Sunday Preview for Feb. 6th, 2022 "Spoiled Vessels and Clay Jars"
This Weekend: Sunday at 10:30am “Spoiled Vessels and Clay Jars” Scriptures: Jeremiah 18:1-11 and 2 Corinthians 4: 5-18. Pastor Christopher Eshelman preaching.
As we continue to think about prayer and the process of aligning ourselves and our church with God’s will for us, this Sunday. we will hear two scriptures that use pottery as a metaphor. From the Hebrew Scriptures, we encounter Jeremiah’s visit to a potter’s house. “The word came to Jeremiah…” and Jeremiah responds. He watches the potter work, but the vessel the potter is making is spoiled. Something about the clay is off and it doesn’t hold form as it should. So the potter reworks it. “Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done?” In this scene God is promising that we can be reworked, reformed, remade. Sin has “spoiled” us - but the situation is not final. God can do (and I hope this phrase I keep citing from Ephesians 3 is sticking with us) “abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.” Yet God desires us to participate in that work - we are to “amend our ways and our doings.”
In our New Testament reading we have another image - this time the clay jars are formed and Paul compares himself (and us) to them - they are utilitarian, fragile, and call attention not to themselves, but to what they contain. Last week we talked about the doxology commonly appended to the Lord’s prayer - we pray these things, we offer our praise and our petitions in confidence “for” - that is, because, “thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.” It’s not about us, even as we are called to participate. Paul writes with confidence that he is filled with God’s light - but not for his own glory. Everything is for God’s glory, everything, ultimately demonstrates God’s power of salvation. In prayer we seek to be filled, that we might overflow with God’s blessing for others. We hope you’ll join us Sunday in person or online as we let these scriptures draw us closer to God with confidence and assurance.
