Really good participation this morning, with lots of people forming things from plasticine for which they wanted to give thanks.  We used some of the words to add verses to the song 'thank you God for this new day' which people sang with gusto a capella (a glitch with two versions of sheet music in different keys threw the musicians).  Overall, a fun morning that people seemed to enjoy.

Today our 'Images of God' series takes up the idea of God as a potter, and a particularly potty potter at that.  Drawing on Jeremiah's visit to the potter's house, and the 2 Corinthians concept of treasure in throw away cups, we will reach a point of imagining God having a Repair Shop where broken pieces are put back together with the golden glue of a Kintsugi restoration... the scars becoming part of a new or renewed beauty.  And into these repaired pots, God places the treasure of Good News, of love, of hope, of joy, faith, gentleness and so on.

I will briefly note that the better analogy for 'vessels of clay' is 'paper take away cups' but today it's the God who forms, reforms, repairs and renews that I want to focus on.

God puts this treasure into cheap, disposable cups...

We are chipped, cracked and broken... yet God does not throw us away

God takes the golden glue of grace and carefully puts us together with love

Making something beautiful from our brokenness

Not removing the scars but transforming us to include them

God is the potty potter who makes, remakes, repairs and renews -

Because God loves all God has made.

My sermon is much longer and less poetic.  There will be plasticine for prayers.  There will songs to sing.  And God will also join these bits together with the golden glue of God's unending love.