Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Preaching
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons:
With an Eye to the New
We modern-day Christians are not called to be prophets in the Old Testament sense of the term. We must remember that when preaching from this text. An Israelite prophet was one who had the ecstatic experience of standing "in the council (i.e., the heavenly court) of the Lord to perceive and to hear his word" (Jeremiah 23:18; cf. 1 Kings 22:13-23; Isaiah 40:1-8). He was then sent as a messenger of that council to tell where, when, and why God was at work in Israel's life. Old Testament prophets had new words from the Lord to proclaim, but we Christians believe that the Word of God has now been spoken and incarnated in its fullness in Jesus Christ, and we add nothing to that Word. Who can add anything to the cross and resurrection? Rather we simply spell out, expound, and explain the meaning of that full Word for our time.
Nevertheless, the God who called the youthful Jeremiah of Judah in 626 B.C. is also our God, and the revelation given in this text to the prophet at the beginning of his ministry can also be a witness to us of God's nature and purpose. Certainly the text centers on God. Six times the word "Lord" appears in the text.
Who is the God revealed through this call? First, he is a God of intimacy. There are no angelic mediators here, nor is Jeremiah overwhelmed with the vision of God's transcendent glory, as was Isaiah (ch. 6). Rather God himself fashioned Jeremiah in his mother's womb, like a potter working with a lump of clay (v. 5), as he has fashioned each one of us, and he knows Jeremiah and us through and through (cf. Psalm 139). Similarly, God himself reaches out his hand and touches the prophet's lips and puts his words in his mouth (v. 9).
Second, the God who calls Jeremiah is Lord of lords and King of kings. Jeremiah is called to be a prophet to "nations" and "kingdoms," and God can establish and build up those nations or pluck them up and break them down, verse 10. Like Jesus passing majestically through the midst of the lynch crowd in the Gospel lesson of Luke 4:21-30, God in Jeremiah is the Almighty Sovereign in control. Thus, Jeremiah calls God "Adonai" (v. 6), that is, "Master" or "Owner."
This mighty Lord calls an insignificant youth from the Benjamite town of Anathoth to be his messenger. Jeremiah, at the time of this call, is a young man of marriageable age, about eighteen years old, and there is nothing about him that qualifies him to be the Lord's prophet. He has never spoken in public in his life. Indeed, throughout his ministry he is terrified by his task and argues constantly against it. The God of the scriptures, it seems, calls those who are weak and foolish and despised in the world (1 Corinthians 26-27), in order that it may be seen that it is God's power that works through them and not their own.
God always equips his ministers and messengers and disciples for their tasks, however, providing his sufficiency where they have none. To Jeremiah's "I do not know," the Lord replies, "I knew you." To Jeremiah's "I am only a youth," God answers, "I am with you," and then he gives Jeremiah the words he is to speak. As Paul says, God's grace is sufficient for us, and his power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The reason for God's call to Jeremiah and to us is very clear. God is working constantly to make his creation good once again. We human beings ruin God's good world with our sin and rebellion against his will, attempting to be our own deities and to fashion our own future. The result is strife between male and female, between brother and brother, between nations, with God's creation marred by "thorns and thistles," the God-given gifts of beauty and work turned into ugliness and drudgery, all community becomes impossible, and over it all the sentence of death (Genesis 3-11). Now God works tirelessly to turn our cursed existence into blessing (Genesis 12:3) and to give to all humanity the gift of abundant life, in a community of justice and love and peace that knows how to live for the Lord.
God lays his plans for the salvation of his world very carefully. He tells Jeremiah, "Before I formed you ... before you were born," (v. 5). Before the prophet was ever conceived in the womb, God knew his task for Jeremiah, and "consecrated" him, that is, set him apart, to be his prophet. In like manner, God knew and planned each one of us for a special role in his purpose. God does not create human beings simply for nothing. For each of us he has a purpose before he ever makes us.
