Lost and Found--Luke 15:1-10. Sermon for September 14, 2025

            The boys of Boy Scout troop 22, Den Ravens B, were given 1 piece of paper. It was handed to them in a plain manilla envelope as the rest of the dens in the troop received theirs. At the appointed time they were told to open it and to begin their task.

            As they confidently gazed at the paper, they saw a list of numbers written in two distinct columns. The first column contained what they figured out quickly were paces. The second column were bearings on their compasses. The page was filled with these two columns. Someone sighed… Another’s boys courage began to sink a little. 

When combined, the bearings and the paces, would take the boys to their campsite… and to their food for the evening.

            But that was hours ago.

Now it was dark; they were hungry. The light from others dens of scouts searching for their campsites still twinkled in the distance, but those lights were further off now, and these eight boys were wading through bogs and grasses that were nearly as tall as they were. Their packs were getting heavier, and their courage and confidence, that was strong at first, was waning. Honestly it was gone.

            Then that fateful thought came. . . no one wanted to say it, but when it starts in the back of one person’s mind it becomes like a virus, quickly infecting others. It eats away at the group’s confidence until there is nothing left. Before long everyone was thinking it even if they did not say it. . . You know what it is: “We are lost.” 

And when you feel lost in the dark a second thought creeps in. The thought takes any remanence of faith away. This second thought is far scarier than just being lost. The second thought is, ‘we are forgotten.’

            No one wants to feel lost, and no one wants to feel forgotten. 

Whether it is a sheep who has wandered away from the flock, or a coin that fell between the floorboards of a house, or a group of 8 boys in the woods. . . or . . . even you and I when the violence and the suffering of the day becomes so normal that we shrug and say things like ‘well, what do you expect.’ 

God has placed us here, in this moment, and we feel the tide of discouragement pushing against us, and the temptation growing to worry that we are lost and that we are forgotten—and no one wants either.

            But it can happen, and it does happen. 

            Today we are going to look at these two parables and notice what Jesus has to offer us as we think about the idea of being Lost and Found. 

Move 1- that which is lost.

            From my perspective, the subject of these two parables is not the shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, or the women who sweeps her house diligently looking for the coin. The subject of these two parables is what has been lost. 

            And let us also not simply assume that because both are smaller in size, they are therefore smaller in value—a single sheep when compared to the overall flock or a small coin when examined against the overall value of someone’s full bank account or retirement. 

            Let’s also notice the sense of ‘lostness’ that takes place in the text—how ‘lostness’ is felt or is experienced. Because this takes a simple story that was written by Luke, and it molds these images in a way that makes them personal. They become our story as well. “Lostness” is a powerful emotional state to be in—a state which Jesus knows that everyone who hears his words: tax collectors and sinners, Pharisees and scribes, even his own followers all know something about. 

And today, in this culture, with the stories we share, the ones that we willingly we share and the ones that we must share because they shake us so deeply, we can speak to a greater sense of these days: “Lostness.” 

For we know what being lost feels like. When I hear about the trouble in our schools, and I do not have the time to process one shooting or another act of violence before another is presented—I feel lost and wonder about the path of hope. 

Or when disagreements which previously ended with people saying, ‘well I do not agree,’ and the two people walked away. Now the end of that encounter is met with violence and hatred and death. I feel lost and I wonder about what happened to free exchange of ideas. 

When families are broken apart through death and the results are not mourned on social media or the news, there is greater sense of lostness that is taking hold us of. The list goes on and on.  

To help give this feeling some personal application, we are invited to put ourselves in the place of that one sheep who ventured away from the flock, or the single coin that fell away from the others. For while both items carry in themselves some sense of value, alone they are vulnerable. Both items are not whole because they are not in community and not with the Lord. 

Alone they can lose some of their identity. Alone, and forgotten, which is how we feel when violence is reported on the news, or testified to in stories at school, makes us think we are lost. . . we are forgotten. . . and I know that this feeling once again has come up. 

             The feeling that we have wandered away—by choice or by accident—and no one is coming to look for us anymore. 

