Sermon Excerpt by: Reverend Susan Winter - July 2007

About three weeks ago Carol and I and the rest of my red hat group took a woodturning class. The Woodturning School spun off from Round Top, and they had just opened their doors on Bristol Rd. We were their guinea pigs for “Girl’s Night Out”, in which we complete novices were able to produce a bowl within three hours, with a little help from our teachers. 

So I learned how to make this bowl. I learned how to use some power tools, in particular, a variable speed lathe. And I was amazed at how a chunk of wood, literally, with the bark still on it, recently cut from the tree, could be transformed into something smooth and finished and, well, useful. 

I have always loved wooden bowls, so even the idea and then the experience of making one was really quite a thrill. And, pastor that I am, I could not help but be struck at what a great image woodturning is for our life with God.

When you turn a bowl, you first work on the outside. The block of wood is secured to the lathe, and using some tools, you start to peel and shave off layer after layer, forming the outside of the bowl. I was having such a good time that my bowl got smaller and smaller. Every time I felt or saw another little ridge, I just wanted to take down one more layer. I loved how the bowl molded under my hands. But finally, one of the instructors came along and said: “That’s enough, or you won’t have anything left!” 

And I realized as I took this wonderful molded wood off the lathe, that all I had succeeded in doing was making something that could be used as a hockey puck, or maybe as a door stop or a book end. If I really wanted a bowl, all the time and effort I had put into the outside was for nothing, until I turned my block of wood around, clamped it back onto the lathe, and started to hollow out the inside.

And hollowing out the inside required more care than working on the outside. I needed to gauge the thickness of the sides, and the thickness
of the bottom. Taking too aggressive a bite could even make the bowl split in two and go flying off the lathe. But as I shaved and shaved, a
real bowl started to emerge from the block of wood. And with a lot of pointers and some hands-on help, by the end of the class, I had my bowl.

Well, now I have a new name for God. Woodturning God. I think about how we are shaped and formed on the outside, which is all very nice, and helps us to know that we are a bowl, but what really makes us a bowl are the things that shape us on the inside. The things that hollow us out. And when God has a hand in hollowing us out, the results can be pretty amazing...