you are the clay

An Incarnational Translation of
Jeremiah 17:19-18:11
By Rev. Adam Tierney-Eliot, Natick, MA

God sent Jeremiah to stand at the corner of Park and Tremont, in front of the Park Street Station and in the shadow of the capital dome.  There Jeremiah stood one fine Sunday morning, fighting a losing battle with frustration.  Confrontational, cantankerous, willful, stubborn and abrasive, he was an unpopular man but, he told himself, he wasn’t there to be liked.   He was on a mission.  Jeremiah knew the truth and had to let it out.  Eventually he heard a distant rumble from beneath him.  Another train had arrived.  Then the people started coming up the stairs, marching toward whatever destination they had assigned for themselves.  Jeremiah composed himself took a deep breath and began…again.

“Thus says the Sovereign God:” he yelled as they exited the tunnel “do not be so focused on getting to office by nine, certainly not on Sunday for God’s sake.  Do not be so quick to the early bird specials that you forget my commandments.  Do not ignore the requirements of a faithful and just life.  The false idols of expensive shoes, the flattering suit or dress, marble counter tops, high office, or your name in the celebrity sections of Boston Magazine should have no hold on you.  The flow of wealth and power must not be your ultimate concern.  There is a higher order, can’t you see it? See what I have made and love that instead, with your whole heart and an open mind.  Listen to your God if you value your humanity!” 

But the people just hurried by, carrying their briefcases and shopping lists.  They went up the hill toward the State House, past the homeless men asleep on the grates and past the young woman cradling her child with all their belongings around her in grocery bags.  They went down the hill, too–avoiding the eyes of the demonstrators defending the rights of immigrants—past the open doors of the Park Street Church, Tremont Temple, King’s Chapel and more besides, on toward the Financial District Offices, the boutiques and Macy’s.

“Do not bring your hang-ups and anxieties out of your homes or do any work on God’s Day!” said Jeremiah, “God says, If you listen to me and do not fixate on your own selfish desires, if you turn from your idols and instead turn toward me and the goodness of my creation there shall come a day when all shall be just, nurturing and supporting each other.  There will come a day when all will have heard of the greatness of this city and the holiness—the goodness—of its people. There will be no sadness on the Freedom Trail.  Every child will take their turn on the swan boats and sit on the ducklings in the Garden.   They will give thanks for your wide open arms.  If you turn from your “too busy to care” ways, the city will last forever and be a beacon that lights the way in the hearts and minds of those who see and are changed by it.  But, if you do not listen to me, and continue on your way, I, God, will not save you from the shadow on your hearts.  You will wallow in anxiety and stress, bow to social pressures, build a fortress of self-entitlement to protect yourselves and ultimately succumb to the twin demons of despair depression.”

“You see,” said Jeremiah to those few who seemed they might be listening and to the many who quite obviously were not, “The Sovereign One sent me a vision.  God said, ‘I want to show you something.  Let me take you to the potter’s studio—no, not the sanitized showroom (we are not here to shop, after all)–but to the workroom.’  Then, in my dream, the scene shifted and God and all of us found ourselves crammed into a small back room.  I could smell the odor of rust from the brown clay and hear the steady beat of the potter working his kick wheel. He had a vase on its spinning surface and as we watched, a flaw appeared on that vase.  It slowly grew until the vase imploded and could not be saved.  But the potter did not give up!  He reworked it into another vase that he liked even better than the first. Then God spoke again as a parent to a child, ‘can I not do with you just as this potter has done?  Just as the clay is in his hand, so are you in mine.  If you continue your evil ways by not listening to me, if you cannot see that what is written on your neighbor’s heart and on that of the stranger is the same as what is written on yours, then I will have to rework you.  I will make you into a new people.  However, it does not have to be that way.  You can rework yourselves and you should! It is, after all, a whole lot easier.’

Then God said to me, ‘now Jeremiah, go to the Park Street station and tell them what you have seen.’”

“Thus says the Sovereign God, ‘I am like a potter and you are like the clay, I can gently guide your growth and make you a thing of beauty if you do not resist me.  Turn now, all of you, from the siren song of secular society. Amend your ways and your doings.’  Turn,” said Jeremiah as he stood among the least of these “Turn” he said to the fleeing backs, “someone stop…and listen.”