Jeremiah 18:1-11

September 6, 1998

Sandy and I were driving up the Parkway last Monday evening, on the home stretch of our 15-hour journey from New England. We were pretty tired, as you can well imagine, and looking forward to getting to the house where we could simply collapse and recover from both the long, arduous ride and one of those vacations that you just have to come home from to get a little rest.

Just as we slowed down through the intersection here at Chota Road, we spotted it. That large gap in the trees. A dirt access road that had not been there when we left. A huge open space of turned up Tennessee clay out here on the south side of the church property.

At first glance, it seemed to be a scarring of the earth, an open wound among trees and hills, and both Sandy and I sort of gasped at the extent of the injury. But then the creative imagination took over, and we began to picture the building that will soon rise there, and the purposes that will be served. As we continued our drive to the house, we felt somehow renewed and excited and hopeful about what we'd seen.

Today I want to talk with you for just a few moments about scars, injuries, wounds, hurts and other experiences of brokenness...and the possibility of hope rising from them as a gift from a loving God.

In Maxie Dunham's book, The Devil at Noonday, he tells of a place in Death Valley known as Dante's View. From this perch, Dunham says, you have a choice. You can either look down 200 feet to the lowest spot in the continental United States - a place called "Black Water", or you can look up to the 14,500 foot majesty of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States. From this one spot, you can choose to feast your eyes on the highest - or the lowest.

Today's Scripture lesson from Jeremiah 18 calls us, in the midst of our valleys, to lift our eyes to the heights - to the workings of God in our lives and times. The setting of the passage is in one of the many low points in the history of Israel. Although things look okay on the surface, the nation is in moral and spiritual decline. The political system is corrupt and no longer responsive to God's ideals. Cracks are beginning to appear in the success of recent years. Soon enough, the beginning decline will lead to a catastrophic military defeat that will send the entire population into exile.

And it is here - in the midst of this great national mess - that God whispers a word of hope to the prophet Jeremiah. God tells the prophet to go down to a potter's house and there wait for the word of the Lord.

Now one of the reasons I love this story is because, among other things, it teaches us an important lesson about hearing the word of the Lord - about finding God's guidance in times of trouble. Sometimes when we are in situations of hurt and confusion, times when we need God's help and we need it now, we desperately drop a dime in the prayer hot-line and cry out to God, and listen for an answer. What should I do? What should I say? How can I find my way out of this mess?

And if you are like me, the answer I most often get is that funny little series of tones you hear when you haven't dialed a one or an area code - doo-doo-doo - "We're sorry, the number you've called, 1-800-GOD, cannot be reached as dialed...."

To be honest with you, I have spent many moments in my life asking God for guidance through challenging times, but I have yet to hear God's voice break through with a clear and certain answer. Now maybe you have heard God's voice speaking to you. Wonderful. But I haven't.

Instead, I've discovered that there are other ways by which we can hear the word of the Lord.

One of the most important is the way Jeremiah did. When Jeremiah needed guidance, he did not go into his prayer closet and stay there until the word came. Oh no, instead, Jeremiah went to the potter's house, and it was there - as he observed the events around him - that he saw the word of the Lord.

Did you know that the word of the Lord does not to come to us as often through our ears as it does through our eyes?

Why, right there before his very eyes, as Jeremiah watches the potter throwing a pot, it comes to him! The potter is like God! The clay is like us! He is the potter, and we are the clay! And as the potter that day works the clay on his wheel, Jeremiah hears with his eyes a wonderful promise.

First, he notices that the potter's hands are deep within, and around, and through the clay. One of the most important things you and I can know - especially when we're going through times of great challenge - is that God is up to his elbows in us!

A number of people in our fellowship are right now going through times of great challenge. Some are facing death. Some are fighting raging battles against illness. Some are writhing in pain over the loss of a loved one. Some can't sleep at night because they worry about their children. Some are struggling to adjust to a new community, others to new debilitating conditions that require them to change their lifestyle. Some are terribly lonely. Even those who are not experiencing personal difficulty right now are challenged at least by the good things they wish they could do...the people they could help...the situations they wish they could improve. Most of us, in fact, can identify dimensions of our lives where there is immense personal and spiritual challenge.

