Scripture is full of stories of God using the unlikeliest of people to carry out his most important work. This morning, we eaves drop on a conversation between God and one of those young, unknown, kids.
It was an ordinary day, or so we are led to believe by the absence of detailed setting. Perhaps it was a warm and sunny day in the North Country and Jeremiah was out for a walk, kicking stones as he strolled down the street. Or perhaps is was a bit of a blustery day as Jeremiah hid out in a favorite cave, trying to stay warm and dry while at the same time trying to stay out of Mom’s hair. Either way, Jeremiah was alone…or so he thought. Something startled him. He thought he was alone, but he could have sworn he heard someone else.
He wasn’t one who appreciated talking, he much preferred the silence, and so he began to peer about trying to see what he had heard. Then he heard it again. It was a little clearer this time – no, a lot clearer. It was a voice, but from whom he could not see. The message was clear: It was the voice of YHWH! The one who creates and gives life. The one who knows us all much better than even we know ourselves, and the one who knew us long before we were ever thought of.
Jeremiah’s dad was a priest, and so while YHWH’s voice wasn’t commonplace, neither was it too startling for Jeremiah. What the voice said, however, was. It was the voice of YHWH saying that Jeremiah was to go to the nations with YHWH’s message! This was not expected news. Jeremiah was familiar with the concept of prophets, but he didn’t think he fit the bill. He was much too young. People respected wisdom and experience. Age and maturity are necessary for this kind of task. Surely, no one will listen to one this young. He is much too inexperienced to know what to say.
The voice interrupts him as he tries to think of as many other excuses as he can. “Stop it. No more excuses.” He hears again his call to whomever, wherever, to say whatever. Now his excuses turned to fear. But the voice of YHWH once again intervened. This time, the words are accompanied by a strange feeling. It was as though something had touched his mouth. He jumped back, His lips tingling. Then to the voice and the touch he is given confirmation of this calling in the form of a tree branch and a pot. He knew he was called, and he knew he must go.
Hear the Word of the Lord from Jeremiah 1:1-10.
Jeremiah must have really felt inadequate. After all, he is only a young boy. He is called to be a prophet. That is really pressure enough, but his call is not just to Israel like the prophets before him. His call is to the nations! “The nations are the bad guys. They are the ones who threaten us. They are the one’s of which we live in constant fear.” Not only that, but he is told right up front that his call would involve “plucking up and pulling down, destroying and overthrowing, building and planting.” All that for a young boy? He must have really felt like a boy being sent to do a man’s job.
We all know what it feels like to be intimidated by the work we have to do don’t we? My first job out of college was milking cows on a dairy. We milked about 300 head. The heard used to be all Jerseys, but economics forced them to start integrating Holsteins as well. I was working all alone one night. The farmer and his parents were out of town on vacation. I brought in the herd and cleaned out the stalls as fast as I could. I went and checked the stall where we kept the expecting heifers. There was one little jersey heifer in there and it looked like she would deliver any minute. So I went in and got started milking.
From the way it looked, it shouldn’t have taken more than an hour for her to deliver, so I stopped about an hour later to check. No progress. Her water hadn’t even broke. I knew that was strange, but I went back to milking. I kept checking all through the night and still nothing. It looked like she was trying…it sounded like it too…but no calf. I tried making some phone calls because I didn’t want to loose two cows! I couldn’t get ahold of anyone. I knew what had to be done. I’d seen it once, but I had no idea how to do it. I was so inadequate at that moment, but I knew I had to do it.
Jeremiah must have felt that way…only ten times worse. Sometimes we feel that way here at church. We have a mission, a call, too. Our mission is to share the salvation of Christ with a world in need. Our mission is to go into the kingdom of the world and show it a better way…a more excellent way, by living as faithful citizens of the kingdom of God here and now. O so often though, we feel so inadequate. We feel like little boys being sent to do a man’s job.
Many things contribute to our struggle. Denominational pressures don’t help. They seemingly pressure us into a numbers game. The churches that get the awards are the one’s who have the most “new Nazarenes.” We have to send in attendance numbers every month. Everything is all about “church growth.” It is so easy to get all caught up in the numbers game, but Jeremiah is a hero because of his faithfulness, not his results. Success was a matter of his faithful obedience regardless of what the outcome was.