            Yet we are here in worship today. We are here to hear from the Lord. Here to encounter the gospel. So if they have been lost, if we have felt lost (which I know you that you have), if we have experienced being forgotten, if we believe that no one is listening, then the gospel’s message is about being found.

Move 2- being found.

            What does it feel like to be found? 

            Going back to my first story, when the boys who were lost in the woods, after dark, with only paces and compass bearings to help them find their way, heard sounds in the woods… sounds that eventually were their leaders coming to find them, what do you think it felt like to be found? I am sure there were sighs of relief and smiles, but later, when they sat together and thought about how badly it felt to be lost, and how their minds took them to the worst possible outcomes for their predicament, I imagine they could speak about being found—maybe not theologically, but they had the words. 

            In our parables, someone in authority, whether it was the great shepherd who found the sheep, or the women who continued sweeping and looking for the coin, continued their searching and, I assume, continued their calling, until the moment when that which was lost was found. 

It might not have been instantaneous, but the call, the searching keeps happening. Relief, when we suffer, and when we cry out to God in our own lost state, is not always immediate, and it does not mean everything is going to be okay in the next breath. 

While we would like to think that it is, and while we have come to hope and trust that God is always on the move quickly towards us, that is always what we experience. 

For it took the sheep a little while to get separated from the remainder of the flock, and the coin did not just fall to a place where the homeowner could not see it. Falling away, travelling away from God, takes time. 

But the gospel message is that both items were ultimately found. When all we heard about was suffering and separation, we can be found by the one who seeks us. They were found not because of the work they did. They were not found because they made the correct affirmation of faith. They were found because of the symbol in the parable of the Lord continued searching for them until they were found. 

            Can you feel what it felt like in the moment before they were found? The moment before ‘salvation’ came? 

            They were lost and are not found. The ‘finding’ which takes place is the result of Somone else’s initiative in their life. In this case it is the divine initiative. Whether it was the woman diligently working around her home, or the shepherd looking for the sheep, the work of ‘finding’ lay with the character who represents God. 

            In this story, we do not find God. The Lord finds us when we need God the most. When we feel totally lost because of all the suffering of this past week, it is the Lord who comes to find us.  

            And this finding is also decisive. It is not accidental or inadvertent. It the very moment of lostness and place where feel forgotten in a violent, painful world, a world that does all that it can to stop the church from spreading God’s message. God does not stumble upon the lost sheep as The Lord is out running other errands. 

No, God seeks what was lost and does not stop until God finds us. 

The woman does not open a drawer at home and say, ‘well look here, I found the extra coin I was looking for.’ Rather, she has been at work the entire time and does not rest until she has that coin back in her possession. 

Divine initiative. Divine persistence. In the face of feeling lost and forgotten that is the best news that Jesus can offer to the church. 

Again, imagine how that feels. 

Conclusion

            Because that feeling is what you and I are called to share moving forward. We are called to look into the places and moments where we feel and confess that all can be lost and say: NO, all is not lost. The shepherd is looking for you. He will find you. And when he finds you, he will bring you home. 

DM

 

The Cost of Discipleship--Luke 14:25-33. Sermon preached on September 7, 2025

            Normally we expect Jesus to look upon the crowds and have compassion upon them because that is His normal response when they gather around him. But today, as Jesus feels them drawing in close, he immediately begins to teach them. And while we hoped that this would be an easy message to bear, sadly as Jesus draws the people in, the message is harder.

            It is filled with images that require reflection and consideration. Family. Friends. Losing your life and the cost of following Jesus. Bearing the cross. He offers it all in this passage. 

            Everything circles around a primary question: What does it take to be a disciple of Jesus?

Other questions will come up. . . Questions like, what is the cost of following the Lord? Or what is the cost of discipleship that God asks each member of the Body of Christ to pay as they ‘take up their cross and follow me?’ 

            But the first question, ‘what does it take to be a disciple of Jesus’ this question lives at the center of Luke 14. 

            So, today let’s walk through this text and see if we can find a way to work with hard passage and determine what answer Jesus offers the crowd that presses upon him.

Move 1--hating others?

