R and R and R

Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Theme: R and R and R
The Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time
The 13th Sunday After Pentecost
August 22, 2010
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+


4Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5"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." 6Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7But 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, 8Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." 9Then 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. 10See, 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."

If you do a word association game with the name Jeremiah, it’s quite possible that an old song from Three Dog Night comes to mind (at least for my generation): “Jeremiah was a bullfrog, (and) was a good friend of mine. I never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine. And he always had some mighty fine wine. Joy to the world! All the boys and girls! Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea! Joy to you and me!”

Hopefully, the story of the Jeremiah in the Bible will bring joy to us this day. But the Bible’s Jeremiah, who speaks in our reading, was not a bullfrog. Rather, he, at first, was a little lad on the receiving end of a word from the Lord. The Lord’s opening words, as given, have a smidge of Hebrew poetic style. It’s like the Lord is sharing a short poem or something of a limerick to get little Jeremiah’s attention. Lets break it down: “Before I formed you in the womb” is A1. “I knew you” is B1. “Before you were born” is A2. “I consecrated you” is B2. A1 and A2 have similar meanings. B1 and B2, likewise, are connected. But then comes the C line which is the clincher: “I appointed you a prophet to the nations,” says the Lord. Are you with me so far? I didn’t think so!

As Robin Williams said in “Dead Poet’s Society”, “We’re studying poetry and not laying pipe.” I could go on and on about Hebrew poetry, but that is better done in Sunday School. And even then, you might fall asleep. It’s the story of Jeremiah, the prophet, that’s the eye opener and waker-upper! And it is to that story that we turn to briefly this morning.

By the way, as an aside, I am always appreciative of folks who send in things through print or email for me to enjoy and maybe pass on – even from the pulpit on occasion. So I challenge you to get cracking! My church email is paul.dunklau@fpcdenton.org. I got some material last week from my dear mother-in-law; it was an email with a grouping of pictures under the title of “Irony”. One of the images featured an indoor church sign that listed the evening activities going on every weeknight at 7:00 pm. On Monday, Alcoholics Anonymous met. On Tuesday, the Abused Spouses group got together. On Wednesday, folks with eating disorders had a meeting. On Thursday, the Say No to Drugs club met. On Friday there was the Teen Suicide Watch, and on Saturday the soup kitchen was up and running. Underneath all these happenings was given the ironic title of next Sunday’s sermon: “America’s Joyous Future!”

As we’re all well aware, there are all kinds of people who can wax eloquent about our nation’s future, joyous or otherwise. It’s not my intent, this morning, to throw my hat into that ring. I do want to say, however, that the future of the nation of Israel, at the time of Jeremiah’s call, did not look good -- and that’s not a political opinion; it truly wasn’t a pretty picture. The situation on the ground, as it were, was quite fluid and getting worse with each passing day. Things were in quite a mess. The nation was falling apart; other nations smelled blood in the political water, and conquest was on their minds. Now, the high water mark for the nation of Israel was the reign of King David and King Solomon. All of that, though, was relegated to the good old days. But now the northern kingdom had long since vanished and the last vestiges of the southern kingdom were slipping away. The children of Yahweh, the children of God, were about to go into exile and be refugees in Babylon which is modern-day Iraq. That was nearly twenty six hundred years ago.

The call of Jeremiah, which is our text message from God this morning, proves that our Lord was not disassociating from the bleak situation. God had something to say.
And, of all things, God chooses a little boy to say it. There was no inflammatory letter to the editor at the Jerusalem Gazette. Perhaps Jeremiah was no older than the boys that have come up for A Word with the Young Disciples. God tends to do the things that we’d least expect God to do.

When the call from God came, Jeremiah may at least have known what his name meant. Back in those days, names meant something. It wasn’t chosen, the name, because it was cute, hip, popular, or designed to get your friends to say, “Oh, that’s lovely!”

The “ah” at the end of “Jeremiah” is short for Yahweh, the personal name of God. The “Jeremi” part is a Hebrew term that could mean “exalts” (or lift up); it would also mean “establish” (or get something going and keep it going, establish it). And, interestingly, the “Jeremi” of “Jeremiah” also could be translated as “throw” – as in throw something. So the name Jeremiah means God exalts, or God establishes, or God throws. One thing’s for sure: the nation of Israel was about to be “thrown down”, so to speak. They were soon to be in exile. Little Jeremiah the prophet prepped them for that.

If there was any doubt about who Jeremiah was, it wasn’t with the Lord. “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.”