Does anyone recall Jeremiah’s nickname? The weeping prophet. Does that make him sound like a winner to you? “Very few people had listened or heeded the message, certainly not the king or the religious leaders. In fact, they had tried on more than one occasion to kill him for his efforts. Even Jeremiah himself had more than once fallen into despair, not only at the rejection and ridicule heaped upon him, but simply under the grinding weight of the message he carried. Yet, even from the midst of [all that], Jeremiah remained resolute in his message” (from Dennis Bratcher - crivoice.com).
In this morning’s Gospel lesson, Jesus was run out of town on a rail. He went and preached in his hometown, but when push came to shove, “all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.” This was just one of many such rejections that led to a particularly stirring scene where Jesus was reduced to tears, begging and pleading for this cup to be taken from him, yet he remained faithful to his call. Success is not determined by results, it is not accomplished by keeping a close eye on numbers; it is accomplished by keeping a close eye on God.
Another source of our feelings of inadequacy come from focusing on ourselves. We sometimes are so caught up in looking at gifts, and abilities, and resources, and facilities, that we forget we are the Church. “The risk is that we will assume, sometimes even in subtle ways, that because we are "called" into a special ministry, or have certain gifts that lead to success, or are part of a chosen people or God’s family, that we can handle who we are on our own” (from Dennis Bratcher – crivoice.com).
We are tempted to become like Jeremiah, a people of excuses rather than a people of God. “I can’t do that, I’m just a boy!” “We can’t do that, we’re just a small church.” “We can’t do that, we don’t have the budget that they do.” “We can’t do that, we can’t offer all the bells and whistles they have to offer.” But God said, “Don’t say that! No more excuses.” We are the church, and that means we operate wisely within our abilities, but also faithfully…within the unlimited ability of God. Success is not determined by our abilities, it is not accomplished by keeping a close eye on our gifts; it is accomplished by keeping a close eye on God.
Jeremiah is a great hero of our faith, but not because of who he was or what he did. He is a great hero because of what God did through him. God was the actor. Jeremiah remained faithful, trusting in the provision of God’s grace. “Truly I do not know how to speak…” “Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth.’” God’s work being done is not dependent on us being up to the task. That is good news! Not a single one of us individually – not even every one of us collectively – is sufficient for the mission to which we’ve been called. God is! God is abundantly sufficient to see his mission through.
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me (Ps 23:4).” “Not by might, nor by power, but by my power says the Lord of hosts (Zech 4:6).” “Therefore I am content with weakness…for whenever I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor 12:10).” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Php 4:13).” “But those who are first will be last, and the last will be first (Mat 19:30).”
By reaching down and touching Jeremiah’s mouth with his hand, God provided out of his abundance for Jeremiah’s mission. By reaching down and touching the world with his Son Jesus Christ – by reaching down and touching the Church with his Holy Spirit – God provided out of his abundance for our mission.
To the average observer, it would have seemed that even Christ’s mission was a failure. He certainly didn’t establish a new world power. He didn’t even get any new laws passed or any political or religious reform made. It all ended with some of his disciples scattering, and a couple of his devoted followers weeping at the foot of a cross where his corpse hung dead. The path of faithfulness often seems to come to a dead end. So it was for Jeremiah, and so it was for Christ.
Our mission too puts us on a road that leads to the cross, but we know that the cross is not a dead end. Christ has already provided through His resurrection. By Christ’s resurrection, God has reached out and touched the mouth of our world. By Christ’s resurrection, God has put salvation for the world in our mouth. It is the only avenue of fulfilling the mission we’ve been given. Salvation to the nations is only possible by the power of Christ’s death and resurrection. Salvation to the nations calls us to follow Christ to the cross where we too must die, giving our lives freely, in sacrificial love to the world.
This path is not an easy path to follow. It is completely contrary to our nature. It is foolishness to the world. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you [power to] be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.” In the gift of the Holy Spirit, God has empowered His church to faithfully follow as Jeremiah followed. We have been given the stamina to faithfully follow our call, even to the cross, just as Christ. Our success is not based on numbers or outcomes, but on faithfulness, going forward, sharing salvation with the world, knowing that God is faithful and that God alone is sufficient to carry us through. To His glory: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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