Working with Clay
A sermon by Brent J. Eelman
Abington Presbyterian Church
November 27, 2005

Isaiah 64: 1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence-- ²as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-- to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! ³When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. ⁴From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. ⁵You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed.

6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. ⁷There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. ⁸Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. ⁹Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people. *  

This summer Karen and I were in Santa Fe and went to the Taos Pueblo. While we were there we observed a Native American potter at work. He did not use a wheel, just his hands and he fashioned beautiful works of pottery. After the pot was finished he would let it dry in the sun and then would fire it in an open wood burning kiln, much as his ancestors did for centuries. We saw an object that we liked and asked if we could purchase it. He told us that it was already sold but if we were patient, he would make another one and ship it to us. We agreed, and then he informed us that it might take some time to create because he had to get the clay. He went on to say that he only used a certain type of clay and that he had to go out into the mountains for it. There was an old vein of this particular clay in a cliff and he would go out, using his hands, to get some clay to work into pots. We were fascinated by the description of how he got the clay, prepared it, and then made the pot, using the traditional manners of his ancestors. A month later the pot arrived and now is on a shelf in our living room. It is a reminder to us, not just of the trip, but of the history of this land, and the importance of simple crafts to the development of civilization.

Pottery was important to the ancients. It began appearing in the Neolithic period, about 6000 years before Jesus was born. Before that time, humans were hunters and wanderers. The discovery of clay and the making of clay pots were pivotal to the development of civilization and its impact should not be forgotten. Clay pots meant that food could be cooked; water and food could be stored. Simple tools were fashioned from the clay. This enabled the beginnings of civilization and communities. Throughout the Bible, clay is used as a metaphor. The creation story tells us that human beings were fashioned from clay by God, much the way a potter creates a pot. I always thought that was a beautiful image, until I actually saw a potter at work. It is not gentle work. The clay has to be prepared for shaping, and this involves cutting, pounding and throwing it. Not gentle! Then when the potter is shaping the clay, although it is fine work, there is no doubt that she is using a great deal of strength and energy to fashion that pot. She is intimately involved with it and in some intriguing way; the pot reflects the personality of the potter.

Isaiah uses the image of a potter to describe God. It is an interesting image because a number of the potters in ancient times were women fashioning the pots for domestic use. This is an intimate and feminine image of God.... fashioning human beings. “You are the potter. We are the clay.” This beautiful and intimate understanding of God has three implications for us today. First, it says something about human beings and our relationship with God. Second, it gives us an insight into God's impact on human nature. And third, during this season of Advent, it is a vision of hope.

I

We human beings are created by God, just as the potter shapes the clay. When the potter makes a clay object, her imprint is on that object. It reflects the potter’s involvement with the clay. The image of the potter and clay suggests an intimacy that God has with humanity. The hands of God are involved in our lives, shaping, creating, and yes, reshaping. We human beings like to think that we are the end all and be all, but in truth, we are not gods.. rather we are created by God... the imprint of God is in our lives, just as the potter leaves an imprint in the clay. But as intimate as the potter is with the clay, it is still clay. The clay requires the hands of the potter to become useful, to become purposeful. So too, the human being is nothing save the involvement of the Divine in our lives, shaping, creating, making and reshaping.

Last week, I was in the forum class presenting the different theologians who have influenced my thinking. At the end, someone asked me if there was a common thread that ran through all these individuals. I thought for a moment, and realized that the common thread was that all of them witnessed to the “otherness” of God. God is wholly different than human beings... we are created.. God is the creator... and as wonderful as we are.. we owe our origin to the one who fashioned us, created us, and breathed into us the breath of life.

II

The image of the potter and clay also gives us an insight into God's impact on human nature. The passage from Isaiah that was read this morning was the prophet's vision of an age to come, but it was rooted in the very real present: the nation of Judah was in captivity. The prophet drew an interesting description of humanity: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” It was not a pretty description, rather it described human shortcomings: though we are created by the divine potter, we have not turned out perfect….far from it.

I was studying this passage with a group of international bible students and one of my colleagues from Africa said that we need to understand this in terms of the very nature of clay. Pottery was important to his culture and he said that often times the clay has a life of its own, and even seems to resist the efforts of the potter. The clay has a rebellious quality to it and that is reflected in humanity... we resist the efforts of God to mold and create us. We rebel. The prophet Jeremiah once observed a potter working with clay and the pot did not turn out the way the potter intended... and so she took the imperfect pot and smashed it and reformed it into a useful pot. On one level it is upsetting to think that God would destroy the imperfect pot.. us... but it is also hopeful because it means that God can reform us and recreate us. That is the hope with which we live. “You are the potter, we are the clay.”

III

During this season of Advent, this image of God, the divine potter, is a hopeful one for all humanity. Advent is not only a season when we remember how the ancients longed for a messiah; it is also the season that points to the second coming of Christ and the fulfillment of history. It is a season that not only looks back with nostalgia for the days when Jesus walked through the middle east, it is also a season when we look forward to the future with hope.. believing that even in the Middle East, with all its conflict, war and hate, is a place where the messiah will walk again and the promise of “peace on earth” will ultimately be fulfilled.

When I was a teenager, the folk singing duo, Simon and Garfunkel, created a song that juxtaposed the evening news with the Christmas carol Silent Night. The effect was powerful, as the news was going on about student riots, racial hatred, war and unrest, the voices sang: “round yon virgin, mother and child. Sleep in heavenly peace.” A number of years ago, Tom Wicker wrote a column for the New York Times describing the world in which we live and how someone from another world might view it. He too went through the litany of all that was wrong with the world and then concluded that, in truth, this world is not a nice place to visit. I suspect that is where secular thinking ends: in despair. None of us would doubt the accuracy of such a vision of the human situation, but the message of Advent is that God, in Jesus Christ chose to visit this world. And not only visit this world, live here and redeem it; to reshape it like the potter shapes the clay.

Our celebration of Advent needs to be realistic about the human situation with all its faults and shortcomings. But it does not stop there. It proclaims that just as Christ came and lived in the ancient world, the hope for redemption and fulfillment of history is still a reality. This is still the world that God so loves: that he sent his son...

My mind returns to the potter, molding and fashioning the clay.... It is an image for our time in our Advent of 2005. We live in an imperfect world and the words of Isaiah could certainly describe all that is happening around us, and yes, even in us. We long for better times. But just as the hands of the potter are intimately involved with the clay, forming and molding, so the hands of the Divine are intimately involved in human history. In spite of our flaws we will be reformed, remade, recreated, and fulfilled. This is the message that Jesus preached in the Mark Gospel: that there will indeed come a day, when all of history is fulfilled. Until that day: “Watch:... wait.. and hope: come thou long expected Jesus. Come and set our hearts free. Redeem history, and recreate us, for you are indeed the potter, and we are the clay. Amen.

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.