Sermon preached by Janice L. Krouskop– August 17, 2008
Touched by God
Jeremiah 1: 4-10 and John 15: 9 -17
Touched by God. Jeremiah was touched by God. God touched Jeremiah and his life was changed.
The image that comes to mind when I think of being touched by God is Michelangelo’s painted fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel of God’s hand reaching out to Adam’s. That painted fresco was done around 1511 and is entitled: The Creation of Adam. For almost 500 years, Michelangelo’s famous image has filled our imagination: the outstretched arms of God and Adam, reaching towards the other - two fingers almost touching – gives us a visual understanding of a majestic God who reaches out to touch humankind. In that fresco, Michelangelo shows God's right hand “forming” Adam and Eve being created from the side of Adam. God is a divine designer who creates for a purpose. In the bible to be touched by God was to communicate authority, blessing, power and purpose.
Our Old Testament lesson today is Jeremiah’s account of being touched by God - how he got to be a prophet to the nations. It is a story of the beginnings of a prophetic ministry that would span 40 years and the reign of 5 kings and end with the fall of Jerusalem in the year 586 before the birth of Christ. We don’t know Jeremiah’s exact age when he became a prophet. Jeremiah was young and unmarried - born into a family of priests at a difficult time in the life of God’s chosen people. Jeremiah spoke God’s truth to all who would listen—truth of gloom and doom and judgment about the exile in Babylon, and hopeful truth about God’s restoration of the Hebrew people. It was a difficult job. Jeremiah also complained a lot and because of his lamentations he was known as the weeping prophet; as he despaired for the people of Judah.
It is an interesting story but I suspect that most of you have gladly concluded by now that you are not called to be a prophet. Maybe Chris is called to be a prophet, or Lee, or Joan or Doug, but not you. Fair enough. However, there is truth in these seven verses for all of us today.
Each of us is known by God. All of us are chosen by God to do something uniquely special. Jeremiah’s story is a classic story. The first thing to notice in these verses is that this whole plan was God’s idea, not Jeremiah’s. “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,” is how the story begins (v. 2). This isn’t the way most of us describe how we decided what to do with our lives. As far as I can tell, Jeremiah didn’t think he was in training to be a prophet. I don’t think he had been trying to figure out: “How can I get the job to become an annoying prophet who gets to go up to the palace and tells the king that his kingdom will be destroyed.”
Yes, the whole thing was God’s plan. God tells Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and had a divine plan for you; and before you came forth from the womb I consecrated you for a sacred purpose, and appointed you as a prophet to the nations. (v. 5) This whole thing was God’s idea, from the very beginning.
The second thing to notice in Jeremiah’s story is that Jeremiah protests, “Lord God, I can’t do this, I am only a kid!” Does this sound familiar? Humans tend to protest: Wait just a minute…. I didn’t volunteer for this…. I don’t have what it takes! Others in the Bible had the same reaction. Moses had tons of reasons he couldn’t free God’s people from Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land. Moses whined, “Oh Lord… Who am I to go before Pharaoh? I’m can’t speak in front of people… They won’t believe me.” – Abraham’s wife, Sarah laughed when God said she would have a son in her old age – Gideon complained that he was least in his tribe for the task – I have also pleaded with God to choose someone else and maybe you, too have said to God, “No, thank you very much.” How human, how like us—God asks us to do something and our first response is, “Not me, I can’t do that.”
As I was working on this sermon this week, I was also keeping track of the Olympics. And I wondered what makes these athletes work so hard? Is it the thrill of competition or the hope of a gold medal? Michael Phelps started swimming at 11; Shawn Johnson began gymnastics at the age of 3 and Nastia Liukin at age 2. Each one had a drive that could not be squelched even when their parents didn’t push them to compete. Did the young Jeremiah have that same drive?
The third thing in notice in Jeremiah’s story is that God doesn’t accept Jeremiah’s petty protest. “Don’t pull that, I’m only a kid line with me, God says to Jeremiah. You will go wherever I will send you. You will speak whatever I tell you. Do not be afraid. I will be with you.” Again, this whole plan is God’s idea, but since God created and knows Jeremiah, it seems that ability and ambition as well as the grit and grace are all part of God’s plan.
Shortly after I understood God was calling me to be a pastor, I called my friend, Gail who is a Methodist minister in Houston, Texas. I was looking for some support in my unwillingness to answer God’s call. Gail listened politely to all my reasons that I couldn’t do what God wanted me to do. Then she calmly said, “You might as well say yes right away, because God always gets His way and ultimately His plans are best.”
And so, Jeremiah’s story helps us see that God is good and God will provide all we need. “I am with you, always,” God says.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that our simple human lives are such a big part of God’s divine plan. Why would God choose us? But the reality is that God works through people like you and me. God obviously believed in Jeremiah and God believes in you and me more than we believe in ourselves. The Lord God sees possibilities that we can’t even imagine.
When the Lord God made it clear what he expected Jeremiah to do - “Then the Lord extended his hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth.” Touched by God. Jeremiah is literally touched by the hand of God. And that encounter with the living Lord changes him. Touched by God, this is one of the great moments in scripture, one of those awesome, life- transforming moments! And guess what? God reaches out God’s hand toward us as well. Does this sound a bit scary?
It should says, Annie Dillard the American author born in Pittsburgh. In her book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, (Harper & Row, 1982) Dillard writes: Do Christians have the foggiest idea of what kind of power we dare invoke in Church on Sunday morning? Rather than velvet hats, she says we should all be wearing crash helmets and the Ushers should issue life preservers. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return."
But maybe, just maybe we don’t need crash helmets as much faith. Maybe, just maybe we are afraid of God getting close enough to touch our lives. Maybe we are too proud or too afraid of losing control. We like thinking our lives are something we chose, a project we decided on, or a path we have planned all by ourselves.
Yet, when I watched the Olympics this week, I realized that every successful athlete has a coach that calls the shots. In an interview this week, gymnast Nastia Luikin explained that the routine that won her gold medal was the master plan of her father.
Why are we so anxious over letting someone else sit in the driver’s seat of our lives? Why do we fear surrendering to the purposes of God?
Over twenty years ago, before cell phones, AT&T had an ad campaign with the tag line – Reach Out and Touch Someone. Telephones defy distance. It seems today that we are almost too connected. If you put down your phone long enough to look around, it is a curious sight on the street or in the mall or even at Hartwood Acres to see crowds of people with phones or head sets glued to their ears. Are all these calls merely a substitute for the real thing?
My sister sent me an email last week with a question: what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treated our Cell phone? Would we carry it around in our purses or pockets? Would we flip through it several times a day? Would we turn back to get it if we forgot it? Would we use it to receive text messages? Would we use it in case of emergency? Would our calls allow us to reach out and be touched by God?
At the end of Jeremiah’s story, God says, “Behold! I have put my words in your mouth. See! I have appointed you this day a prophet over the nations.”
Jeremiah’s prophesied a new covenant. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ considered Jeremiah as a role model. As Jesus tells us in the gospel of John, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” “You did not choose me, Jesus said, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last….” (John 15: 13,16a)
There is freedom in surrendering control of our lives to God. God is amazingly gracious, God creates something out of nothing, God makes all things new, God loves us with an everlasting love, God wants us to have joy and peace and an abundant life, God raised Jesus from the dead to save us from our sins. - This just the sort of God who would think it cool to call a kid like Jeremiah to speak words that would shake up the whole world.
Jeremiah would later say to God: "Your words were found, and I ate them; your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by your name."
God is calling. Reach out and be touched by God.