Broken Vessels Restored by Grace | 2 Corinthians 4:7

Okay.

The last time I spoke, I relayed to you that I was uh a hobby potter and and brought some thoughts uh related to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

And I talked about what Paul had to say as he described believers as jars of clay, ordinary, fragile containers of pottery, and how God uses human weakness to accomplish his purpose.

And the treasure that Paul talks about is not the jar itself, but what God places in it.

I think that image is powerful.

The clay jars are indeed fragile.

They chip, they crack, they break, they become useless.

And so do we as we uh succumb to sin.

Yet scripture insists that God chooses fragile vessels to carry his treasure, and that is the very treasure that restores the broken vessel.

Today I want to deepen that image by uh comparing it to the Japanese art of Kensugi, and then show how Kinsugi points us towards the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Does anybody know what Kensugi is?

There's a few.

So um the story of Kinsugi, how it became to be.

It began in Japan in the late 1400s when a shogun um broke his favorite tea bowl.

And he sent that bowl to the master craftsmen of China to do the repair.

The repair he received back was ugly and crude, with pieces held together with staples and glue.

Very similar to the picture that you see here.

And that was just the best that the uh Chinese masters could do at the time.

But uh Japanese um artisans thought that they could do better, and they did.

Um, they um created something um a little more beautiful than that.

So Kentsugi means golden joinery, it's broken pottery uh repaired using lacquer and gold, um lacquer mixed with powdered gold, and the cracks become gleaming lines.

The vessel is not restored to its original appearance, it becomes something new, more beautiful and more valuable, more valuable because of its brokenness.

Kinsugi repairs are frequently seen in some of the movies and TV shows, especially if you watch things like the Hallmark channel.

Uh, they it tends to pop up.

Kinsugi in the philosophy of Wabi Sabi teaches that brokenness is not the end, and scars can become beauty, and restoration can make something more valuable than before.

So now I want to compare that to the gospel.

Kinsuki uses the gold to fill cracks, but God uses something infinitely more precious.

The precious blood of Christ.

1 Peter 1 18 and 19 says, You were ransomed not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.

Gold can repair pottery, only the blood of Jesus can restore a soul.

It's not glued back together, it is completely put back together, just like it was new again.

And even though our bodies are wasting away, that renewal of our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Second Corinthians four sixteen.

And that new self is being renewed in knowledge after its after the image of its creator.

So Saint Kentsugi celebrates the go the brokenness, but God redeems the brokenness.

Kentsugi highlights and celebrates the crackedness.

The gospel transforms them.

God does not discard cracked jars, he fills them with treasure.

Since we can uh should we continue to sin and to celebrate our brokenness?

Romans 6 1 through 2 says absolutely not.

While we continue to live with the knowledge of our past life, we should not boast in our brokenness, but use them as a continual reminder of how much we owe God for our redemption and use our limitations as opportunities for faith and instructing others to do better.

Kinsugi makes a vessel beautiful, but God makes it purposeful.

Kinsugi, a Kinsugi bowl becomes a display piece, and it's pretty to look at.

But it's not useful.

God does more than beautify us.

He commissions us to be useful.

Ephesians 2 10 says, For we are his workmanship.

And that Greek word for workmanship is poi ima, if I pronounce it right.

It's what we get our uh the root from the word poem, his masterpiece.

It also means that which has been made as in design and crafted work of art.

And it's the same word used in Romans 1.20 to describe the physical universe and nature as created handiwork of God that reveals the very nature of God.

So we were created in Christ Jesus for good works.

We are restored for a purpose, which God prepared beforehand.

So our restoration is just not random.

It was planned from the beginning, and that we should walk in them.

Restoration leads to a mission.

And it should be, it should lead to a lifetime of good works.

Kinsugi makes something beautiful.

God makes our life purposeful.

A little too quick.

A Kinsugi artist gathers every possible piece and joins the broken pieces back together.

God does not merely join pieces, he makes a new creation.

Second Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old is passed away, behold, the new has come.

So we are the broken vessel.

Sin breaks us.

Life breaks us, choices break us.

We are fragile jars of clay.

But God gathers the pieces.

A Kinsugi artist never sweeps away the pieces into the trash, and neither does God.

He gathers every shard of your life.

God repairs us with something precious.

Kinsugi uses gold.

God uses his the blood of his son, more precious than any earthly substance.

God turns the scars into testimony.

Kinsugi highlights the cracks, but God redeems them, and he makes us new again.

The restored vessel can carry carries treasure.

A repaired bowl is meant to hold something valuable.

And we carry the gospel, the very thing that restored us.

And we are to share that message so others can forgive, can be forgiven, and to be restored just as we have been.

But here's the greatest contrast.

Kensugi is beautiful, but it cannot forgive sin, it cannot cleanse guilt, it cannot restore your soul, it cannot prepare you for good works, and it cannot give you eternal life.

Only Jesus can.

Kansugi uses gold, Jesus uses his blood.

Kintsuki repairs pottery, Jesus resurrects people to walk in a new life.

Forgiven, redeemed, per purposeful.

Pottery once you it once you and in the clay.

It just becomes so personal.

So here's the invitation.

If you feel broken, if you crack, if you feel cracked, if you feel like you're life like your life is in pieces, then you are exactly the kind of vessel that God restores and restores in you.

There's no amount of pieces too great that he can't put back together.

He will gather the pieces.

Every one of them, and he will restore you with the blood of Jesus Christ and make you new again.

He will fill you with his treasure, and he will send you out to do works that he prepared for you.

Kinsugi makes things valuable, but God makes you new again and useful and prepared for an eternal life with our Creator.

So Kinsugi teaches that brokenness can become beauty.

The gospel teaches that brokenness can become a beautiful new life.

Kinsugi uses gold, but God uses the blood of Jesus.

Something more precious than gold or silver.

So we say with Paul, we have this treasure in jars of clay.

And with Peter, you are transformed with the precious blood of Christ.

If you're ready to be restored by the Master Craftsman and contact his blood through baptism, then the invitation is yours.

If you'll come forward as we stand and sing.