GOD’S CALL TO JEREMIAH … AND OTHERS

Jeremiah 1: 4-10

The late Scottish Preacher Peter Marshall, who I mentioned last week, had his life story told by his wife Catherine in her book A Man Called Peter. In it she says “Peter Marshall did not grow up wanting to be a minister. That was God’s idea—not his. In fact, it took quite a lot of divine persuasion to get him to accept that plan.” His first love in life was ships, his second love was God. As he grew older, the order changed to God, then Catherine Marshall, and then ships.  Catherine quoted this passage from Genesis 12 regarding Peter’s call: “Now the Lord has said … get thee out of the country, and from thy kindred …unto a land that I will shew thee … and I will bless thee … and thou shalt be a blessing.” No other passage fit her husband better: he left Scotland and blessed God and others in America.  Another beloved Scotsman was William Barclay who wrote a wonderful commentary on the New Testament. In his biography we read about his call to ministry and his ordination, with the pain in his heart of his own mother’s recent death: “The formalities for this were undertaken by the Presbytery of Paisley, (Scotland), in whose jurisdiction he was to be placed. [His own father was in attendance at his ordination with the presbytery minutes stating “Mr. W D Barclay, ruling elder of Stevenson Memorial Church and Parish, of the Presbytery of Glasgow, father of the Probationer under call to Renfrew Trinity [Church] was associated with the Presbytery.” [WILLIAM BARCLAY, Clive Rawlins, Eerdmans Publishing, 1984, p. 100. One more story: in his fine book THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF CHILDREN, Robert Coles tells part of the story of Dorothy Day, the visionary founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. She recalled: “I’m sitting with my mother, and she’s telling me about some trouble in the world, about children like me who don’t have enough food—they’re dying. I’m eating a doughnut, and I ask my mother why other children don’t have doughnuts and I do.  She says it’s the way the world is, something like that. I don’t remember her words exactly, but I can still see her face; it’s the face of someone who is sad, and resigned, and perhaps she was embarrassed for the sake of all human beings, that we keep letting such terrible injustices remain….Finally I must have decided to solve the world’s problem of hunger on my own, because I asked my mother if she’d take my doughnut and send it to some child whose stomach was empty…. She said no, she couldn’t do that, because the children she’d been telling me about didn’t live nearby.” Dorothy Day was profoundly changed to help others in her life. And on that day she recalled: “You know, I didn’t eat that doughnut! I put it down on the table and I can still see my mother’s face…. She says I kept talking about God and Jesus and feeding the hungry with doughnuts, until she told me to please stop [talking!] [THE SPRIITUAL LIFE OF CHILDREN, Robert Coles, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990.]

The call of God is not always like the one when God called Moses from out of a bush; or when God called Abraham to move to another land; or when God called a youth named Jeremiah, or when God called an extraordinary young woman to be the mother of Jesus. No; calls from God can come from a kitchen table conversation about doughnuts, or from a youth retreat. Seeds for my own call were planted while sitting with the head janitor of my home church where I worked as a janitor during my high school days. (Yes, I was one of two janitors who took care of our large church facility!) “You know, you ought to be a preacher!” the big, tall, head janitor told me one day. “Naw,” I said back. “I plan to go into business like my dad.” And God just smiled. Later at college one rainy Saturday morning, my girlfriend Mary Ann, and her Campus Crusade for Christ sorority sister and I converged on our small college chapel for morning prayers and songs for just the three of us. It was just us. We entered the chapel in the darkness of heavy rain; twenty minutes later, we exited the chapel to be greeted head on by the most brilliant looking rainbow I had seen. The sun had come out, and through the mist, God beamed at three believers leaving the dry warmth of indoors as the student body slept in, and we praised God.

Today we find out that Jeremiah is not the first or the last to try to give excuses for not stepping up the plate when asked to do so. Moses also was reluctant, and later Jesus tells a parable about a King who invites people to come celebrate the marriage feast for his son, but everyone actually declines that invitation from the king, giving excuses as to why they cannot come. The king was not pleased; the king insisted that his table be filled for his banquet to begin. We all know people who, when a job needs to be done, say “When do you need it done, you can count on me.” We also know people who, when a job needs to be done, play “duck and cover.”  God knows some even here today who have been called to a particular ministry, often expressed by a Nominating Committee of a church or by a Pastor Nominating Committee. Many here accepted the call of God for education, the care of others, care of property, preaching, music, mission, and the list goes on. There are many who are called, the Bible says. In fact if you have a heart for Christ, it is likely that God has already called you, even in secular work, to particular tasks and attitudes that point to Christ. God may already have called you to be a good mediator at meetings, or to be a great mentoring grandparent, or to let your children know your faith. It is the rare child who gains faith greater than his or her parents when he or she is young, so parents may be called to mentor.  There is no doubt the work to which you and I are called has its difficult days. Even Jeremiah was tested with such calamity, such resistance, and such anguish that he was called “the weeping prophet.” But because he did not deny God’s call when he was young, he stood firm amidst all the anguish he faced. You and I are called to do the same, lest the great sorrows, needs, and conflict of our world overwhelm us. Instead, remember what God said to Jeremiah, but insert your own name in that monologue to confirm your own calling. At some point has God called you? Did God call your name and say, “_______________, before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” I think for those who love the Lord, it is highly likely that God has already tried to plant that holy message in your soul. Search your soul; is it there? Does the call resound off the walls of your soul? Today is soul searching day for you. Jeremiah’s reluctance suggests that many more are called than choose to answer: “Here I am Lord, I have heard you calling. I will go Lord, if you lead me.” Those words prepared us for worship.

In spite of some who have busy calendars, the King still invites you, the called ones, to his banquet and to work for his purpose. We change our calendars for other unexpected needs, can you change your calendar to say to God, “Okay Lord, what shall I do for your glory?” This past week was the twenty-third anniversary of the Challenger disaster. As a new pastor here, I remember what a thrill it was to walk out of the church office doors on a cold January day and see our nation’s shuttle take off with my own eyes. And then there was the sickening feeling we all got as a giant cloud of smoke appeared, and people all around our nation changed their schedules. They listened to radios and were glued to televisions. President Reagan’s State of the Union Address changed from a celebration of our first teacher in space to a eulogy for a crew of brave astronauts. We change our schedules for disasters. Can we make adjustments to be open to the call of, and service to, the one who formed us in our mother’s wombs; to the one who knew us even before we were born; to the Savior who called the twelve, and even more, to spread the gospel?

The story is told about Jesus after he had ascended into heaven. An angel of the Lord said to him “You were taking a very big risk putting all your faith in the twelve and the others you called to spread the gospel around the whole world! What if they didn’t do it?” the angel asked our Savior. “What was your back up plan?” To which the Lord replied: “I have no other plan.”

Jesus calls you, and me, and others into service according to his plan, and our gifts, and the will of his Father. There are plenty of people who, like with the king and the banquet, look away. But there are some, and you may be among them, who say: Here am I Lord, send me.” If you are ready to rededicate yourself to God, then let us ask God in song to take our lives once again, or for the first time, and let them be consecrated, that is, set apart from common purposes, for God’s good pleasure. 

Jeffrey A. Sumner                                                            January 31, 2010