Jeremiah 18:1-11 Commentary

Illustration:

One of the most delightful challenges of pastoring is attempting answer kids’ questions about God.  They are unfiltered and haven’t yet learned the church rules dictating what one can wonder, ask or assert about who God is and how God works in the world.  (Maybe this is what Jesus intended when he wished that we could all be like little children.). This means, though, that 1) their questions are really, really hard and 2) they actually expect you to have an answer.

I’ll never forget a hallway conversation with a 6 year old, prompted by his mother, who asked something like, “If God made people, how come God is not a person?  If we live and die, how come God doesn’t die?”

After praising him for such a good question (which, let’s be honest, was at least partially about me buying time to collect my thoughts), I asked his favorite cartoon show. He answered and I asked, “is the creator of that cartoon also a cartoon himself? Does the creator of the cartoon have to follow the rules of the cartoon universe she creates?”

I can’t be certain that worked but the kid seemed satisfied in the moment. Or maybe he was just hungry for the potluck dinner starting in the Fellowship Hall.

This might work as a children’s message or an illustration at the start of this week’s sermon on the Hebrew Scripture lectionary text, in which God is a creator, a ceramicist at the pottery wheel.  While working the clay, God starts over, God adapts, God has the right to exist outside the rules that govern clay.  This is ultimately a text about God’s sovereignty, freedom from human expectation or demand.

Commentary:

A Common Image

This is not the only place in Scripture where God is imaged as a Potter.  Robert Alter points out that the use of the Hebrew verb for God’s fashioning is the same as that used for the creation of humankind in Genesis 2. This language, explains Alter, is considered so beautiful and central to what it means to be a human (broken, in need of repair, atonement) in relationship to God that it features in “an impressive liturgical poem in the Yom Kippur service.”

As you prepare liturgy for your context, consider including Isaiah 29:16 (a great backbone to a prayer of confession) and Isaiah 65:8 (a marvelous assurance of pardon.). Consider, as well, the way that the Lectionary Psalm hits a similar point. You might also play with Isaiah 45:9. It sets up an imaginary conversation where the clay critiques the potter’s technique. Good humor to a rather searing point about human folly.

And if you—and your congregation—are up for a deep dive, consider how Paul appropriates this imagery in the rather contested chapter 9 of his book to the Romans about the inclusion of the Gentiles, which necessarily upsets the exclusivity of Israel as God’s chosen people.

Used Uncommonly

Indeed, Jeremiah seems intent on poking at God’s people in chapter 18 by the way he uses this image to challenge the people’s claims to exclusivity, that being God’s favorites means privilege rather than responsibility.

The CEB Study Bible adds a challenging note for those of us who are fond of the doctrine of election when it states: “Jeremiah 18:1-12 disputes another core belief of God’s people: the election tradition. This is the supposed certainty that God has chosen Judah and will shield the nation from harm.  The potter-clay image challenges this position of privilege. It insists that God as potter and of whatever God wishes…the focus is on divine authority, although not to the exclusion of human freedom. Both authority and freedom are paradoxically affirmed in this key text.”

This paradox is uncomfortable for many Christian scholars who tend to settle in either a free will or an election camp but there’s no denying it.  Again from The CEB Study Bible, “Divine authority emphasizes the Lord’s intent to bring disaster on Jerusalem, and human freedom emphasizes Judah’s total rejection of the Lord.” Paradox lives comfortably in a Jewish interpretive tradition and worldview.  The co-existence of these two realities exists somewhere in the mystery of God.  It contributes to our own humility, a theme that is, in fact, central to the text itself!

To Substantiate the Overall Message of Jeremiah to God’s People

Remember the context of Jeremiah as a whole is that is written out of profound suffering for those who read it amidst their own suffering.  Suffering is rarely simple to diagnose or cure.  The loss of a loved one has tentacles that extend through that first year of absences, realization that finances, habits, schedules are all changed.  On a global scale, war rarely emerges out of one misunderstanding but builds over multiple skirmishes and conflicts. For people of faith, the logical question is to ask “where is God in all of this?” Or “How is God at work in this tragedy? When will God set this right?

Jeremiah refuses one, simple, clean answer to these questions. Even if these verses in Jeremiah 18 seem to suggest that, they must be taken as one answer offered in relationship to a whole host of other complementary and even contradictory answers.

Humans sin against God and are, therefore, responsible for their own suffering.  Yes, and…God acts as God sees fit.  Sometimes God is inscrutable. Yes, and…sometimes there aren’t answers and all we can do is take time to grieve and lament.  Yes, and…sometimes this is just how life goes in a broken world. Blaming ourselves or God take time when the better course of action is just to get on with it.

We can see all of these approaches at some point in the book of Jeremiah. The CEB Study Bible summarizes, “The book of Jeremiah is well known for its complex and disorderly character, and modern readers can be frustrated if they come to it looking for coherence and linear thinking. The paradox is the point and it is why, not despite but because of its chaotic character, Jeremiah offers a particular word of comfort to those who suffer today.