Text: Jeremiah 1: 4-10
Today’s scripture portion is the gripping account of the Lord’s call of Jeremiah the prophet. The call begins with the revelation or reception of the Divine word. The call of Jeremiah is one of the clearest and most explicit biblical formulations of the experience of election. God called Jeremiah to fulfill a mission to Israel, Jeremiah wants the children of Israel to behave in a manner worthy of their special call by God. The Passage is the form of a dialogue between the Lord and Jeremiah. It is the divine-human encounter. As we read through the Book of Jeremiah there are times when Jeremiah is very angry with God for appointing him a prophet because he suffers much hardship at the hands of his own people. However, there is a compulsion and a drive to do what God asks after accepting the inevitability of the call.
First we will see the character of Jeremiah...
Jeremiah, whose name means “God hurls”, is called the weeping prophet. He was a young man heartbroken over the condition of his land. Jeremiah was born in a day where politics were corrupt, the pulpit was compromised and the prophet was concerned. It was a time when the nation, as a whole, was in rank rebellion toward God. The prophet came with severe rebukes and a call to repentance. Verse 1 says He grew up in a priestly family. God, himself, created, conditioned and positioned Jeremiah. He is a man walking and talking with the Lord. When God says, “I know You”, two things are implied; knowing in the sense of choosing and knowing in the sense of watching over and carrying for. Even before he was born, God was watching over and protecting him. Though he is faithful prophet, he is thinking of reason that he cannot serve as we see in verse 6 "I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy". When God calls the person is given what they need for that service. Note what God said to Jeremiah, "You shall speak whatever I command you" and "I am with you" (1:7). Jeremiah need not work alone. God equips and stands beside those whom God calls.
Jeremiah, whose name means “God hurls”, is called the weeping prophet. He was a young man heartbroken over the condition of his land. Jeremiah was born in a day where politics were corrupt, the pulpit was compromised and the prophet was concerned. It was a time when the nation, as a whole, was in rank rebellion toward God. The prophet came with severe rebukes and a call to repentance. Verse 1 says He grew up in a priestly family. God, himself, created, conditioned and positioned Jeremiah. He is a man walking and talking with the Lord. When God says, “I know You”, two things are implied; knowing in the sense of choosing and knowing in the sense of watching over and carrying for. Even before he was born, God was watching over and protecting him. Though he is faithful prophet, he is thinking of reason that he cannot serve as we see in verse 6 "I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy". When God calls the person is given what they need for that service. Note what God said to Jeremiah, "You shall speak whatever I command you" and "I am with you" (1:7). Jeremiah need not work alone. God equips and stands beside those whom God calls.
If we think of his character.. Are we, like Jeremiah, thinking of reasons that we cannot serve? Or do we think that God enable us to serve him.
Secondly God brings New life through his call
Jeremiah received the call not like other prophets in the Old Testament. Verse 4 says "Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you". The prophet's words begin, not with the prophet having something inside him that needs to be expressed but rather with God's word coming to him. For Jeremiah central point of his encounter was the Word of the Lord. This is what Martin Luther referred to as "the external word," a word that is not self-derived, a word that comes as an intrusion, a gift from the outside, from a God who will not leave us in silence. The direction of Jeremiah's life is God's idea before it is Jeremiah's. The word of the Lord that comes to Jeremiah is not only a gift but also a vocation. Even before he was born Jeremiah had been set aside, commandeered, consecrated for service to the Lord.
Then verse 10 says "Today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms". Though "only a boy," Jeremiah is put in charge of the downfall and rising of kingdoms, over the task of destroying and creating world. That is some power to place in the hands of a young person! What God wants Jeremiah to do is not small. The beginning of the book of Jeremiah implies that God acts and God moves in to make a new future, a new world, by speaking, by giving a word to the world through the prophet. God's standard way of making a new world is through speech just like the story of creation in Genesis
I conclude with a story which I was read in an article. Ravikumar a journalist had an interview with an elementary school child. The young man was only infant found alive after the bomb blast in a building. He had burns all over his body, and the heat had damaged his breathing system so that there were no natural filters for the lungs, the lungs had no defense against diseases. He had to undergo lots of surgery. He has been confined to his home for nine years. But slowly medical achievements have repaired and restored him. Now he is going to public school. Ravikumar asked to that boy why you thought that you had been so blessed by all these miracles like to have survived the bombing, to have been found alive, to have been saved in ICU, to have overcome every health challenge.His simple answer is God must have a special job for me. He believes himself called by God to a place and a work. In the same way We are all called by God to a place and a work. God calls every one as his servant to fulfill a mission. In this New year just examine our call... for what purpose we are here? God has a special plan for everyone. As we reflect upon this call of Jeremiah by the Lord, How does this dialogue between God and Jeremiah speak to our life today? As such his life exemplifies the stability and constancy which every individual ought to exhibit.
[Ruban Mani Raj S., the preacher of this sermon is a third year BD student in Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute, Chennai, India.]
