Like
Clay in the Hands of a Potter
says the LORD. Behold, like the clay in
the potter's hand, so are you in my hand Jeremiah
18:6
God sends Jeremiah to the house of a potter, making household goods out
of clay. He watches the potter take the clay, work it, and then from
time to time
crush it back down to a lump and start over. God says to Jeremiah,
that's just how I am with Israel. The clay doesn't tell the potter what
to do and you are like clay in my hands.
It is a simile that in many ways makes sense.
The problem for me, and I suspect for you, is that I don't much like to
think of myself as a lump of clay.
I am not even very fond of comparing myself to a sheep, for that matter.
Something nobler perhaps.... I like the part of rising up on wings as
eagles. That's a good one.
Therein lies the issue.
We believe that being compliant in God's hands is to somehow devalue
our sense of self--our sense of worth.
It is to be passive when our instincts are to be active.
It is to be a lump, a nothing.
If we believe what Jeremiah and the others say, we know that God
could
overpower us at any time.
Jeremiah complains to God that he would just as soon not be a prophet.
But another part of him knows that he cannot avoid it either. At times
he complains about it, saying the only reason he is doing it is because
God is bigger than he is and that he has no choice. But when he sees
what God is trying to say, he knows he cannot keep silent either.
He is a lot like us.
One part of us really does want to be in there with God, changing the
world, and part of us wants to be left alone to run our own lives.
Those are points on a continuum and most of us are somewhere between.
Maybe closer to wanting God to be there and active in our life.
Still, it is hard to let God have complete control over us.
Something in us resists.
Maybe we are not intellectually convinced that is how it's supposed to
be.
And as long as we do a reasonably credible job of running things, why
would we let go of the steering wheel?
Even when we are not doing such a credible job, its hard to give
control over to God.
I guess it's our nature.
But we also have to admit there are times when things don't go so well
and we need to call on God to help us fix things.
A former missionary to the Philippines. Alan Golding writes this:
When we were missionaries in the
Philippines, we vacationed in Baguio City in the mountains of Northern
Luzon. While there, we visited the St. Louis Silver School, where
silversmiths are trained. We admired exquisite workmanship in the
workshop and gift shop, and took home a souvenir—a pure silver money
clip embellished with a distinctive design. I carried that clip for the
next 24 years. One day it finally broke as I slipped a few bills into
it. I then took the two pieces of the money clip back to the silver
school in Baguio. One workman, about my age, asked if he could help me.
I explained my predicament and laid the pieces in his outstretched hand.
After examining the pieces for a minute or so, he looked up at me and
said, "I designed this clip. I was the only one to make this design. I
made all of these that were ever made."
I asked, "Can you fix it?"
He said, "I designed it. I made it. Of course I can fix it!"1.
We know to turn to God when we are in trouble. At least I hope we do.
And when we are, that is where we should turn.
Note to reader: Turning to God in trouble also means
asking what God wants us to do differently to stay out of trouble.
Just hollering 'help', while is
better than nothing, leads back into the same problem if we don't pay
attention to behavioral changes we need to make to stay out of trouble
in the first place.
I have a hummingbird feeder on the living room deck. It is great
watching them from inside, but even better when you are standing
outside and hear the sound of whirring wings as they zoom in for a
drink. The particular species of hummingbird that come to our feeder
are territorial and very skittish.
I have seen hummingbirds who zoom in and out without so much as a
glance at who might be there watching.
Not our hummingbirds.
If I am standing out on the deck, and they see me before swooping in,
they are as likely to fly to within a few feet of me and scold me
noisily until I move off.
Yesterday I was inside after having just washed and refilled the
feeder. They are voracious little critters!
One little guy came to the feeder, but movement on my part must have
alerted him to the fact I was just there behind patio screen door.
He would fly in, drink for a couple of seconds then hover a few inches
away from the feeder, checking on my whereabouts. He did this the
entire time he came to feed. A couple of seconds feeding, then stop,
turn around and watch me, then back to the feeder.
I thought, "Hey, I cleaned, filled and rehung that thing! Why the
suspicious attitude?"
But of course that is their survival instinct. When they are feeding,
they are easy prey.
But God says to us, "why the attitude?"
I formed you from the dust of the earth, drew you up from the miry
clay,
says the psalm.
God formed us, gave us life and we say "take a hike until I need you."
Not exactly, but we might as well by our attitude.
Besides, wouldn't the designer, architect and engineer of life know a
thing or two about how it should be lived?
Not just to repair, but its best operation and performance.
So God says to Jeremiah, "does the clay tell the potter how to make a
pot?'
Not really.
So then why do my people think I don't know what's best for them?
Good question, don't you think?
I do.
So what to do about it?
Start asking day by day.
Actually start by acknowledging that we ought to ask and to pay
attention.
Then start asking and paying attention.
Then of course start acting on what you hear.
Could be God knows a thing or two.
Preached Sept. 9, 2007
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. Allen Dale Golding, La Mirada, California, as
printed in Preachingtoday.com
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