12/01/02

Pastor Christa von Zychlin

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church

Hartland, WI.  53029

A Clay Pot For Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  We actually got our wreath up the day after Thanksgiving, which is definitely some kind of record for us.  The lights will be a few weeks away 

I’ve got three sets of pajamas for my three nieces.  Don’t tell them.

I’ve got a little something for the men in my life, don’t tell them either.

My mother’s gift has been ordered from the L.L. Bean catalogue,

My nephew who inherited our 1983 VW rabbit will probably get a Citgo gas gift certificate.  When you have a 22 year old whose first full time job starts after Christmas,  you know he could probably use the help.

I think our family will take some tags off the giving tree, this year, if they aren’t all gone by the time we conclude services today.  One for each of the kids in our family, to help make us all more mindful of the Christ child who was born into the poorest of families, in the most difficult of circumstances. 

So my list is shaping up, and yet and yet and yet.  There’s always that nagging thought at the beginning of the Advent season …  And I know I’ve heard some of you express it as well… Will it be enough?  Will I be able to do it right this year?  Will there be enough time and enough money and enough planning… enough for my family and enough for my work and enough for my church and enough for the poor?  Will I be able to do Christmas as well as I ought, this year?

And of course behind that question is a deeper question, am I able to do life as well as I ought this year? Or ever.  Am I doing it right, Lord?

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There’s a kind & refreshing answer to that question that  comes to us from the Bible today:

The prophet Isaiah  says vs.8 “You Lord, are our father… we are nothing but clay, but you are the potter who molded us…”

“You are the potter, we are the clay.”  Do you suppose that’s  what our Lord might like for Christmas -a clay pot?  A clay pot in the shape of Christa, a clay pot in the shape of Mary, a clay pot in the shape of Jim and Joshua and Katie & Fred?

Hmmm

Some of you may know what it takes to make a clay pot.

First, You need a lump of clay.

That’s easy, a lot of us might feel that’s a job we can volunteer for in good conscious.  A lump of clay, yeah, I can do that job, Jesus..

But then… before it can be molded into a pot, did you know that your basic lump of clay has to be sliced and pounded over & over to get rid of the air pockets.  You see air pockets, if they’re lift in that clay, can cause what looks like a perfectly good, nicely shaped piece of pottery to explode & shatter when it’s put into the kiln.  So before we can become beautiful vessels for the Lord, the clay of our lives needs pounding & slicing, so that

It becomes stronger, pliable, and rid of all those empty holes. 

Year after year the art teacher at my high school claimed that the best potters were the football linemen, a position that requires a lot of hard hitting,

Maybe you’re in a spot right now where life is giving you mostly awful things, a lump in your breast, a spot on your best friend’s lung, a kid that flunks out, a spouse that cheats on you, you just lost your job,  your son just announced that no way is he going to be able to come home for Christmas.  Rotten things, terrible things, things that shouldn’t happen. 

But after you’re done complaining, (which you have every right to do by the way, the Scriptures give us lots of permission for complaining loud & long to God; feel free to make use of that permission this holiday season, if you need to!),

But AFTER you’ve done some honest complaining to God, can you then allow God to  be in control?  Can you also grab on to the crazy but faithful hope that God is using these bad things, small mess ups but also the bigger, even evil things, to pop your empty spaces, and to help you live the life which trusts God first and last, best? A life that says, YOU are the potter, I am the clay?

Again & again and again, we start thinking we can live life without God.  We think we’re the one who’s responsible for our own lives & successes & good looks & health & perfect children & flawless Christmas celebrations… like it’s all up to us.

But the logic of that is that when things do get messed up, when the cancer is found, the adulterous love notes exposed, the bad performance report received, then we also have nowhere to look except at our tiny thin souls, our lives like a lump of clay.

But that’s not all there is!   That’s the great news this First Sunday of Advent.  The prophet Isaiah says that  no matter how flawed, how lumpy and empty, how soft or hard we’ve gotten to be over the years, we are in God’s hands  and he is a master potter. And in the hands of a master potter, even you and I can still be salvaged, we can still be saved, for something useful and beautiful in the kingdom of God….

Which all reminds me of the famous story – have you heard this one? :of the water bearer in India who had two large pots, hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments,. but the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, - that it was able to accomplish only half of what the other pots did.

After two years of bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I ‘m so sorry." Why? asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"

"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer mysteriously smiled as he said, "When we go back to the master's house, I want you to notice the flowers along the path." Sure enough, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot did notice the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load.

 But then the water bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that the flowers were only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I always knew about your flaw, and so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For over a year now I’ve been  able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."

So, friends & members of Our Savior’s, as we prepare for Christmas  together this year, these 4 weeks of Advent, and as God calls you to all the different the jobs you have, gifting your family & taking care of the needy, doing your best at your work & school, reaching out to a wider hurting world,  where bad things do happen, don't be afraid of being “only” a cracked pot or a lumpy ball of clay.  Admit again your need for the Savior and allow the Master Potter to make you into His own clay pot, to fulfill HIS will, for Christmas.  Amen.

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