Some of you may have had the opportunity to visit Old Sturbridge Village, which recreates the life of a small New England town in the 1830s. One vivid memory I have from a visit many years ago is of the potter’s cottage.

If you have ever watched a potter at work, you know that he takes a clump of unformed clay, centers it on a wheel and then spins the wheel around, constantly using his hands to knead out imperfections such as bits of grit, hardened pieces of clay, and air pockets. If any impurities are left in the clay, or if it is off center on the wheel, or if there is too much moisture or too much sand, the clay may not react as expected in the hands of the potter. When that happens, the potter starts the process again, reworking and reshaping the clay until it finally becomes what he has envisioned -- something useful and beautiful.

Most of us do not have the opportunity to see an old fashioned potter spinning clay on his wheel except in a living history museum, but it was a scene out of daily life in Jeremiah’s time. In this morning’s scripture lesson, the prophet uses this image of a potter as a powerful metaphor for the way God lovingly shapes us, molds us, and changes us; and how God lovingly keeps working with us, despite our imperfections, until we are molded into something that reflects God’s vision for us. Jeremiah’s imagery echoes these words from the prophet Isaiah, “O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand” [64:8].

There is a difference between the potter working in clay and God working on us, however; we humans are not shapeless lumps, wholly at the mercy of the artist's hand. We have a will and a mind of our own and are considerably more resistant to being shaped by God than clay is in the hands of the potter.

Some of you might be thinking that clay is an OK image for kids, but that you’re way beyond the point of being re-molded and re-shaped. And some of you may be feeling that you’ve already been oven baked, and if you try to change, you’ll simply crack.

Indeed, sometimes we may feel cracked like a broken pot; there are places of brokenness in many of our lives and hearts and spirits. In biblical times, broken pots, jars, and bowls were thrown into a trash heap known as the “potter’s field.” The gospel of Matthew [27:7] tells us that by Jesus’ time, “potter’s field” was the public burial place for paupers, but in Jeremiah’s day, potters would go to these fields, salvage the shattered pottery pieces, take them back to their shops, and crumble them into powder and add water, turning the pieces back into clay once again, which they remolded and reshaped. Thus, the broken shards were transformed from trash into treasure.

And that’s what God does with us. God is the Master Potter going through the field of our lives, seeing the broken pieces, gently picking them up, and transforming them. Even if our hopes and dreams have crumbled, God’s loving and creative hands can mold us and make us into something new.

I will share with you that there have been times in my own life that I have felt like a broken pot in mind or body or spirit. And over the years, I have come to realize that it is those moments -- when God has picked up the shards of my life, re-working and renewing them -- that have most profoundly shaped my faith; they have been the moments of transformation that have helped me to be re-created into God’s vision for my life. God takes us and re-shapes us, forgiving us, healing us, and bringing us back into relationship when we fall away. And as we realize the transformation that God can work in our lives, so too can we recognize God at work in the lives of others; we begin to see the face of Christ in those we meet.

On this Homecoming Sunday, we welcome you who are with us for the very first time; we welcome back you who have returned after some time away; and we welcome home all of you. And we hope that, if you don’t already, you will come to call this place your church home. That’s why we call this Homecoming Sunday.

It's hard to know just what brings someone to the point of deciding to attend one church over another, or to come to any church, period. I suppose there are as many reasons as there are people, for each one of us has a unique story to tell regarding the grace of God and the movement of God's Holy Spirit in our life. Some of you may come – and come back – because of this church’s extravagant welcome and openness. Some of you may come for the sense of family, the tradition, the denomination, the educational programs. Or it may be the small groups, the spiritual life, or some combination of things that brought you through our doors the first time, and keeps you coming back.

Whatever may be your reason for coming to this church, we’re glad you’re here. Whether you’ve come this morning for the very first time, or whether you have been coming long enough to remember the building on Washington Street, you have made a decision with profound and far-reaching effects. Being part of a church is not the same as being part of any other kind of organization. It’s not just about paying your dues, attending the meetings, and helping out with special events. Being part of a church is about who you are as a person, and whose you are, and who you hope to become, because when you’re part of a church, you open yourself to the transforming power of God.

For people who want to stay the way they are, for people who do not want to change or grow, I would not recommend becoming part of a church -- it can be hazardous to your equilibrium! It can disrupt even the staunchest of conservatives and most flaming of liberals. It can overshadow the deepest of commitments and most carefree of lifestyles. It can trouble even the stillest of waters and most confident of souls. In short, being part of a church can upset the boundaries and assumptions and plans we have established for our own lives.

It's really quite amazing when you stop to think about it: the same God who created the universe and fills the deep places of life with mystery; the same God who, through Christ, walked on water and raised little children from the dead; the same God who spoke through the prophets of old and groans even today among the least of our sisters and brothers -- that same God chooses to be here, in this church, right now, working on us, you and me, like a potter reshaping and remolding clay.

Now if all this sounds rather scary, it should. Few people like to change – even when that change is for the better -- but that is what we open ourselves up to through the simple act of being part of a church. We no longer belong to ourselves, but we belong to God, the Divine Potter.

As we begin this new church year, let us give thanks for all the ways God has shaped us and molded us and held us in God’s loving hands, and let us pray that God may use our time in this place to teach us about faith, hope, and love; to teach us about what it means to live in community, what it means to be a church family and the body of Christ.

And as we begin a new year and a new chapter in the life of our beloved church, let God transform us; let us give our lives over into God’s hands to remold us and reshape us into the people God envisions; let us yield to the Divine Potter, that we may do the ministry God calls us to do and be the church God is calling us to be. Amen.

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