Epiphany 4, Year C
Jeremiah 1:4-10
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.”
I’ve always loved these words from Jeremiah and the idea of being so completely and utterly known by God, so chosen and called by God.
Remember in the first Harry Potter book and movie when clueless Harry is invited to be a student at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? He receives a letter and when his aunt and uncle try to hide it from him, replica invitations start coming in — under the door, through the windows, through cracks in the walls — until they are swirling around Harry like a tornado too insistent and obvious to miss? That was Harry’s call to something beyond himself; the beginning of a whole new way of life.
God’s invitation to Jeremiah is super-clear this morning too. Words straight from God; Jeremiah is even touched by God. There is no doubt that God has a plan for Jeremiah, and God is confident Jeremiah is the one for the job.
At first glance, Jeremiah’s call story seems almost as fairy-tale a story as Harry Potter’s. And maybe just as remote and unrealistic as a piece of fiction.
But what if this morning we read God’s words of calling and clarity to Jeremiah as if they are directed to us? What if this invitation isn’t reserved for the great figures of religion or those who do such mighty things that they end up in our history textbooks? What if God is more inclusive than that, calling each and every one of us? What if this reading is one of those Harry Potter-like letters drifting under your door?
What then?
We tend to think about call as being some grand and life-altering experience that changes our direction in a decisive and obvious way. And for some it is that. And those are wonderful and inspiring stories. But my favorite understanding of call comes from Martin Buber, a 19th century Jewish religious philosopher from Vienna and later Israel. He envisioned calling as a life-long process of gradually resembling more and more closely the image of God we are each created to be. An on-going growth and becoming. Martin Buber used to tell a Hasidic story to illustrate this idea: There was an old, pious man, named Rabbi Zusya, who became fearful as death drew near. His friends gathered round and chided him, “What’s wrong, Zusya! Are you afraid that you'll be reproached that you weren't Moses?" “Oh, no," the rabbi replied. “In the coming world, I will not be asked, “Why were you not Moses?” I will be asked, “Why were you not Zusya?”
Just by nature of being created in God’s image, we each already have a vocation. To live in the world as the person we were created to be, chosen even before we were born to be part of God’s story. Parker Palmer, a Quaker author known for his work on spiritual discernment and vocation, talks about how vocation often stems from our “birthright gifts” - the pieces of ourselves that make us truly unique and give us purpose. And our baptismal promises remind us that whatever our vocation, it has to include seeing Christ in all persons, respecting the dignity of every creature, seeking justice, and resisting evil. Living into our call is a creative work that is never finished.
Sometimes we’ll live out our call in the context of a certain job - minister, politician, teacher, doctor. Or in the context of a certain cause - fighting for an at-risk population or dissenting against a specific part of the system. But often our becoming happens in the midst of the context in which we already are. Martin Luther once explained that when understood as Christian vocation, anything - even changing dirty diapers - can be done for the glory of God. In fact, 7 snow days with kids reaffirmed my conviction that it is exactly in the midst of the mundane where living out our call to be the image of God is the hardest.
Maybe God has or will speak to you in some wild and spine-tingling way. I hope so, and I’d love to hear about it. But otherwise, it could be a pretty life-changing call just slowly learning to let God’s love shine through what we do and say. No easy task.
God’s mission is not yet accomplished; God’s dream is not yet complete. God still calls. God still sends. So take a minute to listen to these words that are for you too: "Before God formed you in the womb God knew you, and before you were born God consecrated you.” What might be your particular calling? What have you been born for? Who are you created to be? How might you more fully live out the dream of God in your own context?
Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if for many of you, your first, or at least second, reaction is disbelief or resistance. “Surely, not I! I am too ____ ….” Too what? Think about what it is that stops you from believing God is calling you.
We think we aren’t good enough, capable enough, holy enough. We’re unsuitable, inadequate. We’re too inexperienced, or too scared, or maybe just too busy.
And we are not alone in our resistance. That’s where Jeremiah starts too. He doesn’t think he’s up to God’s call. He is only a boy, he doesn’t know how to speak. And he doesn’t just start there. His resistance keeps popping up throughout the book. He never seems all that convinced that he’s the one for the job.
Jeremiah is sometimes called “the Everyman’s prophet” for that reason. Just like us much of the time, his first response to change or challenge is fear. But Jeremiah proves that fear and a sense of unworthiness do not disqualify you from the call to represent God in the world. It’s like those letters that never stop arriving for Harry until they reach him; our pushback does not dissuade God.
Like I mentioned at the start, I’ve always loved this passage from Jeremiah. But, as so often happens with the Bible, this wonderful and inspiring little reading doesn’t stand alone.
Jeremiah followed God’s call and his work as a prophet was fruitful and important, but it was also a great source of frustration and disappointment. He was opposed, belittled, ignored, hated by the people to whom he prophesied. The things God had him do to turn the hearts of God’s people were incredibly hard and sometimes humiliating. In one story that will be of particular interest to the boys, I’m guessing, Jeremiah was instructed by the Lord to remove his underwear, bury it near a rock by a river, then dig it up a long time later and wear the ruined underwear as a symbol of the unfaithfulness of the people. After enough episodes like that, at one point Jeremiah was so anguished that he screamed out at God, "Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!” Jeremiah is not known only as “the Everyman’s prophet”; he is also known as “the weeping prophet.” Because as anyone who tries it quickly learns, following God’s call is hard work.
But throughout it all, God is there for Jeremiah. Always. “Do not be afraid,” God reassures him, “for I am with you to deliver you.” God surrounds Jeremiah with love and empowers him to live into his calling, no matter how difficult. Jeremiah is never alone.
Neither are we. It is not our confidence or our worthiness that qualify us to live into God’s call for us — it is God’s loving presence with us.
(And with any luck, none of us will find that living into our call involves wearing nothing but our dirty underwear in public.)
Before God formed you in the womb God knew you, and before you were born God consecrated you. Do not be afraid, for God will be with you. Amen.
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