Call to Worship: Clay Pots

The following is our call to worship for Sunday, April 18, 2010.

Paul said, “I am what I am by the grace of God” (1 Cor 15:10). The Bible says that we are all clay pots that hold a very precious substance. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7). What is special about us is not us. We are just clay pots—earthen vessels. We are special because we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

It has been said that the Roman Empire ran on olive oil. It was used in cooking, bathing, medicine, ceremonies, lamps, and cosmetics. For decades, olive oil from southern Spain was shipped to Rome in large clay jugs. Those jugs, not worth sending back, were discarded in a growing heap of broken shards known as Monte Testaccio. The fragments of an estimated 25 million clay pots created that man-made hill, which stands today on the bank of the Tiber River in Rome. In the ancient world, the value of those pots was not their beauty but their contents.

Because of this, the first-century followers of Christ would have clearly understood Paul’s illustration of the life of Jesus in every believer. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Our bodies, like those clay pots, are temporary, fragile, and expendable. In our modern world that highly values outward beauty; we would be wise to remember that our greatest treasure is the life of Jesus within us. By God’s grace and power, may we live so that others can see Christ in us.

We are just the clay pots. Jesus is the true treasure within us.[1]

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[1] Portions of this devotional are from David C. McCasland