Jeremiah 1: 4 - 10

I finally got to see the movie Mission: Impossible III last weekend (even though I watched half on Friday night and the other half on Saturday morning!) It has only been out for a year, which is actually way ahead of my usual viewing pattern! It was OK, if you like stupid plots, and non-stop action (most of which is totally unbelievable). But it was entertaining. I used to really like the TV show, though, back in the day. And I still love that theme song… when they would strike that match, and you’d hear those opening notes: ba BA…ba ba…ba BE,  well, you knew you were in for something good! 

I’m sure that it was because I saw the film so recently, but I actually heard that theme song playing in my mind as I read through the Lectionary reading from Jeremiah this week!  (I know, I’m a strange person!)  But I did: (sing theme…) Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” (continue…) …. ¹⁰ Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.” (finish…) 

Really, has there ever been a more “Impossible Mission?”

Let’s get the context: Jeremiah was basically a ‘nobody’.  He was the son of a priest by the name of Hilkiah from the small and very poor town, Anatoth.  He doesn’t have connections with kings or kingdoms at this point in his life. Picture this man standing out in a field somewhere, no one around, just a couple skinny sheep or something, or laying down for an afternoon nap after a morning of hard work in the fields, when suddenly God himself appears to him and gives him a message. 

Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant. 

Before Jeremiah can even form the words, God reminds him that his objections carry no weight. “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. ⁸ And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 

You might remember that in all the Mission Impossible shows, including the films, at the beginning they would get their assignment. Someone would play a message from ‘the Boss’. After explaining the situation du jour they would always say, “Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is…”   I don’t recall ever seeing a show where the MI guy would say, “You know, this mission is just nuts. I don’t think I’m going to accept it!  See you next week!” That would have been suprising to say the least!

But I wonder if Jeremiah felt that way.  And I know that this divine plan seems pretty well orchestrated, and more or less a ‘done deal’ but I really think that Jeremiah did have the option of walking away.  He could have said, “No, thanks!” In fact, I think that this is a given in any of our interactions with God for now.  It is that amazing thing called “free will”. There are some things that God does (like Creation, and redemption) where the universe bows to the will of God. God says it, and it happens. Theologians call this the ‘absolute will of God.” It can’t be resisted because God is omnipotent. 

But when it comes to human relations with God, there is something that, again, the theologians call “God’s permissive will”. And while God has a plan, when there are choices to be made God knows what is best, and God has a will for every situation, a plan (and that plan is good), still, we can choose whether or not we want to be part of it. We can (at least for now) say “no” to God. “I’m not going to do it your way, I want my way.” 

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, one of the first petitions he taught was to ask, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Why would we have to ask that if it always happens? Apparently it is possible that God’s will would not be done. Why does Paul implore us not to ‘grieve the Holy Spirit of God[1]’?  Obviously, because it is possible to do that.  (And the Spirit is grieved by disobedience.) 

Because of all this, the question that came to my mind in pondering Jeremiah’s call to ministry had to do with how universal this kind of call is.  In other words, was this a unique call, limited to special people like Jeremiah or Paul, or Jesus? Or are we all called in some sense?  I talked about this with a number of people this past week, and I wish we were able to have a dialogue here today/ tonight.  (And maybe you can find someone to talk about this with yourselves).  But here’s where I am in this: 

I believe that there is a calling from God for everyone. (Everyone!) And there are levels of calling – they get deeper, depending on our willingness to respond.  The most basic kind of call is a call to discipleship. A call to ‘believe’, which as we’ve been talking about for quite some time here, is more than simple intellectual ascent, it is an active word, it is trusting. Discipleship is a good word. 

Jesus tells us with regard to that call, that “Many are called yet few are chosen.[2]”  He is referring to our response to the invitation to “Repent and believe the Good News”.  We all have the opportunity, but not many respond in faith. That’s the reality of this world. 

But once a person takes that step of faith, and begins to walk as a child of God, there is another type, or level of calling on each of our lives.  Listen to these familiar words from the Book of Ephesians 2. We usually stop with verses 8 – 9. 

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. 

A wonderful verse – sums up the whole Gospel message, doesn’t it?  But it goes on: 

 ¹⁰For we are God's workmanship [special creation], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, [the purpose of our new birth] 

[and then this, which we hardly know what to do with, and so don’t talk about it very often:]

which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

Now if you take this at face value it is confirming to us a few things that we’ve been talking about here:

1. We come to Christ by faith, and so we have the choice of believing or not believing.  (But the invitation goes out to everyone.  The call is there, the response is up to us.)

