The ‘clay’ out of which we were formed

December 3, 2023

Scriptures: Isaiah 64:1-9, Mark 13:24-37

Today, as the first Sunday of Advent begins our calendar year as a Christian church. The season of Advent spans the four weeks before Christmas, and is a time of both preparation and anticipation. And today, I would like to talk about ‘preparation’, about the process of preparing ourselves for the coming of our Lord Jesus as a babe in a manger some 2000 years ago.

And to do that, I would like to talk about clay…clay, that substance formed at the bottom of the oceans over millions of years, that has been used in so many ways by humanity from time immemorial. And while it may seem strange to talk about clay on the first Sunday of Advent, I think you will see why as I go along.

There are multiple references to clay throughout the scriptures, including today’s reading from Isaiah, however the first we hear of clay is in the story of Creation found in Genesis Chapter 2 and in verse 7, where we hear that God scooped up some clay from the ground and formed humankind, into which then was breathed the breath of life. Interestingly, the name given to that first human being was Adam, which in Hebrew is ‘adamah’ which translates into soil or clay.

So our start, the essence of who we are, began with the clay or the dust of the earth, which could be the topic of several other messages, but for today I would like to talk about clay, and more specifically about each one of us who, being formed out of the dust of the earth, started out as a lump of clay in the hands of God…and a lump of clay originally fashioned, we should remember, into the image of our God.

A number of years ago I presented a series of sermons on clay, and more specifically on clay as a ‘vessel’…starting with a dry lump of clay and all that meant, and moving along to the point where that clay became a pot or a vessel thrown on a potter’s wheel. Someday I may repeat those messages as they were an interesting journey through both the scriptures, and how those references inform our faith journey. But for today I want to focus on the first part…on that lump of clay…as though previously dug from the earth, and now sitting there dry and un-formed, useful perhaps as a strange and rather dusty paperweight.

Clay, like the other two dominant symbols of our faith – bread and wine, was a common, well understood, and accessible item to those who first heard the words of our Lord. Simple and accessible items such as these were often chosen by Jesus to convey deeper truths, and as to convey those truths in ways that everyone who heard them might understand. But even before Jesus’ birth the scriptures were filled with references to clay and how it was used by God. As I mentioned already, it was clay that was used by God in creating humankind which was then placed into the Garden of Eden. But…as we all know…it was not long before things did not go so well in the garden. Gifted by God with intelligence and free will as part of our ‘wonderful makeup’, we soon decided to exercise that creative freedom, making some truly good and loving choices…as well as others that were not so much.

We hear God dealing with our occasional wayward tendencies in the words of the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 18 where he says, “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.  Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?’ declares the LORD. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.’” And again in the words of the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 64 we hear, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”   

So we…like all of life, came from the clay or dust of the earth and were fashioned through God’s love into earthen vessels. But also like the rest of life, we are still clay…clay that can be formed and reformed over the course of the life we each are blessed to live. Yes, we always remain as clay in the hands of our Lord…clay that is never forced against our will, but clay nonetheless…clay that if made available to the Holy Spirit can be made into amazing vessels…vessels of true usefulness and holy purpose.

And that is where talking about ‘clay’ on the first Sunday of Advent begins to make some sense. For though we are seemingly already fully formed physically, we are always in flux spiritually and emotionally…we are always capable of change…of allowing our clay to be used or fashioned into something else…sometimes for good, and sometimes not so much.

And even sometimes unfortunately, we allow our clay to just sit there…to refrain from trying to grow, or to move in new directions…sometimes we even resist the Spirit as it attempts to lead us into new places, or presents us with challenges that may not appeal to us. And sometimes, resisting such growth or change may result in our ‘clay’ becoming dry or hard…unyielding to the touch, even the touch of God’s loving Spirit. And when or if that happens we become far less useful in the plans of our Lord. Unable to better understand things that are new or different, unwilling to accept that God could actually mean this or that…just a lump of dry clay, waiting around…dry, hard, and unyielding.

Clay such as this, clay that is hard and is resistant to change and growth is not able to be formed or fashioned into anything just as it is. But that does not have to be the ending of the story, That does not mean that things can’t or never will change. Clay can always be made new and re-formed. But for that to happen, it must first be prepared, or made ready…a process that can only occur when one is willing to listen to the Spirit’s gentle call and guidance. In order for clay to be of  use for the Potter, it must be soft and pliable, ready to accept the touch…both the push and pull of that potter; and at least in our case as followers of Jesus, ready and willing to be placed upon the wheel of the Master Potter. It simply cannot be molded into anything at all if it remains hard, dry, or unyielding.

This, ‘yieldedness’, this softness must be present for clay to be formed or reformed…dry or hard clay cannot be forced into any shape, but instead simply crumbles into pieces when any kind of pressure is applied to it. Very interestingly for our faith story however, these broken or crumbled pieces are still potentially of use and are never cast away by our Master Potter…who probably alone still sees them as the clay from which they were originally formed, and as clay that might still one day become prepared once again and then re-formed into a vessel of usefulness.

        And, while we are talking about our own individual ‘clay’, it is also critically important to remember that ‘your clay’…is your clay alone!  Given to you, it belongs to you and is uniquely yours and uniquely ‘you’!  You are the one who controls the future of your own piece of clay…only you can yield your own bit of clay into the care of the Potter…no one else

can do it for you; it is you alone who can surrender your life, your workable substance unto God.  Your clay…is your clay…to hold back…or to give over. 

But it is equally important to remember that clay is clay…and one person’s clay is the same as everyone else’s…no one person’s ‘clay’ is any better or of any greater value to God than any other…for clay is clay, period!  And along those same lines we must remember that it is not about the quality of one’s clay but rather about what that clay can be fashioned into…that even after it is given over into the hands of God, clay is not an end in itself, it is not about your ‘clay-ness’, or even perhaps your beautiful or perfect ‘clay quality’. 

Rather what we each are asked to yield in faith is merely the raw materials, the substance of our souls, out of which God can then mold and fashion a vessel to be used to do the work of God. 

Truly…we all are like common clay…sometimes dry, hard, and unyielding to the touch, but still able to be made useful…and other times soft and pliable in the skillful hands of our God, ready to be formed or reformed into closer and more accurate reflections of our Lord of Love.

So, on this first day of Advent, let us consider how we might better prepare ourselves to receive the grace and goodness of our God…and then, how that grace and goodness might be used for purposes even greater than ourselves. Most of the references we hear of in the scriptures regarding clay and potters involve ‘vessels’ of some sort…vessels made for the express purpose of holding something. As we draw near to God in preparation for the greatest gift in Bethlehem, let us open our hearts, offer up our own unique ‘clay’ out of which we each were fashioned into the loving hands of our Lord…there to be made into vessels anew, ready to hold and to carry the good news, the amazing news that God’s love is there for each one…that regardless of the condition of one’s own ‘clay’, there is always hope, for the Spirit is at work in our hearts to make us both willing and able to be formed into vessels of even greater grace and goodness.

We are in a season of preparation…let us each look after our own clay, let us give it over into the hand of the Master Potter. First to prepare it so that it is made ready to be re-formed…and then to be fashioned into a vessel of even greater use…

…amen