Reformation and Pottery

Reformation sunday

Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)

Jeremiah 18:1-11

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” ³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. ⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶ He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. ⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. ¹¹ “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ (NIV)

If you are anything like me, then probably the closest you’ve come to any experience with sculpting or shaping pottery is playing with Play-Doh.  But it really is quite impressive to see a potter throwing pottery at a potter’s wheel.  Those of you who have actually tried your hand at it might be even more impressed, knowing from experience how difficult it can be (and all of those clay “ashtrays” in the back of the closet at home are evidence of how hard it is to make anything that resembles a useful item out of pottery).  Yet, what makes the art of pottery appealing is that it can be quite forgiving.  If the potter makes a mistake, he can pound his creation back into a lump of clay and start all over again.  He can reshape and reform it.

In that sense, pottery really has quite a bit to do with our observance this morning of the Reformation, which, at its core was really about reshaping and reforming.  In fact, that was really all that Martin Luther was interested in bringing about: reform.  Luther, the man after whom our church body is named, was schooled in Germany to become a lawyer, then joined a monastery, and eventually became a priest, a professor, and an academic (some might say was a bit of a theologian as wellJ).  He was a very learned man, but his intent was never to put the Roman Catholic Church in its place or radically branch out and found his own church, so that jokes and anecdotes about Catholics and Lutherans would be told for centuries to come.  No, his purpose was to reform. 

Like the potter who recognizes that his piece is ever-so-slightly uneven or misshapen, Luther started to identify such imperfections in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.  And, the more he read and studied the Scriptures, the more readily apparent the discrepancies became.  If a potter is trying to imitate or copy a particular vase or pot, he’ll look at the original to see how it compares.  In doing so, he can see where his replica needs work.  The more Luther looked at the original teachings in the Bible, the more visible the problem areas in the Roman Catholic Church became.  He identified a number of these concerns in his 95 Thesis, seeking to correct the problem areas in Roman Catholic teaching and bring about reform.  Of all those concerns, the greatest was his realization that the Roman Catholic Church was not teaching what he discovered to be the essential truth of Scripture, that man is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, revealed in Scripture alone.  Jesus, not works, was the way to heaven.  God’s grace and mercy, not man’s efforts and good intentions, were the only hope for salvation.  These were the central truths that came out of the Reformation.  Yet as much as the Reformation is arguably the most identifiable reform movement in history (for it alone is referred to as “The” Reformation), and terribly needed, it certainly wasn’t the first one necessary.

In fact, the prophet Jeremiah might today be considered just as notable a reformer as Luther, except for one significant difference: his call for reform fell on deaf ears.  Making his calling from the Lord even more of a challenge was the realization from day one that Jeremiah’s message wouldn’t stand to make him Mr. Popularity among his people.  The Golden Age of the United Kingdom had come and passed. The land flowing with milk and honey had become a house divided, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom; Israel and Judah.  At the time of Jeremiah’s ministry, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had already been crushed.  Now only Judah remained, and she was a small bit player in the grand scheme of things, although she served as a geographical buffer between two world powers of the day, Egypt and Babylonia.     

Reform was needed during the time of Jeremiah, as God’s people had yet again fallen into the trap of doing what they knew so well how to do, which essentially amounted to anything that God told them not to.  God had always made it clear to his people that they were his special, chosen nation.  He loved them dearly and wanted them to be unique, to be set apart from all other nations.  The problem?  They didn’t want what God wanted.  Rather than being unique and set apart, they wanted to fit in.  Like a rebellious, insecure teenager who views mom & dad as out of touch and behind the times, so the people to whom Jeremiah was sent considered God’s call to turn away from worldly ways a reflection of an out of touch, behind the times God.   Because surely if adultery and idolatry were commonplace everywhere else, then they should be commonplace among God’s people as well. 

