Recycling.  

We do it with newspapers, bottles, and cans.  Sometimes we do it with old batteries and computer printer cartridges.  But how about rotary-dial telephones?  

I don’t think so.  Junk like that gets thrown in the trash.  

If we lived in Cuba, however, the story would be different.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba fell into an economic crisis.  Poverty became widespread, and Cubans were forced to engage in some truly inventive recycling.  Since they had nothing new to work with, they found creative ways to make something out of nothing.  

One person took an old rotary-dial telephone, and turned it into an electric fan.   

Another took an empty plastic bottle, one that looks as though it once held antifreeze, and transformed it into a sign for taxicab.  

Another person took a little plastic bear, a child’s old squeeze toy, and attached it upside-down to a set of bicycle handlebars so that it would become a bike horn.  

Now that’s what you call real recycling.  Not simply putting old newspapers out on the curb.  This is the kind of reinvention that creates something out of nothing, and stands as a tribute to creativity.  There is “a purity” about it all, says Fernando Gutierrez, a partner in a design consultancy called Pentagram Design.  It’s “about simply needing the gadget at the end of the day.  It’s very meaningful.”  (Fiona Haley, “Viva Recycling,” Fast Company, February 2004, 37)   

And there’s no waste.  

The prophet Jeremiah gained a new appreciation for recycling when God ordered him to take a look at what was happening in the potter’s house in Jerusalem.  The people of Israel were on a perilous path, engaging in perversity and injustice and idolatry, and Jeremiah could see that they were on a collision course with invasion, exile and divine punishment.  But then he saw what the potter was doing, and he listened to the word of the Lord.  Jeremiah began to see that divine creativity might allow for a very different outcome.  

“ I went down to the potter’s house,” says Jeremiah, “and there he was working at his wheel.  The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him” (Jeremiah 18:3-4).  The potter did not give up when the first vessel was spoiled, but he reworked it into something that was good and useful, like a Cuban recycler turning a phone into a fan, or a plastic bottle into a taxi sign.

  Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:  “Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? … Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand” (v. 6).  God makes it very clear that he can smash a spoiled pot and throw it in the trash, or he can recycle it into something that is good and useful and pleasing to him.  The key, says the Lord, is repentance.  The fate of the vessel depends on its willingness to turn from evil (vv. 7-10).  

Jeremiah reveals that God does not want to trash us -- he wants to recycle us.  Although God describes himself as a potter who is shaping evil against us and devising a plan against us, he also stresses that there is a recycling option that is always open to us.  “Turn now, all of you from your evil way,” says the Lord, “and amend your ways and your doings” (v. 11).  

Repentance is the key -- turning ourselves around, and beginning to walk in the way of the Lord.  If we make a move away from sin and toward our Savior, we’ll find that God is willing to rework us into something that is remarkably fresh and creative and new.  Our Lord wants to use us, not discard us.  He wants there to be no waste.  

It’s true that we sometimes feel like old antifreeze bottles, empty and dirty and cracked, but we don’t have to end up in the trash.  Our God is not a lord of the landfill, anxious to get rid of any vessel that becomes spoiled in the course of this earthly existence.  Instead, our Lord wants to rework us, recycle us, and turn us into something that is pleasing and useful and good.  But we have to make the first move, and turn ourselves around through repentance.  

So why is this move such a tough one?  

Part of the problem is that any kind of change is a huge challenge for us.  Even when we know that it would be good to go in a new direction, we resist this change of course.  “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy,” wrote Nobel prize-winner Anatole France, “for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.”

  It is hard to repent of materialism, because it feels good to go out and buy the latest fashion or most up-to-date electronic gadget.  I really, really love my big-screen TV with surround-sound speakers.  In fact, the practice of materialism is so satisfying that it has its own name: “retail therapy.”  It is hard to repent of gossip, because it feeds our ego to be in a position of superiority, with control over a piece of scandalous information.  It is hard to repent of gambling, because we get such an adrenaline rush from making a bet and pursuing a jackpot.  It is hard to repent of Internet pornography, because it gives us a thrill -- and the risk of getting caught seems so minimal.  As much as we may want to make changes in these areas, we know that our repentance will leave us feeling somewhat deflated.  When we turn away from such sensual delights, we leave behind a part of ourselves.   

Another barrier to repentance is fear of the unknown.  To do an about-face and head in a whole new direction – which is, at heart, the core meaning of repentance – is a truly daunting proposition.  After traveling on one path for weeks or months or years, it can be disorienting and frightening to spin around and move in a different direction.  We have to wonder: Am I really going to enjoy living a life of simplicity after years of spending?  Am I ever going to feel any excitement if I focus on service projects instead of slot machines?  Repentance is the first step in becoming a whole new creation, like a squeeze toy changing into a bicycle horn, and it’s not clear from the beginning that any of us is going to enjoy the transformation.  

Repentance is hard, and repentance is frightening, but it’s the first step toward a new and more satisfying life.  If you find yourself on the wrong path, going in the wrong direction, get yourself turned around.  Make an about-face.  Repent.        

Fortunately, God is a part of this process, and he is working to reshape us into something that is good and useful and pleasing to him.  The Lord does not sit back and watch us transform ourselves on our own, like some kind of a do-it-yourself home improvement project, but instead God is an intimate part of the process – he is as involved as a potter working with a lump of clay on a potter’s wheel.   

After we take the first step of repentance, God rushes to embrace us and offer us the gift of forgiveness – he runs to us with the passion of the father in the parable of the prodigal son.  The great transformation of that story certainly begins with repentance, with the prodigal son deciding to turn his life around after hitting rock bottom and finding himself craving the pods in a pen of filthy pigs.  But the change does not end there.  The recycling is not complete until his father runs and puts his arms around him and kisses him, and then says to his slaves, “Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” (Luke 15:16-24).

  With God, there is no waste.  The dead come to life, and the lost become found.  Anyone and anything can be transformed by the power of God, changed as dramatically as a telephone turning into an electric fan.  Even you … and even me.  

The story of recycling in Cuba has at least one more lesson to teach us as we ponder the work that God does in reshaping our lives.  Back in 1994, a Cuban designer named Ernesto Oroza first noticed the creative reinventions of his fellow citizens -- their fans, signs, and horns -- and he gave these creations a special name: “objects of necessity.”  He said to Fast Company Magazine (February 2004), “The objects of necessity represent the world I live in, and they express our desire to invent and not let ourselves be overwhelmed by our problems.”       

Objects of necessity.  What a wonderful term to apply to ourselves, as we come to see ourselves as lumps of clay in the hand of our potter God.  We are the creations that God has chosen to advance his will on earth, the clear signs of God’s desire to invent new solutions to the problems that arise in the course of history.  It really doesn’t make sense for us to resist the changes that God is making as he recycles us, because there is nothing more satisfying than being “objects of necessity,” key components of our Lord’s world-changing movement of love and peace and justice.  Although we may have once focused on pleasing ourselves, we’ll discover that there is really nothing more thrilling than pleasing God, and fulfilling his purposes on earth.  

When the Lord does recycling, there’s never any waste.  Only forgiven and reinvented people -- people who are good and useful and pleasing to God.  Amen.

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