Sounds like a job for Superman or Wonder Woman
Commentary
See, today I appoint you over
nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."
-- Jeremiah 1:10
A mission that sounds like a job for a super hero is assigned to a vulnerable stripling named Jeremiah. He is the one prophet who via his soliloquies has given us a record of his dark nights of the soul (Jeremiah 15:10-20, 17:5-18, 18:18-23, 20:7-18, 23:9). His was a journey to trust that involved fear, anger, doubt, self pity, and vindictiveness. The story of his life and struggles is worth sharing with the congregation through many sermons that will leap out of the text.
By the time of Jesus the scripts written by fanatical piety called for a cosmic super hero, a God-sent Rambo. As Luke in his gospel has taken pains to show us, the One who came did not fit that definition and his departure from the script ignited controversy. The thought strikes me that today's gospel reading placed in the season of Epiphany reminds us that the Word that confronts us can also ignite controversy and that can be a manifestation of God's activity.
The Apostle Paul in his missionary travels would go from one controversy to another. Those he encountered among his flock in Corinth could be the most heart-wrenching of all. At a time in his ministry when he himself most needed love he phrased for the ages the great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Verse 5 makes us stop and take notice. It reflects the prophet's conviction (perhaps retrospectively) that his life originated in a thought of God. The Old Testament writers in general understand predestination this way, not in terms of fate or destiny, but in terms of calling and purpose. Here is a way of coming to grips with the theological meaning both Luke and Matthew attached to the birth of Jesus. The similar and striking verses of Psalm 139:13-16 extend the thought beyond prophets. Every life originates in the thought of God. The thought of Jeremiah and the Psalmist is echoed in the prayer of Saint Augustine, "Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." The question is not is God knocking on the door of our lives, but how and when in our freedom will we respond. Jeremiah's reluctance to the call from on high is something we all share. Francis Thompson's sublime poem, "The Hound of Heaven," comes to mind here.
Verse 7 is also suggestive. In the days of Jeremiah the young had no voice. Age and wisdom were revered and heeded. Jeremiah's sense of youthful inadequacy can be compared to a sense of powerlessness we often feel. The prophet's reply that he is only a boy is the equivalent of our own reluctant response, "What can I do, one little person?" God has a way of calling those who feel dreadfully unprepared (Exodus 3:1--4:17, Judges 6:11-18, Luke 5:8).
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
There are some words that hang over history as both judgment and challenge. Lincoln's Gettysburg address is one example in our own national history. The words of Paul in this reading are like that only more so. They hang over the ages. In these days of violent ethnic and religious rivalries, political thrashing, the tabloid press, the eclipse of civility in debate over public issues, the hot-headed voices of radio talk programs, do we not need to hear them again and again and again? In handling our own murderous thoughts, our hurts, our competitive drives, our frustrations do we not need to hear them over and over again?
Luke 4:21-30
When Jesus concluded his chosen reading he sat down and everyone's eyes were on him. Luke tells us all spoke well of him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth. That word translated "amazed" can also mean baffled, or puzzled. There may well have been some hometown pride operating but now it seems they were not quite sure if they had rightly heard him. Something did not quite sound like what they expected to hear from a hometown boy. "Is not this Joseph's son?" Bear in mind that Jesus had cut off the reading right in the middle of a verse. He omitted the words "and the day of vengeance of our God." What baffled them? Was it that his words of graciousness implied the inclusion of Gentiles in his Spirit-directed mission? That is the way Jesus read their thoughts for he reminds them of the ministries of Elijah and Elisha to Gentile persons. Would the Christians reading the reference to the Aramite general Naaman think of the Roman centurion, Cornelius (Acts 10)? Does Luke report these words of Jesus in the interest of an inclusive church?
Jesus with his words was starting to pull down a wall. Anti-Gentile bias was part of the tradition. Ezra and Nehemiah with the sanction of Deuteronomy 23:3 enacted severe laws against foreigners (Nehemiah 13:1-3, 23-30). The stories of Ruth and Jonah were written to protest such mean-spirited actions. Acts of vengeance under Divine sanction are frequently reported, Numbers 13 being one example. Does God use human beings as instruments to punish others or are these projections of human passion onto God? Yet there are sections of the book where a majestic universalism shines forth. In Genesis 10 the varied sights and sounds of the whole human community in the known world of that day pass in review and Israel is just one among the many. Through the story of Babel (Genesis 11) the tradition proclaims that God loves diversity.
This column is headed by the commission given to Jeremiah. It sounds like a job for Superman or Wonder Woman. Jesus assigned to his reluctant disciples tasks that sound equally impossible. He assigns those same tasks to us vulnerable believers. The only weapons he gives us are his words. He never said the task would be easy or be accomplished in a day. The only promise he makes is the promise given to Jeremiah, the promise of presence.
In his book, Jeremiah, Spokesman Out Of Time, William Holladay passes on a story from Colditz castle which the Germans set aside as a prison for Allied officers toward the end of World War II. One day a British officer was seen planting minute amounts of dry rot into the beams of the castle. He argued that if the R.A.F. could remove the roof of a building in a second or so, then dry rot could do the same thing, though in a much longer span of time. Holladay makes comparison to Jeremiah who though his words was planting dry rot in the timbers of Jerusalem.1 The words of Jesus were aimed at more than the timbers of Jerusalem. Keep them in circulation!
1. Holladay, William, Jeremiah, Spokesman Out Of Time, Pilgrim Press, 1974.
nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."
