Mae West -- Jeremiah 18 051714

Meet turtle Mae West.  As a young hatchling Mae was swimming off the coast of Louisiana and swam right into a bright orange Gatorade ring.  You know the ring at the top of the bottle that seals the lid.  The ring was intact, floating in a canal and little Mae swam right up into it and it stuck. At first it caused her no harm as young turtles are very small.  As she grew, her hard shell protected her for years from infection that would have occurred on an animal covered in fur or softer skin.  And as she grew into an adult snapper turtle her body grew around the orange ring, giving her the image of a Barbie sized waistline on a very robust apple shaped young lady, hence the origin of her name.   As amusing as it might be to think of a small waisted turtle the ring caused great damage to her internal organs ability to grow.  Her lungs were severely damaged as was her intestinal structure.  A young boy found her in a canal in Louisiana and she was rescued. The ring was removed, but after ten years of being shaped by a Gatorade ring her body would never reconfigure into its original shape.  She would never return to the wild but instead learned to live a new life in a nice quiet residential neighborhood with watchful human parents safe guarding her from further potential danger.

The story of Mae West caused me to think for quite some time about what my Gatorade ring might be. What is yours? 

Let us pray.

At my first interview on the path toward ordination I sat across from the Rev. Dr. Jim Miller and told him about my life and my call.  I was 21 years old and he listened attentively to all of the ways I saw God leading me into the ministry.  At the end of my meeting he smiled and said “Wow, Stephanie, you must really identify with the opening words of the prophet Jeremiah.”  To which I shook my head yes and said “of Course” only to run out to my car and fervently look up the book in the bible to read the words of this prophet trying to figure out what on earth he was talking about.  

“Before I formed in you the womb, I knew you.  Before you were born I set you apart.  I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1. 

Dr. Miller wasn’t referring to my role as a major prophet who would proclaim the doom of God to the nations, but rather to my understanding of God’s great hand carefully molding every step in my journey from the time I was a small child, and perhaps even before.  

And as God gives Jeremiah those warm and fuzzy words he then prepares him for the trials ahead saying “get ready Jeremiah because the road ahead is rough.  But I will make you an iron pillar, a bronze wall against what lies ahead and I am with you and I will rescue you.” (Jeremiah 1:17)

I really love this full nature of God – that God knows there is going to be trial and difficulty and also that God will be with us through the trial and rescue us from the trial.  

For us as followers we often say that we can see god’s plan and god’s providence in hindsight.  Just as in the greeting card poem Footprints the author laments that God is not with him in his struggles because he only sees one set of footprints in the sand.  He begs god to answer where he was and God responds sharing that the single pair of footprints are Gods as he carried the sojourner through the struggle. 

I think we are really good at this type of analysis.  After the storm is over, after the ceasefire is called we can say --- oh look, God was in the trenches, God was in the stranger, god was carrying me all along. We are strong Christians in retrospect.  

And I actually even hear more and more often that God is somewhere in the midst of now.  I know that God is working.  Maybe I can’t see it now, but somehow in this mess, God is here.  It’s part of God’s plan, or perhaps more commonly a trite colloquialism -- Everything happens for a reason.

But today we are drawn from the now to the potter’s house.  Chapter 18, verse one instructs Jeremiah to take a field trip from his house to go down to the house where the pottery is made… and there God will reveal a message to him.  This is an ordinary trip.  It is a trip to the auto mechanic or the grocery store, a place where average people buy ordinary things and in the ordinary, God speaks.

Verse 2 tells us that Jeremiah actually listens to God’s instructions and goes where he is told. So the first step toward hearing the message is listening to the instructions and putting yourself in a place where you are able to listen to God.

His first observations are mundane.  A potter was sitting at his wheel.  The two rudimentary stones connected by a wooden rod were spinning round and round.  The dirt moistened into clay was forming on the wheel. The potter focused, intent, messy.  Verse four continues… the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled.  

