Jeremiah 1:4-10 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. 1
2016. 08.07 More Than Words Memory is a funny thing. Memories from decades ago can remain fresh in your mind while what happened last week is quickly forgotten. I can more easily remember something from thirty years ago than the sermon I preached last week (I know it was from Ecclesiastes, but I had to think about it for a couple of seconds). Like many in my generation, I grew up with the television as a frequent companion. Because of that, I can remember episodes of TV shows from the early 1980s and even the late 1970s. Along with all those shows came a lot of commercials. As I thought about this week s scripture passage from Jeremiah, I remembered a television commercial from my youth. It was for a financial services company called E.F. Hutton. (When you use initials instead of your first name, you re either a novelist or a financial services company.) There were dozens of versions of the commercial, but they all followed a similar script. Two men are out in public (e.g., at a restaurant, airport lounge, or in a park) talking about their investments. The first mentions the latest stock tip that his broker has recommended. He then asks his friend, What does your broker say? The second man says, Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says. At that moment all of the bystanders in the background suddenly lean in to listen to the conversation. The narrator s voice then says, When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. The implication is that what E.F. Hutton has to say is so important, so valuable that everyone stops what they re doing to listen [VIDEO]. Sadly, perhaps, E.F. Hutton hasn t talked for a long time. They were merged into another financial services company long ago. But the word of the Lord does still speak. It spoke to Jeremiah, as we read in the scripture, and it still speaks to us today. A question we could ask ourselves is, when the word of the Lord speaks to us, do we listen? Are we ready to hear what God has to say? 2
Jeremiah 1:4-10 tells of Jeremiah s calling as a prophet. It s one of many such calling stories in the Bible. It shares some similarities with those other calling stories, like Moses, for example [SLIDE]. As with the calling of Moses, Jeremiah also resists his calling. Moses tells God that he s not a gifted speaker. God would be better off sending Aaron. Aaron knows how to command a crowd. In a similar way, Jeremiah protests that he s too young to speak for the Lord: Then I said, Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy (Jer. 1:6). There s also a similarity with Isaiah s calling [SLIDE]. You may remember that when Isaiah is called by God, he protests that he is a man of unclean lips. In response, an angel of the Lord presses a red-hot coal to those unclean lips, purifying him. Similarly with Jeremiah, the Lord touches Jeremiah s mouth to prepare him to speak the word of the Lord: 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 (Jer. 1:9). While it shares similarities with other calling stories in the Bible, Jeremiah s calling is also unique. Moses and Isaiah both experienced a vision. While in the wilderness, Moses saw a burning bush that, despite burning, was not consumed by the fire. Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord seated on the throne in the temple, accompanied by six-winged angels. But Jeremiah doesn t experience a vision. He doesn t see anything at all. Instead, he hears the word of the Lord [SLIDE]: Now the word of the Lord came to me saying (Jer. 1:4). Before we focus on what God says to Jeremiah, let s note something interesting: the word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah. The word is active. It seeks out Jeremiah. The word of the Lord speaks. We often think of words and of speaking as passive. We even contrast speaking with doing. We have several expressions in English that speak to this contrast [SLIDE]. Show me, don t tell me is one. In other words, if you want to convince someone of something, actions are more effective than words. Another is Don t just talk the talk, walk the walk. For example, while it s easy to tell someone that you love them, to prove your sincerity, actions speak louder than 3
words. In fact, that s another one right there: Actions speak louder than words. I have learned from experience that giving a woman a flower says I love you more clearly than uttering the words. And when the time for talk has ended and the situation is about to get serious, It s time to put up or shut up. But the word of the Lord is different. God s word is not mere words. The word of the Lord is active. It seeks out Jeremiah. It comes to him. But the word does more than just come to Jeremiah. The word has been active in Jeremiah s life long before he was even aware of it [SLIDE]: 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 (Jer. 1:5). Look at all these active verbs. I knew you. I consecrated you. I appointed you. Even before Jeremiah was conceived, he was known and loved by God. Before Jeremiah was born, God consecrated him, i.e., set him apart for a particular mission. That mission would see him appointed, i.e., chosen by God, to be a prophet to the nations. What an honor! What a great blessing to be chosen by God to speak God s word! Wouldn t we all be so blessed? But no, actually. Jeremiah doesn t receive his calling as an honor or a blessing. On the contrary. He s reluctant to take on the role that God has chosen for him. As I ve already mentioned, along with Moses and Isaiah, Jeremiah wants nothing to do with his calling. And he has a seemingly good reason for rejecting it. He s not ready. I don t know how to speak! I m too young! I m just a boy! Send someone else! Do you relate to Jeremiah? I suspect many of us do. Although God does not call us all to be prophets, thankfully (because almost all of the prophets suffered mightily), God does call all of us to one form of ministry or another: a ministry of healing, or reconciliation, or teaching, or compassion, or encouraging, and so many more. Yet 4
