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GOD'S MESSAGE THIS WEEK
Sermon for January 28, 2007 Calvary Church,
The Rev. Mary A. Canavan

Scripture Readings: The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany Jeremiah 1.4-10 Psalm 71 1 Corinthians 14.12b-20
Luke 4.21-32

Jesus goes off into the wilderness for 40 days and comes out and preaches his first sermon at his hometown of Nazareth. And he manages to really offend his hometown folk. In fact, they are so offended by the truth this prophet told them that they tried to throw him off a cliff!! You have to work to get people angry enough to throw you off a cliff. What did he say to them? He told them that they shouldn’t be too proud of themselves and that God appears to the Gentiles to, especially when the Jews (and Jesus is a Jew) are not listening to the prophets.

Today, we also hear from poor Jeremiah, the world’s most reluctant prophet. He truly does not want to be a prophet. It is the last thing he wants to do. The poor guy is told by God that he has to do it because he was ordained to do it and God knew when Jeremiah was in the womb that he would do it. The reason Jeremiah doesn’t want to do it is because he knows that when he tells the truth, people will get upset. It does seem to be true. For the unlikely Jeremiah gets thrown into a well for telling the truth. Can you imagine being thrown in a well here in Pascoag? That would not be much fun.

So where do we go with this for our scripture texts?

Maybe Jesus is telling us here at Calvary not to be too sure about ourselves. Maybe the real happening thing is going on at Berean Baptist Church. Let’s not get too puffed up and confident just because we run food closet and provide food to 66 families a year. Maybe God is calling us to do something more and we are listening, just like some Jews didn’t listen to Jesus.

And in our personal lives, perhaps there are people here today who, like Jeremiah, are not answering the call that God has presented. There could very well be a split in some people here today for they are doing one thing with their careers or job or volunteer work or education and putting off a call from God. There will be a tension within you, a dichotomy, until you answer that call. God does not give up.

Oh, and answering that call and being a prophet or whatever God calls you to be is difficult. It was no fun for Jeremiah to get thrown in a well and it was certainly not fun for Jesus Christ to hang from a cross. So you will (and are) being called to do something that will cost you. I don’t know what it will cost you but it will definitely cost you dearly.

That’s not the end of the story though. Because the odd thing is that on the other side of that cost is joy and an incredible relationship with Jesus Christ.

Take the plunge. Give up the fight. Lord knows the Lord will not give up!

Sources and references : (note that the above is the approximate verbal text of a sermon spoken without notes and does not include quotations or footnotes (except where noted) that a formal publication, speech, or written report would include)

The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV)
Synthesis – Year C – 2007/2006
Synthesis – Year C – 2003/2004
Pulpit Resource by William Willimon
Anglicans Online website – “Sermons that Work,”
Year C The Gospel of Luke Commentary – William Barclay
The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary

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