I took pottery classes my first year of seminary.  I always thought it looked like fun, but of course, it was much more difficult than I thought.  The clay had to be “slammed” onto the wheel in order for it to be able to be workable.  It was a forceful beginning and slowly, slowly, with water, the clay is drawn upward, all the while the potter has to maintain the outward shape, keeping one hand on outside of the vessel while using the other hand do draw the lump into a tall cylinder.  As the height increases the potter can decide whether the vessel should be a pitcher or a vase with an upward leading or slowly be pulled outward to form a bowl or a dish.  All the while the vessel is in motion, continually moving, continually having water added to it to keep it moist and pliable.  The clay actually begins to take shape of its own and sometimes you can see in the clay that it is designed to be something in particular.  Very often from an uneven balance, an air pocket in the clay, or loss of rhythm the clay will lose shape.  The upper rim can flop outward or get too loose and a potter can slice off a ring of clay that has lost its structure.  Sometimes the potter has to slice off quite a bit in order to save the clay and then the potter can start again with the process of pulling upward and pulling outward.  Other times the clay is far too disfigured to continue the project and the entire piece has to be smashed, taken off the wheel and reduced to a simple round ball of mud before it can be ready to be usable again.  

And so, continuing verse four… as Jeremiah watched, the potter took the spoiled clay and formed it into a different pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him.  

The clay imagery is common in the bible.  We sing in our hymn today – I am the potter, you are the clay, we hear in the 2 Corinthians 4:7 that we are cracked pots ready to shine the light of Christ through our brokenness.  The words of Isaiah 64 remind us that we are the clay and we are formed only by the work of God’s hand.  

And as I picture Jeremiah watching the ordinary work of the potter, leaning against the doorframe the complete picture is revealed.  The clay cannot know what it will become.  The clay cannot decide at which moments the potter will draw the clay taller or open the clay wider.  The potter can see the whole picture, the potter can see what the clay used to be, where the clay is right now, and what the possibilities are for the clay to become.  

And the beauty of the Jeremiah passage is that as the vision is revealed to Jeremiah God reminds him and us and all of God’s people that God has a purpose for his vessel and that as a hands on God we are being molded and shaped and crafted according to that purpose.  As the shaping enfolds God can remove pieces that will not work for God’s purpose, but if the entire vessel is spoiled, the whole pitcher will be leveled to begin again.  

As he stands in observation, God begins to reveal the prophecy... 

Verse 6 – Just like the clay in the potters hand, so are you in my hands…

Just like the clay in the potters hand, so am I in God’s hands.  

Just like the clay in the potters hand, so are we in God’s hands.

In this passage the prophecy is to the tribes of Israel.  They’ve been bickering and fighting and warring and God is angry with their choices, angry with their idolatry, angry with the ways and times they turn from him again and again.  God pleads with the community… if you turn from the ways of evil, we can start over together.  

And as the dialogue continues, the people of god respond in verse 12 to these prophecies saying:  “No thanks! We have our own plans, we are too stubborn.  We will follow our evil ways instead.“

An article in Ethics daily this week stated that as the church changes, seminary education will no longer be able to prepare pastors for a single role as a clergy person, but instead, seminaries need to begin to train four very different kinds of pastors.  

The first pastor is the image you are comfortable with.  The traditional pastor who preaches, teaches and cares for a congregation, however fewer traditional churches have the financial means to support this type of pastor because finances and membership in traditional churches is on the decline.  

The second pastor is the one who is trained to serve as a change agent.  These pastors will assist congregations in transition to a new approach to ministry which may involve changing worship style and the responsibilities of the pastor to spend more time on outreach and less time on administration.

The third pastor is a hospice pastor who is specifically trained to help a church that simply won’t survive and help them process the grief of losing a church home.

The fourth pastor is the entrepreneur who is trained to start something new.  A new church start, a creative community, and this pastor is charged to create a community that looks absolutely nothing like what we know as church today.  

What captivates me so much about Jeremiah 18 is that by allowing God to be hands on, to mold, to shape, to trim, even to completely re-envision the original plan for the clay, a beautiful vessel will be drawn out of the ordinary.  God summons a future out of us, right where we are molding us and shaping us according to his purpose. and whatever it is that god is doing it is not the same as what God has already done.  

The message of Jeremiah was intended for a community.  News to God’s tribes and this is a message to this tribe as well.  

Every church has a life cycle.  Generally for the first 30 years in existence a church is full of explosive growth.  It is true for First Pres, started in 1830 with 50 members by 1861 a new building had to be constructed because the congregation grew so large.  Churches grow into a time of adolescence, creating an exciting identity and then they reach an age of sustainability and maturity and it is at this point that they either turn their focus on structure and bureaucracy or they hear the voice of God calling them to listen again for God’s purposes in a new generation.  It is as the congregation journeys past height of the mountain top arc that the church can choose to head down hill, mired in disagreement and strongholds or traverse back to a new adolescence full of questioning and visioning. If you look at our history, First Pres has been climbing and traversing for quite some time.  Renovations and additions are present almost every 30 years in the history of this community.  The last one began in 1986, 28 years ago.  

