Park UMC The Potters House Sept 21, 2008

This is one of my favorite things to do in the ministry:
baptism and confirmation
I have enjoyed my time with this class
and this just feels right...
But I gotta tell you (students) you know you’re not Bible experts ...
there's a lot to learn
We didn’t have enough time together, you really didnt get any church history and
Im hoping we can still learn about prayer.,,y
ou need youth group and Sunday school..and bible study and worship....
I hope you at least ..know who John Wesley is.. Right?

You have no idea how much you don’t know about the spiritual life an Christianity!
But that is true for all of us..
So you have to keep learning ! How does that sound.
One of our confirmation students actually put it very well..
All of the the students had to write an affirmation of faith ,,as a confirmation requirement
A couple weeks agoone of the student was all excited and pleased
and said to me "I got my Aggravation of Faith done!"I kept a straight face "your aggravation of faith?"I said
..I bet your talking about your affirmation f faith..
. "Oh yeh"
But you know that aggravation thing might also be right
.after all,,
some of this is hard to believe
and maybe it s aggravating to believe that I have to forgive
and serve and give my money ... care about people
and love your enemy...and I have to watch my words.. Let go of my ego..and try to follow Jesus,,deny yourself
aggravating
I looked up aggravation in the dictionary and aggravation didn’t originally mean irritating or bothersome... Its from a Latin word
that means to make heavy.. If its aggravating.. its heavier
That ll preach...
Or as another confirmation student told her mother
when she was writing her creed
she said you know this is not easy..
(Amen
this is heavy stuff...as in deep ,,,,profound... A lot to think about..
Is this Heavy enough to make you think?
So let me take you to little closer at a scripture lesson this morning..
See if it saggravating...
Jeremiah 18... (that Katie read)...
Jeremiah heard the voice of the Lord saying,
"Go down to the potter’s house."
right there
Im thinking that Jeremiah... said to himself
what??? the potters house..
That doesn’t sound very interesting does it,
,at least back in those days
pottery shops are allover the place...
Now days you gott go see Bill grange
or go over to the franklin arts center to find the pottery studio
But in the Bible days
this pottery is everywhere
its just the dishes..
Pots and pans and you carry stuff in those pots
its storage ...it was the tupperware of the ancient world... Basic stiff
why go to the potters house?
You walk by it everyday.. So h’s probably not too excited..
Pottery what is there to see.
I’ve seen it all my life
But maybe that the first point..
the first heavy point?
When Jeremiah got sent to the potters house .
.God is telling him to look closely at the ordinary
God can speak to us,,in the common and the everyday life
like pottery but also like storms and rainbows
and dreams or maybe that still small voice,,
And th e old testament prophets were able to see God working in those daily routines.
.. And Jesus did the same thing
he told us to consider the birds of the air
the flower s of the field
the signs of the season
the mustard seeds and fig trees
planting a field ,planning a dinner party
..common ordinary stuff
but Jesus used it ..to teach us
and said pay attention
..for the lessons of God
the common and the ordinary. ....now what does that mean for you
I suppose you could come here Sunday after Sunday
and think
well that was pretty ordinary
worship at park Church
pretty ordinary..
Same old... same old
pick up the same hymnal.
how many times have you said the Lords prayer
sing the doxology.
.....read that Bible verse agin.
oh it’s the apostles creed again..
And didn’t we sing that servant song last month ?
And the same people in that pew over there.
.(you know where im going on this ..don’t you.
. in these tradition of faith."
.the same old..same old"
..we can start to say ho hum.
.what’s the big deal
l been there done that
nothing new..
Its like going to the potters house
.but the lessons are there
God says go look and listen..
That where my word will come to you
Because the lesson are here
.even in the same old songs
and the same old thing.
.Now of course
we ve got to be open to new people and new ministry
and be open to change
we have to embrace new music and language ...
the church at its best
is always re-forming and growing..
. my point is that God is in this ordinary religious stuff
..both old and new...so pay attention
Go to the potters house..
go to the places that are already in your life
and that where I will show something
go to the potters house
verse two says that is where I will let you hear my words..
Where is God telling you to look today ? Where will you hear the world of God..
I hope you hear it
in these Bible verses..and in the people around you
you could hear it in things like confirmation robes
and flowers and baptismal water
songs and in the prayers..
But beyond that.
All around you
in the common life on Monday Teus Wed Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Your still in the potters house..

