Proper 16, 2007

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Ps 71:1-6

Heb 12:18-29

Luke 13:10-17

God’s call and Jesus’ healing liberation

God called Jeremiah to be a prophet and Jeremiah protested the call with all kinds of excuses for why he would be a bad choice: I am only a child, I don’t know how to speak. God answered Jeremiah and said, “You must go wherever I send you and don’t be afraid because I am with you.”

This call narrative has multiple levels of meaning. Let’s unpack a few of them. The call of Jeremiah is very similar to the call of Moses in that both protest the call. Sometimes members of the commission on ministry say, you can be sure about the candidate that protests. Why is that? Well, God is pretty awesome, so when you think you are hearing God you might worry about your mental health. Was it God or just my imagination? Was it God or something I ate? Was it really God? Why would God want me and for what? I suspect that knowing many of the bible characters as we do makes us somewhat hesitant to get too close – after all many of those called by God suffered pretty terrible things. Jeremiah may have good reasons to fear the call as a prophet. Many of his fears are realized as well. Jeremiah, like Moses and Isaiah all suffer for being faithful to God’s call on their lives. Jeremiah in particular is known as the moaning prophet, because no matter how hard he tries he can’t get the people to understand his message. It is not pleasant, it is in fact terrible – if they do not reform their ways enemies will destroy them. Jeremiah is thrown down cisterns (ancient toilets) and left in a well to die but throughout his life, God intervenes through circumstances and people and Jeremiah lives to give another unpopular message.

The circumstances were not great for the people of Israel whom Jeremiah served. He would be an outsider and critical of the leaders. His prophetic word caused great resentment. He would not marry or have children. His call was to warn people of their fate – the coming Exile – and to condemn their idolatry. The words God put in Jeremiah’s mouth were like a curse. His own people – the very ones he worked so hard to save, rejected Jeremiah.

Jeremiah served first during the reign of king Josiah (640-609 BCE. Josiah tried to implement religious reforms after the Torah scroll was discovered in the repair of the temple. His reform died with him and the corrupt new king Jehoiakim and then his son, Jehoiachin surrendered to the Babylonians. The people were taken into captivity. In spite of all this, Jeremiah remained true to his calling and suffers so much at one point he wished he had never been born.

What did Jeremiah expect people to do? What was God calling Jeremiah to proclaim? 1. God is the only God and is worthy of worship. 2. The laws of God are designed to create a caring and just society and those who align themselves with God are expected to live lives that reflect God’s value system. 3. They are to stop worshiping false gods. 4. God cares about the poor and oppressed and therefore the people of God are to do the same. The people in the time of Jeremiah were guilty of worshiping gods other than the one God…like the sun and rain god, the fertility god, the gods who were believed to improve their comfort, their wealth, and their health.

Jeremiah tried to help the people see that these were false gods but they were too busy having parties and storing a lot of stuff for themselves and had no concern for the plight of the poor. They claimed that nothing could happen to them because they were in God’s country – Israel – the Promised Land. The prophet felt like a failure saying “my best is nothing” and Jeremiah questioned whether he was really called by God: Am I where our Lord would have me? Twenty times a day I ask this question”. Jeremiah was disappointed in the product of his ministry – and needed to be reminded that God promised to be with him, to give him the words, and that IS enough! I doubt that Jeremiah could be so easily persuaded.

The message of God is hard because God is calling people then and now to live a committed life, to advocate for justice, to correct injustice, to respond to the needs of the poor, the oppressed, and to be absolutely faithful to God. What if we had attendance sheets here at St. Paul’s and to begin we just keep track of how faithful you are in worship. Now, if you are out of town, you can submit a bulletin from the service you attended and get a check mark. If you are not faithful in attendance, you could pay a double tithe to balance the faithfulness account. If you didn’t pay the tithe or attend worship, you could go to the Gulf Coast or Peru or a thousand other places where homes are destroyed and people are in need and give hours and hours of service, maybe for many years. We don’t take attendance, and we don’t ask for your IRS statement to prove you gave 10% of all your income, nor do we force anyone to go on mission trips.

You can see why the lectionary pairs this call narrative of Jeremiah with the section of Luke’s gospel, in which Jesus seems to deliberately break the rules of Jewish tradition. Realizing that the woman had been crippled for 18 years, one can’t help but wonder why Jesus felt he had to heal her on the Sabbath and not wait just one more day. The reason, I believe, is because Jesus wanted to dispel the false expectations of the coming Messiah held by his own people. The messiah would liberate them from the Roman oppression and set them in control of their Promised Land, as God’s favored people, or so his contemporaries thought. No, Jesus in announcing the coming kingdom in words and deeds runs counter to their expectations. Jesus is from Galilee, where no prophet has originated before him. He talks with sinners, tax collectors, and foreign women. He confronts their ideas about Sabbath Laws. He instructs them with an awareness that they cannot see, and therefore he acts in ways that have the potential to shock them out of their old way of thinking into a new revelation.

Jesus calls the woman a “daughter of Abraham” meaning she is of importance to God and a member of the new kingdom Jesus is proclaiming. In his mission of releasing the captive, freeing the oppressed and raising up the children to Abram (Luke 4:18; 3:8), Jesus healed her on the Sabbath! The promise to Abraham will be realized through social and religious upheaval, including those that the social and political and religious system has excluded! Jesus told her, “You are set free from your weakness”.

We must reflect on what binds us today in legalism, social custom, and religious tradition that excludes those God would set free. Every Sunday we pray for those in our extended congregational family, who are ill, oppressed, weakened by sickness or other obstacles. We do not know in what way God will answer our prayers but time and time again we have been shown that God is listening. In some cases our loved ones have received miraculous medical cures, interventions, and release from weakness. Have we given the credit to God or science? In other cases, our loved ones have received the ultimate release, death and entry into the embrace of the Triune God. Have we praised God for that miracle of resurrection hope grounded in Christ? Are we like Jeremiah, complaining that no one listens to us, that things are not what they should be, that God seems distant and uncaring about our plight, or are we like the woman sick for 18 years who is released and praises God for her liberation?

I believe that each of us is like Jeremiah in wanting to do what God calls us to do but often are frustrated for the lack of evidence. Our discouragement is a sign of our weak faith – that we are not willing to trust God with all things in our lives and in the lives of those we love. We too become oppressed by doubt, uncertainty, frustration, and are bent over like the woman. We too need to encounter Jesus as the living Word of God and be set free. As you come to this table, where God welcomes all who will come, bring your hopes and your doubts, your confidence and your frustration, your questions and your answers and open your hand to God. Receive the body of Christ and the cup of salvation for the liberation of your spirit – as you enjoy the symbol and sign of the kingdom of God.