A Family of Potters

Props

Items of kitchen cookware and plates of various materials e.g. china, plastic, metal. If possible also have an item made of clay/pottery.

Click here for a powerpoint which can be used in the worship

Gathering

Leader: We gather together in Jesus' Name

All: Help us to explore, discover and learn togethr

Engaging

Show the different items you have brought and together identify the materials they are made of. Has anyone ever seen things like this being made, either in real life or perhaps on television? If you have a school kiln, or pupils who have recently done some kind of claywork, ask someone to say a little bit about it.

If you lived in an Indian village like the village of Latteri near Vellore you would be able to go down to one of the potter's houses in the village and choose your own clay pot for your kitchen. You could even watch it being made, or tell the potter if you wanted a special kind of design or size. The potters at Latteri make their pots in exactly the same way as people used to do in Bible times. They have a large wheel which they wind with a stick to get up speed, then they throw the clay on to the centre of the wheel and swiftly shape it into a pot with their hands. Special visitors are sometimes allowed to try and make a pot of their own on the wheel, but if they don't know how to do it properly, the pot usually collapses as they try to pick it up! At least the clay isn't wasted though, because the potters can put the clay back on the wheel and make a proper pot with it once their visitors have gone. Because the weather is so hot in India (and Israel) the potters do not need a kiln to fire their pots - they simply leave them out in the sun to harden.

Over 2,500 years ago in Israel a man called Jeremiah sat watching a potter at work on his wheel. He noticed too how sometimes the potter spoilt the pot he was making, and would have to shape the mess back into a ball of clay and start again. Jeremiah was a prophet, which meant that when he saw something like this happening he would use the story about what he had seen to help teach his people something about God. He used the potter story to remind the people that if they kept doing bad or stupid things it meant that they were like the pot which fell apart on the wheel - no use to anybody. Just like the potter had to remake his pot, they needed to have their lives remade by God. Sometimes nowadays our lives still get like that too, we get in a terrible mess or muddle and we need to take time to say sorry for our mistakes and try to start again. Often we need help from other people, or from God, to do that too, just like the clay wasn't clever enough to make a pot by itself without the potter!

(Check it out: Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1-4)

Responding

Think about how you sometimes do things wrong and yet people still love you and forgive you and help you to do better next time. Pray for those who feel their life is a mess and who need to sort themselves out.

Sending

Leader: Go in peace to discover God's world and your place in uit

All: We go in Jesus' name

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