Would you listen to the promise we see in the potter: Whether you are facing life or death, joy or sorrow, health or illness - whether you are trying to help a helpless person or right an unrightable wrong - you are not alone, for God is up to his elbows in the clay of your life. Its not entirely up to you alone to deal with the challenges that confront you. The very power of God is at work within you, and even though your circumstances may seem to be overwhelming, the potter's hands are holding you and will not let you fall!

Even more importantly, the promise is that the potter's hands are shaping you into something beautiful and new!

Did you notice what happens when the potter discovers his vessel is spoiled? Well, first of all, he doesn't throw it away. He doesn't discard it. He doesn't give up on it. Many of us, when we look at our own flaws, and most especially when we consider the flaws and failings of others, throw away all hope. We accept our own weaknesses and the troubling inadequacies of our lives as normal for us, and sometimes continue to inflict them upon ourselves, others, God and the world. We so often see the flaws in others' lives as a kind of unworthiness that cannot be redeemed, or problem that cannot be solved..

And we are wrong on both counts.

Part of being a Christian is learning to believe that the potter can re-shape spoiled clay! You see, that's the heart of the word of the Lord that Jeremiah hears with his eyes in the little pottery shop on Main Street in Jerusalem. Its an important word for Israel and a vital word for us. Even though our lives are full of incongruent bumps and dents and ragged edges, God is not willing to give up on us, but rather will break us down, and work us anew, molding us, shaping us into more than we are right now.

If we are willing.

You see, the key to the passage is the offer God makes.

A week ago last Wednesday, in the 35^th year of her life, a dear friend of mine by the name of Kim Murphy came to the close of her life's journey. When I met Kim, 8 or 9 years ago, she was a young woman terribly beaten up by life. A virtually hopeless alcoholic, she had traveled into some of the darkest corners of existence, and in the process was abused in ways that you and I can only imagine. If ever there was a spoiled and broken piece of clay, it was Kim.

I sensed that God had a special love for Kim because when she started coming to our church, she'd march right on down the aisle and sit in the very front row, and look at me as though she was desperate to hear some word of the Lord. That she was searching for something was obvious just by the way she sat and listened. I don't know exactly how it happened, but one day Kim got that look on her face like her eyes were lifting from the depths of Black Water to the glorious heights of Mt. Whitney. I think Kim caught a glimpse of the promise...that God was up to his elbows in her life, and had never given up on her becoming everything she was created to be. I think Kim caught sight of the potter.

I'll always remember the day she asked me to meet her in the chapel of the church after the worship service was over. She wanted me to help her pray that God would forgive her for the past and all that was broken and wrong in her life. She wanted to turn to God and find hope for a new future. We held hands and cried, and Kim prayed, pouring it all out to God. She asked Jesus to come into her life. She yielded herself to the potter's hands. And then, Kim started to live one day at a time, responding to the will of God.

Kim never took another drink. She became a devoted mother to her son Matthew. She started her own business - a Title Company - and became a successful and respected businesswoman. Processing through the 12-steps, Kim found that, with God's help, she had gifts for helping others facing desperate circumstances like she had, and she threw herself into the ministry of trying to rescue the rest of her family from the hopelessness of alcoholism. She started two or three support groups on her own. Became actively involved in the church. Met and fell in love with a good man - another friend of Bill W. - whom she married two years ago, finding for the first time in her life a stable, nurturing setting for both herself and her son.

And then - a week ago last Wednesday - Kim reached what I think had to be the most joyous moment in her life. It was at an AA meeting, and there Kim gave a gift to someone she herself had led to the potter and whose life she no doubt saved. She presented a five-year sobriety coin to a young man named Chris. He was her brother. Those who were there say that, when she presented him the coin she was radiant with joy over the miracle God was doing for Chris. Moments later, an aneurysm - hidden deep within her brain - burst. And Kim's journey was complete.

I've been thinking a lot about Kim this week. How clearly I see the word of the Lord in her and her life.

God was the potter, and she was the clay.

And the potter fulfilled his promise. Her legacy is not as a broken woman at the end of an empty bottle, but as beautiful and priceless vessel, filled with joy, and overflowing with the grace of God.

Dear friends, as we come to the Communion Table today, remember that God is the potter. You are the clay. And as you eat the bread and drink the wine, take hold of the potter's promise in the midst of the realities you face.

Let him shape you into a masterpiece of grace!