Jeremiah 18:1–11
Saint Luke 14:25-33
It has to be one of the hottest, most sensual, scenes in all of cinema.
A record drops on to a turntable in a jukebox and “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous brothers begins to play.
Cut to a woman at a potter’s wheel. It is Demi Moore, Molly, carefully, dutifully, working over a lump of clay that is slowly becoming a work of art. Her boyfriend, Sam, played by Patrick Swayze, sneaks up behind her and clumsily tries to butt in. Sam may have other things on his mind besides creating a masterpiece.
With Sam’s “help” all of Molly’s careful work is reduced, once again, to a misshapen lump of clay but instead of slugging Sam, or yelling at him, she takes his hands in hers and together they begin to reform the lump of clay into something that is more recognizable. All this while the Righteous Brothers sing: “I need your love. I need your love. God speed your love to me.”
When I first saw this movie in a theatre people sat up a little straighter during this scene and moved up toward the edge of their seats as if getting six inches closer to the action on a wide screen would give them a better view.
Every time “Ghost” comes on television I watch it again and again even though I fear that this will be the time my television melts. I also know that, once the melody dies away, I will have to retreat to the kitchen to splash a little cold water on my face.
During the pandemic one of my favorite preachers, Dr. James D. Howell, took the opportunity during a videotaped sermon to bring his congregation into a real potter’s workshop. He went to visit a local craftsperson in North Carolina, Althea Meade Hajduk. Before his visit Althea told Dr. Howell to wear old clothes because being a potter is dirty work. During the course of their conversation, she told him, that when she started in pottery her mother complained. “I sent you to university to study,” her mom said, “and you end up playing in mud.”1
Fortunately, Howell, unlike Sam, did not try to get involved in the pot shaping business. Had he tried he would have discovered, like another pastor did, that “a lot can go wrong.”
The clay is heavy. {It} is goopier and muckier than one might expect. Contact and moisture matter for its malleability. It must be ... centered on the potter’s wheel. The clay and the ... surface of the wheel must have the right amount of water absorbed. Not enough and the clay will slip and slide all over the place. Too much and the clay can become wobbly, mushy, and riddled with air bubbles.
Once the wheel is in motion... just the right amount of pressure must be applied through the foot pedal ... and through the hands as the clay is crafted into more than a blob. Learning how to manage, squeeze, pull, push, brace, flatten, and lift the clay is not an easy task. It requires, patience, practice, and vision.
That is why the image of God as the potter and God’s people being the clay is so perfect for it requires practice for us and patience and vision for God.
We like that image of the potter with a grand vision for us, remaking us over and over, being very patient with us. It makes us feel as warm and fuzzy as Sam and Molly did hand on hand remolding the clay together, deeply in love.
We have even sung about it: “Have Thine own way Lord Have Thine own way. Thou art the potter I am the clay. Mould me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting yielded and still.”
Beautiful thoughts! Lovely lyrics! It is even in a waltz tempo!
Trouble is Jeremiah is telling us that God is not currently in the mood for molding and making, God is throwing and breaking. And Jesus is not just talking about busting things up at the pottery barn he is talking about severing the old family ties that bind and carrying a cross.
Didn’t these two get the message that September is a big month for churches? In the next couple of weeks churches will be reaching out to friends and neighbors in what used to be called “Rally Day” but is now called “National Back to Church Sunday” or “Get Connected Sunday” and welcoming them back to church or trying to get them to sample the congregation.
I recently received a postcard from a very fine church in my neighborhood inviting me to such an event. The postcard said: “We are a casual, no-pressure place where you can learn more about the Bible and meet new friends. We’d love to connect with you and make you feel welcome.”
How welcome would we feel at a church where there were shards of broken pottery all around? How connected would we feel at a church when they handed you a life-size cross when you came in the door and said, “Here! Carry this!”?
While Jeremiah word of warning comes to a people who were being willfully disobedient worshipping other god’s and enjoying wealth that has been obtained by unjust means, Jesus is at the top of his game.
The crowds multiply around him, for word has spread – his deeds have gone “viral” in the community. At the corner shop, a boy tells his father of a miraculous healing Jesus was said to have completed. The watering hole was filled with patriots yearning for someone to mobilize the beleaguered masses in order to begin the counter-insurgence upon Roman despotism. Whispers of hope and the dreams of the “good ol’ days” filled the air – Jesus’ popularity made it easy to follow him, to be one of his faithful disciples - or so it seemed.
