God Calls Everyone - repreach of 8/27/10

August 25, 2019 (repreach of 8/27/10) God Calls Everyone Year C Jeremiah 1:4-10 15th Sunday after Pentecost Children’s Time Text: Jeremiah 1:4-7 The word of the Lord came to me saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." "Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak, I am only a child." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I commend you." Materials: There are no materials required; however this sermon has been designed for presentation by two people (designated I and II), if desired. Message: I. Today we are going to talk about the things we do as we start to get older. We thought we would start by asking how old all of you are. II. That's right. When I say your age I want you to raise your hand. We are going to start with the youngest ... How many of you are three years old? How many are four or five years old? Is anyone here six years old? And how many of you are seven years old or even older than that? I. You were all really great at that. Before we move along I want you to take a close look at each of us and tell us how old you think we might be. (Encourage numerous guesses, but, of course, there is no need to disclose ages.) II. One of the things we all know is that as you become older you get to do more and more things. When you were a baby you slept in a crib, but now you have a bed. Your moms and dads used to push you in a carriage, but now you can ride a tricycle or a bike. And it won't be too long before you all start to go to school. I. And as you get even older, you will do even more things in grade you will begin to take communion. And when you reach grade you will be confirmed. And when you get to be sixteen you can even start driving your parents' car! II. So the bigger you become the more you get to do. But we were wondering how old you need to start telling other people about how great Jesus is. Do you have to be ten or fifteen or even a grown up before you can talk to people about God? I. Not at all! In fact the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament tells us that God chose Jeremiah to tell people about God when he was only a young boy. And each of us can do the same! CSS Publishing Company, FROM A MUSTARD SEED, by Mark A. Hultquist Jeremiah 1:4-10 Common English Bible (CEB) Call of Jeremiah 4 The LORD’s word came to me: 5 “Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Ah, LORD God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak because I’m only a child.” 7 The LORD responded, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’ Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say. 8 Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you,” declares the LORD. 9 Then the LORD stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and said to me, “I’m putting my words in your mouth. 10 This very day I appoint you over nations and empires, to dig up and pull down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.” Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Our Creativity as a child Gordon McKenzie worked for the Hallmark company for over 30 years, one of his ways of giving back to the community was to go into the schools and to give creativity workshops. Over the years he says that he noticed a pattern that never seemed to change. He would work with the first graders and ask who was an artist – and every hand would go up. He would go to the second grade and notice that when he asked that same question, only about half of the kids would raise their hands – by third grade it was down to ten, and in the six grade only about 2 would be brave enough to raise their hand just because they asked.
I would think that there is just something about life, about peer pressure, about the way we relate to one another that holds down our creativity. Once we start to get rational an dto think- we also start to limit ourselves and our opportunities. We start to think that we have an obligation to do somethings, so we put aside that creative side, that exciting side of ourselves, the side that is willing to take risk and to step out of our comfort zone.
Because that spirit of stifliness is not just in the schools – it is in the church. If I were to ask you all how many of you are called by god – I would get the same response. We have made up in our minds that those words mean something specific, and whatever it means it does not apply to me How many of you feel that you have a calling from god on your life? Every hand in the room should go up- but it doesn’t for some reason. Why is that?
Mr Makenzie concluded that there was a time in our lifes, perhaps when we were very young when each of us believed that we could do anything. We were geniouses at everything and we were not afraid to show it. We were also not afraid to be wrong, to make a mistake, for someone to tell us that we did not know what we were talking about. We were willing to take risk at what we wanted to believe we were called to do. But something happened in life.
He said that were were waiting for the authority figures in our lives to validate us – to tell us that we were the best, that we could indeed make our dreams come true – and for some reason the validation never came- no one cared, no one patted us on the back and we gave up on our dreams. We assumed that maybe we were not a geniious, and that perhaps the world did not need us – and we gave up on our call. That is devastating for that to happen to anyone in the schools – and perhaps that is a wonderful back to school message to think of as our children go back to school – to do everything that we can to encourage them, to tell them that they are genious – and that the world does indeed need them. We need to give all of the opportunities that we can to express their creativity and their willingness to grow and to learn.