are you open to God presence that is all around you everywhere every day!
John ortberg has a wonderful book called God is closer than you think,,
( put it on your reading list)
Frederick Beuchner...a great presbyterian writer says there is no event
so common..that God is not in it.
. But God is always leaving room for you to recognize him or not...
Because in the last analysis
all moments are key moments and life itself is grace..
Thomas a Kempis back in the 1400s said every creature will be a mirror of life to you and a book of holy doctrine///
another famous Christian said... Each moment is a revelation form God
can you r imagine that...Do you believe that?
Just when you think God is only in the religion business you find out that God is in the life business ...everywhere its all the potter s house?
Now think about that in school and work and sports and out for a walk
or on a bad day.......its all ...the potters house
I think that’s heavy
Now point number two,
what did Jeremiah see in the potters house..
What the revelation
He goes there
and he says to the potter
no Im not her e to buy anything
Im just looking
..and he is
h’s just looking.. For this word of the lord...,this insight..
so he watches the potter with this lump of clay
spinning on the wheel
th potter is touching it
holding it shaping it on the wheel
with his hands

but then
something happens
it s out of balance
or off center
twisted maybe
too wet ,or too dry..
Too hard... Maybe its got sand or a bubble whatever
anyway
its gone wrong
and what does the potter do
He starts over..
He started all over gain
and the reason is found in verse 4
it says
if the clay got spoiled
..if ti wasn’t turning out right..
The potter reworked it..reshaped it.
. And made it into something else
or in some translations it says he reworked it as seemed good to him..
You see the potter has a vision
of what that clay .that pottery..that vessel .. can be.
..uniquely and for good
and God knows,,
as the potter knows.
.that things happen ..on the wheel of life
the potter didn’t cause it..
But clay is clay..it has its variables
and its surprises
.but the potter worked with it...
The potter and the clay ,interact..
.....
God doesn’t cause bad things in your life.
bad things are just in life..
..in this world
life is going to be off center
out of balance
grainy..
and too hard and too dry it off course..that what sin actually means..out of pattern off course..
And things don’t work out
it s messy ...in the pottery shop....
but the good news is that god keeps forming us...
Recreating us..
Now that’s the good news
yes
we have those disappointment
we have those tragedy ,,there is greed and abuse and violence..and hurricane
we have those time when nothing is ;looking for good..
This world doesn’t go right (just watch the news)
But God says there is hope....
pay attention to this
the potter
doesn’t the clay off the wheel
the potter doesn’t
walk away
the potter keeps working
for good.. Beyond the frustration
beyond the corruption
in spite of the uncooperative clay
God does not abandoan the project
there is a patience and a persistence
God does not give up on this clay
it is the faithfulness so f God...to stay with this wheel of life..
does that mean that god knows what you can be?
what we can be
god know what this country can be
God knows what this world
can be
God even knows what this church can be
God has a vision...shalom..wholenss..
and God does not give up
why because
because God is love
Working for Good...
Like a potter with that clay
that why we have word s in our faith
like forgiveness and repentance
and healing and new creation
when
we talk about salvation and redemption
and amazing grace
its all a way of saying that
the potter is working in our lives
never giving up.,,helping us..
And today as the church
we are saying... yes.. that’s what we believe
that’s what we see in Jesus Christ
God never giving up
even when the clay gets as bad.
.as spoiled ..
as death on a cross
God is still at work
Saving us..
No matter how bad the clay can get.
. God is still there..forming us
God is transforming us...healing..
Like the potter with the clay...
But ...be open to that touch
desire that touch
trust that touch of the potter
can you see that we are all a work in progress
can we see ....the Holy pottery potential in each other
do you ever wonder what god sees in other people
can you just hope and wonder..what..can be
(Bill grange when you sit down at the pottery wheel and put your hand on that clay do you ever just start in and say let see what happens here...letting the beauty just happen?
I think god id creative like that....interactive,,spontaneous..relational.
Are we at least Waiting for God to keep working...on you ..in you..
Trusting..
Letting yourself get formed ..saying God
Shape me ,,
help me.
use me..
Lets see waht we can be..
You see that’s spiritual formation. Formed in the life of Christ...
.formed to be a vessel of God s love..
Each of us..in our own unique ways... No two pots can ever be exactly alike..
"So the potter remolded the clay,
as it seemed good to him."
You notice
that I’ve got the song in here this morning
Have Thine own way..
It was written by Adelaide Pollard
she was born in Bloomfield, Iowa back in 1862
even when she was a little kid she dreamed of going to Africa
she wanted to be a missionary ....she felt this call ...she got missionary training..
But when she was already to go..
Their wasn’t any money
They cancelled her plans. She went home to Iowa ,,just in despair.
.how could this be..

And in that pain and confusion she began to meditate on the potter,
... the verses that we read and she wrote the words :
Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after thy will
while I am waiting, yielded and still.
We call it faith..
And it begins by discovery ....by trusting,,, by saying yes... That you a re indeed ..in the potters hands
and in the potters house

My ideas for this sermon came after reading Jack Harnishs sermon about the Potters House preached at First UMC in Birmingham Michigan. That is my wife’s hometown church where my mother and gather in law continue to worship. Beside being able to access them on the church website. My mother in law sends them to me.