God equips Jeremiah for his task by putting his words in Jeremiah's mouth (v. 9). In other words, Jeremiah's prophecy is not the result of his own thought. He has not pondered the state of his society or read "the signs of the times," and decided that he simply must speak out against them. Nor has his prophecy been the result of his own religious zeal and indignation or even love for his people -- and he does love them dearly. No. Jeremiah's prophetic proclamations are words from the Lord, given to him as gifts from God. His prophecies come from God alone (cf. 15:16), and when Jeremiah tries to say something different, God rebukes him sternly (cf. 15:19). In the same manner, our tasks done for the Lord are made possible by gifts given to us. In the Epistle lesson of 1 Corinthians 13, the faith, hope, and love that Christians are to manifest in their lives are not products of their own thought and work, but gifts of the Spirit, as Paul makes very clear. Apart from God's equipment of us, we cannot do the Lord's work.
The task given to Jeremiah is fearful. He is not only to "build and to plant," not only to comfort and give hope to his people, which he does after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 B.C. (Jeremiah chs. 30 and 31 are often called "The Book of Comfort"). Jeremiah is also to "pluck up and break down" (1:10), to utter those powerful, active words of judgment that will work their effect in Judah's life until they bring about the nation's downfall. (The concept of the Word of God in the Bible is that it acts in human life to bring about that of which it speaks. Cf. Isaiah 55:10-11; Ezekiel 12:28.)
The reason for the judgment of God in Judah's life, and in ours, is clear. God cannot give us new life without first ridding us of the old. New wine cannot be put into old wineskins, nor the new patch sewn on an old garment (Matthew 9:16-17). We cannot lead Christian lives while preserving our old habits of sin. God uses his judgments on us daily to rid us of our evil ways, in order that he may make us new creatures in Jesus Christ. He will not leave us alone in our evil, because he loves us and does not want us to die the death that our sin deserves. Rather, he constantly works to rid us of evil in order that he may give us a life of good.
It is not surprising that Jeremiah is told he will meet opposition. In fact, 1:18-19 tells us that all in Judah will fight against the prophet, because the Judeans do not, any more than we, like to hear that they are in the wrong. Christians in our day meet opposition, too. It is not easy to be good in our society, in which goodness is out of fashion. Divorce is rampant in our day, as are adultery and abortion, cheating and lying, selfishness and pride. Anyone who lives by God's word these days meets snickers and scorn and sometimes persecution. They are "nerds," "squares," and worst of all, "irrelevant."
But Jeremiah is given the promise of God that is given also to us. "Be not afraid of them," says the Lord, "for I am with you to deliver you" (v. 8). In the midst of every trial that confronts a Christian, who tries to live in faith, hope, and love, God is present with his own to strengthen and guide and reassure that his is the way and truth and abundant life.
Nevertheless, the God who called the youthful Jeremiah of Judah in 626 B.C. is also our God, and the revelation given in this text to the prophet at the beginning of his ministry can also be a witness to us of God's nature and purpose. Certainly the text centers on God. Six times the word "Lord" appears in the text.
Who is the God revealed through this call? First, he is a God of intimacy. There are no angelic mediators here, nor is Jeremiah overwhelmed with the vision of God's transcendent glory, as was Isaiah (ch. 6). Rather God himself fashioned Jeremiah in his mother's womb, like a potter working with a lump of clay (v. 5), as he has fashioned each one of us, and he knows Jeremiah and us through and through (cf. Psalm 139). Similarly, God himself reaches out his hand and touches the prophet's lips and puts his words in his mouth (v. 9).
Second, the God who calls Jeremiah is Lord of lords and King of kings. Jeremiah is called to be a prophet to "nations" and "kingdoms," and God can establish and build up those nations or pluck them up and break them down, verse 10. Like Jesus passing majestically through the midst of the lynch crowd in the Gospel lesson of Luke 4:21-30, God in Jeremiah is the Almighty Sovereign in control. Thus, Jeremiah calls God "Adonai" (v. 6), that is, "Master" or "Owner."
This mighty Lord calls an insignificant youth from the Benjamite town of Anathoth to be his messenger. Jeremiah, at the time of this call, is a young man of marriageable age, about eighteen years old, and there is nothing about him that qualifies him to be the Lord's prophet. He has never spoken in public in his life. Indeed, throughout his ministry he is terrified by his task and argues constantly against it. The God of the scriptures, it seems, calls those who are weak and foolish and despised in the world (1 Corinthians 26-27), in order that it may be seen that it is God's power that works through them and not their own.
