This past week, I watched an 18-minute video detailing how to throw, trim, glaze, and fire a pot. There were loads of tips and tricks presented. I feel like I could take what was shown and try my hand at pottery. What do you think? Is it really that easy? Can we watch a video, follow instructions, and achieve anything? How often do we assume that we know enough or at least have access to sufficient information to achieve whatever we want? How often do human beings make plans, build, and seek to conquer based on what we know or at least think we know? How often do we realise that there are limits to our knowledge that conceal the true implications, the true costs of our choices? There is far more to pottery than an 18-minute video can convey. Indeed, even the most experienced potters in the world today don’t know absolutely everything there is to know about making pots. They may well be incredibly gifted artists, but that doesn’t make them experts on every aspect, every piece of equipment, every possibility of their craft. What more is there that could be known? To what extent might that information contribute to informed decisions about our relationship to all that is needed to create clay pots, kilns, glazes, and more? How often do we realise that there are limits to our knowledge that conceal the true implications, the true costs of our choices? More and more we are learning that human actions, human choices have profound implications beyond the scope of what we had considered. The convenience of single-use plastics created a large-scale environmental challenge that has led to efforts to eliminate single use plastics. The use of fossil fuels has contributed to green-house gases that are radically impacting climate to our detriment. Preferences for hardscape, turf grass, and foreign plants has placed too many species at risk of extinction. Human convenience, consumption, and preferences have contributed to unanticipated costs despite any intentional planning we have done. The truth is that there are limits to our knowledge that conceal the true implications, the true costs of our actions. So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Through Jeremiah, God is described as a potter, creating and re-creating in ways that are beyond anything we can ask or imagine. God is far wiser than the wisest human. God is far more creative than the greatest potter in the history of the world. What humans don’t know, God does and God finds ways to communicate to us, enabling us to learn, to grow, and to be transformed. It is up to us to pay attention, to listen to the voice of God wherever it may be found. As we enter the Season of Creation, we point to the world around us as a reminder of God’s loving presence. God created and we are challenged to listen to the voice of Creation, trusting that every plant, every insect, every bird and fish and animal, indeed everything that lives and moves and has its being points in some way to the One who formed each inward part and knit everything together before it was as yet known in our world. Everything has a place and a purpose in this world. When we pause to pay attention, when we listen to the voice of Creation, we are offered deeper insights into the ways in which human choices impact the existing patterns, the existing wisdom of God’s design. So I went down to the potter’s house, and there she was working at her wheel. The vessel she was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and she reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to her. The metaphor of God as potter helps to remind us that creation is not something that happened once for all. God continues to create and re-create in our world as seems good to God. There is an ongoing conversation between God and creation that provides space for us to learn, grow and be transformed. In creation we are invited to acknowledge that there are limits to our knowledge that conceal the true implications, the true costs of our actions AND that we can do better, we can be better. The conversation with God and creation is one that is meant to continue, one that is meant to teach us in new and profound ways about God’s wisdom and God’s love. It is a conversation that is meant to help us become better informed about the implications of our choices and choose better. In our desire to continually seek to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth, let us pray as we sing together: 578 O Healing River
