Answering The Call   by Rev. Daniel Hodlin
This week, I would like you to read the following Scripture:
Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 Luke 4:21-30
 
Pastor’s Prayer
O God, be with our young people that they may speak your justice at an early age. Give them hope, that they may expect to serve you their whole lives long. Give them faith, that they may grow in understanding and see you face-to-face. Give them love, that they may find the courage to embrace those whom others have forgotten. O God, all of us tremble at the awesome prospect of being called as your messengers, to pluck up and to pull down, to build and to plant. We know that even your Son was scorned for his words of truth. Be our rock in a weary land. Teach us the ways of kindness and patience. Prepare us to endure for the sake of your gospel and to rejoice in your steadfast promises. We praise you for the gift of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Answering The Call
There is no way to know how old Jeremiah was when the word of the Lord came to him. The Hebrew word given as “boy” in the New Revised Standard Version can mean several things, including boy, youth and apprentice. But Jeremiah’s age is beside the point. What he wanted us to understand is how intimidated he was by the combination of his own shortcomings, and his awareness of the glorious and awesome burden of not only receiving the very Word of God, but also having to deliver it to other people.

Like other prophets, Jeremiah was uncertain of his own potential as a prophet. Like them, he was also struck by the urgency and scope of what the Lord expected him to do. Yet, apparently, God had set him apart, with a particular time and place and mission in mind—before he was even born. More than that, God had already anticipated Jeremiah’s excuses – poor communication skills, no work experience, and even one Jeremiah tried to hide, his weak knees. “No problem,” God tells him, “I’ll be with you every step of the way. I’ll put my own word in your mouth to say. I’ll even stand beside you if I have to.”

This looks like a pretty good deal for Jeremiah, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re glad this is happening to him and not to us. We wouldn’t wish Jeremiah’s life on our worst enemy. Jeremiah lived in terrible anguish over having to deliver a pronouncement of judgment, of having to witness the unfolding destruction of his people and Jerusalem, and having to suffer the consequences of being a thorn in the side of priests, prophets and people alike, all of whom refused to listen. We would prefer that Jeremiah’s call not be a model for us. We’d rather see the first chapter of Jeremiah as a benign reminder that God doesn’t discriminate by age or experience.

Many of us assume that when the divine call comes today, it will come only to those with special spiritual inclinations or experience. After all, God doesn’t call just anyone! But what Jeremiah describes in these verses is how God did call “just anyone”. God chose Jeremiah when he was still in the womb, before he had developed any spiritual direction or experience, before he had read any Scripture, or attended worship or bowed his head in prayer. God called Jeremiah before he was even born.

The lesson most often presented through the opening chapter of Jeremiah is that God knows us before we know ourselves. But let’s not turn away or forget the other lesson, which is to remind us of an uncomfortable truth, that God can invite any one of us at any time to receive his Word, and to bring it to a particular people, for a particular purpose. God’s claim on us includes the right to call us in spite of our weaknesses and our excuses. And that call carries with it the same potential purpose and risk as it did for Jeremiah, the frightening power to tear down and build up, to “pluck up—and to plant”.