Reflections on Today's Gospel

One line in particular stuck out to me in today’s readings. In the first reading, the Prophet Isaiah says that “we are the clay and you are the potter.”¹ Now, my mind immediately leapt to two ways that this can be interpreted.

First, despite the way that most modern people interact with clay, it does not come to us perfectly pure and ready to be used. Instead, it has to be refined more or less depending on the soil that it is in. We, the people of G-d are clay. Much like last week’s metaphor of sheep and goats, we can point to that in contrast to the silt and sand of sinfulness.

Once clay is gathered, however, it is rarely simply formed and fired. Nearly every culture has a tradition of incorporating dust from a previous, often failed² project. It is at this point that I feel the need to reflect on the different “we’s” that the Prophet could be referring to.

First, we could mean each of us individually. We are all lovingly and perfectly shaped by G-d our Father. However, even as we are shaped, we are not alone. Pottery is a fundamentally useful craft. It creates objects to be used with others. Similarly, whatever the Almighty shapes us into, it is meant to relate to the rest of the world in some way.

Additionally, we are not the first to be born. Prayers from those before have their positive effects, like the powdered pieces of a previous project. Or, just as it is easier to shape a new pot once you’ve made an older one, it is also easier to find the Lord when your parents have known Him.

Of course, we could also be referring to the entire People of G-d. We are each a small piece of the clay in the pot of creation that the Lord forms. In that regard, the fragments of old pieces can be thought of as the parts of ourselves and our cultures we bring from times before Christ.

Nearly every Parish I’ve visited uses an evergreen wreath to hold its Advent candles. Why?

Of course, there’s the obvious answer of “we’ve always done it that way, and it’s pretty,” but of course, we can not have always always done it a certain way. Someone had to be first.³ Some among you might know that we took the concept of the Christmas tree from Germanic Pagans, for whom evergreen trees were a reminder that the depths of winter would pass. That sentiment lead us to using the same for Advent wreaths.

There was a truth in the pagan tribes that still resonates with the Church today. G-d who fashioned the entire universe can be seen in all that He has created. The beauty of evergreen boughs, especially in contrast to the white of winter, reminds us of so many different truths. In such a way, the beneficial parts of pre-Christian lives and cultures can enrich the lives of the faithful, just as the advent wreath enriches many believers’ Advents.⁴

Draft 1

Happy new year! I was reminded today⁵ that this year is the shortest possible advent at three weeks and one day.⁶ That’s not really relevant to the rest of this reflection, but it’s an interesting fact nonetheless.

Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year. It is a time of preparation and reflection before the celebration of the coming of our Savior. Of course, as is often brought up, Christmas only has meaning because of Easter.

Yesterday’s first draft talked about iconoclasm and its opposite. Every year, I feel a little more frustrated at the state of discourse surrounding Christmas and its accompanying rituals. These days, both sides of the extremes⁷ claim that such beloved traditions as Christmas trees are inherently pagan. Of course, there is truth to that claim, at least.⁸

Christmas trees were, as reported by the early Church, used in Germanic pagan winter solstice celebrations.⁹ However, just as music can bring people to the Almighty, and just as people and nations can be baptized, the Church in her glory recognized that rituals can serve to help lead us to Christ. The Church never claims to be the only place that truth is found, just the best. Anyways, all this to say, there is nothing wrong with remembering that life will come again and that winter will come to an end.

Today’s readings remind us that everything will come to an end. Christ compares His second coming to a man returning from a voyage abroad. However, the Gospel is not where I want to focus tonight.

Instead, I would like to focus on a single line from the first reading. “We are the clay and you are the potter.”¹⁰ Now, when I think of clay today, I think of it almost exclusively in an artistic context. What little I’ve worked with clay has come from prepared and purchased material of high purity.

Obviously, this is not how all clay has been gathered throughout history. Clay can be gathered from nearly any soil, though some soil obviously has more or less clay in it than others. It needs to be separated from the silt and the sand that also makes up soil. I’m sure that someone wiser than me could connect that to the metaphor of sheep and goats from last week, but I can’t seem to make the leap tonight.

The other piece of pottery lore that I remember right now is that nearly every culture has a tradition of incorporating a small portion of an already fired work into new clay. There are some really interesting materials reasons for it, and indeed, having a small amount of reused clay improves the final product. Now, depending on what we means¹¹, I can connect that to the reading.

Assuming we refers to each of us as individuals, it can be a reference to the fact that it’s easier to find the Truth if you are raised in a family who believes.¹² It is not essential however, which is part of where the Church’s mission to convert the entire world comes in.

If we refers to the People of G-d, then the pieces of prefired clay are traditions like Christmas trees and gift giving. We are able to most fully express our love for the Almighty not by turning away from absolutely every part of our old life, but by baptizing and purifying everything we do. The best pot is formed by taking parts from a pot that did not work. Similarly, the best culture¹³ is not created from new cloth entirely, but incorporates parts of the previous.

I don’t know if that’s at all coherent, but it resonates with me. Probably worth revising and seeing if I can’t make it a little better.

Isaiah 64:7B↩︎
if only because the successfully fired pots would likely be used↩︎
I’ve just now learned it’s apparently initially a Lutheran tradition, which is fun and interesting and adds a whole meta level to my “The Church takes the best from everything that’s somewhat wrong”↩︎
wow this second draft went way better↩︎
reminded here meaning that I’m sure I could have pieced it together and may have in the past but it was surprising to hear↩︎
Christmas is on a Monday, which means that the fourth Sunday of Advent is one day before Christmas, making it the shortest possible.↩︎
horseshoe theory rears its ugly head↩︎
the claims that Christmas itself is a pagan celebration are less historically supported and mostly bolstered by people whose explicit goal in research is discrediting early Christian history, which is not what I generally consider a balanced source↩︎
the fact that the only thing we know about most pagan European cultures comes from the Church seems to get ignored sometimes↩︎
Isaiah 64:7B↩︎
I’m becoming the insufferable philosopher I dread aren’t I↩︎
I assume that’s true, given that most people historically followed the religion of their parents↩︎
I feel uncomfortable sometimes saying that some cultures are better than others. I think that it is kind of an objective thing sometimes, but of course there’s a lot of nuance that is needed↩︎

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I'm just copying my father

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Reflections on Today’s Gospel

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