Jeremiah 1:4-10

Jeremiah 1:4-10 (NRSV)

⁴ Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” ⁷ But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’;

for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

and you shall speak whatever I command you.

⁸ Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

     says the Lord.”

⁹ Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,

“Now I have put my words in your mouth.

¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.” 

Year C

Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany

January 31, 2016

Cross~Wind

Title: Responding to a Call from God 

Introduction

Circumstances can be challenging, and we can hear the call of God in it.

Some of you might remember the 2004 movie Cellular, in which someone kidnaps a woman, but she manages to use a broken telephone to call for help and reaches a total stranger. She begs him for help, hoping he will not hang up. Well, the movie has many action sequences along the way, but eventually Ryan rescues Jessica. At the close of the movie, she thanks him and asks him if there is anything she can do to repay him. At that point, the two are attractive enough that you think a hint of romance is coming next. He responds, “Yes, don’t ever call me again.”

            Receiving a call can be difficult.

            Most of us do not have circumstances as difficult as was the man in the movie. However, we have our difficult circumstances to face.

            In Hamlet, the play by Shakespeare, Hamlet hesitates as he senses his calling. 

The times are out of joint

oh cursed spite

that ever I was born to put them right. 

            Yet, out of such difficult circumstances, we may well experience a summons. In that case, we are not so much looking deep inside. We listen to the people and circumstances that are part of our lives. We respond to what we hear if we are attentive.

I was in college, wrestling with what I was to do with my life. I knew I enjoyed studying and learning. I knew I loved the church. At a church service, I felt the tug in my heart that God wanted me to devote myself to both.  

Yes, today I want to talk with you about your calling or vocation. Obviously, I am not thinking simply of clergy. I hope you can look into your heart and into your circumstances. Our discipleship involves bringing together that which is within with the need we see in the church and world. We will find our greatest satisfaction when we live in that place.

            Some of us run away from the call. Dallas Willard put it: 

Our failure to hear his voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.[4]   

Running away will have harmful effects in the way we lead our lives. [Jeremiah tried to run.] To run away from the call will also mean running away from that which will provide deep satisfaction in life. It might mean running away from you! Some of us need to ponder the witness to our lives that we desire. What do we want family and friends to say about us when we leave this earth and receive a new life with God?

Some of us need to cut through some misconceptions. Dan Cumberland[5] identifies three myths to avoid when trying to discern God's call: 

Myth 1: Your calling is a job

-- Your calling is larger than a job, for the calling provides a direction and impact to your entire life. You will express your calling in your job, but in other parts of your life as well.  

Myth 2: Your calling is somewhere out there; you just have to find it

-- The partial truth in this myth is that you have to be attentive to what is “out there.” We need to be attentive to the people and circumstances of our lives. We will hear the summons “out there,” however, only if we listen with our hearts. It is not in the wind, the fire or the earthquake. It is in a still small and familiar voice.  

Myth 3: Your calling is a place of obligation

-- "Your calling and life's work are places of freedom. God has a reason for you to be here, so your calling will be life giving.  

            The call that we hear may actually bring some difficulty into our lives. [Note how true that is for Jeremiah.] It may well push us to our limits and beyond. For that reason, we may well want to run away.

Imagine the end of your life. You want your life to count for something. I know you do. What testimony will people will offer of your life? What do you hope they will say?  

Application

First, let us consider that giving of your time outside work and family is actually good for you.

I came across a quote of Ben Carson that I have had since around 2000. It seems appropriate to share it with you now, but not because he is a presidential candidate on the Republican side. I think he offers a powerful suggestion. . 

I have a prescription for boosting your resistance to burnout: Get outside of yourself, and do something that has nothing to do with your normal day's work. That's what I tell my patients. Do other things. Do things for other people, if you can. Do whatever you must to get the focus off your own problems. You need to have a diversion, particularly when times are difficult.[6]  

An article came across my desk back in 2001. It offered a few examples of volunteering. They involved a 13 year old who already had a tough life, but who was fortunate enough to have a mentor. The other was someone who would describe herself as a volunteer. She taught in New York City schools and mentored former students. When the government called for a thousand points of light, she responded. You see, I think such stories may well point to something deeper.

Volunteering does not arise out of the guilt one feels if one does not. The point is not just a desire for others to think well of you. For many people, that for which they volunteer comes out of a sense of calling. The people with whom we have interacted, the circumstances of life that have challenged us, the need that we have sensed in the world, the hurt or anger we feel due to some experiences we have had, become the occasion to hear a calling. In that sense, it was not just a matter of listening to what is “inside” us. Rather, we need to listen to what is “outside” us.

Time is finite for all of us. Listening to such a call and responding with Yes builds the virtues to which we would like people to testify at our funeral. I have mentioned this notion a couple times. David Brooks (The Road to Character, 2015) writes of this idea in the opening pages of his wonderful book. These virtues point the way to deep satisfaction of having lived our lives.

Maybe, instead of wondering what will make us happy, we need to ponder a different question. Are we responding to a summons?

