Phil On ... Ceramic Production 

A metaphor for a life with or without Jesus
A Sunday Zoom service included a sermon reminding us that being a Christian involves us having to die to our old way of life and then leading a new life where we allow God to guide us. An analogy was made to a seed; once sown, a seed must die to allow the formation of a new plant that ultimately bears fruit. Another analogy might concern a potter re-moulding a failed pot into a new, worthwhile piece.
In this article I thought I would explore the ceramic analogy a little further …
A potter works with a blend of ceramic minerals (often powdered quartz and feldspar as well as clay) dispersed in a small amount of water. The resultant material is like plasticine and is easily deformable. This starting material for ceramic production is perhaps analogous to a young person, willing to change or adapt. When a young person makes a mistake, they are more likely to come back to the parent or teacher, acknowledge that they have gone wrong, listen and allow themselves to be “re-moulded” to behave better.
After a ceramic is formed it is dried and becomes harder. It is not impossible to re-cycle from this point, but it takes more effort to blend the dried pot with water and re-form the plastic clay ready for re-shaping. Maybe a dried pot is like a teenager, more likely to rebel but ultimately still amenable to turning around to become a good person?
After drying, ceramic pots are fired in the kiln. The ceramic “body” undergoes changes. The clay loses water and undergoes a change in silica to alumina ratio. The feldspar melts and reacts with the other components to form a hard, durable pot. We might think of this as progress: The pot is stronger and less likely to break. This is all well and good if the ceramic pot is acceptable. But what if it is imperfect and unworthy to perform the task it was intended for? You can no longer simply re-mix with water and re-shape. The fired pot is like an adult who is set in their ways. You might think that there is no hope at this stage. Coming back to the analogy with Jesus you might think he is unable to change their lives for the better. However, difficult as it may seem, it is possible to smash the pot up, mill it back to a fine powder and then (by adding water and extra chemicals called binders and surfactants) generate once again a deformable material ready for re-shaping. Likewise, Jesus can re-form the hardest, most bitter, angry and dishonest human.
Another analogy concerns shaping. Many will be familiar with the use of plaster moulds in the ceramics industry. By pouring a more fluid blend of water, clays, quartz and feldspar into multiple moulds, the water is taken up by the porous moulds and a series of identical solid cast items form against the inner surfaces. Equally, the plastic ceramic body previously worked by the potter can also be shaped against a series of moulds. Such mechanisation sparked an industrial revolution where mass production of the same items replaced the potter. Is there an analogy here to the modern world where Jesus seems redundant and everyone strives to be a carbon copy of everyone else, trying to grab all they can in a materialistic world?
But all is not lost:  I can point to an exciting, emerging disruptive technology to suggest that Jesus is alive. The technology of Additive Manufacturing (also known as 3-D Printing) is already becoming established in the polymer and metal processing industries; but soon I believe it will be embraced by the ceramics sector. Additive Manufacturing creates a product layer by layer. Firstly, powder is swept as a single layer across the build area. Then, selected areas of the newly formed layer are stitched together using a printed ink or a laser. The process is repeated and eventually a 3-D shape can be lifted from the powder bed. A shape has been produced without a mould allowing the creation of bespoke, one-off shapes. This is like Jesus. If we allow him into our life, he shapes us to be the truly unique individual he meant us to be, free from the pressure to mimic the secular behaviours of others around us.