Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1 through 6:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4The 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.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
There comes a time when all of us have to be broken in order to be remade again.
The Church’s historical word for this has been Reformation — literally a breaking and reforming, and both the Protestant and also Catholic Churches have had their seasons of reformation and counter reformation. Other metaphors are “death” or “Fall” Or “Babylon”. Whatever the language, there is a fundamental break from the former shape of things. The break is both religious and also social and always deeply personal.
To be broken and reformed requires fundamental theological change. Things we thought were inviolable end up failing to protect us. The Temple falls. Our old conceptions are shattered. We have to think again about God and our place in it. The devastation is painful, sometimes agonizing so; but in the hands of the potter something new is made from the clay.
John Donne wrote, “Batter my heart three-person God.”
Most of us are less inviting of the demolition life sometimes brings us. But invited or not it comes. The earth turns as the Potter’s wheel. And with it comes formation and reformation and the breaking and remaking of ourselves and the whole world as we know it.
And in the tender yet firm hands of the potter, the clay must surrender itself; for there is no other way than to be reborn.
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