Sermon for
September 5, 2004
14th Sunday after Pentecost
“Where is the Potter's House?”
Jer. 18:1-11;Psalm139
CALL TO WORSHIP
The Bible this morning answers one simple question:
where do you go to hear God? Don’t you want know where you can go
to hear God? In the Scripture this morning God says, “Come down to
the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” The
potter’s house--if that’s where you can go to hear God, where is
it? Don’t you want to go there right now? Come, let’s all go
down to the potter’s house as we would prepare to worship God this
morning during the Prelude.
SERMON
The Bible this morning answers one simple question: Where can you go
to hear God? Is this the question on your heart this morning as you
have come to church and prepare to gather around our Lord’s table?
Now I have to say to you that the answer to that question the Bible gives
you this morning is unusual. The answer is not what you expect.
After all, this is God we’re talking about. So must you go, say,
to the top of a majestic mountain peak? Is that where you go to hear God?
Well, you can hear God there, but that’s not what the text says.
Must you go to a great living saint of the church and learn from the
wisdom of faithful ways? Is that where you go to hear God?
Well, surely time spent with a great living saint of the church would help
you grow in faith, no doubt. But that’s not what the text says
either. Well, surely you would expect that you must go to some
exotic or special or unusual place to hear God, wouldn’t you?
After all, this is God we are talking about. But that’s not what
the text says. What does God say to Jeremiah and to you?
Listen again:
Come,
go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.
(18:2)
Did you hear it? Not to a majestic high mountain; not to a great
holy person of faith, not even to an exotic or special or unusual place,
but to the potter’s house. The potter’s house? The pot
maker? The bowl and basin shop? Is that where you go to hear
God? I mean, that’s where dishes, cups, plates, and the ancient
equivalent of sinks are made! Nothing exotic about that.
Nothing special about that. But that’s what God says,
Come, go down to
the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.
It that’s where you
go to hear God; if that, then, is the answer to the one simple question
the Bible answers this morning, that just leaves one more question for you
to answer today: where is the potter’s house? Where is the
potter’s house? Show me how to get there. Don’t you want
to go?
If you are going to
find it you need to know something about it. You already know it is
not a very exotic or special place. The kind of place folks
frequented when they needed daily household items. A place where
you’d meet your friends. The Bible seems to be saying this morning
that God is found not only in the exotic, out of the way, the
extraordinary but in the daily moments and elements of everyday life.
The secret is: paying attention.
So Jeremiah paid
attention:
So
I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his
wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the
potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to
him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of
Israel, just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand…I
am (the) potter….’
(18:3-5,
11b)
At the potter’s house Jeremiah learned that God was anxious to speak to
the people of God. God wanted them to hear. What was it
that God wanted them to hear? “You are running your life now as
seems best to you; your life without me is like spoiled clay in the
potter’s hand. If you keep on you will not like how you turn out.
But you just wait and see what I can do with spoiled clay if you let me,
for I can rework your life into something special, as seems good to me.”
Did you hear it?
The potter’s house is now not just a place where you can go to hear God;
it is also the place where your life can become something special as seems
good to God—all at the potter’s house.
So tell me; somebody
tell you. Where is the potter’s house? Don’t you want to
go? Where can you find the potter’s house today?
Well, if he potter’s
house is where lives are shaped then that’s the first place to look.
Where are lives shaped today? How did you get to be who you are?
I respectfully suggest it was not in some exotic, special, out of the way,
extraordinary place for most of you but it was in a community where you
were surrounded with persons who loved you. That first community was
and is your family of origin—that’s where your life took shape and
found its form. Next was and is you community of friends and those
friends influenced you for good or ill, depending on the kind of crowd you
hung around with.
Lives, you see, are
shaped in a community. If you want your life shaped in a particular
direction the way to do it is in a community. If you pursue a sport
you do that in a community—of coaches, teammates, and even opponents who
help sharpen your skills and shape your ability. When you take on a
profession you do it in a community—whether in educational preparation
or apprenticeship or the practice itself. Lives are shaped in
community. You see, it’s not ultimately in some exotic, special,
out of the way, extraordinary place but a place as common and ordinary as
a community.
John Wesley, who over
200 years ago founded the movement that became our United Methodist
Church, knew that lives were shaped primarily in community. He knew
that after you hear God the next step is letting God shape your life.
So, in England and eventually in America, the Methodist movement organized
folks into small groups—bands, classes, and societies—for Bible study,
prayer, mission, and to watch over one another in love. Friends
simply came together regularly as apart of the daily moments and elements
of everyday life and the difference that these groups made for them is
that they paid attention.
So tell me, where’s
the potter’s house? Somebody tell me. Don’t you want to
go? Where can you find the potter’s house today?
Let me invite you to
the potter’s house. At the altar today are 5 vessels of pottery,
each one representing on aspect of the community of Faith called South
Roanoke. Sunday School, Worship, Peanut M&M’s, Children’s
Choirs, and UMY. Each vessel symbolizes the community that surrounds
each of its members in love in this church. Each piece of molded and
fired clay stands for every joy shared, every wound healed, every heart
encouraged in that community of people whose lives are shaped because they
came to hear God. Studies have shown that persons who are new to the
church will most likely drift away unless they become a part of a
community like a Sunday School class within the first few weeks.
Studies also confirm that long time members of the church tend to lose
their active relationship unless they also share in at least one other
aspect of the life of the community in addition to worship. If you
have been a member of this church all your life or are the newest here God
says you “come down to the potter’s house and there I will let you
hear my words.” Where’s the potter’s house? Well, it’s
not a very exotic place but a place where you meet God in the daily
moments and elements and everyday life as a small group of friends who
love you come together and pay attention.
As you come to the
Lord’s table today, come down to the potter’s house. If one of
these fashioned vessels at the altar today represents a small community of
Christians you know very well, give thanks to God for the love that is
shaping your life and theirs for the better. If you are new to our
community we invite you to the potter’s house—there is such a rich
variety here—come and see—there is one here just for you; pray that
God will lead you. If a particular piece of pottery here brings to
mind a rich memory of a community that meant much to you in the past
because you do not now share in its life, come down again to the
potter’s house and find that special place for you again; pray that God
will lead you.
And if you are the
least bit worried that you may not know which one is yours, remember, the
potter is none other than the one whom the Psalmist addresses in Psalm
139, the Psalm for today:
O Lord, you have
searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise
up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path
and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways…Where can I go
from your spirit? Or where can I fee from your presence? If I
ascend to heave, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there;
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of
the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall
hold me…Search me , O God, and know my heart; test me and know my
thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, lead me in the way
everlasting. (Ps. 139:1-3, 7-10, 23-25)
The Bible this morning answers one
simple question: where can you go to hear God? God said to
Jeremiah,
Come, go down to
the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words
Won’t you come down
to the potter’s house?
In the name of the Potter, and the Potter’s Son, and the Potter’s
Spirit. Amen.
