Thursday 29 July 2010

Background

There is a lovely irony offered within the opening of thischapter of Jeremiah. God sends the prophet off to the local potterywith the promise that there he will hear God's words. In fact he'hears' nothing at all. Instead, he sees the potter in action. Hereflects upon what he sees - and only then understands what God issaying to him: that God's people can be re-made. God, like thepotter, is persistent. There is always potential within the people,as there is in the clay.

It is typical of Jeremiah that he learns about God's hopes andintentions from a visual experience. "What do you see?" God asks assoon as Jeremiah has been appointed a prophet (Jeremiah 1:11). First, Jeremiah sees the branchof an almond tree - a symbol of God's continual watchfulness. Then,he sees a boiling pot upturned away from the north - an image ofpowerful nations turning their fire power upon Judah, and a classiccase of a picture being worth a thousand words.

However, this image of the potter and his clay is not one ofunalloyed hope and potential. God's clay creation has a shockingfate in store. In the next chapter, Jeremiah (ever the amateuractor) takes a potter's earthenware jug and smashes it on theground - a sign of what the people of Israel can expect fordeserting God and making offerings to idols. The image is all themore unsettling if we bear in mind the second creation story, inGenesis chapter two, in which God formshumankind out of dust from the ground, rather as a pottermight.

In Jeremiah's mini-drama, God's word is seen before it is heard,reinforcing God's disturbing proclamation in Jeremiah 18:11 - "I ama potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan againstyou".

To Ponder

The idea of God's judgement is not peculiar tothe Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus delivers some dire warnings throughhis parables in Matthew chapter 21, for example. How should we,as Christians, respond to the idea that God will do harm to thosewho don't do what is right? Or is that a topic some of us prefer toavoid?

God spoke to Jeremiah through a potter and hisclay. Can you think of times when God has spoken to you not throughspoken words or a book but through an image or event?

How can we practise glimpsing God in our physicalenvironment, becoming aware of God's presence within us, between usand in the world?