God the Potter

A Sermon by Nada Sellers

September 9, 2007

Jeremiah 18:1-12

The Seagrove area of North Carolina is home to one of the largest communities of potters with the longest continual history of pottery making the United States.  The area is home to more than 100 different potters who offer an awesome spectrum of pottery and ceramic art.  The ceramic history of Seagrove is an amazing blend of cultural and regional elements.  It begins with the abundant and diverse natural clay deposits found in the vicinity, which Native Americans first discovered and used for both practical and ceremonial uses.  The first immigrant potters to the region - mostly English and German from Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 18th century - were the first makers of local specialty redware, using clay that fired to a reddish orange color.  By the first half of the 19th century, Seagrove area potters switched to making the higher fired salt glazed stoneware, and over time, as roads were built and the railroad system brought access to wider markets, the pioneer farmer-potters' reputation grew.  New styles were forged based on skills and artistic visions, utilizing surrounding natural resources and meeting the needs of their growing community.

The changes brought about in the early 20th century with new methods of food preparation and the Industrial Revolution had devastating consequences for potters - many closed their doors forever.  But Seagrove potters were able to persist, and with the help of a benefactor couple, the Busbees, whose marketing and networking abilities brought Seagrove into the world spotlight, the region's pottery became well known from the galleries of New York to the garden shops of Florida.

Today, Seagrove potters are a dedicated and diverse group of artisans, a mix of old area pottery families that have continued to train their own children or interested apprentices, and newcomers such as studio artists, and trained potters from community colleges or art schools.  Some continue the ideals and methods of the early immigrant potters, while others have embraced a wider perspective of what pottery can be.  All are united by their passion for clay, and according to the local pottery association website, those who visit these Seagrove area craftspeople at their potteries learn "that making pottery is much more complicated than one might think, requiring years of practice, honing skills on the potter's wheel as well as gaining knowledge of clays, glazes and firing techniques."¹

One of the striking things about this remarkable creative community, I recently learned, is the camaraderie and mutual support shared by the potters; for though each artist's work is quite unique, the common strand of love for their work and a commitment to the on-going living history of the Seagrove region, means potters there educate and inspire one another, help one another fire massive kilns, lend glaze ingredients or figure out problems that arise in the production process.  There is a legacy, a heritage to maintain and to add to… one that centers on the creative process of making pottery.  Listen to potter Chris Luther:

I grew up watching many pots come to life by other’s hands…but it wasn’t until 1991 that I became addicted to “mud” myself. Thanks to my family’s pottery heritage, I had access to many of this region’s most talented and experienced potters. They helped me hone my technical skills as well as challenge my creative thoughts. I quickly realized that this profession would be a life long journey and a constant learning process. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to step outside my roles as pottery instructor and studio potter to open my own gallery near my roots in northern Moore County….Pottery is an evolution to me. My strength lies in wheel thrown pieces, but I like to experiment with slabs and using other mediums with the clay. I am always playing with different shapes and refining my favorite forms.²

Hear now, these words from our text for the morning:  read Jer. 18:1-12 [PAUSE]

Jeremiah 18 is the well-known text that describes God as a potter.  Yes, in pottery lingo, God is a "lover of clay," one addicted to "mud," an accomplished artist with "years of practice, honing skills on the potter's wheel as well as knowledge of clays, glazes and firing techniques."  This is absolutely one of my favorite texts in Scripture for a bunch of reasons, certainly not the least of which is, that it is one of the most revealing images of God we have in the Bible.  God is not only the Creator, but also the Artist, the one behind the vision, the perspective, the shape and form, the textures, colors and functionality.  And just as uniquely as the accomplished human artists we are aware of, God revels in the creative process and the completion of a work; God's work is "good' we hear again and again in Genesis, it is "very, very good."  Even the Hebrew Scriptures' description of God fashioning a human being "from the ground" or "the dust of the ground" depending on your translation -- read it clay -- in Genesis 2 (2:5), helps us develop this understanding about God as a hands-on creative force, helping things "come to life" by God's agency, One who is active for good and for beauty in this world.

 Another amazing dimension of the Godhead, which Christians hold as part of the Trinitarian understanding of God, is that God brings to God's creative process, the fellowship of Spirit and the Son, indwelling or abiding with one another, as different dimensions of the same Divinity.  There is community in the development of God's pottery, maybe we could call it "Godware," something similar to the Seagrove community's artists, who genuinely support each other's development as artists, and it starts in the very nature of God who is God, the Three-in-One. 

