Jeremiah was seeing double.
God had knocked him upside the head and he couldn’t see straight after that.
Everything he saw and did was two things at once.
One was just plain old ordinary every day kind of things, like a piece of pottery, or a handful of wet clay in the potters hand, spinning on the wheel. His life was full of pottery and wet clay and broken crockery, it was everyday essential that was everywhere.
The other thing he saw was God, everywhere, in and around everything and everybody.
Nothing was just what it seemed, it all blazed out the presence of God.
The hands of the potter became the hands of God creating the heavens and the earth and all that dwelled therein.
He was no longer witnessing the making of pottery, he was witnessing the seven days of creation, the creation, the miracle of God bringing about everything.
And the clay was more than the earth being made, it was the dust that God made humanity of, wet dust, and it was more than the dust of Adam, it was human history being shaped as well, time itself, past, present and future.
The wet clay was not just a witness of God creating it was a witness of God holding and God judging, destroying and starting over.
Jeremiah watched the clay in the potter’s hand spinning, and the potter made a wrong move and the pot flew apart and collapsed.
Creation and Judgment.
The beginning and the end, or rather the beginning and the new beginning.
Creation and Judgment.
They are two of the core teachings of our faith, they give us a foundation to live upon, and they reveal something of the God we worship, the God who created us and who is our judge.
Set aside all the politics and media events that surround the doctrine of creation, set aside Darwin, set aside creationism, creation science, intentional design and the literal seven days. Set all that aside and begin with the ancient understanding of creation.
The doctrine of creation teaches us that the heavens and the earth and all that lives there in are here on purpose and are full of purpose and divine intent, and are very good. Being God’s creation has moral value, eternal value, it is more than good, it is very good.
That is one of the cornerstones that we have faith in, that despite everything, we trust that it is still good to be here, that we are not accidents, that life has intent and purpose. That is the faith statement that the doctrine of creation teaches us to trust in no matter the appearances otherwise.
For Jeremiah, and the people of Israel that belief was not only an act of faith, it was an act of rebellion against the Babylonians, the ones who conquered and exiled Jeremiah’s people.
The Babylonians saw the creation of the world as a messy accident. Two divine beings were in battle with one another and the horrible mess they left behind became all creation.
Life had no inherent purpose or value. It was all an accident of violent and indifferent divine beings just passing through who don’t clean up their own messes.
Do you see the difference in the foundation of the two faiths?
Do see the different kind of hope that the people of Israel held?
God’s people hold a defiant hope that contradicts the meaninglessness that most of the world lives with.
The Babylonians saw a mess and they had to grab what they could while they could, Jeremiah saw a miracle to cherish, a gift.
They were two very different ways to live and hope. For those in exile, for those whose lives were uprooted, the doctrine of creation was an act of blind faith, an act of defiant and rebellious hope.
It is still good to be here, it is good to be me, it is good to be you, cherish the gift of this day and this life, and give thanks.
That is the ultimate rebellion.
But Jeremiah saw more than creation in his double vision of the clay in the Potter’s hand, he saw Judgment.
Creation and Judgment cannot be separated from one another. Beginnings and endings are important.
The doctrine of Judgment teaches that our actions have consequences, meaning, enduring effect, abiding purpose. What we do, think and speak matters, they echo through history and eternity.
The alternative is that they don’t matter, or they don’t matter very much.
The doctrine of Judgment is ultimately about hope, not fear. It is not about damnation it is about renewal.
What is wrong will ultimately be set right.
What is wounded will be healed.
And it is God who does this.
The clay vessel that collapses will be renewed, reshaped, recreated.
We live with this hope, that how we live matters, and that ultimately God will set things right, that God can be trusted as our Judge.
Creation and Judgment: we are held in the potters hand, we are marvelously made, and such knowledge is wonderful.
The doctrine of Salvation is like Creation and Judgment, because it reveals God as well. It reveals that God has counted the cost of our redemption, it cost God everything. God does more than create and Judge, God also saves.
Jesus is the salvation of God, all God has to give, reaching out to us.
Our allegiance to the person of Jesus is the first loyalty, the loyalty that our lives spin around. If our allegiance lies anywhere else we are like wet clay that is spinning off center and our lives fly apart. We have to let go of everything else.
God has let go of everything to reach out to us, God’s loyalty to creation is passionate and consuming. That is what we learn about who God is.
So.
Live in hope and thanksgiving, it is the ultimate rebellion against Babylon.
See God in everything, everywhere in everyone.
Celebrate the gift of that double vision.
So Jeremiah tells us, so the faith teaches.