Heeding God’s Call to Ministry—Epiphany 4C (Jeremiah 1:4-10)

 


 Jeremiah 1:4-10 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
            says the Lord.”

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.
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.”

                ****************

                In the Gospel reading from Luke the previous Sunday (Epiphany 3C), we heard Jesus announce his sense of call, drawing from Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:14-21). The Gospel reading for the current week continues that story (Luke 4:21-30), focusing on the response of the hometown congregation (it isn’t positive). The first reading for this current Sunday also speaks of a divine calling. In this case, it is the call of Jeremiah to prophetic ministry. Like Jesus, this calling begins from the moment of conception. The text before us has been utilized for many different causes, but the focus here is on a personal call to prophetic ministry.

                Before we get to the text itself it is worth setting the context, a portion of which is revealed in verses 1-3, but which is skipped in this lectionary reading. The prophet Jeremiah, whose call story is revealed here, is a relatively well-known figure in biblical circles. The passage before us is one of the reasons. For one thing, it has been deployed in support of restrictions/bans on abortion. It is also deployed by many as a reminder that every person is special in God’s sight. That is because God knows us before we are born. But the point here is related to Jeremiah’s prophetic calling. It is a calling he cannot avoid because he was born with it (much like Jesus).  Like John the Baptist, perhaps Jesus’ mentor, Jeremiah came from a priestly family. He lived and ministered during the later years of the kingdom of Judah (the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah), and then on into the time of the Babylonian exile. So, he began his ministry during a period of optimism (the reign of Josiah) and ended as Jerusalem experienced destruction and the leading people experienced exile. As we look at these years of reform and optimism that give way to years of decline, we see a repeat of a pattern from earlier in the kingdom’s history. Josiah was a good king, though he died in battle, and his successors (sons) were not nearly as righteous. Thus, the cause of the decline. As for Jeremiah, he spent his life ministering during both good and bad times for his people. While Jeremiah’s ministry took place during both the later years of the kingdom and the exile, he did not accompany the exiles. Instead, he was taken by his opponents to Egypt where he likely died.

                This reading appears during Epiphany, a season of revelation. We hear stories of divine callings and divine revelations. This is one of those examples of divine revelation. Jeremiah receives his calling to be a mediator of divine revelation to the people of Israel. Thus, what we have before us is Jeremiah’s call narrative.

Our reading begins with Jeremiah letting know that at the start of his ministry, “the word of the Lord came to me” (Jer. 1:4). Then in verse 5, Jeremiah begins to reveal what that word from God included. He starts with this word from God: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” As I pointed out above, Jeremiah’s calling was established even before his birth. So, how could he say no? But of course, he did say no. Righteous prophets always resist, telling God they simply aren’t good enough. In Jeremiah’s case, he believed he was too young and inexperienced to take up such a calling. Using his words, “I am only a boy.” Isaiah, for his part, claimed to be a man of unclean lips who lived among an unclean people. But, like Jeremiah, he agreed to God’s terms (Isa. 6:5).

                Jeremiah claimed to be too young, but Yahweh rejected his claim and told him to go out and fulfill his calling. If he was afraid, he shouldn’t be. That is because God promised to deliver him from his opponents. Just tell the people what I reveal to you. Then we hear the content of that message Jeremiah had been called to deliver, a calling given to him in the womb before he was born.   

                As is often the case with these prophets, the word Jeremiah is called to deliver is one of judgment. But it is a word that applies not just to Judah, but to the nations as well.  In fact, Jeremiah learns that God had placed him over the nations/kingdoms.

“Now I have put my words in your mouth.
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.” (Jer. 1:9-10).

The message includes both judgment and rebuilding. He is given authority to pluck up and pull down, destroy and overthrow. But he is authorized to build and plant as well.  Walter Brueggemann helpfully speaks to the verbs found in verse ten that describe what God is up to as he calls Jeremiah to his prophetic ministry.

The six verbs of v. 10— “pluck up” and “break down,” “destroy” and “overthrow,” “build” and “plant” —are a pointed statement of God’s way with the nations. The first four verbs are negative. They assert that no historical structure, political policy, or defense scheme can secure a community against Yahweh when that community is under the judgment of Yahweh. The last two positive verbs, “build” and “plant,” assert in parallel fashion that God can work newness, create historical possibilities ex nihilo, precisely in situations that seem hopeless and closed. God works in freedom without respect either to the enduring structures so evident, or to the powerless despair when structures are gone. God alone has the capacity to bring endings and new beginnings in the historical process (cf. Deut. 32:39; Isa. 45:7; 113:7–9).  [Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming (p. 25), Eerdmans Publishing Co. Kindle Edition].

With Brueggemann’s description of what God is up to, we can also recognize that the message of Jeremiah is not only directed at Judah but takes on a universal scope. Thus, at least in Jeremiah’s mind, Israel’s God is not limited by borders. That is important because at the time Jeremiah engaged in his prophetic ministry, he was in Egypt with refugees, while the elite had been taken into exile in Babylon. Later in the book of Jeremiah, we find a letter written to the exiles in Babylon, encouraging them to “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer. 29:5-7). In other words, Yahweh is present with the people in Babylon as well as back in Judah, or even in Egypt, where Jeremiah may have been residing at the time.

                This is a good word for people in the United States to hear. While God made a covenant with Israel, God is not only concerned with the welfare of Israel. The God of Israel is the God of all the nations. While at times Americans have pictured themselves being the new Israel, whatever covenant God has with the United States is the same that God has with all the nations. Like the exiles, the word that Jeremiah delivers calls on those who see themselves as God’s children, to bloom where they have been planted. Thus, we too are called to seek the welfare of the city/nation/world, because it is in that context we will find our own welfare.

                It is in the light of Jeremiah’s call that we can hear Jesus’s own call to ministry, a call which he drew from Isaiah 61.

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to set free those who are oppressed, 
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”   (Lk 4:18-19)

While the messages seem different, remember that Jeremiah’s calling included building and planting. Certainly, the justice-oriented calling found here in Luke involves building and planting. Remember also that Mary’s song included similar sensibilities as does Jeremiah’s message:

51 He has shown strength with his arm;
    he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
    and lifted up the lowly; 
53 he has filled the hungry with good things 
    and sent the rich away empty.   (Luke 1:51-53).

                What we hear in this reading involves a sense of divine call to prophetic ministry. The question for us concerns the nature of our call to ministry. How might the call received by Jeremiah, as well as that of Jesus, affect us? Later in Jeremiah, we hear another message that he is to give to the people, a message that seems to fit with his call to prophetic ministry. It also is a message that may have resonance at this moment as authoritarian and oligarchical regimes take power. It appears that something like that is taking shape before our eyes in the United States.  

23 Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom; do not let the mighty boast in their might; do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; 24 but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

                        As we ponder this passage in the context of our experiences at this moment in time, we can hear in it a reminder that God is on the job. Even as God is on the job, God invites us to join in the work, proclaiming the good news to those on the margins and reminding those who oppress the marginalized that they face God’s judgment. 


Image of Jeremiah: By Horace Vernet - http://hdl.handle.net/11259/collection.37341, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34607057

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