-- Jeremiah 1:10
A mission that sounds like a job for a super hero is assigned to a vulnerable stripling named Jeremiah. He is the one prophet who via his soliloquies has given us a record of his dark nights of the soul (Jeremiah 15:10-20, 17:5-18, 18:18-23, 20:7-18, 23:9). His was a journey to trust that involved fear, anger, doubt, self pity, and vindictiveness. The story of his life and struggles is worth sharing with the congregation through many sermons that will leap out of the text.
By the time of Jesus the scripts written by fanatical piety called for a cosmic super hero, a God-sent Rambo. As Luke in his gospel has taken pains to show us, the One who came did not fit that definition and his departure from the script ignited controversy. The thought strikes me that today's gospel reading placed in the season of Epiphany reminds us that the Word that confronts us can also ignite controversy and that can be a manifestation of God's activity.
The Apostle Paul in his missionary travels would go from one controversy to another. Those he encountered among his flock in Corinth could be the most heart-wrenching of all. At a time in his ministry when he himself most needed love he phrased for the ages the great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Verse 5 makes us stop and take notice. It reflects the prophet's conviction (perhaps retrospectively) that his life originated in a thought of God. The Old Testament writers in general understand predestination this way, not in terms of fate or destiny, but in terms of calling and purpose. Here is a way of coming to grips with the theological meaning both Luke and Matthew attached to the birth of Jesus. The similar and striking verses of Psalm 139:13-16 extend the thought beyond prophets. Every life originates in the thought of God. The thought of Jeremiah and the Psalmist is echoed in the prayer of Saint Augustine, "Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." The question is not is God knocking on the door of our lives, but how and when in our freedom will we respond. Jeremiah's reluctance to the call from on high is something we all share. Francis Thompson's sublime poem, "The Hound of Heaven," comes to mind here.
Verse 7 is also suggestive. In the days of Jeremiah the young had no voice. Age and wisdom were revered and heeded. Jeremiah's sense of youthful inadequacy can be compared to a sense of powerlessness we often feel. The prophet's reply that he is only a boy is the equivalent of our own reluctant response, "What can I do, one little person?" God has a way of calling those who feel dreadfully unprepared (Exodus 3:1--4:17, Judges 6:11-18, Luke 5:8).
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
There are some words that hang over history as both judgment and challenge. Lincoln's Gettysburg address is one example in our own national history. The words of Paul in this reading are like that only more so. They hang over the ages. In these days of violent ethnic and religious rivalries, political thrashing, the tabloid press, the eclipse of civility in debate over public issues, the hot-headed voices of radio talk programs, do we not need to hear them again and again and again? In handling our own murderous thoughts, our hurts, our competitive drives, our frustrations do we not need to hear them over and over again?
Luke 4:21-30
When Jesus concluded his chosen reading he sat down and everyone's eyes were on him. Luke tells us all spoke well of him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth. That word translated "amazed" can also mean baffled, or puzzled. There may well have been some hometown pride operating but now it seems they were not quite sure if they had rightly heard him. Something did not quite sound like what they expected to hear from a hometown boy. "Is not this Joseph's son?" Bear in mind that Jesus had cut off the reading right in the middle of a verse. He omitted the words "and the day of vengeance of our God." What baffled them? Was it that his words of graciousness implied the inclusion of Gentiles in his Spirit-directed mission? That is the way Jesus read their thoughts for he reminds them of the ministries of Elijah and Elisha to Gentile persons. Would the Christians reading the reference to the Aramite general Naaman think of the Roman centurion, Cornelius (Acts 10)? Does Luke report these words of Jesus in the interest of an inclusive church?
Jesus with his words was starting to pull down a wall. Anti-Gentile bias was part of the tradition. Ezra and Nehemiah with the sanction of Deuteronomy 23:3 enacted severe laws against foreigners (Nehemiah 13:1-3, 23-30). The stories of Ruth and Jonah were written to protest such mean-spirited actions. Acts of vengeance under Divine sanction are frequently reported, Numbers 13 being one example. Does God use human beings as instruments to punish others or are these projections of human passion onto God? Yet there are sections of the book where a majestic universalism shines forth. In Genesis 10 the varied sights and sounds of the whole human community in the known world of that day pass in review and Israel is just one among the many. Through the story of Babel (Genesis 11) the tradition proclaims that God loves diversity.
This column is headed by the commission given to Jeremiah. It sounds like a job for Superman or Wonder Woman. Jesus assigned to his reluctant disciples tasks that sound equally impossible. He assigns those same tasks to us vulnerable believers. The only weapons he gives us are his words. He never said the task would be easy or be accomplished in a day. The only promise he makes is the promise given to Jeremiah, the promise of presence.
In his book, Jeremiah, Spokesman Out Of Time, William Holladay passes on a story from Colditz castle which the Germans set aside as a prison for Allied officers toward the end of World War II. One day a British officer was seen planting minute amounts of dry rot into the beams of the castle. He argued that if the R.A.F. could remove the roof of a building in a second or so, then dry rot could do the same thing, though in a much longer span of time. Holladay makes comparison to Jeremiah who though his words was planting dry rot in the timbers of Jerusalem.1 The words of Jesus were aimed at more than the timbers of Jerusalem. Keep them in circulation!
1. Holladay, William, Jeremiah, Spokesman Out Of Time, Pilgrim Press, 1974.
