Lectionary: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17
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In today’s reading from Jeremiah, we witness the prophet’s call from God in those beautiful, loving words from the Creator: "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."
As usually happens when God calls a prophet, the prophet resists the call at first. You’ll remember, there was Abraham who said he couldn’t lead because he stuttered, and Jonah who didn’t want God to save the people at Nineveh, and Mother Mary who, when the Angel Gabriel informed her she would bear the Messiah into the world asked, “How can this be?”
Through our Scriptures, we are continually reassured that God chooses us and calls us to serve even knowing our limitations and our resistance to inner and outer change. God knows we struggle to allow change to happen within us and that we reasonably wish to avoid the consequences of calling for change in our community – because there are always consequences.
Even Jesus sought to avoid those consequences as the story of his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane affirms. But as Jesus said, Your will, not mine, be done. As his mother said, Let it be done to me according to your will.
Once the prophet has given their consent to this invitation from God, then God empowers them to fulfill their call.
God says to Jeremiah:
"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."
In every case, there will be the destruction and overthrowing of what is and the building and planting of what God intends there to be. As Fr. Nick preached so wonderfully last week: Jesus “came as a fire starter, a division bringer.” He also came to reconcile the whole world to God. He did both – in that order.
During the painful, fearful time of destroying and overthrowing, we cry out as the psalmist did for God to be our strong rock, to deliver us. And as God always does, God reminds us that God has been tending to us since before we were formed in our mother’s wombs and sustains us still.
The letter to the Hebrew’s reminds us that God’s call to us now may not look like God’s call to those who came before. There may be no burning bush, no sounding trumpet for us but when God calls, the author warns, don’t refuse to answer – because God is shaking things up and is building an unshakeable kingdom. So even in the tumult of the transition between what is and what God intends there to be, we give thanks and worship with awe and reverence.
Then in our gospel, Jesus demonstrates what this unshakable kingdom will be like. It will be a kingdom in which God sees and heals all wounds – a grace offered even before we ask because God knows that some of us harbor deep inner wounds that prevent us from fulfilling God’s purpose for us and for the world. By healing this woman in the presence of her faith family and its leadership, Jesus demonstrates that in this unshakable kingdom, God will seek, call, heal, and empower whom God chooses, when God chooses; and no earthly authority, doctrine, or institution can interfere.
The world saw a woman who had an infirmity which they would have seen as a divine punishment for her unworthiness, but God in Christ saw a beloved one who was wounded within and without. God chose her, touched her, and healed her. By calling her a daughter of Abraham, Jesus elevated her to full membership in Jewish society and called the religious leadership out for being more willing to show compassion to an animal than to a child of God; for holding fast to doctrine rather than prioritizing compassionate reconciliation – which is the hallmark of the unshakable kingdom.
Dividing, destroying, and overthrowing what is are necessary as God builds and plants what God intends for there to be.
There are predictable cycles involved in being prophetic leaders of change. For example, the gospel tells us that “the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things… [Jesus] was doing.” As Jesus is inaugurating the destroying phase, the people of God are rejoicing because they are getting a glimpse of the unshakable kingdom and they love the freedom and inclusion they see. It is vastly different from their experiences as occupied citizens under Roman authority. As the overthrowing phase gets real, however, these same people will demand Jesus’ crucifixion. Later, as the rebuilding-planting phase kicks in, they join the nascent Christian movement in droves.
Knowing this cycle, we, like Jesus, we keep walking the path God is setting before us, destroying and overthrowing what is, and partnering with God as rebuilders and planters of what God intends there to be. We will notice people rejoicing, then doing their best to make us stop, but on we’ll go, as Jesus did… to the cross, then the grave, certain by the assurance of our faith, that the grave is our doorway to new life, resurrection life, in the unshakable kingdom of God; and if there’s a church that knows and can trust in resurrection life, it’s this one.
Today’s Collect is a prayer we can cling to and repeat as a mantra on this leg of the journey. Let’s do a very quick Lectio Divina of the Collect together:
Reading 1: What words or phrases stand out for you as you heard this prayer?
Reading 2: As a church in transition, what gift does this prayer offer?
Let us pray…
Eternal Wisdom, Love Almighty... Amen.
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