This is a reflection on the picture in Jeremiah of God as a potter. It reflects honestly on the struggles of transformation and discipleship.

It could work well to give everyone in the congregation a small piece of clay or play-doh to fiddle with as they listen to the reflection. You could use this further in another part of the service - see other ideas for using clay in worship here and here. Another idea, if you have a potter in your congregation, is to get them to bring their wheel into church to actually demonstrate their craft and be interviewed.

Extract from the script:

The Lord said to Jeremiah: 'Go down to the shop where clay pots are made. I will speak to you while you are there.' So Jeremiah went and found the potter working at his wheel. The jar the potter was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started work on it again.

It's painful at times, this constant reworking and re-moulding. And difficult to see where it will end. If it will end at all. This reshaping, this recasting. This squashing and reforming. Just when we see ourselves as being in good shape, along it comes again. The creator's hand. Sometimes through life and its events. Sometimes through people and their actions. Sometimes through other things. Hard to be humble, a challenge to be cheerful. Not always easy to see that in this reshaping others get a vision of God at work. His presence, his compassion, his strength and kindness.

And the potter keeps on working.

We want to be strong, want to be already perfect. Already fully formed. Don't want to be precious treasure held in a clay pot that will always be a work in progress. Want to be something else...

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