2.  Having believed, God has a plan for our lives.  We are called to do good works – and not just any works, but good works that God prepared in advance for us to do.  Not the same works for everyone, not random acts of kindness, but an actual plan for each of us. 

Let’s move over to the book of 1 Corinthians 12: 4 - 7.

There’s a very important teaching here about spiritual gifts and their purpose, that relates to what we’re looking at this morning/ evening. 

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

⁶There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people.

There are three important words to note here:  different gifts, different services, and different kinds of working.  The ‘gifts’ refer to special abilities that God gives to his people.  The word ‘service’ refers to various places in which those gifts can be used (i.e., there are different ‘jobs’ in the Kingdom of God.) “Kinds of working” refers to the effects, or the results of using those gifts in the place where God puts us. Now, that sounds like a plan, doesn’t it? 

What is this saying?  Isn’t it telling us that in the Kingdom of God, there is a plan for everyone, and it is a plan for the common good, it is a plan that is meant to bless the world, and it involves using the gifts that God has given each of us in the place where God has planted us, to bring about the effects, or the results that God – in his permissive will – has called us to do. 

Remember, ‘permissive’ means that we can say, “No!”   We don’t have to cooperate, but God has a plan for our lives. 

A couple of things about this plan…

While obedience to God is always the way of joy and peace in this life, that is not to say that God’s way is always going to be easy. But there is an ‘other side’.   Look again at Jeremiah’s call. I mentioned that I wondered whether Jeremiah would have liked to opt out of this one, and actually, he talks about that.  He didn’t like his calling.  He didn’t want to have to say the things that God gave him to say to his people.  And it wasn’t so much that he was afraid, it was more how it hurt him to do this. 

Jeremiah is called the ‘weeping prophet’ because his sermons were so often delivered through tears. The people constantly rejected his message, in fact, God told him that they would, but he was to do it anyway.  They’re not going to listen to you, but keep preaching. They arrested him. Once they threw him in a dry cistern, and would have left him to die, but someone had a change of heart.  At one point, Jeremiah complains to God, “I’ve had enough!  No more!  I’m not going to say another word, I’m going to hold it in”…. but he finds that the words are like a ‘fire’ inside of him, he can’t hold them in; we might say that his call was so strong that he was compelled to go on. 

Of course, we like to talk about abundant life, the blessings of God, peace that passes understanding. I love to tell the good news of how amazing it is to have a relationship and peace with my Creator, and to know that I’m participating in something that is eternal – my life has meaning because my citizenship is in the Kingdom of God.  That’s an amazing privilege. But it’s not to say that the Way is easy. 

I was talking about this with my friend Tom Kulp on Friday about this, and Tom gave me a really good insight. He said that I should remind you that God’s call is not a ‘one time thing’.  Yes, we can say, “No” to it, but that is rarely the end it.  It’s not like we only get one chance. There will come a time when, like the Pharaoh, our resistance becomes permanent, and we are no longer able to say ‘yes’ to God, because we’ve resisted too long; but God’s patience is one of God’s basic characteristics. It is great. 

If we say no, there will likely be other calls, other opportunities… ‘Start here…”   “I want you to try that…”   “Why don’t you sign up for that mission trip… or help out in that ministry… take a chance on that neighborhood housing board, or ________”.  The more we obey, the more we say ‘yes’ to those little leadings, the clearer the Plan becomes to us. And the clearer the Plan is, the more we can follow it.  And the more closely we follow it, the more we are blessed as we see God using us for eternal purposes. 

We are living in a temporary world.  This world, and all that is in it, the Scriptures say, is fading away…one day it will be over.  Gone.  The things that seem so important to us now are often just part of that temporary world.  Keeping that understanding is one of the challenges of maturity in faith. Things like our jobs – could be a ‘world’ thing, other than how the Kingdom impacts the workplace; certainly our wealth is temporary, our talents, our fame in this world – all temporary things. These things are not unimportant – all of life has meaning, especially in the context of the Kingdom. 

But I think that the Scriptures clearly teach us that our only connection with eternal things are those aspects of our lives that have to do with intentionally living out the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is Eternal.  When we work out God’s Kingdom plan for our lives – whether we are doing things in the church, or out in the community – we are participating in eternity. 

And it doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t matter whether we are ‘out front’ in highly visible ministries, or behind the scenes; it doesn’t matter if our calling leads us into full time Church work or some other kind of ministry, we are all on equal ground before each other and before God when we are working out God’s plan – God’s call for us.  It’s all important. 

Together we have been called for a purpose.  There is a plan for each of us. Your mission – should you decide to accept it – is to follow that leading day by day. As you follow, the Plan will become more clear. Remember, you can say ’yes’ to that plan. And you can say, “No.”  But why would we?