"Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.' Then I said, 'Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.' But the Lord said, 'Do not say, 'I am only a boy," for I am with you to deliver you.'"
--Jeremiah 1: 4-8
Do you remember your first day of school? I had four. I remember JW Adams Elementary, Pound High School, Centre College, and General Seminary. A lot of emotions were running through me those four days, but the biggest was fear. I was afraid mostly of the unknown, of whether or not I was actually ready for this next big step. Do you remember those days? Did you feel afraid, unprepared?
I imagine that is how Jeremiah felt. I love this passage and have come back to it so many times! We don’t know how old Jeremiah is in this opening passage of the book
that bears his name, but we can assume that he’s pretty young, maybe not even a teenager. So God suddenly speaks to this boy. That’s terrifying enough. And what does God say, “Before I formed you I
knew you…I consecrated you…I appointed you a prophet.” This would be a monumental task for anyone, let alone someone so young and inexperienced; so Jeremiah’s
response is understandable, “I don’t know how to do such a thing, I’m only a boy.”
How many times do we utter those two words? "I'm only..." It's so easy to give in to those fears of our own
limitations. I can’t do this because I'm only...whatever. I can’t
do this because I’m not the right age, not the right gender, not the right
color. How many times do we, out of some
sort of fear of the unknown, shut someone else down, don’t even give them the
chance to undertake something, based on those kinds of characteristic? She can't do it, she's only a girl. He's only a kid and doesn't have the experience. Fear is a pretty powerful thing. It even tries to hold Jeremiah back.
Yet God does not allow the fear to get the better of Jeremiah. God tells him not to dwell on his age and those fears of his—you will
go, and you will speak, and you have no need to be afraid, because I am with you. I AM is with you. God is with you.
It was true for Jeremiah. And
brothers and sisters, it is true for you, as well. No matter where you are in life right this
moment, no matter what big transition is on the horizon, no matter how much
fear is in your heart over the unknown, over starting something new, or facing
some kind of tremendous challenge, God will be with you. God is with you right now. Do you know that? Really, truly, do you know that? Deep down in your heart do you believe
it? There are a lot of things about
being a Christian, or being an Episcopalian, that are tough to understand,
tough to believe, even. But I hope you
believe that one thing, if nothing else.
Because that is a promise. It was true for this boy in the 6th century
before the birth of Jesus, in a time when his people were about to be overrun
by a foreign power and taken into exile, and it is the strongest, most sustainable
promise there is. Do you know why
that promise is so sustainable? Because
it is grounded in love.
God loved Jeremiah. Jeremiah loved God. That is how
Jeremiah knew that God would not leave him, even as the Babylonians were besieging
Jerusalem. It’s the same kind of love
St. Paul sings to us in that hymn in I Corinthians 13. That kind of love is patient, it is kind, it
is not boastful, it bears all things, and it believes all things. It believes in hope. It believes in a better world. It believes in you, that you are more
than your fears because it is a perfect love, and perfect love casts out all fear.
Pierce Pettis,
one of my favorite songwriters has a song called 'That kind of
Love' in which he sings a type of love that, in my opinion, is the same type about which Paul writes Pierce sings: 'Love triumphant, love on fire, love that
humbles and inspires; love that does not hesitate, with no conditions, no
restraint. That kind of love.' Oh,
brothers and sisters, they will know that
we are Christians by that kind of perfect love--for God and for one
another--because that kind of perfect love is what casts out the fears of our hearts and transforms those hearts, so that we may transform this world and make it look a little more like the Kingdom.
You want to know to hear a confession of mine? I was really scared of being a priest. I even said to God in the days beforehand that it was too big. But I did it. Yeah, I was scared of being a priest, but I was terrified of being a
rector. Terrified! I swore after my ordination that I would
never want that kind of responsibility. Who would?! There's always someone mad at you, no matter what decision you make! Yet I am here because God called me here, just as God called Jeremiah,
and like Jeremiah I have chosen to hold on to that ever-sustainable promise
that God will be with me. I hold on to it because I know God loves me. I don't know much else, but I know that much. And knowing that one fact has allowed me to face my fears of the unknown and take those terrifying first steps out in faith.
My parish has shown what that looks like. The folks of Good Shepherd, Asheboro took a chance and chose not to give in to their own fears. No doubt they heard things like, "He can't do it, he's too young. He's never been a rector. He'll come in here and change everything!" Still, they said yes to what God put before them. They discerned and prayed and made that call because they knew God was with them. Sure, we
don’t know exactly where God will call us, and yes, I will make some mistakes
along the way; I already have. But
through it all we know God is in it. We
know love is in it. Knowing that promise will get us through whatever life throws at us, and the possibilities of what God may do in us and through us are endless!