All of the elements that go into shaping a piece of pottery on a potter's wheel, come together with great ability in God, and this includes the reworking of a damaged piece, just as Jeremiah describes. We may be more comfortable with some of the other biblical descriptions of God, as, say as a mother eagle carrying her chicks or a mother hen, with her little peeps kept under her wings for shelter, or even as a Rock or a Cloud or Pillar of fire or smoke… But here it is, just as plain as can be: God is a potter, who shapes and reshapes, works and reworks vessels in relationship to humankind and human history.  And it's not just that, but Jeremiah's message is, that God as a potter, shapes evil as well as good, in relationship to human choice.

Before you jump to conclusions here, take a moment to pause with Jeremiah. This message about the potter, appears in a segment of chapters - from 18 through 20 - where we, the readers, are invited to follow the prophet around to various stopping places, including this potter's workshop, a business outlet, the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, the temple court and a prison in the temple.  In a series of symbolic actions that scholars call "sign-acts," that began all the way back in chapter 13, the prophet does symbolic things, which reveal a divine message.  Jeremiah is full of absolutely incredible actions undertaken at God's command, like smashing wine jugs, and burying linen girdles, and even directing that Jeremiah purchase captured land while in prison, which he does, and that he wear an ox yoke in the streets, which he also does!³  Visiting a potter's shop seems tame, until you notice the message…

As the prophet watches, the potter's first attempt at forming a pot on the wheel is unsuccessful: the vessel is flawed - it is spoiled, useless, unacceptable and so, the potter started again.  In the interpretation that follows, we learn that as the Sovereign God, the Master Potter, God is free to work the clay as God wishes and here, the clay is Israel as well as the other nations (vv. 6-7), and they've been messing up!  The Potter, being bound by consistency and integrity in character, can change intentions to prosper a nation or a people if the people do wrong.  Put another way, God is free to change the course of history, depending on the changed quality of a people, so for instance, the story of Jonah and Nineveh.  God is indeed all knowing about future events, and yet this knowledge of the future does not determine it.  It's human freedom to choose and human behavior that's at stake here, such that God, with hands on the wheel, will shape and reshape in response to Israel's actions.⁴  The bad news is, of course, that over and over again, Jeremiah is directed to bring a message of impending disaster, which gets him into great difficulty.  And disaster did come, at the hand of the Babylonians and the second captivity in Babylon.

For those of you interested in the theology, we've just touched on one of the features of Christian thinking that polarizes denominational teaching about God's sovereignty and human free will.  Some will follow Calvin's teaching, which stresses God's all-knowing and all-powerful nature, while others follow Arminius, where the importance of human choices being godly is essential for on-going relationship with the Divine.  The message of Jeremiah seems to underscore that each go hand-in-hand, that in fact, God the potter, can shape evil or good, disaster or blessing, and here the message of impending disaster is issued with the hopes that repentance will allow God to "change God's mind."⁵ Divine justice does not exclude the possibility of human repentance, rather it demands and expects it!  And this shift of direction in human response to divine will, can open up a wholly changed prospect for the future.⁶  So it is, that the people of Judah had chosen wrongly against God, and had necessarily suffered the consequences of their bad choice.  And by the same thinking, repentance and a right choice toward God on a national and individual basis, could establish the ground for a whole new beginning -- so verse 9.  Here are the seeds of grace, a glimmer of hope for a people in imminent danger of terrible disaster. The potter can rework the clay.  God can restore God's people.

We can now recognize with the prophet that God the pottery artist, is master of history and of what is to come, shaping evil as well as good, much like clay is shaped on a wheel. The prophet's visit to the potter's shop where he learns the message he must proclaim: as the quality of the clay determines what the potter can do with it, so the quality of a people determines what God will do with them.⁷  And although we cannot harmonize all Scripture so as to claim that every human action has results in divine action and vice versa, there's a connection, and much lies in our faithfulness.  God is always consistent, slow to anger and abounding in mercy (Ps 51).  And yet God is no pushover -- sin is sin and there are always consequences, for people, as well as for nations.  The next time you discover a potter at his or her wheel, or you come across a beautiful hand-made piece of pottery, be reminded that this is how God is at work, shaping and reshaping what is to come.  Amen.

Notes