And while the message of Jeremiah 18 was intended for a community, a community is made up of individuals traveling together.  

We draw each other in and through the trials that we experience.  We journey together, pray together, seek together, and are molded together for what lies ahead.  And we have an awesome privilege to resist living for ourselves and instead choose to live out what we are created for.

As a school book keeper in Atlanta, Antoinette Tuff was faced with the most extreme trial last August.  She had agreed to help out a friend who worked at the front desk on her day off and while she was waiting to greet the next visitor a 20 year old man with an AK 47 walked into the office and pointed his rifle at her face sharing with her that they were all going to die that day.  She was the only one standing between him and 800 children at Discovery Learning Academy.  In her new book Prepared for a Purpose, Tuff shares that when God wants to use you, you need to be ready.  

Tuff kept her calm sharing personal stories with the man, telling him about her suicidal thoughts after her husband of 33 years left her, sharing the struggles she has been through with two children with several disabilities, and calmly telling the gunman over and over that he is loved.  And though she had been through crisis training she believes that in the midst of this extreme situation she was anchored solely by her faith.  

For years before this moment Tuff was preparing for it, day by day making one choice over another in order form the strength and character that would come to be her guide when she needed it most.  She learned in her church how to keep going, even in the midst of pain, knowing that God was shaping her in the struggles.  Time after time she chose prayer over going her own way, she chose gathering with God’s people for worship instead of the endless choices to do something else, she listened to audio books of the bible on her way to work to start her day with inspiration, and she chose 15 minutes of silent meditation each night in order to listen for God’s words for her.  She joked about how she could watch hours of tv but 15 minutes in silence was the most difficult thing she had ever committed to.  

And it was in an ordinary place on an ordinary day that God put all that he was molding and shaping in Antoinette into use for God’s purpose.  

I was raised in an era where as a girl I was told that I could be anything I wanted to be.  Doctor, lawyer, astronaut, there were no bounds for women anymore.  I grew in this belief and was proud and excited about the opportunities that would be presented to me… the sky was the limit.  And I believed this false truth for many years.  I envisioned my future as a successful pastor with a church ever growing, children sitting quietly in the front pew, church friends in and out of our house 24 hours a day. I would easily balance motherhood, being the wife who made natural and healthy meals, have time for long hikes, be the pastor that had time for everyone, read all of my favorite books, and travel extensively and of course do it all with a genuine smile.  For me, believing that personal achievement and success are the hallmarks of my life was the Gatorade ring that caused me to be disfigured.  

But as I have come to know and love Jesus more and more I have been slowly released from this entrapment.  I will bear the mark of worldly desires forever, but living moment by moment as God intends me to live, asking for God to keep molding me and shaping me and even asking God to cut away parts that do not serve his purpose are part of this life of true freedom.  In the times of great joy and in the times of deep despair…

God says again and again to me – Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you to me.

And God says again and again to you --- just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so you are you to me.

And God says again and again to this amazing and beloved community, just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so you are to me.  

Personal Thoughts and Reflections

That as a woman I could be anything I wanted to be and that being a wife and a mother would be a natural and seamless role that would mesh easily with my professional life and my personal hobbies and interests.  

Thought process that turned out to be life giving --- that Jesus changes my life.  And that living moment by moment as God intends me to live, to the best of my own personal discernment, allows me to grow in ways that I could never grow trying to live up to a different standard.  

Moment by moment…  

Things in life will shape us.  The groups we are a part of.  The fights we won’t let go of.  

We will be disfigured, bent, hurt and broken.

Again and again our God will come to us and offer freedom.  A great release.  

Communal

Church as a body and God’s desire to summon the best out of us to do kingdom work.

God’s willingness to work with us for God’s purpose.

A lack of pruning can lead to the death of the whole tree

Church growth patterns – new church great increase.  Plateau, initial decline and a chance for renewal or a great decline to the point in which there is no choice but death

Personal 

Organizations are made of people

Churches are made of disciples

Some who deny Jesus, some who betray Jesus, and some who follow Jesus.

Who are you really?

If God chooses you as a vessel to carry the good news to those who are longing and lonely and hurt and in desperate need of the love of Jesus…. Are you ready?