Last year, I introduced a clay sculpture project to my students in which they had to construct houses modeled after one of the six architectural styles we studied. We rolled out slabs of clay to mold together walls and roofs and floors. And once they each had their basic shape assembled, they went to work with their sharp clay needles to scratch designs and intricate features onto the surface to resemble things like tile roofs and stone facades.

I discussed the whole process with the students and reminded them of the way their clay houses would be fired, twice, and the rules they needed to follow to ensure their house would survive the kiln.

There’s a lot of things that can go wrong in the kiln, whether it's the clay itself that holds an air bubble, is too thick, or too wet, or too fragile. Or the kiln could encounter an error by not reaching the final temperature, or being too full, or overheating. But for this specific project I reminded the students over and over to produce some sort of hole in the floor of their house after finishing their detailed scratch work and before loading the piece in the kiln.

This hole punctured in the floor made way for the air to circulate inside the house’s structure and escape. If the air can’t escape, the air inside is trapped and heated and eventually causes the whole piece to explode. Not only does this destroy the piece of the student that forgot to punch a hole in their floor, but the shards that are propelled throughout the kiln can pierce or decapitate other pieces nearby.

Justin talked about the shalom (wholeness) that we can only accept through the offer of Jesus. The Israelites were expecting a false fullness/wholeness/shalom in Isaiah 58. They expected to achieve fullness through their outward piety of fasting and praying and humbling themselves. And they were frustrated and confused about why they didn’t feel complete when they had been consistent in their visible faith acts.

God answers by showing them the kind of house He builds - an interdependent, harmonious, selfless lego house; the kind in which you have to overlap your lego bricks to make sure your walls are sturdy. He shows them that the time dedicated to their visible faith acts is self-centered; they (we) participate in these acts for their own purposes, not to serve the poor or comfort the widow.

It comes back to the Gospel. The Gospel is always striking, every time I’m called back to remember that undeserved grace, but it struck my heart in a way I needed to hear in this season. I am like my students’ clay houses. My sin exists as the damage, the necessary hole in the floor in order to survive the kiln. God never wanted my house to be marred by vandalism, but now, this life I live being born into sin and walking this broken earth means it is literally impossible for me to construct my house without that hole in the floor. As Justin said, “Sin violates completeness.”

And then I seek wholeness through renewal, through rest, through the Sabbath, or at least my version of these things. In my growing list of acts of piety that I put on display for those around me, I cry out to God and ask why the hole in the floor of my house still exists. Why hasn’t He heard me? Isn’t He supposed to supernaturally fix that hole, that vandalism, that marring, and aren’t my acts enough to cause that? But, “a selfish heart is not a whole heart, and being good out of absolute self-absorption means your heart hasn’t changed.” When I expect God to grant me renewal through the fixing of the hole in my floor, but only because I have a lengthy list of good acts, then I haven’t been transformed by the renewal of the Gospel.

~Emily Spare

This misunderstanding isn’t happening because of some stinginess on Christ’s part, but a lack of admittance that I can do nothing to fix the violation of my sin. My long list of accomplishments will do nothing to create the lego house that God is building.

“That is what is so amazing about Jesus: He was woven together with us, built into us. His wholeness is our shalom. He is our peace literally. He is the one that repairs our vandalism to the peace that He has created through His very own body. He is repairer of the breach, the rebuilder of the ancient ruins, and in union with Him there is repair, wholeness and shalom.”