Epiphany
4C; Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-32; St. Paul’s, 2/3/2019
Jim
Melnyk “Dare to Make a Difference”
Most of us are
familiar with at least a few of the characters and storylines by A. A. Milne
about a young boy named Christopher Robin and his golden-colored honey bear
named Winnie the Pooh. Pooh Bear lives in a place called the Hundred Acre Wood
along with a number of friends. One such
friend is Eeyore, a rather forlorn-looking donkey with melancholy eyes, drooping
ears, and a loosely-tacked-on-tail, who goes about life asking questions like,
“Why me?” or making pronouncements like, “It’s all for naught,” or “Pathetic.
That’s what it is. Pathetic.”[1]
Once one gets to
know Eeyore it’s rather obvious that he always seems to expect disaster to
befall him in one form or another. And whenever one of the other animals ask
Eeyore to take on anything new, the donkey, who expects the worst to happen,
invariably has some excuse as to why he cannot possibly do what is asked of
him, or at best, predicts that surely gloom and doom will befall them if they
risk doing a new thing. Eeyore’s fears
seem at times to be as big as the Hundred Acre Wood.
Truth be told,
each of us has a little bit of Eeyore in us. We resist new things. We do our
best to avoid taking risks. We can always come up with a hundred different
reasons why we cannot take on a particular task. We hold on as tightly as
possible to the past and things as they have always been. We all too often find
ourselves reluctant to confront our own fears, and when confronted with the
unexpected we ask, “Why me?” I even have a small Eeyore stuffed animal that
sits to the side on my computer desk at the church reminding me of the times I
chant that age-old mantra, “Why me?”
Well, my friends,
this is not a new thing for human beings. We’re in very good company. Throughout history – whenever the call comes
to try a new thing, to go to a new place, to speak a prophetic word, most of
the time we humans have raised the cry, “Why me?” Perhaps followed by, “Why not
send someone else? You know, someone with more training. Someone with more
experience. Someone with better skills
or more suitable qualifications.”
And perhaps this
reaction is most common when the call comes from God. Especially if we sense
that God’s call will put us at odds with the world around us.
It’s very much
like the call God issues to Jeremiah in today’s reading. When a word from God
comes to Jeremiah commissioning him to be a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah’s
immediate response is to object. Instead of seeing the possibilities, Jeremiah
argues that he is inadequate to the task.
In this case he argues that he’s too young. My guess is there are any
number of reasons the reluctant prophet could come up with as to why someone
else would be better suited to the task at hand.
But, it seems, God
knows well the hearts and fears of humankind.
In the very next breath God tells Jeremiah there’s no need to be
concerned about his age. Jeremiah is assured that God will give the prophet the
words to speak at the appropriate time. And then God says what God repeats to
every generation, “Do not be afraid…for I am with you to deliver you.” And, as
if that assurance isn’t enough, God gives a sign by touching the mouth of the
prophet, thereby giving Jeremiah what he needs to fulfill the call to prophesy.
The power given to Jeremiah is awesome indeed: appointed over nations and
kingdoms, “to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build
and to plant.” I cannot help but consider how challenging and how tempting such
a call – such a gift – might be. The hope is the gift and the ability to be a
part of God’s dream for this world. The
temptation is assuming one has the power to exercise dominion over others – how
easy it might become to abuse, or misuse, such a calling!
And though we live
half a world away, in a time far removed from Jeremiah, the same awesome power
is ours to wield – for good or for ill. For our words, as well as our actions,
have power to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build
and to plant. Is it any wonder the most sane among us cry out, “Why me? Why us?” and in our next breath, “God, can’t
you send someone else?” Is it any wonder that there are people of faith in
every generation who either flee from the call of God as Jeremiah tried to do,
or others who see such a calling as an invitation to exert dominion over
others?
But, as Presiding
Bishop Michael Curry has said many times – quoting his grandmother – “If we’re
breathing, God is calling us.”[2]
I imagine in much the same way God has called God’s people over the ages. Perhaps like Jeremiah, it’s the call itself
that we fear the most. We can compare it
to the words of Marianne Williamson, words which are often mistakenly
attributed to Nelson Mandela:
“Our deepest fear
is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you “not” to be? You are a
child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around
you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It is not just in some of us;
it’s in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same. As we
are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”[3]
My sisters and
brothers, God is calling us – calling us to ministries familiar and new – to
people and places we know and have yet to meet or see. We may never be called
to speak the same sort of word Jeremiah speaks, but God may well ask us to
speak the unexpected – to advocate for those whom we never would guess we would
support. We may well be the people destined to pull down systems which oppress
God’s people, and in their place plant new ways of living and being together in
community. We may well be the very ones called to destroy barriers to things
like adequate housing, and healthcare; to reasonable, caring, and humane
immigration reform; to both food and job security for everyone.
We might do so by
wielding a hammer or paint brush building a house with Habitat for Humanity of
Johnston County. Or, to address issues of healthcare or immigration reform, we
can put to good use our command of language by writing letters or emails to
those elected to public offices, entrusted with promoting the common good. We
might find ourselves buying extra groceries at the store to put in our food
basket the first Sunday of the month, or working to encourage the building of
grocery stores in areas of our community considered food deserts. If we are an employer or business owner, we
can be expansive in our hiring practices.
If we’re younger and still in school, we can make friends with students
we notice are without friends or who sit by themselves at lunch time.
Truth be told, any
one of us – all of us have gifts and talents that, with God’s help, can be put
to work to build up and to plant and maybe even to be prophetic!
It boils down to
something Eeyore has been known to say, “A little consideration, a little
thought for others, makes all the difference.”[4]
Answering the call
of God may well cause us to want to ask, “Why me? Why us?” and to object that we’re just not up
to the call. But if we’re breathing, God
is calling us. And if we struggle with
that call – or are tempted to abuse that call – well, God says to us, “Do not
be afraid…for I am with you to deliver you.”[5]
And that, my friends, is very good news!
[1]
https://www.allgreatquotes.com/eeyore_quotes2.shtml,
accessed on December 6, 2018
[2]
Many sermons listened to over the 15 years Michael Curry was Bishop of the
Diocese of North Carolina
[3]
Marianne Williamson, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson,
and https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/our-deepest-fear/,
both accessed December 10, 2018
[4]Thai Nguyen, “Eeyore: A Pessimist’s
Guide to a Beautiful Life, December 6, 2017
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eeyore-a-pessimists-guide_b_6204004
Accessed on January 28, 2019
[5]
Jeremiah 1:8 (TJSB)
