Pottery is one reason I search for the missing aesthetic link in my faith.
Throughout his Word, God revealed himself with “visual aids” – with objects we can feel, more than with the abstract objects we can only think about and make systematic theology with. Visual aids like pots.
God is a potter, not a theologian.
He is the potter, we are the clay. We are in his hands, as clay in the potter’s hands. He breaks the rebellious into pieces, like the shards of a potter’s vessel.
We don’t think much about pottery. We hold pottery; we use pottery; we appraise pottery for visual appeal, perhaps for beauty. We like to look at pottery because … there is something about pottery that reminds us of us …
Are pots just “visual aids?”
This physical world, both the nature that he created and the culture(s) that he allows, is imbued with physicality. This physical world is pots within pots; it is all the work of the Potter. And he himself came as a man, God embodied.
The embodied God said this: “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” But the embodied God said that. The truth was not uttered by a voice out of the sky. It was spoken by the Man from Galilee; the Man from Nazareth.
The Man who looked like Pottery more than Theology. The Man who came to us, so that we, as earthen vessels, may be containers of Treasure.
The Man who was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, later used to purchase a potter’s field where they dumped strangers.
What are we to do with pots, potters, pottery and brokenness in theological exegesis? Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Arise, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words …
Logos2Go
Isaiah 64.8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Jeremiah 18.6 O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord . Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
Revelation 2.27 … and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces …
John 4.24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth…
2 Corinthians 4.7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Matthew 27.6-7 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money." So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers.
John 1.46 Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Jeremiah 18.1-2 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words."
2 comments:
Having been recently accepted into a Theology M.A. program, and just last night beginning preparation for the first course, I'm feeling a little defensive of theology. (Should I have instead enrolled in an art class?) God is also a God of Word, of Word that speaks into existence--Word that FORMS--all that is, including dirt and clay.
The mystery of godliness is, indeed, great! (1 Tim. 3:16) "He appeared in a body ...": A soma made of sarx in a cosmos that He himself had formed. WOW.
Of course you are right. But I'm going to study theology hopefully at the feet of the Potter / Theologian who speaks the Word of life into the shards of my existence.
Wonderful post Dan. Certainly YOU are right. My only concern -- and this describes me more than I am thinking of others -- is that the treasure of the theology must be seen, felt, touched ... in pots of earthenware. DW
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