You probably should

but I won't let you run away this time

A sermon on the call of Jeremiah

Jeremiah had his whole like mapped out. He was going to follow in his daddy’s footsteps, and become a priest.

He was enrolled to start seminary come fall. And even though he was an legacy, he wasn’t arrogant or entitled. He was willing to put in the work. He planned to keep his head down, graduate with good marks and then take his first call. 

Jeremiah hoped his work ethic with a little luck, would land him, one day, in a prestigious pulpit.

And the truth was, now was the time to go for it!

If there ever was a time to go into the priesthood, it was now; the era of King Josiah’s reforms. *The first king mentioned in today’s scripture.

King Josiah had ordered renovations to the national cathedral, and during the remodeling, an old book was unearthed. Deuteronomy! 

Apparently it wasn’t the most popular book in those days… 

But the discovery led to a renewed interest in the Bible! 

It wasn’t even a few months after the finding, that Bible sales started to tick up! And after a few months more, the Bible was sitting pretty at the top of the New York Times bestseller list! 

After years of neglect, the nation was dusting off its Bibles!

And that wasn’t all, either! Because a nationwide revival soon followed! 

Folks started streaming back into their churches! For the first time in decades, churches were packed!

So yes, if there ever was a time to go into the priesthood, it was now.

And Jeremiah had timed it just right!

BUT, right when everything looked so good, God’s Word came bursting in!

One day, while Jeremiah was out getting school supplies with his dad, the Word of the Lord came to him…

And no one was more surprised than Jeremiah!

“How could now be the time for this,” Jeremiah couldn’t help but wonder. 

After all, things were looking so good! The country was cleaning up its act! And Jeremiah was going to be a steward of the nationwide revival.

BUT while Jeremiah saw the stars aligning. Saw his chance to make his move. Start climbing the ladder. God saw something else. 

Just as Jeremiah was getting his start, while he was still only a boy; God brought it all crashing down! Before it had even had a chance to start!

Last weekend Dr. Jones and I were talking about how much we love the movie, “Shaun of the Dead.” It’s a zombie, comedy movie…

But underneath all the nonsense, is a really profound story.

The movie is about Shaun, of course. And Shaun is slacking his way through life. When the movie starts, all his slacking is catching up with him. 

His folks are losing their willingness to bail him out. And after forgetting his girlfriend’s birthday, she loses her willingness to wait for him to grow up, and breaks up with him.. 

Suddenly the life Shaun had been living comes crashing down.

The joke is, while all of this is happening, a zombie apocalypse starts to break out, too…

Only Shaun is so caught up in his own personal drama, he doesn’t even notice it. At first.

Of course, eventually he does.  

And something happens to Shaun as society come collapsing down around him; he finally becomes a contributing member of it! The needs of his family and friends compel him to start taking life seriously, and he steps up!

The sweet, irony of the movie is, it takes the destruction of his old life, to give him a new one! A real one!

…The truth is, whether we admit it or not; that’s the way it is for all of us, too! 

The true path of our lives are not mapped out by some plan we concoct; they’re given to us by God. And what God uses to build our new lives, is the rubble of our old ones!

This is what it means to be a people who lay down our lives. Take up our crosses!

Jeremiah, like his countrymen, and like every last one of us, too; imagines he is in control of his own life. And so long as he lives in that delusion, he’s like Shaun, no good. No good to himself, to his neighbors and certainly not to God! 

So God sends the Word to undo the whole kit and caboodle!

Receiving God’s Word, Jeremiah couldn’t help but balk! What was God doing calling him?!? He hadn’t finished seminary! He hadn’t been placed in a church! Why, he didn’t even have a pulpit to hold forth from!

“You’ve got the wrong guy, Lord!” Jeremiah protests! “I don’t have the experience or influence,” he cries. 

“Go to King Josiah, or at least one of his senior advisors,” Jeremiah stutters!

But God just shrugs Jeremiah off, “This isn’t about you, Jeremiah. I’ve got a Word I want delivered; and I’ve chosen you to speak it,” God says. 

“And anyway,” God adds, “I’ll be telling you where to go from now on. I’ll be telling you what to say from here on out. And I’ll even give you a stiff upper-lip, if you need it.”

God takes Jeremiah’s life out of his hands, and puts it back where it belongs; in God’s. Yes, to do this God uproots the life Jeremiah had been building. But, in that hole, God plants a new life. One only God can give!

What made Jeremiah the right man for the job wasn’t his accomplishments or accolades! In fact, it was his lack of them! 

Jeremiah wasn’t qualified because he mastered his fate, he was qualified because God has taken it away from him!

The Sin God sends Jeremiah to put on front street, is the oldest one, the first one; trying to play God. 

And we do this in many ways! It can happen in outright, obvious idolatry. But more often than that, it’s more subtle…

Like the way Jeremiah’s plans looked good! Only, beneath them was the old, original sin; trying to play God.

Jeremiah’s plan looked good, but underneath it was the old desire to try and control his own life! To do what God has promised to do!

Jeremiah had a plan and was working it! So God showed up with marching orders! Orders that would wrench Jeremiah’s life out of his hands, and then put it back where it belongs; in God’s hands! 

What made Jeremiah such an excellent candidate to deliver God’s Word was, he experienced it himself! 

Jeremiah was a lot like his countrymen. For they, too, thought they could plan their future. To shore up their crumbling nation by courting God. 

But, good as the revival looked, underneath it lay the very same, old, original sin; trying to play God. Only on a nationwide scale!

So God sends Jeremiah with marching orders. Orders that would wrench Israel’s life out of its hands, and put it where it belonged; God’s!

Jeremiah was the right man to deliver this message, because it had happened to him! God had shaped Jeremiah’s life into the very shape of he message he had to preach! The message of message of Death and then Life. In that order!

And God is busy shaping YOUR life into the shape of that message, too…

We always think we’re the ones in control of our life, don’t we? 

And good as our endeavors may look, underneath them hides the old, original sin; trying to play God. Control our lives and our future.

So God sends the Word to undo the whole kit and caboodle! 

But believe it or not, that’s when we’re most ready to hear the Good News! 

We we stop trying to controls our own future, we’re finally ready to receive the one God comes to give! 

It turns out, the path to your true life is hidden in the rubble of your old one! Where you have known the crosses of life!

The truth is, one way or another, the life we’ve been building will come crashing down. Be it of it’s own weight or by the Word of God. But either way, it will come crashing down. 

And that’s the best thing that could happen to us!

When we finally stop trying to play God, we’ll actually have a chance at letting God be God! 

We’ll finally keep the First Commandment! Avoid the near occasion to repeat that old, original sin; trying to play God!

So if you’re here and you’re doing everything you can to hold your old life together. Or if you’re like Jeremiah, and you have your whole life planned out, then get ready for the Word that will undo the whole kit and caboodle; that’s sinful. 

It’s trying to play God! It will only lead away from God and to Death and Destruction. Turn! Repent!

Now, if you’re here and you already know the futility of all that. If your life has already come crashing down, be it for the first or the fiftieth time, then you are ready to receive the Word of God that will undo all that destruction; you are saved!

You do not have to be the one to secure your life or future! For that is what Jesus came to do! And what’s more, it’s what he wants to do it, too! Jesus wants to be your savior! It is what he came for! Your name is written on his palms!

The Word that came for Jeremiah comes for you, too! And it will do to you what it did to Jeremiah! Upend your whole life! All in the service of giving you the new life, the true life that comes from God! To shape your life into the shape of the cross!

Fear not! Your salvation is at hand!