            As Jesus looks out at the crowd who gathered around him, he says a strange thing. . . or maybe a thing that seems out of character for Jesus. We can imagine his followers, his friends, and those familiar with his teaching, raising their eyebrows at what he says. . . “If you do not hate your father and mother, and indeed the remainder of your family and friends, then you cannot be my disciple.”

            That does not sound very much like Jesus or the gospel that he has taught them. He has always been straightforward, but. . . this straightforward? This divisive?!?

            These words seem out of character for Jesus. While we know that he will turn over the tables of the money changers (in Matthew 21 and Mark 11) and be outraged by their actions, Jesus does not often appear angry at anyone. Yet in one sentence, Jesus seems to upset the entire balance of the family and of our expectations of him. So, I want to address the first question that comes to everyone’s mind as we read this famous section. 

            Does Jesus truly want us to hate our family? 

            And the clearest answer that I can give is--NO. 

            So, what does Jesus mean by saying this??? 

            While the word that we read in our Bible is hate, and that is an accurate translation of the Greek text, perhaps to fully understand what Jesus is calling the crowds to become, we need to consider a more nuanced definition of the word that he chose to use because the word is richer than we realize. 

            You see, as we think about what Jesus asks each of his followers (potential and actual), the Messiah asks us to make the moral choice to aligns with God’s word. As we listen and discern God’s message, we must make a choice at every turn. This is a choice that happens in every encounter and with every person. It happens at every instance of our day, and it cannot be avoided. 

Two chapters from now, Luke will record Jesus saying that we cannot serve both God and money. Once again, Jesus presents us with have a choice; a choice that we must make. A choice that we will make. A choice that we do make. 

Again, this is both a theological choice and a moral one. And by not choosing, or by deferring the choice saying that we choose, but not actually declaring our position, we are actual choosing.

            Then there is the Old Testament occurrence of this word (for hate) which takes the moral understanding of the word and adds another layer to it—an example of this is found in Malachi 1. 

In that passage God is speaking and the prophet says, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”[1]Again, hate… but going into the New Living Translation listen to the difference that we can discover. And notice the choice. “I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother, Esau.”[2]

            Now we hear a difference; we feel a difference. 

Does God truly want us to hate anyone? To drive anyone away? Or does God want us to love him supremely and have the proper priorities when it comes to friends, families? That one sounds more of a moral choice. Should our loyalties align in a similar manner as they did with God? Perhaps Jesus is saying something like: 

Love your mother and love your father. Love your family. Love your life for it is a gift from God that is to be used for the glory of the Lord first and foremost. But love me more than these things and by doing that you become my disciple for you place me above all other things in your life—things that can distract you and things that you elevate above me. The things which do not save your soul.  

            For we know that God loves us all. And it seems out of character for God to love only one of the children of Isaac and hate the other—even if the other child sold his birthright for soup. 

Move 2- saying good-bye

            For being a disciple of the Lord does not mean that we leave behind all the people that God placed in our lives as if they are no longe of any importance because we come to worship and confess our faith. For it was God who put these people in our lives in the first place. 

It was God who called us to care for our community as it was God who put the seed and fire in our hearts to evangelize and spread the message of hope. Rather, once again, to be a disciple of the Lord is to align ourselves with God and with His mission first. 

            Instead, we say good-bye, if you will, to things that distract us from the overall mission and message of the Lord. And there are many things in this world, in our everyday life that distract us. They drive us away from God—some obvious and some more discrete. They call us to click on them. Linger over them. Whisper about them when the other person is not in the room. But they are there… always there. . . inviting us away from God.

            Say good-bye to them.  

            Luke 14 tells us that we must be aware of the appeal of them and we must be mindful of them—just as a builder would be mindful of the needs of his or her overall building project or as a king is mindful of the cost of going to war. 

We must be mindful of where or energies and resources are placed because they are not always placed properly with the Lord and with the gospel that he preached and taught to us. For if we are not careful, we place our allegiance and our loyalties in places that take us further and further away from God—sometimes without us even knowing that it is happening. 

But again, Christ call us to a different path. 