God always equips his ministers and messengers and disciples for their tasks, however, providing his sufficiency where they have none. To Jeremiah's "I do not know," the Lord replies, "I knew you." To Jeremiah's "I am only a youth," God answers, "I am with you," and then he gives Jeremiah the words he is to speak. As Paul says, God's grace is sufficient for us, and his power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
The reason for God's call to Jeremiah and to us is very clear. God is working constantly to make his creation good once again. We human beings ruin God's good world with our sin and rebellion against his will, attempting to be our own deities and to fashion our own future. The result is strife between male and female, between brother and brother, between nations, with God's creation marred by "thorns and thistles," the God-given gifts of beauty and work turned into ugliness and drudgery, all community becomes impossible, and over it all the sentence of death (Genesis 3-11). Now God works tirelessly to turn our cursed existence into blessing (Genesis 12:3) and to give to all humanity the gift of abundant life, in a community of justice and love and peace that knows how to live for the Lord.
God lays his plans for the salvation of his world very carefully. He tells Jeremiah, "Before I formed you ... before you were born," (v. 5). Before the prophet was ever conceived in the womb, God knew his task for Jeremiah, and "consecrated" him, that is, set him apart, to be his prophet. In like manner, God knew and planned each one of us for a special role in his purpose. God does not create human beings simply for nothing. For each of us he has a purpose before he ever makes us.
God equips Jeremiah for his task by putting his words in Jeremiah's mouth (v. 9). In other words, Jeremiah's prophecy is not the result of his own thought. He has not pondered the state of his society or read "the signs of the times," and decided that he simply must speak out against them. Nor has his prophecy been the result of his own religious zeal and indignation or even love for his people -- and he does love them dearly. No. Jeremiah's prophetic proclamations are words from the Lord, given to him as gifts from God. His prophecies come from God alone (cf. 15:16), and when Jeremiah tries to say something different, God rebukes him sternly (cf. 15:19). In the same manner, our tasks done for the Lord are made possible by gifts given to us. In the Epistle lesson of 1 Corinthians 13, the faith, hope, and love that Christians are to manifest in their lives are not products of their own thought and work, but gifts of the Spirit, as Paul makes very clear. Apart from God's equipment of us, we cannot do the Lord's work.
The task given to Jeremiah is fearful. He is not only to "build and to plant," not only to comfort and give hope to his people, which he does after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 B.C. (Jeremiah chs. 30 and 31 are often called "The Book of Comfort"). Jeremiah is also to "pluck up and break down" (1:10), to utter those powerful, active words of judgment that will work their effect in Judah's life until they bring about the nation's downfall. (The concept of the Word of God in the Bible is that it acts in human life to bring about that of which it speaks. Cf. Isaiah 55:10-11; Ezekiel 12:28.)
The reason for the judgment of God in Judah's life, and in ours, is clear. God cannot give us new life without first ridding us of the old. New wine cannot be put into old wineskins, nor the new patch sewn on an old garment (Matthew 9:16-17). We cannot lead Christian lives while preserving our old habits of sin. God uses his judgments on us daily to rid us of our evil ways, in order that he may make us new creatures in Jesus Christ. He will not leave us alone in our evil, because he loves us and does not want us to die the death that our sin deserves. Rather, he constantly works to rid us of evil in order that he may give us a life of good.
It is not surprising that Jeremiah is told he will meet opposition. In fact, 1:18-19 tells us that all in Judah will fight against the prophet, because the Judeans do not, any more than we, like to hear that they are in the wrong. Christians in our day meet opposition, too. It is not easy to be good in our society, in which goodness is out of fashion. Divorce is rampant in our day, as are adultery and abortion, cheating and lying, selfishness and pride. Anyone who lives by God's word these days meets snickers and scorn and sometimes persecution. They are "nerds," "squares," and worst of all, "irrelevant."
But Jeremiah is given the promise of God that is given also to us. "Be not afraid of them," says the Lord, "for I am with you to deliver you" (v. 8). In the midst of every trial that confronts a Christian, who tries to live in faith, hope, and love, God is present with his own to strengthen and guide and reassure that his is the way and truth and abundant life.
