Jeremiah is not a book that many pastors preach from on a regular basis. I did a couple of weeks ago, and I found some wonderful ideas for us today. Let me make a couple of observations from Jeremiah 1:4-10, the call of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah grew up, the son of a priest, and from a long line of priests. He lived in Anathoth, a town that was all priests and their families. So I imagine he grew up thinking (assuming!) that he would follow in the family footsteps by becoming a priest himself. Many people from all different time periods assume they will go into the family business, some because their parents have talked about it and some, well, just because. But one day, Jeremiah got a call from the LORD who said, “I have known you even before you were conceived and from that time on, I chose you and appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” Wow! What a change from the plan! Just like Zechariah when he told the people gathered around him, that his son’s name should be John, he went counter to what was expected, counter to family tradition: no one in his family was named John!
I might also think that Jeremiah was being prepared by his father and even preparing himself to be a priest throughout his life. Now here he was in his early 20s, possibly getting ready to begin his ministry and the LORD speaks to him and tells him about these new plans. What is Jeremiah’s reply? “I am too young and I am not a good speaker!” In other words, “I am not the right choice; I am not qualified!”
None of this is a hindrance to the LORD God! The LORD replies to Jeremiah,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.” (Jer. 1:7–8 NRSV)
The Lord said, “It’s not a problem that you are only a boy and that you think you are not qualified. You just need to go where I send you and say what I tell you. And no need to be afraid because I will be with you and will rescue you when there is trouble.”
So two (of several) things I see in this passage are: first, sometimes God has a different direction for us than the one we have for ourselves; and second, all we have to do is respond to God’s call; he will tell us where he wants us to go and what he wants us to say. We don’t have to be qualified!
Jesus has chosen us: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 15:16; italics mine).
Paul says we don’t have to be qualified: “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5; italics mine).
We don’t have any excuses any more—and we have the love and power of God going with us when we follow him. Thanks be to God!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Longing and Calling
Recently, I read again in the gospel of Mark the story of Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). Bartimaeus is sitting in the street when he hears that Jesus will be coming along. So, he begins to call out to Jesus. When Jesus passes by, the people around Bartimaeus tell him to be quiet and not to call out to Jesus and bother him. But Bartimaeus doesn’t let that stop him. He keeps calling out all the more, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” I wonder how much I let myself be quieted by others and stop calling out to Jesus. It’s probably more that I shut myself up; self-censoring. I need to keep calling out to Jesus to (at the very least!) have mercy on me and my blindness. Bartimaeus was ready with a specific answer for Jesus when He asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said: “I want to see.” Do I have a specific answer when Jesus asks that of me? Do you?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Preaching
I have just finished delivering a series of three sermons at the church my husband and I attend. What a privilege! But it was also a lot of work… I’ve begun to understand the necessity of a pastor’s living into the text he/she is going to preach, to truly experience its meaning before being able to encourage others to take it into their heart and make it part of their life. It’s a slow process; it takes time to hear the Holy Spirit speaking into my life, helping me understand the meaning he has for me in these particular words.
The process reminds me of how I shop sometimes. I get it in my head that there is something I need to buy, a pair of shoes for example, and I know generally what I want. So I keep my eyes open. Whenever I am near a shoe store I go in and take a look around to see if they have what I think I am looking for. Not this one? I keep looking. Not in a hurry, not frenzied (at least not yet), just seeing what’s available that might fit what I’m looking for. Eventually, I find the right pair of shoes and buy them. To someone shopping with me, it may look like an impulse buy, but they don’t know that I have been living with the idea of those shoes for quite a while, constantly looking, thinking, reevaluating my idea until I find the answer to my shoe needs.
Preparing just one or even a series of sermons seems to be a lot like this. I know the passage on which I will be preaching and I read it many times. But I also meditate on it; I roll it around in my mind and heart, looking for and beginning to savor its meaning. The meaning begins to come clearer the more I interact with it—thinking, praying, reading, listening. Just like my looking for my shoes, this can’t necessarily be accomplished in a week! I need to live with my “shoe concept” for a while before I find it!
This is ideal. I know that it doesn’t always happen this way. Sometimes I never find the right shoes and I just need to buy them now because I need the shoes now. But as far as it is in my power, I want to be able to shop, that is to read, to meditate, to study and to let the words (and Word) of the passage sink into my heart and spirit before I need to put fingers to keyboard.
The process reminds me of how I shop sometimes. I get it in my head that there is something I need to buy, a pair of shoes for example, and I know generally what I want. So I keep my eyes open. Whenever I am near a shoe store I go in and take a look around to see if they have what I think I am looking for. Not this one? I keep looking. Not in a hurry, not frenzied (at least not yet), just seeing what’s available that might fit what I’m looking for. Eventually, I find the right pair of shoes and buy them. To someone shopping with me, it may look like an impulse buy, but they don’t know that I have been living with the idea of those shoes for quite a while, constantly looking, thinking, reevaluating my idea until I find the answer to my shoe needs.