Christ calls us to follow where the mission and message lead us while saying good-bye to the things that could distract us from the work of the cross. And that message and its mission will lead us away from some people, but it will not tell us to hate our family, but rather by placing God at the center of our lives, everything else falls into perfect place. 

For there are indeed a great many things which can, and which do, distract us from God’s message. Things which we are to say good-bye to… things which we are to reject because each of them takes us away from God and they rob us from being the people that God calls us to become. 

Move 3- the cost

            One of the details that gets left behind in this story is that the cost of following Jesus will be different for each person. 

Jesus tells the crowds, and the established disciples who hear these words, that they must all decide how much they are willing to say good-bye to, willing to reject, in order to serve the Lord. Individually.

            And Jesus also never says, ‘it will be this much.’ Rather he invites us all now into that place where we stop and think about what it means and what it looks like as a church, and as people, to take up our cross and follow the Lord in this moment and in context that God sends us into after our worship time is complete. 

For one final point that is true beyond a doubt: if we are unwilling to count this cost, if we are unwilling to do this work, then we will not be disciples of Jesus. 
Conclusion

            We all seek to be disciples of Jesus. For we all have been called by the Lord in some fashion or another as we know that God has given each of us gifts according to His will. 

            I wonder what it looks like, and what the places in your day are, where God asks you reject one self-elevated priority in favor of him? Can you say good-bye to that thing, even if everyone else is embracing it and championing it as popular today?

            For if you do, I believe you are on your way to becoming a disciple of the Lord. 

DM

---

[1] Malachi 1:2,3 NRSV.

 

[2] Malachi 1:2,3 NLT

Ordinary Exchanges.

Recently I was in the grocery store picking up a few things when I engaged in a practice that is becoming more and more normal for me. I talked with the cashier. This as not the normal small talk of 'hey how you are you?' or 'its awfully hot today, isn't it?' Rather, I pressed in, and as I have become more accustomed to doing, I said, 'I hope your day is going well."

Then I waited for an honest reply. It took a moment, and it did surprise the person ringing out my purchases, but the reply came.  

When reply came (and it was glorious), I leaned in and smiled and tried as hard as I could with my eyes to listen. To linger and offer not the response that was expected but something far more personal. I didn't offer to fix anything or respond with any expected small talk but I tried to truly be present. The more intentional I am about speaking with strangers in the grocery store or out in the community the more comfortable I am becoming. 

Each time I can see a little more of the light in the conversation. 

Today I was reading an essay that Padraig O'Tauma wrote and it summed up why I feel so strongly about getting past 'small talk' and wishing to converse with people deeply--should they be willing to do so with me. I won't force them to talk. Now please stay with me as I explain how I got there. 

Padraig was commenting on the words of Rita Dove who, while caring for her mother who suffers from dementia, had recently talked with her mom on the phone. It was a hard conversation. A conversation that was filled with prompts and guided by Rita's brother who helped Rita's mother to say all the right things during the 5-minute conversation. After the phone call Rita says, 'I put myself back into a trance.' And I can hear the pain that she was dealing with as her mother struggled for the necessary language for even a phone call to her daughter. 

Returning to Padraig's commentary he writes these words that touched me: 

'To be in a trance is to have your eyes fixed on something there, but not quite there. Ordinary exchanges-- 'weather, gossip, news'--become a small relief, an automatic reflex, a way to fill the void with language that's easy, unmemorable, a simple carrier of connection, affection, and care.'

I do not fault Rita for her need of ordinary language because at times that is all that we have in moments of pain. Lord knows that I have needed those moments and I too have not had the words. I have felt myself slip into one of those 'trances' at times and felt the embrace hit me as well. But how often do we live every single moment--moments without trauma or stress-- in a place where the ordinary conversations are all that we have? 

How often do we stop and look deeply into the places and people that we are with and see the pain they are in a try, in some small way, to be present? 

By lingering with one person we might not change the world, but I know from firsthand experience that listening, dwelling, and taking the time to be with someone, it helps. Sure we can just talk about the weather and any gossip that floats past us. We can stay superficial about social media posts that are trending. . . Or, I wonder if today, God will show you someone who might benefit from pressing in? 