like Moses, like Isaiah, and like Jeremiah we have good reasons to reject this calling. We re too young. We re too busy. We don t know enough about the Bible or theology. We re unworthy sinners. Yes, those may all be true. We may be too young, especially in the eyes of Korean society where age often determines our role in society. Then again, as the English camp reminded us this week, when it comes to things like openness to God, children are often the best teachers. We may be too busy busy with school, busy with work, busy with family. If God would just let us wait until we re not so busy, then we d be happy to answer the call. But when are we not busy? When will we have all this free time to serve God? When we finish school? Then it s time to find a job. When we find a job? Then we need to prove ourselves on the job. When we get married? Then we re busy starting a family. When the kids are in school? Then the cycle begins all over again. We may not know enough about the Bible or theology. If we could spend more time reading the Bible and learning some theology then we could serve God. Then we could speak intelligently about God. Just look at the disciples. Jesus called the twelve because they all had advanced degrees in the Hebrew Bible and theology. Only, they didn t. In fact, they were mostly uneducated fishermen. They weren t scholars. In fact, the scholars were the scribes and Pharisees, the ones who were always arguing with Jesus. We may be unworthy sinners. Actually, there s no may be with this one. We are unworthy sinners. Yet so was Moses. So was Isaiah. So was Jeremiah. So was Peter (especially Peter!). So were all the other disciples. So was Paul. Sinner is hardly a disqualification for serving God. In fact, it s part of the job description. God does not call people who are morally perfect. God calls sinners. God calls sinners like you and like me. When I began to sense God s call in my life, I wanted nothing to do with it. I resisted every step of the way. When Sandy and I 5
moved from New York to New Jersey and began attending our second Korean American church, I told her not to tell anyone that I played the drums. I didn t want to play anymore. The last church had burned me out. I almost came to resent serving. I wanted to be left alone. I wanted to be anonymous, at least as anonymous as the only non-korean in a Korean church could be. But within a year, I found myself playing with the praise team. A few years later, when I was asked to teach Bible study in the youth group, I said no. I was busy enough playing drums at the English service. Why would I want to teach Bible study to a bunch of Korean American high school kids? How would I relate to them? I wasn t qualified to teach. I had no experience. Then when my friend Peter, who taught eighth grade, made a personal appeal to me to teach his class of rising ninth graders, my resistance weakened. I said yes. Around that same time Sandy suggested that I apply to seminary. Seminary?! Where did that idea come from? For some reason, I briefly considered it. I went online and printed applications to a few schools. I looked at them, thought about what it would mean for me to attend seminary, and realized, I am not ready for this. I m not ready financially, emotionally, or spiritually. I knew how much going back to school as a thirty-eight-year-old student would disrupt my life. I hadn t been a student since Bill Clinton s first term (1993!). I d have to quit my job. How would we manage the finances? What about the mortgage? What about the car payments? Not wanting to endure all that disruption, I filed the applications in my desk drawer without so much as even writing my name on one of them. Eventually, a few years later, I would finally apply to seminary. It took me a while because I was stubborn, or more likely, afraid. We all have our reasons for delaying or rejecting God s call, but I think at the bottom of it all, the reason we delay answering God s call or rejecting it altogether is that we re afraid. We re afraid of change. What if God wants me to give up something I don t want to give up? We re afraid of failure. What if I try to serve God but I m no good at it? What if others around me do it much better than I do? We re afraid of the unknown. What if God 6
leads me where I don t want to go? Maybe it s a physical place some foreign country that we don t want to go to. But it could just as easily be an emotional or spiritual place that we dread going. Maybe God wants to heal us of an emotional wound that is still sensitive. Maybe God wants us to reconcile with someone who has hurt us or whom we have hurt. There can be great fear in confronting these old wounds. Fear is real, and God recognizes it. Yet fear, while it is real, is only an obstacle to be overcome. Fear does not negate God s call. Fear does not have the last word. That belongs to God, who recognizes Jeremiah s fear and says to him [SLIDE]: 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 (Jer. 1:7-8). God promises to be with Jeremiah, and Jeremiah would need deliverance. Jeremiah, like most of the prophets, did not have an easy time speaking on behalf of the Lord. He was prophet at a tumultuous time in the history of Judah. Judah was a small nation caught between two superpowers vying for supremacy Egypt to the West and Babylon to the East. Jeremiah prophesied against Judah, against Jerusalem, and against his own king. He spoke of the coming destruction that would be wrought by Babylon. He urged the king to accept exile so that he and the people might live. As you might guess, this message did not make Jeremiah Mr. Popularity. It did not win him many friends. He would eventually flee his homeland and escape to Egypt. He lived a life of isolation. He was often on the run. This was part of his calling. This is part of what it meant for him to answer God s call. 7
This is the uncomfortable truth that God speaks to us. God does not promise to make our lives easy. Sometimes the word of the Lord that is spoken to us is not a word of comfort but a word of challenge. We have a tendency to think that God exists to give us what we want a passing grade, improved health, a raise in salary but it s more accurate, and more biblical, to recognize that we exist so that God can get what God wants. And what does God want? We can answer that by listening to the word of the Lord. For Jeremiah, God wanted him to speak truth to power [SLIDE]: 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 (Jer. 1:10). Jeremiah would not answer to king or country but to God alone. He is appointed over nations and kingdoms. He is the messenger for the word of God, a word that is more than mere words. When the word of the Lord speaks, things are set in motion. The word of the Lord plucks up and pulls down, destroys, and overthrows, as the sad history of Judah would later attest. But even the wrath of God does not have the final word. God s word would later build and plant. After the destruction of Judah God would turn the page and write a new word. This word would not be spoken by voice or written on the page. It would be lived. This word would take flesh and blood and serve as a living example of God s will [SLIDE]: And the Word became flesh and lived among us (Jn. 1:14). Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. And it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the living Word, who comes to us, who speaks to us today, this very moment, and who calls us to follow in his footsteps. 8
Make no mistake, it s not an easy path to walk. When we follow Jesus Christ, he will pluck up and pull down the things in us that get in the way of serving him. He will destroy and overthrow our self-centeredness, our pride and a whole lot of other negativity that we carry inside us. But he will also build us up in his image, and he will plant in us a seed of faith, hope, and love that will grow and mature. The word of God is more than mere words; it is the love and grace of Jesus Christ who comes to call us to himself. 9