Preparing just one or even a series of sermons seems to be a lot like this. I know the passage on which I will be preaching and I read it many times. But I also meditate on it; I roll it around in my mind and heart, looking for and beginning to savor its meaning. The meaning begins to come clearer the more I interact with it—thinking, praying, reading, listening. Just like my looking for my shoes, this can’t necessarily be accomplished in a week! I need to live with my “shoe concept” for a while before I find it!
This is ideal. I know that it doesn’t always happen this way. Sometimes I never find the right shoes and I just need to buy them now because I need the shoes now. But as far as it is in my power, I want to be able to shop, that is to read, to meditate, to study and to let the words (and Word) of the passage sink into my heart and spirit before I need to put fingers to keyboard.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Waiting and Rowing
Several months ago, one of my first entries was called “What Do We Do?” about waiting. I said that while we are waiting we need to be doing what God wants us to do, which is the work of God. And what is the work of God? John 6:29 said this: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” Simple, but not always easy. When we think of waiting, usually we are looking ahead, to the future but not necessarily seeing clearly. Then I wrote, “Maybe what God wants is that whatever we choose to do, we do it with a believing heart, a heart that trusts God, that he is working through us….” So from this perspective we are moving forward toward what we can’t see.
This morning I read a short article by Skip Moen passed along to me by a friend. This article addresses waiting from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures. Moen puts it this way:
“…if you are Hebrew, the future is ‘behind’ you. You are in the row boat, your back to the direction you wish to travel, looking at where you have already been. Your future is behind you. Your hope is what you cannot see. But your true line of travel comes from alignment with the past, what you can see, where you have already been. If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with His past actions. Waiting is not floating. It is rowing. So, sit down and row. Be active in your waiting. Secure what lies behind you by putting your oars in the water in line with God’s wake.”
Anyone who has rowed a small boat knows that you pick a spot on the horizon that you are facing and keep that in front of you. That helps you keep the boat aimed at the right place on the other shore. As you guide by that landmark in front of you, you know you will get to the spot on the other side without having to turn around and look constantly for the right place to land.
Aren't we are looking at two sides of the same coin here, so to speak? Believing in “the one he has sent” involves knowing who he is, and from this side of the cross, we can only know who he is by looking back at his life through the Scriptures, both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. We can keep moving toward the future as we align our movement with what we know of the faithfulness and power and goodness of God. We will get to where he wants us because we will know him better.
“If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with his past actions.”
This morning I read a short article by Skip Moen passed along to me by a friend. This article addresses waiting from the perspective of the Hebrew Scriptures. Moen puts it this way:
“…if you are Hebrew, the future is ‘behind’ you. You are in the row boat, your back to the direction you wish to travel, looking at where you have already been. Your future is behind you. Your hope is what you cannot see. But your true line of travel comes from alignment with the past, what you can see, where you have already been. If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with His past actions. Waiting is not floating. It is rowing. So, sit down and row. Be active in your waiting. Secure what lies behind you by putting your oars in the water in line with God’s wake.”
Anyone who has rowed a small boat knows that you pick a spot on the horizon that you are facing and keep that in front of you. That helps you keep the boat aimed at the right place on the other shore. As you guide by that landmark in front of you, you know you will get to the spot on the other side without having to turn around and look constantly for the right place to land.
Aren't we are looking at two sides of the same coin here, so to speak? Believing in “the one he has sent” involves knowing who he is, and from this side of the cross, we can only know who he is by looking back at his life through the Scriptures, both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. We can keep moving toward the future as we align our movement with what we know of the faithfulness and power and goodness of God. We will get to where he wants us because we will know him better.
“If you want to wait on the Lord, you must keep rowing in alignment with his past actions.”
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Where Have I Been?
“Thoughts on Theology, Ministry, and the Arts.” I’m finding that’s a taller order than it seems! But I’m not giving up on it.
I haven’t written in a while because I haven’t known what to write. It seems like life has taken up a lot of my time and thoughts—but isn’t that what theology and ministry is about? Life? Where does Jesus meet us when life gets too hard—or too easy, or too full, or too empty, or too confusing, or too stressful, or too fast, or too slow? These are the times that test us (me) because that’s when I lose sight of Jesus. And when I lose sight of Jesus I don’t think theologically; I think selfishly, usually. According to dictionary.com, “theological” means “based upon the nature and will of God as revealed to humans.” I forget about how the nature of God and the will of God need to encompass and direct my life and I take over, trying to protect and defend what I think is essential.
So how does one think theologically? To me thinking theologically is about looking at life from God’s point of view. Where is God in this situation? What has he already started here? Where do I fit in with what he has already started? Obviously, one can only answer those questions specifically when there is a specific situation as a frame of reference. Thinking theologically means that I need to take myself out of the center and look at life—my life and life in general—with God at the center.
Doing that consistently is another part of our life-long relationship with Jesus. He keeps working in our hearts and minds as we keep welcoming him in.