Trading gods. Jeremiah 2:4-13. Sermon preached on August 31, 2025

          While we confess that God is always enough for us here in our worship time, and as we come together as the church in general, there are times when this affirmation can seem to slip away from us; slip away from our hearts and our lives both practically and confessionally.

            It is just as easy as the lie from last week, that you are not enough. This sneaks into our lives and it begins to help us create a distance between us and everyone that we have come to trust and rely upon—God included.

            At times this is a deliberate choice; we don’t want to be faithful. We don’t want to grow as Christians. And we call those times moments of sin and backsliding in our faith. We just don’t want to build our relationship with God and deepen what God began in us. . . for perhaps God is not enough for us right now. As odd as that might sound. But is it that odd? 

            Yet in the oddness of this confession or statement, we find the people of Jeremiah 2 hearing a message that would affirm our feelings. That while God is wonderful; and God’s presence is healing and in God we find wholeness. There are times when we confess, in one form or another that God is not enough for us. And so, we make a choice to remedy that conclusion—just as the people who heard Jeremiah’s letter in chapter 2, made a choice. 

            Today I want to consider this concept of exchanging God’s glory for something that does not profit and instead harms us. Jeremiah will tell us this is an appalling sin. The prophet will state that this is like putting water in cracked, broken, cisterns, or as Jesus would say, it is like putting new wine into old wineskins. It does not work. Yet if this was not something that the people in Jeremiah’s day, and in our day, are guilty of doing, then it would not have been included in God’s word for us to consider. 

So, let’s try and understand it so that we can choose to avoid it.
Move 1- exchanging Gods

            Our text comes to a head in verse 11 with God speaking. The Lord has gathered the people together. Multiple generations are present to hear what is about to be said. We can imagine that no one knows the gravity of what is about to shared, and then it happens. God wonders if a nation has ever changed its gods?

And while the question seems rhetorically curious, and unnecessary. Who would do such a thing? What people would act like this? By God asking it, the question lands in the lap of anyone who hears these words. Now there will be deniers and doubters. The people will look around and with their eyes, they will say, ‘he’s not talking to me.’

But there can be little mistake here. God is talking to all those people who have gathered. . . the generations who stand before the Lord. Us included. Have they, have we, exchanged the glory of God for something that does not profit. 

            For God’s own people. God’s covenanted people. The people that God called, the ones that God protected and set apart, they are guilty of this behavior. 

            The exchange that is happening here occurs 27 times in the Old Testament. And all 27 times that it takes place between God and humanity it is always negative. This is the substitution of something holy, something wonderful, something given by God to us, for something that we elevate as better. And like I said, it is always a less-than exchange. It is as if we know better and when the scale is balanced, it is not balanced at all. 

            Are we guilty of looking at the greatness of God, the wonder of God, and then deciding that we will work, and live, and act on our own? Do we pretend that the nature of who God is, and what God calls us to be and become, does not apply? 

            That is what it means to attempt the exchange of God.

            It’s not truly a choice, but it is one that God sees His own people, like us, make time and again.

Move 2- Looks like? 

            In just a few short verses I imagine the stuffing, the air, has been taken out of the people who stood before Jeremiah’s message hoping to hear God offer them a word of hope. 

But for how long? How long will any of us have to wait to hear some good news from God? 

That is truly the challenge that we face when we read Jeremiah, or any of the other prophets, and we are confronted with their strong message—a message that in its passion should draw us into introspection and consideration. We feel the gut-punch of exchanging the truth of God for something that is of lesser value, but then we leave worship, or we put down our Bible, or we say Amen to the prayer, and we hope to go back to our lives, and we hope that the conviction can end.

But this text tells me, that it should not be this way.  

            Jeremiah 2 will continue after verse 13. The tempo will pick rise, and it will slow. God will speak over and over again to the people, the church, in verses 19, 22, and 29. . . and God will keep on speaking to them asking them to make a change in their lives and return to a life of faithfulness. God will ask them, and us, to recall what the Lord has done to save us and what God has taught us. 

            But will any of us continue to listen? 

            Will they, will we, take the message with its passion and will we listen? And more than listen will we heed and make the necessary changes? 

