The image of a potter forming something beautiful and purposeful from a shapeless lump of clay is universal across time and space and of course there’s the famous pottery scene in the film ‘Ghost’ (1990) with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze! In Jeremiah’s visit to the potter’s house, the emphasis is not entertainment or romance but God’s sovereign purposes in shaping and reshaping nations to his purposes. Jeremiah’s context of looming judgment and exile for Israel are not signs that God has lost interest or abandoned his people but that, even in their disobedience, he is taking this useless lump of clay and reshaping it for a future purpose. Perhaps the key phrases for us to apply in preaching today are v.8 ‘if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned’, and v.11 ‘So, turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions’. Although today’s context is very different, there are analogues between Israel’s abandonment of God’s covenant and pursuit of false gods, and the disaster and judgment we are bringing upon ourselves globally, nationally and individually, through overconsumption, fossil-fuel addiction, destruction of nature and the worship of self-reliance and greed. We as humans are, in one sense, no more than lumps of clay, Adam from ‘adamah’ (earth or soil), made from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). Without God’s breath, God’s Spirit, we are just clay-based, carbon-based life-forms. As humus-formed humans we need the humility to ‘reform’ our ways and our actions or, rather, to let the Divine potter re-form and re-shape us, as individuals, churches, and nations.
Acknowledgment – Revd Dr Dave Bookless was born in India and has lived in multicultural Southall, London for over 30 years. He works for A Rocha International (www.arocha.org) as Director of Theology, speaking and writing about creation care, and has lectured in over 40 countries. He also serves as an Anglican priest in London Diocese, is a Catalyst for Creation Care with the Lausanne Movement, and has contributed to over 25 books.