Now you and I know that in reality it was God’s people at the time who were out of touch and behind the times.  Jeremiah knew it, too.  The problem was that God’s people seemed to be the only ones who didn’t know it.  So what did God try to do?  He tried to straighten out and reform his people.  And as Jeremiah’s luck might have it, he was the one God appointed to call his people to reform.  What’s more, when they brushed off God’s call for reformation, Jeremiah was that man again and again and again.  His ministry was as thankless as they came.  When he spoke a message of God’s word to God’s people, they shrugged it off as coming from the no-good Jeremiah and of no real value.  Rather than trying to imagine how heart-wrenching Jeremiah’s ministry must have been, do yourself a favor and read through his take on it in his book of the Bible.  You will quickly wee why Jeremiah has been called the “Weeping Prophet.”  He loved his people and he loved his God, so it tore him to pieces when his own people failed to show that same love to God.

But God is persistent in trying to bring about reform in his people.  So he gave Jeremiah another set of instructions.  “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”  So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me.  He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel” (v.2-6).  God was establishing that he was free to do with his people what he wanted, as a potter is free to shape and mold a lump of clay.  If Israel would refuse to reform its ways, finally God had every right to reject them and start all over again.

God still has every right to do just that with his church today as well.  Will he need to?  If we’re not careful, we can miss how easily the church today can start to resemble God’s people at the time of Jeremiah.  We can start to want it both ways.  We certainly want to retain our identity as Christians, but we kinda sorta also want to retain it alongside our identity as people of this world.  Inevitably this will result in a compromise when it comes to doctrine and practice.  For example, God’s Word is clear on what it says about divorce – don’t do it.  But we see it everywhere we look in the world around us, and we attempt to justify the breaking of marriage vows simply because that is the common practice in the world.  Or consider our Sunday morning habits.  Christians know full well where God wants them to be each and every Sunday morning – hearing God’s Word in God’s house.  But influence from our friends and coworkers in the world around us slowly softens our stance on keeping Sundays sacred, so that we feel more and more OK with not being in church more and more often.

Now these may seem like little things, trivial things, really.  But there’s no such thing as far as God is concerned.  If you look at the churches that have sold out and truly gone off the deep end, blatantly denying the clear doctrines of Scripture without apology, chances are, they started with the little things.  Eventually the little things blew up into the big things, and then the very foundation of the Christian faith was called into question.  Yes, just as in the days of Jeremiah and Luther, there is as much a need for reform today, so that we don’t risk undermining the very essence of the Christian faith.

When God calls for reform, whether it be at the time of Jeremiah, Luther, or today, he essentially holds out two choices: 1) repent, and God will relent, or 2) don’t, and God won’t.  God spoke to Jeremiah, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.  If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned”   (6b-8).  God in his abundant grace has ways of warning his people when they go astray.  In doing so he is providing an opportunity for reformation.  He is also extending his grace, grace which assures that repentance is met with forgiveness.  The Lord can make such a promise because of all that Christ Jesus did on our behalf.  In Jesus life was lived in perfect obedience.  In Jesus the death sentence was served in our place.  In Jesus is God’s righteous demand met and offered to all by faith, not by earning it. In and through Jesus alone does God promise to relent against those who repent. 

There are, however, consequences for those who don’t repent, who don’t see any need of being reformed.  God said to Jeremiah, “And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it” (v.9,10).  Again, repent and God will relent; don’t and he won’t.  If, when God calls a people to repentance or promises them blessings, they refuse to repent, then like a marred pot at the potter’s wheel, God will ruin the pot that was being made and mash the clay back into a lump to start over again.

Jeremiah’s call for reform fell on deaf ears.  Luther’s call for reform, while refused by the Roman Catholic Church, was nonetheless effective in freeing others from the slavery of salvation by works and restoring the gospel to its rightful place of prominence in the Scriptures.

How effective will God’s call for reform be among us today?  Will it go unheeded, as it did among Jeremiah’s people?  Or, will it take root, as it did at Luther’s time?  May it take root in such away that with humble and penitent hearts, we – the clay – allow God – the potter – to shape us with his grace and forgiveness into beautiful vessels to be used by him in this world and to bring him great glory.  Amen.

“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)