            Outside of today’s pericope, God will repeatedly say that we have brought this upon ourselves (verse 17), and as we hear this, we will point at others and say, ‘ah it’s those people. It’s that behavior right there that is causing all of this. They are the ones who are not enough. . . oh wait did I just say that.’ 

But that thought process, and choice, does not get to the root of the problem. We like to push away the conviction that we repeatedly exchange the glory, the goodness, the presence of God for something that does not profit rather than wonder about where the places in your daily life are where you exchange the goodness of God for goodness of a god that you create and elevate. 

            And so, when we wonder, ‘well, what does it look like? Or what were the people in Jeremiah’s day doing?’ I can say, they were living like we live right now. 

Move 3- worthless

            And as we live as the people who heard Jermiah 2 firsthand lived, we turn back in our text to the beginning to see the fruit of this choice. . . And we notice that exchanging the glory of God harms our identity and our value. It makes us: worthless.

            The verb that Jeremiah employs it exposes the human pursuit that lack of substance. Becoming idolatrous. A sense of misplaced trust. In scripture, every time this verb is used it is placed in stark contrast to the steadfast character, and word of the Lord, which underscores the futility of turning from God to anything else. Why turn away from God when God is so perfect and so good for us? This choice, this turning, the exchange of our text, it defines us worthless when compared to goodness and perfection of God. 

            For idolatry is self-destruction. Deceptive speech always hurts us, and it hurts our relationship with God and each other. We are not secure here on earth when compared to the wonder of our heavenly inheritance that God offers to us as we are faithful.

            According to Jeremiah, we become worthless as we exchange the goodness of God for the goodness of a god that we create and elevate into the place in our lives and heart that only God should hold onto. 

Conclusion

            So, as we leave behind the power of Jeremiah’s call in chapter 1, and the trading of God’s in chapter 2, we are left to wonder about the places and moments in our day where we live in this way. What does it look like in your life and how might God be asking you to root that out so that you can continue to grow your faith and share in the work of discipleship in this community? 

 

DM

Return. Can you find your own place of rebirth?

As the spring came, we prepared for the joy of swimming. I bought all the necessary chemicals to treat, and care for, our above ground pool. Our winter cover was removed and put away. The water was tested and the levels of alkalinity and ph were balanced properly. Chlorine tablets were added and I vacuumed away the debris from the bottom of the pool. 

As the heat of summer came we enjoyed the relaxation of floating on top of our pool with the sun warming our bodies. 

For about a month, as the temperatures topped out in the upper 90s, and the heat index soared to over 100, everything seemed right in our backyard. With my sunglasses on, I would swim laps for a little bit. Then when I was done, I would pull myself onto one of our floats and relax until I was too hot to continue. Then I would retreat back into the water to cool off. 

We were all so tan and so relaxed. . . 

But a by-product of the heat was the apparent suffering of our small magnolia tree which resides near the pool, adjacent to the carport. Slowly the leaves turned and then they fell off in the middle of July. It seems that the tree is dead--I hope it is not, but we will know in the spring. 

So for the remainder of the summer, we have enjoyed swimming while simultaneously hoping the tree is alive. But this is not the only thing that has left. As the tree has lost its leaves, we have not seen any of the hummingbirds that normally come and enjoy the feeder in the backyard and rest near the magnolia tree. . . that was until yesterday. 

As Emma and I returned home from an errand, we saw one fluttering around the hopefully-not-dead-tree. Its tiny wings carrying it around our backyard looking for a snack from our red feeder. I stood there smiling, hoping, and thankful. 

I wonder if you can find a place today that seems dry, barren, and dead, and can you notice the place where life returns? 

That tree shows all the signs of death. But if I had not slowed down and took a longer look, I might have missed the little blue bird darting around. It was a gift that God showed me. A reminder. A gift that can be shared. A story of faithfulness. 

I am enough--Jeremiah 1:4-10. Sermon preached on August 24, 2025.

            One of the most popular, most regularly offered, justification that we hear is: I am not enough. 

