Jeremiah 18:1-17; Philemon 4-16; Luke 14:25-33
Do any of you know what “vitreous china” is? That’s a technical description of a material which is made into products we used every day. The dictionary defines vitreous this way: “of the nature of or resembling glass, as in transparency, brittleness, hardness, glossiness, etc.” Perhaps you will better know it if I use the word porcelain. I am referring particularly to toilet fixtures. The main part of a toilet is actually more complex than it appears. A variety of parts are molded into shape and put together like a puzzle. Then the completed unit is fired in a large kiln until the material turns into a single unit. An enamel coating is applied and the piece is fired again to create the glassy-finished product we all take for granted until it stops up. The end product is strong and durable under normal use. The ceramic finish makes vitreous china the perfect material for use in bathroom fixtures, as it is impervious to water or harsh chemicals and is easily cleansed of germs.
I suspect that nearly everyone is familiar with Silly Putty. It was originally created by accident during research into potential rubber substitutes for use by the United States in World War II. Silly Putty is a toy based on silicone polymers which display unusual physical properties. It bounces, but breaks when given a sharp blow and can also flow like a liquid. It will act as an elastic solid over a short time period but as a viscous liquid over a long time period. You can shape it into something, but if left alone, it will eventually conform to the shape of the container it is in. Hence the egg-shaped packaging.
These two substances, vitreous china and Silly Putty, are very different in their nature and in their uses. The image that God gives to the prophet Jeremiah is a whole lot closer to Silly Putty than it is to vitreous china.
Clay is not the easiest medium to work in. There are many different kinds of clay based on the minerals in the compound. Depending on the intended use and the potter’s desired technique, one clay will perform better than another. Clays of different kinds are found in specific places.
The potter that Jeremiah visited evidently was having some difficulty with the clay he was working. “The piece he was making was flawed while still in his hands, so the potter started on another, as seemed best to him.” What God tells Jeremiah is, it is my prerogative to do the same thing with the House of Israel. If the clay, the people, won’t form right, probably because of impurities in it, then God will reform it, perhaps even use a different lump of clay. That’s what God says, “I am a potter preparing a disaster for you.” The inadequate, unworkable lump of clay which Israel has been, will be tossed aside in favor of a lump of clay which can be formed into a useful vessel.
God says, “Turn from your evil ways; reform your ways and your actions.” But the reaction that God got was, “What’s the use! We will follow our own plans and act according to our own willful, evil hearts.”
The House of Israel, like people in general, resented being formed, or worse, re-formed. People don’t want to be molded, pushed or prodded into a particular shape or purpose. We are very happy, thank you very much, being just the way we are. In other words, we want to be vitreous china rather than Silly Putty. We want to be in a fixed shape. We don’t want to be elastic, we don’t want to shaped, crushed, reshaped. We want to choose our form, our shape, our purpose.
And where does that get us? Consider God’s accusations against Israel:
The LORD proclaims:
Ask among the nations:
Have you ever heard anything like this?
Virgin Israel has done the most horrible thing.
Does the snow on the mountains of Lebanon ever melt entirely off their rocky cliffs?
Do the cool mountain streams ever dry up?
(Those are rhetorical questions with the expected answer, “Of course not. We would remember if the snow ever melted or the streams dried up. The prophet continues:)
Yet my people have forgotten me;
they have offered sacrifices to a lie.
And so they have stumbled along the way,
even along the ancient paths.
They have taken side roads,
not the main roads.
They have ruined their country
and brought utter shame on it.
Even though God created them, the people of Israel refused to be the clay that God could form into a reverently worshiping, compassionately serving, justice rendering people.
It was role reversal. The people were trying form God into what they wanted God to be. They wanted a God who would let them do whatever they wanted to do. They wanted a God who would allow them to put their thumbs on the scale, to short the change, to bait and switch the goods, so that they could get ahead of everyone else, even their own kinfolk.
Plain and simple, they wanted to be the potter, not the clay. And it wasn’t just God that they wanted to form and reform, but everyone else as well.
Isn’t that the usual human attitude. “There is nothing wrong with me, but you are all messed up. And I can fix you. I know what is right for you. I can tell you what you need.”
And conversely, “Don’t you tell me what to do. Keep you hands off of me. You don’t know a thing about me. Just leave me alone.”
We are forever attempting to usurp God’s potter role. We are going to remold everyone else. It would be bad enough if there were only a few people who were trying to reshape, reform the rest of us. But we are all guilty of it some extent. So it is like a chain reaction pile up on an Interstate highway. One big mess.
Through the experience of being with the Apostle Paul the runaway slave Onesimus was reformed by the working of the Holy Spirit. He was now a brother in Christ, to Paul, to the other believers in Paul’s traveling group, and to Philemon, who also had come to know Christ through Paul’s ministry. Paul is very clear to Philemon that he shouldn’t undo what God had done in Onesimus’ coming into a relationship with Christ. Philemon was not Onesimus’ potter, God was.
Jesus said to the crowd, “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, spouse and children, and brothers and sisters — yes, even one’s own life — cannot be my disciple.” A relationship with Christ reshapes each of us. We can no longer be in the fixed vitreous china relationships with others that we once were. God remolds us into a disciple shape. God reforms us into new attitudes and understandings about God, others, and ourselves. “Whoever doesn’t carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
God desires to reshape us into a cross-carrying disciple. And God is willing to do it however many times it takes. God would rather reform us as if we were Silly Putty rather than have to take us in the form of vitreous china, smash us to smithereens, and cast the useless pieces aside. Will you be formable in God’s hands?
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com
Copyright 2013 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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