Jeremiah 1.4-10; Hebrews 12.22-24
Your mission, should you choose to accept it …
Like the original Mission Impossible TV program … or the Blues Brothers movie … we’re all on a mission … we really are … a mission that’s impossible … a mission from God.
It’s impossible, just because it’s from God … God knows what we can do, God knows what we can do in partnership with God … it looks to us impossible … but so does Mt. Everest to the first-time climber … a complicated surgery to a young surgeon … a criminal trial to a new defense attorney … that young student at the first day of high school … we’ve all tackled the impossible … and sometimes it really didn’t work … yes, we all know that … the climber doesn’t make to the top, the surgery doesn’t work, the trial is lost, and school can be a mess.
But wait a minute … haven’t we also succeeded?
Climbers make it to the top … surgeons remove the tumor and repair the damage … difficult trials are won … the student goes on and does well.
We’ve all won the day … a challenge of the soul, deep within our selves, wrestling and struggling to know who we are, and why we are the way we are … how to better manage our emotions, set workable goals … find the grounding peace that holds our life together.
We’ve all won the day … a difficult relationship that nearly imploded, but we worked our way through it … a challenge at work, but we solved it, step-by-step, one day at a time … learning all along the way … discovering and growing.
We’ve all won the day … at the time, we thought it’s impossible, but now we look back, and see the hand of God … a goodness transcending the distress and hurt … something divine, something eternally good, forever gracious … the guiding hand of God … yes, and friends and family along the way … a whole network of people provided by God.
Mission Impossible …
And here we are … just as we are … in this time and place … Westminster Presbyterian Church … Lake Avenue … the Tower still stands … God is still God … faith, hope, and love remain … grace, mercy, and peace endure …
We are called … we are loved … we are sustained!
To be called of God, we have purpose … great purpose, final purpose … a purpose of transcendent goodness … an impossible purpose beyond our years, beyond the boundaries of time and space … a purpose rooted in the original creation, the mandate of Genesis … to till the earth and keep it …
To be loved of Christ, we have courage … courage for our times … whatever the times may be … the courage to stand by the cross of Christ and not run away … the courage to keep on learning, growing in faith … the courage to face ourselves in the mirror of God’s love.
To be sustained by the Spirit, we have endurance … to stay the course, to not give up … whatever the burdens may be, however great the loss … in the face of terrible demands, and impossible odds, to endure…
God said to Jeremiah, I know you …
I know you through-and-through … I knew you in your mother’s womb … I knew you before you were born … I’ve always known you … you’ve always been a part of my story, and my story is now your story … to be a voice of hope and peace, a voice of truth and compassion, a voice to disturb the powerful, and a voice to comfort the powerless …
This is our calling, too … this is our purpose … this is who we are … the Great God Almighty speaks to each one of us …
Come and follow me …
Over the years, I’ve heard terrific stories … stories of God’s call … an adult looks back in time to recall a moment when they were a child, when a strong and guiding presence made itself known … a presence that cannot be defined, described, but only felt … in the deep places of a child’s soul.
Some are called in a chance decision to attend church - one Sunday morning, and there it is, in a word, a song, a moment - the call of God.
Some read a book … some listen to music … the call of God …
The call of God … anytime, any age, any moment … multiple calls, many calls … quite calls, loud calls … anonymous calls, and obvious calls … because God is a God of love, and God loves you and God loves me … and no matter how unique we are, God calls us in such a way that it fits the contours of our soul … God knows us through-and-through.
When the call comes to Jeremiah, he’s not so sure … I’m too young, says Jeremiah, and who can blame him?
God says to Jeremiah, Do not be afraid … of them.
Who’s the “them”? … well, the powers that be … kings and queens, priests and scribes, the brokers and the bankers … those who hold the reigns of government, who manage the temple in Jerusalem … people who see the world centered in their privilege and comfort … the world is their oyster, and it’s gonna stay that way … five centuries later, their descendants conspired against Jesus and killed him.
God asks Jeremiah to walk into a maelstrom … a political situation of untold peril, a religious environment hostile to self-awareness.
No wonder Jeremiah’s a little uneasy!
Nevertheless, God assures Jeremiah:
I am with you …
The LORD put out a hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth … and with that, God says: I have put my words in your mouth.
Today, I appoint you over nations, over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
To be a world-changer: to order and reorder and reshape the nation.
A tall task, wouldn’t you say?
A mountain of work … dangerous and demanding.
Few of us are called to such monumental tasks … few of us are called to walk in the footsteps of a Martin Luther King, Jr, or a Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or a Dorothy Day …
But all of us are called, called by the same God who called Jeremiah …
Called:
To be courageous, to be loving, to be kind.
To be brave, to be wise, to be generous.
To be creative, inventive, imaginative.
To be loyal and devoted, committed and caring.
Humble and gentle.
Take down what’s wrong, build up what’s right.
God speaks to all of us.
I am with you!
When the night is upon us, and life is hard.
When the sun shines bright and all is good.
When the heart is heavy, and the road is long.
When love wins the day.
When love is no more.
Where there is hurt and pain.
Where there is laughter and joy.
In the beginning of life, and in its end.
At the very first breath, and at the last.
In every moment, all along the way.
To this God, we belong.
For this Christ, we live.
By the Spirit, we love!
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home:
Amen and Amen!
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