Good Dirt: Being Pliable in the Potter's Hands

And we have to combat that, y'all. We have to solve. We have to soften. We have to return to the wheel and allow god to keep shaping us. The practice of faith is what helps us to do that. Prayer softens clay. Confession loses loosens the grip of ego. Community reminds us that we are not the center of the universe despite how much we might want to be. And love, real, active, costly love keeps the clay workable because love is the shape that god is always forming us into. [00:53:13] (55 seconds)  #SoftenedByFaith

The cracks are how how we shine into the world. God's power shows up not through domination but through humility, not through control but through surrender, not through winning but through love. When we allow ourselves to be shaped by love, when we allow ourselves to be shaped by love, something beautiful happens. The world begins to see a different kind of Christianity. Not loud, not forceful, not not causing fear, but the steady, compassionate, formed by Jesus, love. Clay in the potter's hands. [00:54:59] (45 seconds)  #ShiningThroughCracks

Put your sword away. Let me put that ear back on for him. This is not dominance. This is compassion. This is love. It is Jesus who says, blessed are the peacemakers. Jesus, the one who loved the enemies, who touched lepers, who welcomed outsiders, who refused to turn faith into a weapon. This is who we follow. This is who is who is what we are trying to emulate, who we are trying to become, the one who is peaceful. [00:50:51] (42 seconds)  #PeacemakersWay

Some Christian leaders are celebrating power and conquest and control as if those things reflect the kingdom of god. There's a version of Christianity that's gaining influence right now. It's it's often called Christian nationalism that imagines that faith is a tool of domination. It says that it is our job to win. It is our job to conquer. It is our job to force our beliefs on others or to make the world conform to us. But that isn't the gospel. The gospel doesn't say that. [00:48:04] (39 seconds)  #RejectChristianNationalism

In the fourth chapter of second Corinthians, it says this, but we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to god and doesn't come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble but we aren't crushed. We are confused but we aren't depressed. We are harassed but we aren't abandoned. We are knocked down, but we are not knocked out. We have this treasure in clay jars, not in golden chalices, not as polished marble, clay jars, ordinary, fragile, easily cracked vessels. [00:49:18] (51 seconds)  #TreasureInClay

So my question for us today is simple. Are we willing to stay soft enough for god to keep shaping us? Because the world doesn't need more Christians trying to seize the wheel. The world needs people humble enough to remain pliable, to be clay able to be formed. The world needs people trusting enough to believe that the potter knows that god knows what god is doing and to be formed in the image of god. Imago Dei. We all are Imago Dei in the image of god. [00:55:44] (49 seconds)  #StayPliableForGod

And I think this is intentional that the Bible says this to us so that we may be made clear on this extraordinary power that belongs to god. It does not come from us. The beauty of the Christian life is not that we become powerful. It's that we allow god to shape us and that shaping happens through Jesus. Jesus, the one who refused domination. Jesus, the one who rejected violence even on at the very end when Peter pulls out a sword and slices off the man's ear because they've come to take Jesus to crucify him and what does Jesus do? [00:50:09] (42 seconds)  #ShapedByJesus

Isaiah is calling out a deep human temptation. Arrogance. The arrogance says, I know better than god. The arrogant flips the order of things so that the clay starts to lecture the potter and Isaiah says that that's absurd. It's like a bull arguing with the potter to say, nope, this isn't how you design me. Nope. This isn't how you do this. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. I'm meant to be a mug. I'm meant to be a vase. I'm meant to be a plate. It's the creation trying to control the creator. [00:46:08] (46 seconds)  #HumilityOverArrogance