It comes so often that I do not have the space today to list out all the instance where I recall hearing it recently. As I am sure that you could add to any list that I create. For you know places, instance, and people who would join the choir of others who respond to the stress, the wounds, and the dailyness of life by saying: I too am not enough.

            And while we are quick to grab our Bibles, or find and squeeze a cross in our pockets, or a look to the little Jesus sitting in a places of prominence around our lives, and hold that up and say, ‘yeah, but Jesus makes me enough,’ tomorrow the refrain will come and someone’s actions or their words, or their lack of actions and words, will cause you to say once again, and this time, perhaps, with a tear in your heart, “I am not enough.”

            In that place, we find a prophet who lived in difficult times and among difficult people. A prophet whose message was devalued and not listened to. He felt the same way, I think. The weeping prophet who no one wanted to follow. A prophet whose message was discounted to detriment of society and the church that God sent him into. 

Jeremiah’s perspective is familiar to us for just because we have the Word of the Lord before us, and just because Christ abides in our hearts, the refrain, erroneous as it is, will still eat away at us. So, the call of Jeremiah from this first chapter of his book, with it is familiarity, and its hints to the words of David in Psalm 139—it needs our attention. 

For in these words, God speaks to His servant, and to His Church. . . not a word of chastisement or rebuke, and not a word of prodding them to action among a difficult cultural context or a blind society as a whole. 

Instead in this passage I hear something different. And as we consider these few verses, I wonder if you will join me in hearing and responding to the message in the life of this church—both personally and corporately? For as Jeremiah’s call teaches us: we are enough. 

Move 1- Time.

            While our text begins formally in verse 4, I want to draw you into verse 5. And I want to ask a question as we think about what the Word of the Lord to Jeremiah meant. . .

            Let’s hear verse 5 again: 

“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.”[1]

 

            Theologically verse 5 is an important verse to consider. It is the substance of Jeremiah’s call. These are the words that he will go back to when he feels threatened and pushed by the people who do not listen to him; people who devalue him. Additionally, verse 5 contains some foundational themes to wrestle with for the church. Themes like: God’s immenseness. God’s presence throughout all our time as Christians. God’s power. God’s will in the life of His people. Just to list a few. It is all there in just one verse. 

            In 26 English words, or 12 Hebrew ones, we have such depth being given by God to someone who defines themself as too young to be called by God. Oh, and Jeremiah never defines what makes him young either. Young in age. . . Young in faith. 

I imagine that this verse took some time for the prophet to consider. If Jeremiah was sitting with the Session of this church, and we were Dwelling in the Word together on this whole text, I would like to think that his attention would rest in on this one verse for a while. 

            God forming him in the womb. . . that is the reference to psalm 139.

            God present in his life and setting him apart for service before the prophet even took his first breath. . .

            God calling him to be a prophet when he, the young prophet who could not yet articulate his sense of belonging in the church or his sense of call and did not think he was either qualified or called to be a leader. 

            Like I said, this is a heavy weight to feel and to try and express faithfully. 

            As I have told you before, I heard the voice of the Lord call me when I was Jr. High school and I still am learning what that means to me today—and I am no Jeremiah. Imagine hearing God and attempting to make sense of what he heard. 

            And here is my question: Why are we in a such hurry with God when Jeremiah would likely have to sit with this message and meditate on the implications of what God was saying in his life? 

For when we feel like we are not enough, when we feel like we do not measure up to others, we must return to the truth that holds this passage, and this call together… God formed us, Church Family. God called us, Bethesda. God provides the gifts. God sets us up for success, here! 

Even when the world around us says that this is an impossibility and points at our flaws—corporately and personally. We are enough. We are always enough to thrive.

If God was present the entire time, even before the prophet was aware of this fact, then should Jeremiah not trust in the revelation of God in his life that calls him to be different? 

Should we also work to trust God in the same manner and fashion in our life and in the life of the work we do in His name and for His glory? 

Move 2- pushback.

            Now I wish that was enough—for Jeremiah and for us. The affirmation that God calls us, that God provides for us, that we can trust the Lord and know that we are enough because Christ is in us, and that God’s care and support changes our identity as we push on toward the high calling in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:14)—this is foundational.

