SHAPED FOR A PURPOSE – Jeremiah 18:1-11

I remember back in elementary school, one of the projects we worked on in crafts was making something out of modeling clay. I don’t know if you were an artist or not, but I struggled with it. I tried to make a pumpkin. It was the ugliest thing ever. I painted it orange to make it look better and gave it a green top. I think I still have it somewhere among my souvenirs. I rarely look at it, but I cannot bring myself to throw it out. It represents a time in my life and reminds me of one of my favourite teachers whose praise for my misshapen pumpkin I will never forget.

There are so many things in life that we are encouraged to try to see where our talents lie. Needless to say, I never pursued doing more with modeling clay. I did try making animal carvings out of Ivory soap bars. I think I still have those as well. But I never felt the desire to graduate to actual pottery.   There is a certain art to shaping a pot. You need to know how to mix the clay to the right consistency and how much clay to put on the wheel in order to achieve the desired result. You also need to be able to guide the clay in such a way as to mould the pot into something useable. If any one of these things doesn’t happen, you need to start the whole process again. Getting it right is important for if the pot is misshapen, it will not be useful. If it doesn’t stand up, it can’t be functional. Only when all is right can the piece be fired.  And once fired, it can never be remade again.

Perhaps because pottery was and still is so much a part of our lives, God chose to have Jeremiah visit the potter’s shop to see what he was doing and then be able to use that as an example of how God deals with us.

While today pottery is often decorative, in former days and still today in many parts of the world, pottery is essential to a household and the potter is a prized trade.

Pottery begins with nothing more than clay and water.  Basically it is elemental – earth and water.  The potter takes clay from the earth and mixes it with water. If you have ever mixed cement or concrete, you will know that if you make the mixture too dry, it will fall apart; too wet and it will never set.  And pottery is like that too. It needs to be mixed correctly in order to give the potter something firm enough to not fall apart yet pliable enough to be shaped.  Then it needs to be moulded. A lump of clay with no shape or design is thrown on the wheel and with wet hands the potter begins the process of creating a vessel. Now it may be that the potter knows from the beginning what the vessel will look like, but it may also be that the final product will be a surprise. But the potter always has control over the clay. Yet if something goes wrong and the clay does not respond well to the potter’s touch, the vessel is reduced to a lump of clay and the process begins again.  Only when the potter is satisfied that the vessel has achieved its proper shape and that it is well suited for its purpose in life can it be fired. Then, once fired, it will maintain its shape for as long as it proves useful.

We are like earthen pots. We are formed from the elements of the earth and water. Our shape is certainly unique among all the creation, but we are essentially elemental and only hold our physical shape due to the composition of our parts.  Yet while physically we can see our earthiness, our relationship to the world that surrounds us, spiritually it is not so easy to see.

We speak about shaping the hearts and minds of our young people, moulding them into responsible citizens capable of making informed and ethical decisions about their own lives and the lives of those around them.  We see this as essential to a healthy society both for them and for us. Without such shaping and moulding, we risk a chaotic world in which order and civility may cease to exist.

But just as critical for a people of faith is the recognition that we need to allow our spirits to be shaped and moulded.  But can we shape ourselves? It would be like trying to paint a house without a brush and roller or bake cookies without creating or shaping the dough. Just as paint cannot apply itself to a wall without the aid of a brush or roller and someone to actually move them, or cookies be formed and baked without the aid of a mixer and an oven and someone to bake them, so we cannot of ourselves mould and shape our spirits.  It is impossible to be both the created and the creator.

The people in Jeremiah’s day had come to believe that they were capable of creating for themselves a world in which God could live forgetting that God had created the world in which they were privileged to live. The people had lost sight of the fact that they had been created in the image of God and that life was theirs because God had shared His spirit with them. Now we can choose to live this life without God. That is a choice which we are free to make.  But if we choose to say that we are his people, we need to be willing to acknowledge that he is the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of our lives and that he is the One to mould and shape us into the people he desires us to be.

No self-respecting potter allows any imperfect or inferior work to go from the wheel to the kiln.  In the same way God wants nothing less than to work with us in our lives until the moment that he has brought us to wholeness, a perfection of our spirits and our lives. Only then will he allow us to pass through the fire and all the final imperfections and flaws be burned away.

Does this mean that we have no usefulness in this time? No, for all metaphors and images can only be carried so far. Of course, we can be used now, for the vessel you are today is what God has shaped by his hand. No doubt you will undergo more shaping and moulding as time goes on. But let us not forget the words of that famous picture of the little boy, who said: “Be patient, God isn’t finished with me yet”.  Let us remember who it is who created us in the beginning. Let us acknowledge who it is who shapes us today and let us look forward in faith to the time when we shall receive our final shape and purpose in the kingdom of heaven.