In the worship folder, the title of this morning’s message is given: R and R and R. No, that doesn’t stand for “readin’, writin’, and rithmetic.” Neither does it stand for rest and relaxation and some other unknown thing. It stands for three R words that illustrate what we have in common with Jeremiah. One thing that we don’t have in common with Jeremiah is the historical timeframe. He’s not our contemporary. It’s that twenty six hundred years ago thing. Second, Jeremiah was a prophet directly called by God. I’m fairly certain that such a direct call for such a specific task has not been experienced by anyone here.

But that’s where the dissimilarities end. But here’s what we do have in common with little Jeremiah: R and R and R! Rationalization, Reformation, and Readiness! For starters, rationalization is a fancy schmanzy word for an excuse. A rationalization can be an excuse. Did you hear little Jeremiah’s rationalization? He says, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak… .” Twenty six hundred years later, do you know what is near or at the top of people’s list of fears? You guessed it; public speaking. Then, as if to make sure God gets the message, Jeremiah offers another rationalization/excuse: “I am only a boy.” There you have it: a double-whammy of excuses from a little boy who is a bit smarter than we give him credit for.

I remember someone telling me once: “I’ve made a lot of excuses in my life, and if you don’t like those I can give you more.” Country singer/songwriter Willie Nelson might have been speaking for a lot of people when he sang: “I’ve got a long list of real good reasons for all the things I’ve done; I’ve got a picture in the back of my mind for what I’ve lost and what I’ve won. I’ve survived every situation knowing when to freeze and when to run. And regret is but a memory, written on my brow, and there’s nothing I can do about it now.”

You can almost hear Jeremiah say: “I can’t speak; I’m too young, and there’s nothing I can do about that now.” Oh, how rationalizations and excuses can carry the day – for Jeremiah and, at times, for all of us.

It’s safe to say that some of you here today have believed in God for as long as you can remember. I also believe it safe to say that there are some here who have their doubts about God and maybe even have them today. To all of you, I say “Welcome!” This is a place where it is entirely okay to say, with one of the Lord’s disciples, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.”

Let us assume, for the moment, that all of us perfectly believe in God. We are completely sure of God’s presence, power, knowledge, sovereignty, love and grace and guidance. What, then, would be the most foolish thing to think in the world? That’s easy. It’s the thought that we could pull one over on God, or pull the wool over God’s eyes, or think that our rationalizations and excuses are gonna cut it. If anyone sees right through those, it’s God. Case in point: Jeremiah.

Then came the second R word which means Reformation. Reformation means change. One of the things we change every day is our mind. “Well, I was going to wear this shirt, but I’ve changed my mind because this one looks better.” It’s just like that. But sometimes it involves heavier stuff than simply what to wear. A lyric from a popular song some time ago said it like this: “If you wanna be somebody else, if you’re tired of fighting battles with yourself, if you wanna be somebody else, change your mind.” They make it sound easy, but it’s not.

I know of people who have changed their mind over and over and over again about alcohol, yet they fall deeper into their addiction. Only when the reform and the change of mind comes from outside themselves do the possibilities for recovery and new life begin. God will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Why not let Him?

God didn’t buy the excuses, but He didn’t punish little Jeremiah. Instead, He changed the boy’s mind. God said: “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.”

“I’m only a boy; I don’t know how to speak.” What really lies behind that? That’s right. Fear. Fear often generates the rationalizations and excuses. God says “Do not be afraid, Jeremiah.”

With rationalizations and excuses brushed away, with a reformed and changed life for little Jeremiah underway, we now come to the third R: Readiness. Jeremiah tells us how the Lord readied him for the upcoming task. Listen again: “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. 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.”

Readiness involves having the Word of God. Dear members and friends of First Presbyterian Church: we have the Word of God. Better yet, we have the Gospel of God – the good news that we are loved with a love that went through the cross for us. Still not convinced we are ready? We have the Baptism that signs, seals, and delivers us into being God’s people. And we have the Lord’s Supper, the presence of Jesus Christ, to ready and steady us for what God wants us to do.

Oh, how tempting it would be to say, like Jeremiah, “Ah, Lord, we are such a little church. Ah, Lord, we don’t know how to speak or what to say.”

May it please the Spirit of the living God – on this very day and this very moment – to brush aside our rationalizations, to establish our reformation, and to make us ready for the tasks – and the joys! – that lay ahead. “Do not be afraid, for I am with you,” say the Lord.

Amen.