| Note: No sermon is quite the same when you read it. You miss the inflections, the expression that you gain in the hearing. The words below are only a close approximation of the sermon, taken from handwritten notes. Nevertheless, the words (as best as can be deciphered!) are shared with you here. The Webmeister |
Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany If you watched last week's game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots, you no doubt, unless you were at our annual meeting, saw the Colts' running back, a rookie named Joseph Addai, score the winning touch down that would send the Colts to the Super Bowl one week from today. Joseph is, of course, the son of our parishioner Joyce Addai. And so now Jim and I have the privilege to claim that one of our own parishioners is playing in the Super Bowl, now if only we can get his tithe! I know that would make our treasurer happy. But we do have this football signed by Joseph which was given back to Epiphany by Ben Okigbo who won it at the Ingathering. I imagine it's worth something. When I called Joyce about a minute after last week's game was over, I let her know that Jim and I would be really be happy to provide spiritual support for the Colts on the sideline of Sunday's game, just in case they wanted us to come out. She laughed. I didn't see the touchdown, I was up here, but I did see it replayed on ESPN a dozen times. And it was amazing to see the Patriots' defense seemingly open up, allowing Joseph to just run through. He made it look almost doable. And when I saw it, I thought to myself, "you know, Joseph was made for this." Football comes naturally to him, that's obviously what he is meant to do. Joseph is an example of that person who is aware of their purpose, and whose life is defined by it. The prophet Jeremiah was also such a person. Now the Bible doesn't tell us how many sacks or touchdowns Jeremiah had in his football career, but we do know what kind of prophet he was. Jeremiah was the kind of prophet that if you saw him speak, or if you read his, you would have thought to yourself, "Jeremiah was made for this." And indeed he was. Jeremiah was born with a very clear purpose. In our reading from Jeremiah this morning, we see where God speaks to Jeremiah, telling him, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations." Before he was even born, Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet. Now even though he had this very clear sense of calling, even though he knew that he was created for this purpose of being a prophet to the nations, that does not mean he was excited about doing it. Jeremiah wasn't. He was smart, and he knew about other prophets. He knew that, as Jesus says this morning "no prophet is accepted in a prophet's hometown. He knew that being a prophet was not easy. In fact, being a prophet was not a desirable occupation back then, nor is it now. If you were a prophet, most people did not like you. Prophets before and after Jeremiah were humiliated, harassed, imprisoned, and even killed. Prophets were scorned because they carried the message of God that no one really wanted to hear, and yet it was exactly what they needed to hear. Jeremiah was seen as negative and sometimes harsh because of this. Because his message to Israel was not a pat on the back. Jeremiah told Israel to shape up, or else there wasn't going to be an Israel for much longer. And he was right, because it was not long after Jeremiah that the Babylonian Empire invaded and captured Jerusalem, sending many from Israel into exile in Babylon. In spite of his clear calling, Jeremiah tries his best to get out of what God has called him to do. He tries to come up with any excuse he can, telling God that he is young and inexperienced, that he's not a good speaker. But God's response to Jeremiah is not to worry about any of that. God tells Jeremiah, "I have put my words in your mouth," and that means not to worry about those things. As Jim Taylor likes to say "everything's cool." God has taken care of it. But isn't that peculiar, that God would choose someone who did not speak well, who was young, who was unsure of themselves, to be his prophet? It shouldn't be. God makes the same choice repeatedly in the Old Testament. God chooses Moses who was unsure of his abilities to lead Israel out of Egypt, and God chooses David, the piddly youngest brother to be one of the great kings of Israel. God always seems to choose the person we would least expect for the job. People like Jeremiah. People like Moses or David. People like you and me. Can you imagine what it must be like to be created and chosen by God for such a purpose as Jeremiah? You need not imagine. God has given us all the same purpose. Before we were born, while we were floating in the womb, God spoke to each one of us, and said "Before I formed you I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." God has chosen us. And isn't that peculiar. Because as imperfect as we all are, and as much as we want to tell God how unqualified, like Jeremiah did, we are for the job, God still has chosen us to be his prophets. God has placed his words into our mouth, so that we might go out into the world, and tell others who do not yet know that they were indeed created for that very same purpose. Not all of us will have a chance to play in the Super Bowl. But we all have the chance to do something infinitely greater. We all get to go out into the world and proclaim that there is a God who loves us, who knows us, who has redeemed us. This is not an easy job. We will encounter opposition. We will encounter indifference. And we, like Jeremiah, will wish deeply for some easier job. But there is no greater job. We are all called to be God's prophets; we were all created specifically for that purpose. It is a tough job, but as they say about the Peace Corps, it is the toughest job we will ever love. Amen. The Reverend James M. L. Grace January 28, 2007 *Past sermons may be found here. |
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