The Hands of the Potter August 3

“Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand.” Jeremiah 18:6

“Put not your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation.” Psalm 146:5

“Every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” Matthew 13:52

Piety

Let us pray: God, you are the potter we are the clay. You designed us for a purpose in this world. Guide us so we can fulfill that role. If we rebel, pick us up again. Mold us. Shape us. Fashion us for your holy mission. Make our vessels serve those around us who need our assistance. Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/080306.shtml

Today, we are served up a mixed salad of metaphors for our relationship with God. But the most graphic and visual of these is the image of the potter. The wealthy had dishes made of fine metals and china. The poor had dishes made of earthen pottery, formed from clay of the earth, one of the most common substances.

Imagine walking in on the potter. She has just thrown some clay onto the wheel and is working to center the clay before starting to make it take shape – just like we are encouraged to center ourselves quietly with the Lord in prayer each day.

Shaping the clay is hard and messy…the wheel starts spinning and the potter wets down the spinning clay so it can be shaped. Without the potter’s guiding hands, the clay would spin off into the room and smash against the wall forcing the potter to start all over. Just as the trellis helps the growing vine take root and grow and bear fruit, the pottery wheel and hands of the potter keep our life from flying off uncontrollably. Even with the potter’s hands, though, life can be messy. Our hearts can be hardened without the life giving water from the well Jesus provides for us to survive and to be shaped by Him.

The potter’s skilled hands press in on the sides of the clay to force our growth upward at the same time we spin around our daily activities.

Once we are centered, it is time for the potter to work to open up the clay just as Jesus works to open our minds, hearts, eyes, and ears. With the clay centered on the wheel, the hands of the potter push downward to open up the clay, to give us shape for the work the potter envisions for us… As much as we want to control our lives, it is the potter who determines what we will be when we are shaped at creation for the mission we are to fulfill in the world. A dish, a cup, a lamp, a utensil…whatever the potter decides to make is made. We cooperate as the wheel continues to spin and her hands hold us in the center.

One we have been centered and then opened up, the potter then builds up the side walls of this piece of clay…squeezing and pulling up in one motion to form a perfect vessel. The faster the wheel spins, the faster the potter can work. The potter knows that we need strong walls to hold up to the challenges we face in the world. So she raises us up on all sides and makes sure our walls are strong and grow from a firm foundation.

Sometimes the potter will squeeze us to narrow the neck and other times, the potter will open up the clay wider. Once we are shaped, we need to get ready to go out into the world and live up to our mission. Just as the vine grower trims the vine, the potter cuts the clay off the wheel using wire to cut through the wet and now shaped clay. Until we are separated from the wheel, we can not mature for use in the world.

When things turn out badly, the potter just starts over and rolls the clay back into a ball…just as Jeremiah preaches and Matthew writes about how the Lord will send his angels to separate the good from the bad at the end of the world. Until then, through reconciliation, we have a chance to start over with the Lord every day.

Once the clay is shaped and cured and dried, it is dressed up…painted, decorated, fired in a kiln and glazed. This changes it s basic look but doesn’t change it basic function. This work makes it even more a thing of beauty as well as a functional vessel for eating or drinking or use around the home as a lamp, jug, teapot or other item.

Good pottery must get “fired” in a kiln for it to harden to a useable density to use for dinking and eating. The Lord purifies us in the fire of the kiln so we can meet the challenges that we confront in the world.

Action

How are you holding up to use in the world? What features did your Creator give you? A mouth to speak out? Hands to write to political and military leaders? A mind to make conclusions on your own. Do you trust yourself to the Potter or do you put your trust in princes?

The world must feel like it is in a real kiln these days with hot wars going on in:

§ between Pakistan and Baloch warlords in Balochistan
§ the Darfur conflict in Sudan
§ the Iraq War
§ the Haiti rebellion
§ the Waziristan War with Pakistan searching out Al-Queda
§ the Chad-Sudan conflict
§ the Western Sahara Independence Intifada
§ the Israel-Lebanon-Palestinian-Hamas-Hezzbollah crisis
§ and now the uncertainty in Cuba

The attachment to this e-mail is an action alert from the USCCB on the current crisis in the Holy Land. Please consider calling your political leaders and asking them to heed statements made by our church leaders here in the US and from the Vatican.

Deliver us from evil and grant us peace today. Amen.