Just a Crock

Dear Fellow Earthenware Jars:

In 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul wrote about the irony that God has entrusted the eternal gospel of grace to be carried in fragile, dust-resourced human bodies. In verse 7 he wrote, “…[W]e have this treasure in earthen vessels [clay jars], so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.” I love thinking of our physical vessels as mere ‘clay jars’, earthy, common, fragile. In his 1961 book, Treasure in Earthen Vessels: The Church as a Human Community, James Gustafson applied Paul’s metaphor to the whole church, reminding the reader that the institution is not holy, but its message is. Paul wrote his words as comfort, reminding the faithful that they should find no surprise in human frailty or mortality; we are but earthenware. The rich value is found not in the materiality of we are, but in the good news we are gifted to carry.

We live in an age of institution bashing. Despisers are quick to point out every hypocritical flaw. Perhaps because the church has taken itself far too seriously, it has been quick to cover over and cover up any evidence of corruption, but the light of day has a way of fading veneer. Churches of every stripe and denomination have withered under the watchful eye of investigation. It would have been far better to let the old vessels crack wide open when pressured rather than pretend the flaws were only cosmetic. Like gilded ossuaries, the institutional church chose to adorn its external self, leaving its internal decay unchanged. Exactly the opposite of what Paul encouraged.

In the twelfth century there was a Cistercian monk, Joachim of Fiore, who claimed a time would come when the institutional church would no longer be necessary. Joachim spoke of the end of visible institutions, when a new age of deinstitutionalized spirituality would reign supreme. He believed this spiritual age would be purer than the corruptible visible Church with her fixed creeds, sacraments and hierarchy. Joachim’s writings had a profound influence on Dante’s Divine Comedy with its open satire critical of the church’s excesses. It should come as no surprise that the writers who followed in Joachim’s footsteps were denounced as heretics; the institutional church didn’t like being deemed superfluous. But it is instructive to remember that the church was never meant to think of itself as holy, any more than a Christian should consider one’s self as immortal.

Paul wanted the Corinthian church members to remember their fragility, and how their precious value was found not in themselves, but in the grace-filled message they were privileged to share. They were nothing more than the earthen vessels God chose to pour out the wondrous love of Christ. Perhaps we should take comfort by considering the church as an equally vulnerable crock.

Suggesting we consider ourselves in humble service, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor