Go. But... Go. But...
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Jeremiah is my favorite book in the Hebrew Bible because I feel I know the prophet. He sounds a lot like I did when I was in college and realized that entering the ministry was in my future--a choice I did not make so much as it just unfolded before me as the only place I could go.
I was 18. I was sporadic in my church attendance. I was a preacher's kid freed at last from being a preacher's kid at college--except that my advisor was a clergy colleague of my father, one who claimed all the children of his colleagues as his Freshmen advisees--i.e., I was still a preacher's kid thrown in with a whole batch of preacher's kids. I did not know my Hosea from my Hezekiah, nor the disciples beyond Peter, James, and John. I was 18. Had you asked me then what I liked about college, my answer would have been being a varsity athlete, running cross country for the Wildcats. Oh, and the brand new (then) dining hall was superb. But I knew God wanted me for the Church. It just sort of sat there as an inescapable reality.
I remember as I talked with Dad about this feeling I had, he pointed me straight to Jeremiah.
Smart man, my father.
Of course, Dad's first response was, "Did you learn NOTHING growing up here? What are you thinking?" Offering Jeremiah was his second response.
Jeremiah runs through all the excuses for doing nothing. God will have none of it. No one is too young. No one can be a coward with God behind you. Can't think on your feet? God will do the talking. But, says Jeremiah. Go, says God. But, says Jeremiah. Just go! says God.
Jesus once told a grieving man who wanted to bury his father before following, "Let the dead bury their own. Follow me!"
God is not one to suffer excuses.
Even good ones.
God has decided on a remarkable mechanism for saving the world from itself. God chose to work through the inhabitants already there. God takes them as they are, where they are, how they are, and for what they are, and uses them anyway. No better advocate for grace than its recipient. Here is why 12 Step groups are run by the recovering--they have been there, they know the newbies better than they know themselves. So, God chooses men, women, boys, and girls who look, talk, act, think, and live like the rest of us. God chooses them to become the instruments and implements of redeeming grace. Their experience of being who they are is enough.
Jeremiah is one of his congregation. He feels all that they feel as Jerusalem collapses around their ears. He weeps. He moans. He rages. He gets thrown in prisons--a lot. He laughs. He gets sarcastic. He is a master of irony. He can be a stubborn literalist. He can be a dreamer. He sees the metaphors in God's story. He sees himself.
The bottom line is that all of us are qualified to be God's instruments. God can and will use whatever we offer in terms of skills, abilities, gifts, and even weaknesses. God is intent on redeeming the world. The redeemed are the best tool God has.
Get ready.
God will call.
Don't block his number.
Jeremiah is my favorite book in the Hebrew Bible because I feel I know the prophet. He sounds a lot like I did when I was in college and realized that entering the ministry was in my future--a choice I did not make so much as it just unfolded before me as the only place I could go.
I was 18. I was sporadic in my church attendance. I was a preacher's kid freed at last from being a preacher's kid at college--except that my advisor was a clergy colleague of my father, one who claimed all the children of his colleagues as his Freshmen advisees--i.e., I was still a preacher's kid thrown in with a whole batch of preacher's kids. I did not know my Hosea from my Hezekiah, nor the disciples beyond Peter, James, and John. I was 18. Had you asked me then what I liked about college, my answer would have been being a varsity athlete, running cross country for the Wildcats. Oh, and the brand new (then) dining hall was superb. But I knew God wanted me for the Church. It just sort of sat there as an inescapable reality.
I remember as I talked with Dad about this feeling I had, he pointed me straight to Jeremiah.
Smart man, my father.
Of course, Dad's first response was, "Did you learn NOTHING growing up here? What are you thinking?" Offering Jeremiah was his second response.
Jeremiah runs through all the excuses for doing nothing. God will have none of it. No one is too young. No one can be a coward with God behind you. Can't think on your feet? God will do the talking. But, says Jeremiah. Go, says God. But, says Jeremiah. Just go! says God.
Jesus once told a grieving man who wanted to bury his father before following, "Let the dead bury their own. Follow me!"
God is not one to suffer excuses.
Even good ones.
God has decided on a remarkable mechanism for saving the world from itself. God chose to work through the inhabitants already there. God takes them as they are, where they are, how they are, and for what they are, and uses them anyway. No better advocate for grace than its recipient. Here is why 12 Step groups are run by the recovering--they have been there, they know the newbies better than they know themselves. So, God chooses men, women, boys, and girls who look, talk, act, think, and live like the rest of us. God chooses them to become the instruments and implements of redeeming grace. Their experience of being who they are is enough.
Jeremiah is one of his congregation. He feels all that they feel as Jerusalem collapses around their ears. He weeps. He moans. He rages. He gets thrown in prisons--a lot. He laughs. He gets sarcastic. He is a master of irony. He can be a stubborn literalist. He can be a dreamer. He sees the metaphors in God's story. He sees himself.
The bottom line is that all of us are qualified to be God's instruments. God can and will use whatever we offer in terms of skills, abilities, gifts, and even weaknesses. God is intent on redeeming the world. The redeemed are the best tool God has.
Get ready.
God will call.
Don't block his number.
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