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Get your own, Free HomepageJeremiah 1:4-10
In a book called Anguished English, there is a whole chapter listing excuses parents have written to schools explaining their children's absence. For example, "Teacher, please excuse Mary for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot. [signed] Mary's Mom." "Please excuse my son's tardiness. I forgot to wake him up and did not find him until I started making the beds." "Please excuse Ray from school. He has very loose vowels." "Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his father's fault." "Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating."
I suppose those particular examples could lead to a discussion of the need for remedial English for parents...but that's not our focus today.
Excuses, excuses! We've all made 'em...we all have 'em. Even some of the great people in the Bible were full of excuses. Moses told God, "I can't stand up to Pharaoh. I'm only a shepherd, and I can't talk good." The prophet Isaiah, upon seeing angels in worship, could only weep about how unworthy he was. When Jesus told the disciples to go and feed the multitude, they said, "But we only have five loaves and two fish!" Jeremiah, when called by God, protested, saying, "I don't know how to speak; I am only a child."
There are many examples in the Bible of people who were being asked to do or be something special for God but who, instead, tried to offer excuses for why they just couldn't do it. "I'm only a shepherd.... I'm only a child.... I'm just...I can't...I haven't...I'm only...." Excuses, excuses. We do the same thing. "I'm not a public speaker...I can't pray out loud...I'm too shy...I'm just a high school graduate...I don't know enough about the Bible...I'm too young...I'm too old...I don't make enough money...I'm only an ordinary person." At least our excuses have biblical precedent!
But, you see, with God, our "only-ness" is no excuse! God knows exactly that we are "only" whatever we are! It doesn't matter! God is not looking for the best qualifications, best ability, best charisma, best prospects type of people. Not that God would turn those types down automatically; it's true that some of the most gifted people in our world have also been some of God's best servants. But that's a coincidence, not a requirement. God knows that the vast majority of men and women fall into the "I am only" category. But only is enough with God's help, and it would amaze you what God can do with people who suffer from "only-ness!"
Take Jeremiah, for example. Called by God to be a great prophet. He was a kid, from a nowhere place, with nothing extraordinary to offer. Jeremiah's greatness was not in who he was but in what God did with him. As someone once said to me, "God doesn't call the qualified; God qualifies the called."
And the fact is that, in some way, we are all called. This passage we heard this morning - the "commissioning" of the prophet Jeremiah -- is a wonderful metaphor, or model, for us...of God's calling and provision in each of our lives.
In verse 4, we heard, "Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah...." Sooner or later, God speaks to us. In our hearts...through the words of Scripture or other writings...through other people. Sometimes the call comes in a whisper...sometimes the voice is booming. But God calls out to each of us, saying, "My child...we need to talk!"
Verse 5. God tells Jeremiah four things that God has done. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." These are four things that God has done to every one of us. "I formed you... I knew you... I set you apart... I appointed you."
"I formed you..." I was no accident of nature. And neither are you. We are more than a random formation of carbon-based protoplasm. There was genius in our design and great care in our creation. I'm not going to get into the debates about conception, abortion and stem-cells here but...no doubt about it...we originated in the hand of God.
"I knew you..." God says. We were created...but not on an assembly line. McDonald's may look at their burgers by the billions served...but God looks at us and sees ONE. Sees each one of us...knows each one of us...understands each one of us.
And, God says, "I set you apart...." We are purposefully unique. From our one-of-a-kind fingerprints to our "map-able" DNA, there has never been and will never be another you, another me. We think we're just a part of the masses...but to God, we are each separate and special. Not "special" just to fill out the deck like some cosmic collection of Pokemon cards. But special for a purpose - for God's purpose.
"I appointed you..." God says. Maybe not to be a prophet. We don't really have "prophets" anymore in the sense they had in biblical times. But each of us has been appointed by God for a purpose. A mission. A way of life...a task or series of tasks. A role. A reason for being. We may not always understand exactly what that is, of course. Sometimes we may misunderstand or misinterpret what it is we are meant to be and do. We chase rabbits. We get on the wrong bus. We go up the down staircase. We look for love in all the wrong places! But that's not proof that God hasn't spoken - just that we may not know how to listen.
Or...that we may be resisting. Verse 6: "Ah, Sovereign Lord," Jeremiah said. "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child." He had a severe case of "only-ness." But remember: with God, "only-ness" is no excuse!
In verse 7, God says, in essence, "Honey...talk to the hand! Don't give me your excuses! I don't want to hear that 'I am only a child' nonsense!" God said, "You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you." God had a plan and a purpose. And God is not obligated to explain God's self!
Jeremiah's message from God never was well received. His words didn't make the prophet "popular." The results of his work came about long after he was gone. That didn't matter. What mattered was that he did what God wanted him to do.
When we listen and follow the directions of God in our lives, we don't always see automatic results. Sometimes we may never see the ultimate results of our actions. I've heard it said that it takes a lot of faith in the future to plant an acorn. Few people who plant acorns will ever see the mature oak tree it produces. Much of what we do in ministry, or simply in being Christian, does not have immediate, short-range results. Teachers understand this fact all too well. They pour their lives into young people who then grow up and will possibly not even remember their teachers' names. But the kids learn from them and incorporate what they learn into who they become as adults. What the teacher does is invest in a future they will never see and for which they will never get any credit. And yet it's a crucial task.
Jeremiah's call was to be faithful to the word of God that he had received. He was not called to "succeed;" he was only called to speak the word. The call for us as people of God is to simply live and be faithful to the word we have received - trusting that God will take our inadequacy and use it in ways that we have not dreamed and could not have imagined.
We can trust God to do that because God has said, as in verse 8, "Do not be afraid...I am with you...." We are not alone. God says, to Jeremiah and to us, "...I have put my words in your mouth." That means that we are equipped for every challenge or opportunity God throws at us.
And while our culture today communicates through icons and pictures, music and video, and fascinating media technologies, there are some jobs for which words, words that we trust God to put in our mouths, are the best tool we have.
We need words to create forgiveness or make a confession, for example. Sure, fine wine and roses help...but nothing surpasses, "I was wrong; will you forgive me?" We need words to express comfort to the grieving. We need words to nurture relationships. We need words to witness to the core values of our faith. We need words to lovingly care-front someone in a redemptive way. We need words to make promises and commitments.
Today, in our culture, it seems that we're often afraid to use words in any context that goes beyond the mere sharing of information. Words that express intuition or have emotional impact are increasingly difficult to utter. In Frank McCourt's best seller, Angela's Ashes, the young Irish narrator, Frankie, talks about wanting to reach out to his father but being too afraid to try. "...if I were in America I could say, I love you, Dad, the way they do in the films, but you can't say that in Limerick for fear you might be laughed at. You're allowed to say you love God and babies and horses that win but anything else is a softness in the head."
In our own culture, we can speak of love if it's "romantic" or related to things or to food but to express the desperately needed loving words of the Spirit is also considered by many to be "a softness in the head." Yet each of us, in our unique way, has been given God's own words to share with the world. Preaching words...singing words...smiling words...inviting words...comforting words...words that teach...words that heal...words that inspire or bring laughter or joy. God's words have been placed in our mouths. And we can use them to "uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
Jeremiah received one kind of word from God. In my life, I have received a word from God. And God has a word for each of you, as well. It's not about some of us being called when others aren't. It's about all of us hearing and responding to that unique word from God in our lives. Together, all of our "words" fulfill the plan and purposes of God. God calls us. God formed us. God knows us. God sets us apart. God appoints us. We are limited...we have weaknesses...we all have faults, we all have flaws. Each of us is only human. But, with God, "only-ness" is no excuse. Amen.
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