Rev. Eric Lundquist
Scripture | Jeremiah 1:4-10
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “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.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But 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. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.” 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.”
Scripture | Luke 4:21-30
Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon, There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Welcome today to the fourth Sunday of the Epiphany. We today continue the lectionary themes of the last three Sundays. Here, we find Jesus defined, here we find him embarking on the journey that would one day lead to the cross. Here we find the beginnings of what became our church. Our Luke passage begins when Jesus had returned to his home town of Nazareth. He was recently returned from his ordeal in the wilderness where the devil had tempted him. He’d been handed the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and had himself picked the passage, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The first quote of our passage is, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” His audience in the synagogue were amazed. After all, Jesus had spoken in other synagogues on his way home to Nazareth and word had preceded him.
They were marveling, this was their neighbor, this was the craftsman Joseph’s son. And he’s chosen to come back home to be among us, we are fortunate indeed! So, they had great expectations of what Jesus would do among them.
But Jesus, the only begotten son of God wasn’t sent to Earth to make the lot of the gentle people of Nazareth better. He could see it coming, they would demand all of his time and effort. He would have no time, no strength to do what he was sent to do, to bring the good news to all.
So, he reminded them that even among the greatest of the recorded prophets, none were sent to fix everything they saw. Elijah found himself in the middle of a devastating famine, but saved only one. Elisha found himself in the middle of a land with many lepers, yet cleansed only one, and that one was a gentile!
The people in that synagogue, the ones who had seen Jesus grow from a boy to a man, the ones who had perhaps journeyed with the family every year to Jerusalem, the ones with whom he’d shared childhood, perhaps playing the time’s equivalent of ding-dong ditch along with the rest of his friends, he had only come by to say hello, and not to stay.
The disappointment was palpable. How dare he turn us down. So, they rose as one and set about giving him the bum’s rush, intending to do more than just run him out of town on a rail, but to toss him from their village’s ramparts: if they couldn’t have him, no one could!
But this wasn’t the child Jesus, this was the adult. And he’d been baptized by his cousin John, and the Holy Spirit had landed on him as if it were a dove, and God himself had broadcast he was his son. This was the Jesus who, filled with the spirit had vied with all the temptations the devil himself could bring and he’d prevailed.
So, Jesus merely passed through them and went on his way. He’d recognized that his work included that of a prophet. But what might that mean?
We all might be forgiven that the job of a prophet was to predict the future, after all, part of how we know Jesus was that he had fulfilled the predictions of many prophets, but there’s a bit more, and maybe something a bit more mundane about being a prophet.
Scholars of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible roughly break up the prophets into two broad groups: Those active prior to the exile of Jerusalem’s elite from Judea to Babylon in about 597 BCE and those active after the exile was lifted roughly 70 years later.
The period of the exile was seen as important because it was viewed as divinely permitted: God for a time stopped listening to the pleas of his people and permitted the exile to take place. When God again began listening to his people, the exile was lifted and people allowed to return to the land of Judea and Jerusalem.
The books of the pre-exile prophets were included in the biblical canon, it is said because they were commissioned by God to tell the people of Israel and Judea how they had fallen away from God and what would happen if they kept on their wayward path. The books of the post exile prophets were included because they told the nation how they might continue to stay in God’s good graces and maintain their role as God’s chosen people and how Israel might again become a shining beacon to the world.
Jeremiah was the last of the first group. He was active in a four-decade period ending with the exile and was important because of the escalating tome of his messages of warning what would happen if they kept on their path of falling away from their faith in God. Today’s passage contains God’s commissioning of Jeremiah and what we might think of as a brief job description.
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “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.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But 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. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.” 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.”
And like most job descriptions, we might want to add: And other duties as needed. Like most other prophets, Jeremiah was called and sent. God knew what was needed for this time and Jeremiah was it! Jeremiah responds with a similar complaint we see from others who God commissions: | am only a boy! You must be mistaken! God has a response to that: It doesn’t matter, I am sending you, and you go to all in my name. I know you may be afraid, but don’t worry, I am with you! And then, God gives Jeremiah a precious gift: he touches his mouth with his hand and tells him I have put my words in your mouth.
Jeremiah was obviously given a relatively small job by God: His task was to work to bring a nation back to God. Jesus was sent to spread the good news to all. Not enough to merely touch him on the mouth with his hand, but he fills Jesus with the Holy Spirit! Both were sent to bring truth to others, Jeremiah to tell others God’s promise that coming back to God will save their nation, Jesus to bring us all the Good Word, the promise of a better life and lessons on how to get there. Jeremiah was sent to bring God’s message to the people and leaders of pre-exile Babylon. Jesus was sent to bring the Good News of hope to all. And us, well, you probably already all know the answer. Jesus trained the disciples to continue to bring the Good News. And we are each commissioned to continue the work of the disciples by baptizing further disciples in His name.
Let us pray, Dear Lord, help me to recognize and understand how to bring your word to others. The recognize the truth of our situation in the world and the good news of what is to come. In Jesus’s name, Amen.