Year C Epiphany 4
Jeremiah 1: 1-101 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
Jeremiah’s Call and Commission
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.”Jeremiah 1: 1-10
© The New Revised Standard Version,
(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989In the name of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
When Peta-Gai and I go away on holidays, we often go to a book store beforehand, choose a book together, a novel, and buy two copies. Then we take the book away with us, and read it together, like our own little book group. But over time a few of our friends, when they come away with us, want to have a copy of the book too, so this holidays we had 6 people reading the same book that we chose. The book was a novel, fiction, a tale, a journey. I’m also reading a book on the history of maps. Another person on holidays was reading a crime book. Another, a biography. Another person was reading American history. All different books, written in different ways, and it is, of course, the same with the Bible. There are different types of books, all put together, into the one book that we call the Bible.
Today’s reading is from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah and it is one of the books we call the Prophets. There are a few books from Prophets in the Old Testament and they are the books where people are writing down the ideas, the ways, the word that God is expressing to the people. Most prophetic books start with four things….
i) that this book is a word from God – prophecy
ii) the name of the person who is the prophet
iii) the time and place when this is taking place
iv) the subject or theme of the book.
The opening of Jeremiah has 3 out of the four, it doesn’t have the theme, but the other amazing thing about this opening is that the word of God is coming to Jeremiah when he is only a boy.
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.”
The book opens with the expression that God knew of Jeremiah’s life before he was born, and had set him apart, chosen him, to speak his message to the people. And Jeremiah responds…. “but I don’t know how to speak… for I am only a boy.”
And God replies…
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,
And so begins the story of the prophet Jeremiah, and throughout, such as in verses 11, 14, 2:1, there are the lines of God speaking to Jeremiah… “The world of the Lord came to me…” and then Jeremiah speaks to the people… “Hear the word of the Lord…”.
God speaks to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah speaks to the people.
When I was a teenager I worked in a newsagency for many years after school. Some of the newspapers that were around then, are no longer available. When it was school holidays I worked longer hours, and in those days at 3pm a truck would arrive from Sydney in the car park at the Rex Hotel on Northbourne avenue and all the newsagents would meet there to grab their allotment of the Daily Mirror and The Sun before racing them back to the shops for the waiting afternoon customers. But, even in those days, the Daily Mirror and The Sun were papers that were pretty rubbishy. We also sold a paper that was called, ironically, The Truth. It was full of made up stories, complete rubbish, and other gossip…: it was known as a “scandal sheet”. Of course, The Truth, as it was called, was anything but the truth.
It is interesting to ponder the question, “where do we hear words of truth, vision, wisdom, in today’s world”?
We may look today to reasonable papers, such as the Sydney Morning Herald or the Melbourne Age, and believe that we are reading something of the truth, or a word about what is happening. Or we could listen to our politicians, perhaps, but at a time when there seems to be a good few who are facing various charges, and a desperate need for power by others, an election in the wind, it seems most politicians are unwilling to speak the truth with any vision and wisdom.
As a society we have become so secular that the church has little or no voice as an institution and in some denominations we see perhaps a fear of the truth because of wrong doing or narrowness of theology.
It is interesting to ponder the question, “where do we hear words of truth, vision, wisdom, in today’s world”?
Perhaps we live in an age, just as it was in the days of Jeremiah, where a word of truth, an expression of Godliness, needs to come from the least, the ordinary people, the ones who are even children, the boy, the girl, …. just as it was for Jeremiah.
I think we read the Bible at times, with a deep sense of belief, and yet see it as being in the past, or simply beyond our understanding, or about people who were more acceptable, more Godly, or more spiritually inclined that we are. Perhaps we see the people of the Bible, and the way of God’s work as being for another time and simply wonder why God doesn’t seem to be as present as it is expressed in the Bible.
Perhaps we read the call of Jeremiah with a sense of belief that God had a message for him, and that time, but not necessarily for us, and our time.
However, the message of the Bible all the way through is that God more often than not, chose the youngest, the least, the ones with speech impediments, the women, the sinners, the nameless, along with the people we will never read about, to speak the words of truth, to hold the visions, to be the leaders, amongst those to whom God was calling and longing.
And I believe it is still the same today.
Those of us who feel pretty ordinary.
Those of us who feel we are too young.
Those of us who wonder if we are ‘spiritual’ enough (whatever that means)
Those is us who are the doubters.
People just like us…
Are the people who God uses to speak a word of truth, hope and vision.
And it is true for congregations too…
Those that are not filled with 1000’s.
Those that are sitting amongst the everyday or ordinary.
Those that have joys and sorrows, ease and struggle.
Those that are just like us…
Are the people who God uses to speak a word of truth, hope and vision.
And the message of God is still, ongoing, and one of longing and hope. One of calling and love. One of challenge and awakening.
The book of Jeremiah is long; it is one of a wrestle of faith, of relationship, of God’s calling to humanity. I’ll finish with just a few lines… chapter 31 & 33…. and it’s still a message for today.
31:33
This is the covenant that I will make with the [people] after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
33:11
“Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”
Amen.