It appears that Jesus has a chance to sell the joys of discipleship to the masses, and would not that be the most expedient thing to do? Like one of those pitchmen from late night infomercials ... he could have closed the deal that very day!
What Jesus seems to be saying my friends, is that in order to be his disciple you have to turn away from all you hold dear, or put less value there, because to truly follow Jesus is a cost – and you must count the cost. This is not about hate in the conventional sense; it is about re-ordering our loves.3
The only thing crystal clear about this passage writes Emerson Powrey “is that Jesus is not interested in growing his group just for the sake of growth.”4 And, in what has to be the understatement in all biblical commentaries, Dr. Lynn Japinga of Hope College wrote: “The text does not report whether this sermon thinned the ranks of followers, but it must have diminished some of their superficial enthusiasm.”5 You think!
Jesus is looking for commitment, deep down in the in the heart commitment like Bob Pierce founder of World Vision was talking about when, confronted with crises after crises and visiting one group of children after another, after another, after another, who were suffering from natural and political disasters, Pierce wrote in the margins of his Bible: "Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God."
That is what it means to be a broken vessel. That is what it means to carry the cross.
To those who think the challenges of the day can be won by entering into the culture wars or those who imagine that legislating our faith values will fix the woes of the world, Jesus and Jeremiah are telling us to think again.
To those who think that if we just returned to the “good old days” that would get the young folk back into the pews, Jesus and Jeremiah are telling us to think again.
Millennials and Gen Z’ers, Gen X’s and Boomers, only buy into the real thing. They have seen too much advertising to fall for anything less. And the real things are “hearts that are broken with the things that break the heart of God.”
Saint Paul said once: We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.”6
The treasure is the gospel that molds us, shapes us, and forms how we live our life in the world. The treasure is the gift of faith that God has given us.
We have that! And we know the feeling of God’s hand on us, like Molly’s hands were on Sam’s as they reformed their pot together, in that steamy scene. Now it is up to us to share that love, that embrace, that touch with others. And the only way we can do it is to become broken vessels, cracked pots.
Adam Fronczek, the amazing preacher who now holds forth at Knox Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati helped me see the value in a “cracked pot” when he told the story about a meal he had on a visit to Turkey.
He saw on the menu the words, Testi Kabab, and being an adventurous sort, ordered it.
It is basically a stew made with the usual ingredients – meat, vegetables, tomatoes. What makes it unique is that all the ingredients are placed in a clay pot which is then sealed with more clay before it is baked in the oven.
Here is how Adam described the presentation:
The meal arrived at the table in a clay pot ... the waiter brought an empty bowl, and he took a meat cleaver, scored the pot near the top, flipped the cleaver over, exposing the dull side, broke the pot clean in two, and poured my dinner out in front of me. I was impressed, and I’m sure that’s the point. I was also a little floored that they ruined a perfectly good pot every time someone ordered the testi kabob.7
However, there was no way to get to the meal that was inside without the pot being broken. A pot had to be sacrificed for the meal to be served and enjoyed. A pot had to be cracked to let the good stuff come out.
In order to truly experience the power of the gospel we must be willing to have our hearts broken with the things that break the heart of God. The Gospel only comes alive it we are willing to be broken so that the love of God, revealed to us in Jesus can be poured out to God’s people.
What God may be looking for is a church full of “cracked pots.” And that just may be the role we were meant to play.
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1. James D Howell, “Sermon,” Morning Worship (November 29, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lmQYaqOAEI.
2. Gerald C Liu, “Connecting the Psalm with Scripture and Worship,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister|John Knox Press, 2019): pp. 292-293.
3. Jarrod Longbons, “Jesus: Not a Good Pitchman: Day 1,” (Day1.org, August 31, 2022), https://day1.org/weekly-broadcast/6304d99f6615fb5e31000100/jarrod-longbons-jesus-not-a-good-pitchman.
4. Emerson Powery, “Commentary on Luke 14:25-33,” Working Preacher (Luther Seminary, November 11, 2020), https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23-3/commentary-on-luke-1425-33-3.
5. Lynn Japinga, “Luke 14:25-33. Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading with the World.” In Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, 3:. Louisville, KY : Westminster/John Knox, 2019. p.301–2
6. 1 Corinthians 4:7. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]
7. Adam H. Fronczek, “‘Jazz at Four’ Sermon” 4 O'clock Worship at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. (May 13, 2013).
