No! I’m too___(Fill in the blank)
4th Sunday of Epiphany February 2, 2025
The Texts for this sermon are Jeremiah 1:4-10 and Luke 5:3-11
Jeremiah is young; not yet a man when he receives a Call from God with a startling declaration on God’s part before you were born I consecrated you and now I am appointing you to be a prophet. And not just any prophet; not a prophet just to the Hebrew people, but a prophet to the nations.
And this shocked adolescent says, but I’m too young. Now this single sentence could include all sorts of other disclaimers: I don’t know what I’d say. Who would listen to someone my age? I’m not capable. And on and on.
And Jeremiah had some good role models for this kind of response: Moses had said “I stutter, now can I speak to Pharaoh?” Gideon had said “I’m a farm boy, what do I know about leading an army?” The 10 spies had said “We’re too weak, we could never prevail to take the land.” And Peter had said in so many words: I am a grave betrayer.
We’re in this company as well, aren’t we? We all know these responses. When have you said it? What was being asked of you? What was your protest? What was it you declined because you felt inadequate?
These protests of theirs, of ours, are not so much efforts to deny or run from God. They can arise from a fear of failure, of potential embarrassment, of ridicule, of moving into the unfamiliar preferring to stay within the routine and comfort of my present life.
And while we are not all called to a singular destiny as were Jeremiah and the others. We are all called to wholehearted devotion to God and to the obedience that devotion demands of us.
Devotion to God does not call us to mediocrity, inattentiveness, half-heartedness, luke-warmness, pro-occupation. Now certainly in our day-to-day lives, we are sometimes mediocre and inattentive, and we do execute some of our tasks in a half-hearted way, but it’s another matter entirely when it comes to serving God.
When we choose to be a God-oriented person, a Jesus-follower kind of person, we are called to be a different kind of person: a person in service to God’s wondrous realm if you will. And God will enlist us for God’s purposes. God interrupts us, God startles us sometimes to undertake something that appears daunting, too big, too scary, to in conflict with our own plans and desires and self-concept.
Often our immediate response is akin to Jeremiah’s: “No” we say. “God you’ve got the wrong person. I want to serve you but I am in no way equipped for this.” We protest, we step back, we cast about and offer God the name of someone we think better suited.
But it’s God who is calling and because it’s God, fulfilling the call does not rest with us or depend on our abilities alone. Notice God’s response to Jeremiah: Don’t say you’re only this or only that! I will show you the way. I will give you the words. Do not be afraid for I will deliver you.
Later in this conversation (vs 17-18), God says to Jeremiah: Gird up your loins and arise and speak. Do not be dismayed. Behold I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze.
You see: It is ours to answer the call. It is God’s to fulfill the call. God says I am watching over My word to perform it. (v 12)
So let us look to the story in Luke where these rough peasant fishermen when they realized they were in the presence of the Holy, and unworthy, heard Jesus say Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching people. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
We have a call upon us if not specifically laid upon our heart, certainly is laid upon us as one of God’s communities. Gathered congregations such as ours cannot perk along in undisturbed contentment. We are called to move beyond our own comfort, our own preconceived ideas of what it means to be Christian or a Christian congregation. We are to cock our ear to how God wants us to live out our devotion to God. How speaking and testifying is to radiate out from the confines of our building, announcing the grace and comfort, the salvation and transformation that leads to newness of life.
My friends, these texts put a question to us: Do we want to allow God to touch our lips? To inspire us, appoint us, equip us, direct us, and excite us to give up what needs to be given up and to plant what needs to be planted and build what needs to be built? (v10) Remembering that whatever God puts to us will be what God will enable us to undertake.
L Quanstrom, Pastor
Cornelius UMC