send them into exile.
	But then, out of the remains, he'll rebuild the nation. He'll bring back those whose desire is to serve the Lord. From a longer perspective, as we'll see in a few weeks when we look at Jer 31, he'll reshape the nation completely. He'll make a new covenant with them, a covenant that's written in their hearts, a covenant that's sealed by the blood of God's only Son, Jesus Christ. He'll give us his Spirit to dwell within us so that at last we can please him in what we say and do.
	And so the church is born. And you'd think that'd be enough wouldn't you? Here we are with God's Spirit to lead us. What more do we need? Well if it were like that, most of the New Testament wouldn't have been written, would it? No, we continue to fail. God continues to remake us. Churches rise and fall. Christian leaders fail and God removes them from leadership. I guess the classic example of this is the enormous upheaval in the Church during the reformation, when God turned the Church upside down in order to bring about renewal. The Church still needs to be renewed. We're constantly in need of reformation. You see it's so easy to turn aside from following God. Oh, we may think we're doing the right thing. I'm sure the people of Jeremiah's time thought their worship was godly.
	But it's so easy to be distracted by the importance of ceremony and ritual, by the sort of music we sing, by the good works we do, by the buildings we use for our worship, even by the religious studies we may spend time on. Yet if those things distract us from obeying God, from serving him with all of our mind and strength, if they lead us to forget the God who called us out as his people then they actually become a stumbling block: "My people have forgotten me, they burn offerings to a delusion; they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone into bypaths, not the highway."
	There's a dire warning here for us isn't there, both as a church and as individuals? God's desire is to build us up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph 4:13) But that takes discipline. So the question for us is will we discipline ourselves, or will God need to reshape us, as painful as that might be for us? Here's how Hebrews 12 puts it: (Heb 12:1-7 NRSV) "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, ... "My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; ⁶for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts." ⁷Endure trials for the sake of discipline." The choice for us is no different to that which Jeremiah was laying before the people of Judah. Discipline yourself or let God discipline you. Turn away from evil and follow God in everything you do or God will deal with you himself. And remember that just as the potter seeks to make something which is both functional and a thing of beauty at the same time, God's desire for you and me is that we'll not only be useful to him, but also that we'll reflect his glory in our lives. God's work in our lives is always aimed at creating something beautiful as well as something of use to his kingdom. So let's, each of us, co-operate with him in bringing his plan to fruition in our own lives, in the lives of our families, as much as we can, and in the life of our Church.


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