I haven’t written in a while because I haven’t known what to write. It seems like life has taken up a lot of my time and thoughts—but isn’t that what theology and ministry is about? Life? Where does Jesus meet us when life gets too hard—or too easy, or too full, or too empty, or too confusing, or too stressful, or too fast, or too slow? These are the times that test us (me) because that’s when I lose sight of Jesus. And when I lose sight of Jesus I don’t think theologically; I think selfishly, usually. According to dictionary.com, “theological” means “based upon the nature and will of God as revealed to humans.” I forget about how the nature of God and the will of God need to encompass and direct my life and I take over, trying to protect and defend what I think is essential.
So how does one think theologically? To me thinking theologically is about looking at life from God’s point of view. Where is God in this situation? What has he already started here? Where do I fit in with what he has already started? Obviously, one can only answer those questions specifically when there is a specific situation as a frame of reference. Thinking theologically means that I need to take myself out of the center and look at life—my life and life in general—with God at the center.
Doing that consistently is another part of our life-long relationship with Jesus. He keeps working in our hearts and minds as we keep welcoming him in.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Motivation to Change
"You and I need to find out what, in the name of Christ, is big enough to move us forward and overcome our own barriers to change. It may be our spiritual gift; it may be forgiveness; it may be our new identity in Christ, it may be a missionary call... whatever it is, real transformation isn't going to happen until we are in its grip. For Christ, it was 'the joy set before him' that compelled him to endure the cross and its shame (Hebrews 12:2).
What will it be for you that will transform you so much that it affects what you do and say? What will it be for me?"
I read this entry Monday morning in a daily devotional email I receive from John Fischer. It really got me thinking because I can sometimes find it challenging to move forward especially when the way forward is not very clear. It got me thinking about how God guides us--or me in particular. In the past he has given me a push with a lost job or with a lost relationship. Sometimes it has been with a need in a church I'm attending or someone asking me to participate in a ministry at the church.
Then later in the day I listened to the daily installment from another great meditational website called "Pray As You Go". The reading was 1 John 3:21-4:1 (I've included it here from The Message but it was read from the NIV). They were talking about our desires and why we act or don't act on them. In this selection John talks about testing the spirits and being bold before God when our hearts do not condemn us. He mentions that God gives us what we ask for if we obey his commandments and love one another. One of the questions for mulling over was: how do we test the spirits when we get an urge or desire? How do we know that this desire is from God or not?
What an interesting juxtaposition, interesting that I would receive these two thoughts on the same day. First, I am asked to consider what gets me growing; what will it take to get me going in a direction that is positive and beneficial and growing with God; and at the same time asking how will we know that this "push" is of the Spirit? I've been wondering about this a lot because I am waiting for God to call me to a church to serve as a pastor. The desire is there and I believe it is from the Spirit, but when things don't happen on the time-table I expect, I begin to wonder. Is this really of the Spirit or did my desire just overwhelm me?
The "secret" comes in 3:22 of John's letter. He says that we "receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." If we are living in his light and in his love, we will receive whatever we ask from God because we are living in sync with his will. If we are doing what he asks us to do, our desires are going to be in line with his. That sounds so simple, but it is not; it is the whole Christian life.
What will it be for you that will transform you so much that it affects what you do and say? What will it be for me?"
I read this entry Monday morning in a daily devotional email I receive from John Fischer. It really got me thinking because I can sometimes find it challenging to move forward especially when the way forward is not very clear. It got me thinking about how God guides us--or me in particular. In the past he has given me a push with a lost job or with a lost relationship. Sometimes it has been with a need in a church I'm attending or someone asking me to participate in a ministry at the church.
Then later in the day I listened to the daily installment from another great meditational website called "Pray As You Go". The reading was 1 John 3:21-4:1 (I've included it here from The Message but it was read from the NIV). They were talking about our desires and why we act or don't act on them. In this selection John talks about testing the spirits and being bold before God when our hearts do not condemn us. He mentions that God gives us what we ask for if we obey his commandments and love one another. One of the questions for mulling over was: how do we test the spirits when we get an urge or desire? How do we know that this desire is from God or not?
What an interesting juxtaposition, interesting that I would receive these two thoughts on the same day. First, I am asked to consider what gets me growing; what will it take to get me going in a direction that is positive and beneficial and growing with God; and at the same time asking how will we know that this "push" is of the Spirit? I've been wondering about this a lot because I am waiting for God to call me to a church to serve as a pastor. The desire is there and I believe it is from the Spirit, but when things don't happen on the time-table I expect, I begin to wonder. Is this really of the Spirit or did my desire just overwhelm me?
The "secret" comes in 3:22 of John's letter. He says that we "receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." If we are living in his light and in his love, we will receive whatever we ask from God because we are living in sync with his will. If we are doing what he asks us to do, our desires are going to be in line with his. That sounds so simple, but it is not; it is the whole Christian life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)