A Relentless Call

May 17, 2015 (Graduate Recognition Sunday)

Jeremiah 1:1-10  (the Message transliteration)

1-4 The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin. God’s Message began to come to him during the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amos reigned over Judah. It continued to come to him during the time Jehoiakim son of Josiah reigned over Judah. And it continued to come to him clear down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah over Judah, the year that Jerusalem was taken into exile. This is what God said:

5 “Before I shaped you in the womb,
    I knew all about you. 
Before you saw the light of day,
    I had holy plans for you:
 A prophet to the nations—
    that’s what I had in mind for you.”

6 But I said, “Hold it, Lord God! Look at me.
    I don’t know anything. I’m only a boy!”

7-8 God told me, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a boy.’
    I’ll tell you where to go and you’ll go there. 
I’ll tell you what to say and you’ll say it.
    Don’t be afraid of a soul. 
I’ll be right there, looking after you.”
    God’s Decree.

9-10 God reached out, touched my mouth, and said,
    “Look! I’ve just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered! 
See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do
   among nations and governments—a red-letter day!
 Your job is to pull up and tear down,
    take apart and demolish,
 And then start over,
    building and planting.”

Sermon: “A Relentless Call”

Don’t be a prophet.  Really, just don’t.  Especially not if you’re young. 

I was young when God called me to be a prophet.  Being raised in a family of priests, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.   But when God showed up to me, Jeremiah, saying some mumbo-jumbo about me being a prophet to the nations, I was not amused.

I saw what nations did to each other.  My homeland in Judah had been invaded by the Babylonians three times.  The king’s palace was destroyed, as was the Temple.  Several of my family members had gone missing, several more had been killed in the conflict.  Shops had to close, people had to move elsewhere if they could, and God, well, most everyone had given up on God.

But God didn’t say I was called as a prophet to my own broken people.  God said I was to be a prophet to the nations.  If I’d known in that moment just how demanding that would be, I’d have tried to run and hide.  God would have, of course, found me.  God always does.

Instead, I said I was too young, which is rather ridiculous when you realize that no one is ever experienced enough to speak publicly about seeking shalom (peace) for your enemies and calling out against political corruption and imperialism.  No amount of years makes you ready for that.

But that’s what prophets do.  We tell the truth – no matter what the cost.  God was right about what I’d do – I did a lot of pulling up, tearing down, taking apart and demolishing, hoping that someday, I’d get to build and plant. 

I was angry: angry at the injustice of the world, angry at the political systems that favored the powerful at the expense of the poor, angry at religious leaders who were more corrupt than anyone else, angry that we had no home, no rights, no hope.  And I, Jeremiah, was angry at God.

Does that surprise you?  I think we prophets get misrepresented these days.  You buy a “Jeremiah 29:11 – ‘For I know the plans I have for you…plans for a future with hope’” wall hanging from Hobby Lobby and think my story was all lovely plans and hopeful futures.

I suppose, “Why does the way of the guilty prosper?” isn’t as marketable or catchy, hung up in your living room.  But I gave God all my honest anger.  I called God a ‘deceitful brook,’ like water that’s either a flood (way too much) or a drought (not nearly enough).  And I told God I didn’t want to be a prophet anymore, if I’d ever even wanted that.  I turned my back on my calling – or at least I tried to.

The thing about God is, God’s used to complaints.  God’s even been known to complain from time to time.  And so, though I thought venting all of my anger and frustration to God would drive us apart, it did the opposite.  My fire for God burned even brighter.  At the time, I said, "With me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot" (20:9)*. 
I couldn’t not be a prophet you see.  Because I was called by God.  Calling sounds like a lovely thing, but I’m here to tell you, mine was not.  I experienced more tears than laughter, more loneliness than support, more ridicule than acceptance.  But I couldn’t keep from doing what God had planned for me anymore than you can keep back a flood with a fishing net.

And I suppose, if anything, that’s what I want to say to you, especially you young people.  God does have a plan for you, something woven into the fabric of your life before you were even born.  Search for it.  Pray for it.  Argue with God over it (Lord knows I did). 

You may not be called to be an outspoken prophet like I was (for your sake, I hope not).  But whatever you are meant to do, whatever you feel you were created for, don’t run away from it.  Don’t ignore it, no matter how impractical or dreamy it may seem.  God’s call was never to make good money.  Remember that.  God’s call is to live so fully in relationship with your Creator that there is a burning fire shut up in your bones that you have to let out in the way only you can.  

If you’re sitting here thinking you just feel cold inside, like there’s no warmth for yourself, much less to share, have hope.  We don’t create that burning fire, not through the right major or the right GPA.  Not through a 5-year plan or a vocational assessment.  That relentless fire, one I couldn’t hold in even if I wanted to, came the moment God touched my lips, putting a word within me.  You can’t do that for yourself.  Only God can, and trust me, God will, in God’s own time.   Sometimes it happens all at once, and sometimes God creeps your call into your life, bit-by-bit.

When the time comes, when you are reminded of what you were created for, don’t let anything stand in your way.  The path that God has for you will not be easy, but no one’s is.  And isn’t it better to take the difficult path that’s yours, than to struggle on a road someone else wants you to walk?  So many human beings waste their lives regretting what they were too afraid to try.  Perhaps that’s why God said to me, at the very beginning of it all, “Do not fear.  I’ll be with you.”

In the end, that’s all you need to know.  I hope your journey is easier than mine – it couldn’t help but be.  But I also hope that you will remember my example when it’s not easy.  Vent to God.  Be really angry.  Be real with the Creator who knows you from the inside out.  It won’t drive God from you so long as you keep the conversation going.  It might just be your salvation.  It was for me. 

Disaster might strike – it does for all of us.  But the greatest disaster is failing to be who God has made you to be.  Even…if God has made you to be a prophet. 
Find your calling – that relentless pull on your life you can’t resist, and pursue it with all you’ve got.  Do not be afraid, but even if you are, God is with you.  Always.  Amen.

*Translation by Kathleen O’Connor.