Second, let us consider the changes in our culture.

So much is different now from say - 100 years ago. We have been experiencing a social revolution for 70 years since the last Great War ended. Most adults, male and female, are in the work force. The work force is significantly grayer than it used to be as well, meaning that people immerse themselves in professional activity well into their 60s, even 70s. Two-parent families have two incomes now, and single-parent homes are commonplace. There simply is not much time left for volunteering. If there is time left over at all, we want to relax and invest our spare time recreationally. We do not want doing good deeds to get in the way of having a good time.

The United Way, the Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and the church report that they cannot keep up with requests for their services. Meals on Wheels often cannot find enough volunteers to deliver meals to the elderly of the nation's cities. You know the places, like Emmaus, that provide opportunities to serve.

Yes, times have changed. Yet, the impulse toward involvements that get you out of yourself and family and into the community is still present. Many churches have responded to the above change in culture, for example, by focusing upon short-term tasks rather than long-term commitments.

God has not stopped calling. The question is this: are we listening?  

Conclusion

            Well, we have so many excuses. I suppose most of us are average at most of the things we do. However, I came across this little collection of thoughts on being average but available:  

            ‑‑ No one can help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

            ‑‑ Prayer: O God, grant that the heat in my heart might melt the lead in my feet.

            ‑‑ Mend your nets with prayer, cast them in faith, and draw them in love.

            ‑‑ Jesus went about doing good; many just go about.

            ‑‑ A dewdrop does God's will as much as a thunderstorm.

            ‑‑ Service is love dressed in work clothes.

            ‑‑ It is not the hours you put in, but what you put in the hours.[7]

 

Going deeper

Jeremiah 1:4-10 is the call of Jeremiah in 627. The Assyrian Empire was weakening. In this year, Ashurbanipal died. It left a political vacuum in which Israel and its neighbors struggled for dominance and survival. Egypt, under Pharaoh Necho, sought a stronghold in Judah and the surrounding countries. The weakness of surrounding powers allowed Josiah to free Judah from the humiliating vassalage to Assyria. Emotions and hopes ran high as Josiah's religious reforms not only re-dedicated the country and people to a purified Yahwistic form of worship, but also renewed the sense of an independent identity for the entire nation. 

Jeremiah 1:4-10 (NRSV)

⁴ Now the word [We do not receive an indication of the form of this word.] of the Lord came to me saying,

[First, he records the divine confrontation, a personal encounter with God. Pannenberg says that the calling of Jeremiah is similar to that of Moses in that the Lord calls him into familiarity with God and the counsel of God.[1]

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

[Second, Jeremiah receives an introductory word that points to his dependence on God. This suggests to Barth that he would have to abandon himself if he were to abandon this task.[2] This view of the consecration is unusual, but Isaiah 49:1, where the Lord appointed him before he was born, is similar. The usual reference would be to set apart at birth, rather than before.]

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

[Third, he has received a divine commission.]

⁶ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” [Fourth, typical of call narratives is that the prophet thinks he lacks ability. On a factual basis, this argument is weak, for he is eighteen years old. Moses (Exodus 4:10-15) and Solomon (I Kings 3:7) both express reluctance.] ⁷ But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’;

for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

and you shall speak whatever I command you.

⁸ Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

     says the Lord.”

[Fifth, the Lord dismisses the objections and instead offers reassurance that divine power and presence are with Jeremiah.]

⁹ Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; [Sixth, the Lord seals the call of this new prophet through a sign. In Isaiah 6:5-7 a seraph takes a coal from the altar and touches the lips of the prophet to purify him.] and the Lord said to me,

“Now I have put my words in your mouth.

¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

  [Seventh, the Lord outlines the content of the future of the prophecy of Jeremiah in terms that become a common theme throughout the book. Chapter 18:7-10 states that at any moment God may decide to "pluck up and break down and destroy" a disobedient kingdom, but he might just as easily decide to "build and plant" an obedient kingdom. In 24:6, God promises to bring obedient exiles back from Babylon and restore them ("build ... and ... plant them"). 31:27-28 promises that just as God has plucked up and broken down Israel and Judah, he will later build and plant them. In 42:9-10, God promises those few remaining in Judah that if they will stay he will build them up and not pull them down. As Barth points out, the call of Jeremiah suggests both the irresistibility of the disaster coming and the dreadful nature of the task in proclaiming the will and act of the Lord.[3]

 

---

[1] Systematic Theology Volume 1, 203. 

[2] Church Dogmatics IV.3 [71.4] 581.

[3] Ibid.

[4] --Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God.

[5] --Dan Cumberland, "3 big myths about calling: Ideas to avoid when figuring out what to do with your life." Relevant, April 14, 2015. relevantmagazine.com. Retrieved August 10, 2015.

[6] -Pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson, "Don't Burn Out," Fast Company, May 2000, 106.

[7]           ‑‑ as cited in The Complete Book of Zingers, Croft M. Pentz, ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1990).