By Jeremiah, Eugene And Me

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “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. 18.1-4

Eugene Peterson says ‘Jeremiah has an artistic imagination. It was one of he most powerful imaginations in the history of our race. His imagination, used in his prophetic vocation, keeps us in touch with … reality. The great masters of the imagination do not make up things out of thin air; they direct our attention to what is right there before our eyes. They train us to see it as a whole – not in fragments but in context, with all the connections. They connection the this with the that, the visible with the invisible. They assist us in seeing what is all around us all the time but which we regularly overlook. For this reason the imagination is one of the essential ministries in nurturing the life of faith. For faith is not a leap out of the everyday but a plunge into its depths.’245-6

”Go down to the potter’s house” – was a call to ‘go where the necessary everyday work is taking place’. Everyone knew where the potter’s house was. Everyone knew what work the potter did in his house. They all depended on it. “So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel.”

‘Do you realize how significant pottery was? The invention of pottery set off a revolution. Before the invention of pottery there was only wandering tribes, following herds of animals, going from one food supply to another, forced here by drought, there by famine. It was a hand to mouth existence. But the invention of pottery made it possible to store and carry. Then it was possible to stay in a place for a while because grain could be stored for next winter’s meal and water could be carried. The invention of pottery signaled the revolution we know as civilisation.’247 ‘Pottery made it possible for communities to develop.’248

‘The practical impact of the invention of pottery is immense. But there is something else that is just as important. No one has ever been able to make a clay pot, that is just a clay pot. Every pot is also an art form. It is artistically shaped, designed, painted, glazed, fired. It is one of the most functional items in life; it is also one of the most beautiful.’248

‘Jeremiah’s imagination went to work as he stood before the potter with his lump of clay and his wheel. Jeremiah had seen potters at work all his life, but today he saw something else – he saw God at work making people for his glory. A people of God. Necessary – but also beautiful. Beautiful – but also necessary. There is no human being who is not useful with a part to play in what God is doing. And there is no human being who is not unique with special lines and colours distinct from anyone else. All this became clear to Jeremiah in the potter’s house.’249

And then the pot ‘was spoiled in the potter’s hand’. ‘Jeremiah knew all about spoiled vessels – men and women with impurities that resist the shaping hand of the creator. He rubbed shoulders daily with (them)…’

‘What would the potter do now? “He reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do”.’ Then Jeremiah knew. ‘God doesn’t give up. God doesn’t throw away what is spoiled. God kneads and presses, pushes and pulls. The creative process starts all over again, patiently and skilfully.’250

‘”Behold like the clay in the potter’s hand, so you are in my hand ”says God.18.6

According to Jeremiah, God says to people: ”If that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil I intended to do to it.” 18.8 But he also says ”If does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good I intended to do to it.” 18.10

While human clay can be pliable in the hands of God, it is not necessarily always the case. As John Bright says in his classic book on Jeremiah (Doubleday New York 1965 p125): ‘The clay can frustrate the potter’s intention and cause him to change it; as the quality of the clay determines what the potter can do with it, so the quality of people determines what God will do with them.’

The challenges that I see for me in this image of the potter and the clay are:

1. To recognize that God is at work, like the potter, in ordinary everyday life.

2. To realize that God is at work in our lives to make us beautiful and useful

and we are called to express both the qualities of beauty and utility in life.

3. To remember that we always have a choice – either to cooperate with God by being pliable, or to resist God’s work in our lives by being obdurate.

4. To understand that being pushed about and pulled around, and being pressed and kneaded are all part of the process of transformation.

The image that has been particularly significant for me in my ministry comes from the baker rather than the potter – kneading leaven into the dough to bake bread.

I used to see the church as ‘the light of the world’.  It was to be a ‘city of virtue set high on top of a hill’ shining brightly for the whole world to see. And maybe that is what Jesus had in mind when he told his disciples that they were the ‘light of the world’. But these days – with the litany of one church scandal after another blazoned across the tabloid headlines – it would be ridiculous for us to present the church as ‘the light of the world’.  So, I have searched the scripture for another humbler image of the church. And I found what I was looking for in the Parable of the Yeast and the Flour.

Jesus said: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.’ (Matt 13.33)

When I found this image I realised that – as modest as it was – it was in fact a very significant image. That had the potential to not only reframe the role of the church, but also restore its reputation in the community.

For the purposes of our discussion I’d like to suggest we see the ‘church’ as the ‘yeast’ and the ‘community’ as the ‘dough’.

Note that the yeast only does its work when it is mixed into the flour to such a degree that you cannot tell the difference between the yeast and the flour. It is then – and only then – that it makes a difference. And what is the difference that it makes? It causes the whole milieu – into which it has been mixed – to rise!

I see some the challenges in this image of the baker as the same as the potter:

1. To recognize that God is at work, like the baker, in ordinary everyday life.

2. To realize that God is at work in our lives to make us beautiful and useful    and we are called to express both the qualities of beauty and utility in life.

3. To remember that we always have a choice – either to cooperate with God by being pliable, or to resist God’s work in our lives by being obdurate.

4. To understand that being pushed about and pulled around, and being pressed and kneaded are all part of the process of transformation.

But some the unique challenges I see in the image of the yeast and the flour are:

5. To recognize that God can only work through us in ordinary everyday life, if we allow ourselves to be mixed up in the affairs of ordinary everyday life.

6. To realize that we need to value the contribution of both the yeast and the flour to the mix – the yeast offers spirit – and the flour offers substance.

7. To remember that the value of the yeast consists in the spirit that it brings to the mix – without our energy and enthusiasm we have nothing to offer.

8. To understand that the role of the yeast is to help the mess we are mixed up in to rise – to lift its standard, style and quality of life as a community.

Dave Andrews

Numbers refer to pages in The Quest by Eugene Peterson Zondervan Grand Rapids 2000