conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sermon: what did you say?

Sermon: Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Community Church of Wilmette
January 28, 2007

What Did You Say?

1:9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth.

1:10 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."

What did you say?
Do you remember?

The sun was streaming through the windows. The morning disk jockey suggested avoiding the highway. It appeared to have won a popularity contest and everyone else in the metro area was taking it to get to work.

The cats were underfoot. The dog needed a walk. The kids wouldn’t get up to go to school.

The coffee maker was brewing and you were impatient for that first cup. Or is it tea in your house?

It was just another morning...not so very different from the rest. The Blackhawks lost. The Bulls were still on the road (How is it that they always seem to be on the road?).

Do you ever catch yourself wondering if your next door neighbor would actually notice if you “borrowed” the newspaper? I haven’t gotten up the courage to find out…not yet. There is simply nowhere to run in a cul-de-sac!

There’s just nowhere to run…not from this place or this time.

Sometimes God just seems to sneak up on a person. There you are, drinking your coffee and the next thing you know, God is touching your mouth. It’s such an intimate gesture. God is peering through you, straight into your soul and asking you to do something like give voice to what God wants by putting the very words in your mouth.

What do you say when God wants you to be a prophet?

It’s not as if you went looking for this. It is not as if you went on-line and filled out some job description or uploaded your resume on www.godsprophets.com. No. The morning that God called you was just like any other morning. All the same people were there. There were all the same troubles; the same kids; the same house; the same job.

So, what did you say? Did you say something to get yourself in trouble? Did you try to say anything that might get God to take it all back? “Sorry God. I’m just too young for this.” Because, you know, that’s been tried before.

And it’s not as if Jeremiah went looking for it either. So you are not alone. Sure, his father was a priest. But there are a lot of people who have been a preacher’s kid who may not have been called by God in this way. And there have been many priests who are not remembered as prophets.

Maybe he was just like you…not given a specific word, at least not right away. Instead Jeremiah tried to remind God of his youth. But God already knows Jeremiah. God knows better than Jeremiah knew himself. But sometimes, when we encounter Truth, we’ll say most anything to avoid it. The consequences are too great. The implications are too real.

Jeremiah knew that much of what he would say would not be heeded. People would not hear. He wanted to avoid the coming trouble.

And it is okay to feel that way. God understands. And God won’t leave you comfortless. God promised Jeremiah that he would not be alone. The same God who knew him in his mother’s womb would surely continue to know him in times of trouble. God holds the same promise for all of us. At least, that what I heard when I sat there with my morning coffee.

“I know you.” said God. “I have always known you. And I love you, too. You will never be alone in this work that I will give you.”

I was reassured and I wasn’t reassured all at the same time. I just wanted to sit back and enjoy my coffee. I was planning my escape route in case my neighbor saw me borrow the newspaper. Contrary to how I boast, I was really not that interested in getting into trouble. And I sensed trouble coming. I had heard some of the stories of what happens when God comes calling. When God gives you a word, you can’t even go home to share it with those who raised you…with your friends and family. Because when you try you only make them angry.

Now, Jesus, on the other hand, he made a career of getting in trouble. He actually seemed to make a ministry from saying or doing things that would anger a lot of people. I tried to remind myself that even Jesus tried to get out of what God was asking of him.

He told his mother, “My hour has not yet come.” That didn’t work at all. That was at the beginning. At the end he prayed and wept for anything but the cross. He pleaded with God. He begged even when he already knew the answer.

Sometimes I think that Jesus was the bravest person ever.

So, I followed Jesus’ first example. I suggested that God wished to speak to my neighbor. God had gotten the wrong address. I suggested that I had not believed long enough or well enough. It was not my time.

I said, “I’m too young.”
Then I said, “I’m too old.”
“Too tired.”
“Too broken.”
“I simply don’t know enough about you.”

God’s laughter sounds like snowfall. You are not sure that you really hear it, but the effects of it are all around you.

And God said, “I know. But I need you.”

I’m sorry. I’m talking too much about myself. One of the primary rules in preaching is never to talk about yourself…preach to yourself, not about yourself. So, what did you say?

Were you like Jeremiah? Were you like Jesus? Or did you say something else? Did you stand up and say, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” Or did you go to work and apply for a transfer to another city that very same day? I am really curious about what you said when God told you that you would never be alone in the work of giving voice…of proclaiming God’s Truth in the world.

Did it feel like love to you? And was it gentle or did it turn everything upside down?

God says that there is a whole world out there that needs to know about the promises that were made when all things were still new…when Adam and Eve had residency in the Garden. What did you say?

God says that there are people and kingdoms and nations that have forgotten how to listen to God, forgotten who made them in the first place. What did you say?

God says that there are poor people with no food for their tables and rich people who have no hope. What did you say?

Did you write your congresswoman? Did you join the public debate on health care? Did you tell the truth about the world that day? Or was it much simpler than that? Did you simply tell your friends how much you love them and how much you know God loves them?

And when you said those things, did you feel God’s hands on your mouth, or God’s hand protectively upon your shoulder as you gave breath to Truth?

I hope you did. I hope that is what it was like for you. Sometimes people don’t like to hear that God loves them. Sometimes they don’t like to hear that God loves poor people and rich people all at the same time. They get angry. At least that’s what they say happened to Jesus. They also say that God saved him that day.

4:29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

4:30 But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

This is what I know about God. And though it is not much more than I knew when God first called upon me to stand before God’s people, I want to share it with you. This is what I said.

God loves you...warts and all. God knows all there is to know about you, every little hair on your head. God made you and you are sacred.

You cannot hide yourself from God, pretending to be something you are not. You may try. And God understands that. But in the end, God will see your truth and proclaim it to you.

God sees all the world in the same light…in that light spoken into existence on the first day. God hopes that we too will learn to see the world in the same way…and that we’ll live accordingly.

God wants us to take care of the weak among us knowing that some day each of us will be weak.

God asks us to give and give and give.

And, though not all of us have been called (We have different gifts.), God wants those of us who have been called to stand in the gap and to speak…to do just that. God wants you to speak.

So, there it is. It’s not particularly complicated.

Peace and all good things to you this morning. May God bless you and keep you always in Love and Truth.

Amen.

Posted by tripp at January 28, 2007 07:23 AM