We need to do that in the schools and in the homes, but more importantly we need to do it in the churches Our calling in the church – where else can you encourage a relationship with the divine, the unknown, the new, the ultimate creator. Where else do we get our inspiration to do anything in the world, if we don’t get it from God. Where else do we get our instructions from God to go out into the world and do anything – unless it comes from God? That’s what I want to talk about this morning – is being called by God – exactly what does that mean anyway? What special qualities do you have to have in order to have that relationship with God? What qualities do we need in order to do the special work of God – to perhaps be a prophet? Jeremiah the prophet Jeremiah was a prophet of god – I like him the best, because he seems to be the most grounded. Prophets did a lot of strange things in order to get the attention of the people – hosea gave his kids strange names like – bad luck or something really unfortunate, Isaiah was willing to die by being stretched apart, amos constantly criticized the government. People even criticized John the Baptist for wearing strange clothes. Jeremiah got the attention of others, by living with them, by addressing the issues of his time, and by giving hope to the people. I mentioned a few weeks ago that jeremiah considered himself to be a prophet of the people, his message was not to the leaders, but not the people, it was not his job to preach gloom and doom to a sinful people who did not listen – but to preach walk with a people in trouble an distress and to give them hope by encouraging them to stand strong until things changed. Most prophets were concerned with only saving the chosen people. Jeremiah realized that in order to save them, that he had to save everybody – he reached out to the rest of the world. Many of the prophets and others talk about how they came to be “called” by god – how god gave them a special task to reach out. Many didn’t start thier jobs until they became adults, some as children, only jerimiah says that his story started way before he was born. That his relationship with god started with god, and not with his awareness that there was a god. We will be able to read and listen to what jerimiah has to say to the people of god for the next nine weeks. But today, we start with chapter 1 – how he came to have this special relationship. He didn’t do anything t was given to him.
He talks of being that young boy – full of ideas and creativity waiting for an adult to validate his call – he talks of being too young to really make a difference in the world. He also talks of god’s response to him and his need and his fear – that he was not to be afraid of what people would say to him, how they would shoot him down and tell him that he was too young to make a difference. God says that if I give you something to do you are not too young to do it, as a matter of fact- you have an obligation to listen and to respond God calls all of us to do something. We have a calling to do something – to be a prophet, or a writer, or a teacher, or a carpenter, a bus driver, or a preacher or something to further the world and the kingdom of God. But as Christians, we also have a calling to be something in the world – something that the world needs. A doctor speaks of god calling him to be a plastic surgeon, why a plastic surgeon – changing your appearance, what does that have to do with building the kingdom ? most of his clients could care less about God. But he was also called to pray and to start prayer groups for those who worked in the hospital and to reach out to other plactice surgeons to encourage them to live a life of faith. In his call to be a faithful Christian in the workplace – he made a difference in the lives of others.
To be called could mean doing a specifc job, but it can also be to respond in a Christian way to life, it can be to encourage and support others in what they are trying to do, most importantly it means being willing to listen to God at all times in all circumstances. That is our biggest and more important calling – to obedient to the will of God.
And we are all a part of that. Everydbody is called, not everyone has the ears to listen attentively. If we listen, we may not get that validation from the world – but we always get it from god. The call of Willie Borden The borden family is from Chicago – the company that makes milk and other products. I do believe that the factory is on the Westside. But anyway – William borden was being groomed to take over the family fortune. He worked hard, he went to school, and a graduation present was a trip around the world. But as he went around the world and learned the conditions of most of the people in the world – he wrote a letter to his parent explaining that god was leading him to be a missionary to those in need. He wrote two words in his bible – no reserves. Through prayer he realized that he wanted to go to china to work with people there. His parents convinced him to go to graduate school and get more aeducation – he went to yale and started several bible studies. He was offered several high paying positions, but turned them down. He needed to in china - he wrote in his bible – no retreats – and he left.
He went to china, he also went to the middle east to learn Arabic to talk with the muslims. A few months later he contracted spinal meningitis. He died from it at age 25 – a few months before is death he wrote in his bible – no regrets. No reserves, no retreats, no regrets. That was his answer to gods call in his life. What are your responses to gods call on your life? The question is not have you been called, the question is are you listening? Jeremiah want us to know that the need to be creative starts way before we are in the first grade.- it starts before you were born, it starts in the circumstances that you were born into, it starts in your willingness to listen and to say yes. The good news is that when god calls, he commissions – he tells us what we have to do and why – he tells us what we are up against and what we have to overcome. We are also always given validation – an assurance that you can do this, an assurance that others recognize gods call in you. A test that in the midst of circumstance, your work will not be in vain. No reserves, no retreats, no regrets. So what is it that you need to do now? Let is pray…..Amen.