Earthen Vessel, Feet Of Clay

Remember your earthenness, yes, but take good care of it, because this is the way our God chooses to speak to his world.

In the Book of Daniel there is an intriguing image; it is the image of an iron statue, made for strength and sturdiness, but with feet of clay. Daniel tells the king that this image means that it is altogether possible that the kingdom may look strong and powerful, but if the feet of the iron figure are made of brittle clay, it will fall. This Biblical image has become for us a synonym of moral failure and of inappropriate foundations.

And so, yes, remember how earthen you are, but take care lest the clay pot also have clay feet. Take care lest the foundations not be strong enough. Take care of yourself, lest the feet of clay be too brittle and not hold you up.

You see, I come back to where Paul is on this: the power issue. I have seen that those who have forgotten that they are earthen vessels and have arrogated power to themselves; I have seen that they have failed to take care of the foundations, they have fallen over feet of clay.

I can tell you stories all day of ministers who have not tended the foundations of their marriages, that most basic relationship, and have found themselves in alluring arms on some cold night, pretending that they, powerful men that they are, are above all that morality stuff. But the feet of clay have crumbled under them.

I can tell you of a hundred and more ministers who got so caught up in the money game that it destroyed them ... preachers who will tell you they will not come and preach for you for less than a thousand dollars, pastors who will do your wedding, yes, but for a $500 fee, servants of the church who wait around on their anniversary day for the purse and the keys to the new car, and why wasn’t it a Mercedes this year, just another Oldsmobile?

0h, minister brothers and sisters, tend to the earthenness of your vessel, take care of it, remember what it is, and that it may have feet of clay which will crumble and fall and great will be the fall thereof!

And you, people of God, take care of your earthen vessels appropriately. You do not help them by feeding their egos. You do not serve them well by pandering to their proclivities. You do not help them by pretending that the earthen vessel is a crystal goblet, when the truth is, he may be a cracked pot. Be authentic with them. Take care of these earthen vessels.

III

But above all, remember that what we contain is a treasure. We may be earthen, common, ordinary, clay pots. And these clay pots may be set down on feet and foundations of the basest and most brittle clay. But still and all, what we contain is a treasure. A treasure to be guarded, protected, cherished, and above all, a treasure to be shared.

Now Brother Dixon is a bank examiner. More than most of us he knows what is involved in making certain of a treasure. He knows how shoddy practices and inept management can whittle away at assets. He knows how bad judgment and risky policies can take the accumulated savings of many people and just wipe them out overnight. He knows what a treasure is and what is involved in keeping it.