But not even Jeremiah does any of this.

            And that truth is also important for us as we consider the prophet’s call story. Because just an affirmation, and the confessional moment that call story this brings forth in each of us will not totally remind us that we are indeed enough in Christ Jesus. It should, but the whispers still come. There is still push back.

For in verse 6, the prophet will again press against God and try to wriggle out of the call of God. He will try and push away from being faithful—just like we do. For as the saying goes, “old habits, die hard.”

            And just about the time that we expect God to smack the prophet for not having enough faith, for the world would smack us if we dared to be vulnerable to them and to each other, God reminds us: Do not be afraid in verse 8. 

We will push back on God, but God will not let us go. God’s call and God’s mission still calls each of us toward faithfulness. And this is not just a general sense of fear that we are dealing with either but a sense of terror and dread. 

Why, are we not to fear? 

The Lord answers quickly! 

Because God is going to deliver us. And more than just deliver us, God will abide close to us in those moments when we feel that we are not enough—even when we confess with both actions and words that we are not enough on a regular basis. And as we push back on God’s call and mission in our lives, God says, “you may believe this, and you may confess it when pushed, but I have made you different. And because of this, you are enough in my eyes. You are always enough.”

Move 3—the call

            And so, Jeremiah, like you and me, is called to great things. The word of the Lord has been placed in the prophet—and in us. God has touched the mouth of his called children and sent them forth to prosper and share the gospel. 

And we will see a great many things taking place right before us. These images are vivid, and they are listed in verse 10. Plucking up and breaking down. Destroying and overthrowing. Building and planting. We will see them all as Jeremiah is told that he too will see them as he serves the Lord. 

            While they come with a sense of judgement? 

We are never told which way the judgment falls. We might create that sense, or offer that judgment, but Jeremiah is never told who is suffering and who is being blessed.

            Instead, he is to stand before the world, his community, and even the church and faithfully share what God is doing and what God is saying to him knowing that some will listen and some will not. And that is without the commentary that is so tempting to add to the mix. 

            And it is that commentary that helps us tell each other that ‘we are not enough.’ But when the word of the Lord comes into our hearts and lives, we are enough because Christ dwells with us and in us and God’s word.

Conclusion

            Jeremiah took time I believe to consider the word of the Lord. And after considering it, we know that he suffered still. Yet God was always with him—as God is with us. 

            I hope that as you leave our time in worship and begin to share God’s message, and as you hear others confess with actions, and sometimes with words, that they are not enough, maybe you will remind them of the truth—in God we are enough. And you will further help them turn to Christ who will help transform their lives and make them whole. 

DM

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[1] Jeremiah 1:5 NRSV.

Do we notice what is right before us?

This week has been a welcome change of pace at Bethesda. Rally Day, the beginning of our new cycle of Christian Education, is this week. We will have a light breakfast together. We will talk about the variety of educational offerings that Bethesda has to offer families. 

Then we will finish our time with some fun. 

On Monday morning my phone vibrated on my desk startling me. Our Christian Education director was checking in to see if I was willing to fill my customary role at Rally Day (besides praying for the food)? Would I create our annual scavenger hunt for anyone who comes to Rally Day to complete? 

For the last couple of years I have challenged our church family to count both the number of hymnals in the sanctuary and the lights in the Family Life Center. I asked them what hymn is on page 123 and to notice how many bookmarks are in Bible on the pulpit? 

Our DCE wondered: would I do this again? 

Of course I would! I love doing it. Plus: there will be prizes for anyone who completes the puzzle! 

Grabbing my notebook, I began the slow walk around the property searching for material for the hunt. Now I won't spoil any of the questions, but I will say, this year's hunt is challenging. 

Breathing in deeply as I walked into familiar every space I scanned the rooms looking around. The sanctuary with its familiar reverence. The quietness of the Christian Education building. The buzz of children in the Family Life Center. I experienced it all in just a few minutes and appreciated what each room brings to Bethesda. 

There is so much to notice here. 

Yet I wondered, do we stop and truly notice what is right before our eyes each day? Can we spot the hidden details that God has placed before us? And by spotting them, can we see God at work as well?