can you say what you want

can you say what you want To Be

A Sermon on Jeremiah's Call and Temple Sermon

Well, you’ve made it through another Thanksgiving. How was it?

These days Thanksgiving is something of a mixed bag, isn’t it? Like so many of our other big holidays, Thanksgiving is chock full of EXPECTATIONS. Everything had better be just right; the turkey come out of the oven at time, the kids well-behaved, the family healthy and close-knit to boot. 

They seem simple enough, but all these expectations are colossal! We crush ourselves with them!

Like in my family; this year, as usual, we all received the call about what we could and could not be bring up at the big meal. 

On the big day, over turkey and mashed potatoes, we all followed the rules. For a few hours, long enough to get through the meal, we pulled it off too. We kept kept-up the illusion that everything was just fine. That there is no tension in our family. No dark corners in our history.

I suspect you’ve had similar experiences…

These days our holidays take so much effort. Don’t they? They don’t come as a holiday, they come as a bar we must rise to meet.

And from now, until Christmas eve… Well, Christmas day… Okay, let’s face it, until January 1st, 2019 - each day will be one more in a series expectations. Another trail testing our ability to meet the demands of the season…

Whew! It’s only three days after Thanksgiving, and I’m already tired!

Which is one of many reason I give thanks for our unruly Church-calendar. While many of the radio-stations have already switched to 24/7 Christmas music, here in the church it isn’t even Advent yet!

We’re not even to the season where we start getting ready for Christmas!

And I don’t know about you, but I appreciate it. I am thankful for the respite. That this day is not another in a series of meeting the bar for all our holiday expectations.

…Christ the King Sunday is observed at the end of the church-year, the culmination of it. A kind of “New Years Eve” for the church. While the placement is practical, it’s also welcome nowadays. A chance to not have to worry about all the expectations of the holidays. 

And this is as it should be. Because while this day between Thanksgiving and Advent is not intentionally a reprieve, it is a providential one! 

More on that later…

Okay; in today’s scripture we hear Jeremiah telling us about his call. And then, we hear one of the messages he was called to to give. 

And neither meet our expectations! 

First, Jeremiah’s call is hard. Even Jeremiah knows it! At first, he even tries to beg-off. As we’ve come to expect, though, God will have none of it. 

And second, God calls Jeremiah to give an un-welcome message. A hard message to hear; not to worship our places of worship. 

*And if anyone should be able to appreciate how hard that is, it’s us. Isn’t it?

That’s not all, though! God also tells Jeremiah to stand at the front doors and deliver this message! Not to ask for permission, but to show up one Sunday, unannounced and stand in the doorway, interrupting the regularly scheduled service with his message!

*Don’t any of you get any ideas!

This is part and parcel to Jeremiah’s call, though. 

Right at the beginning God lays out what this message is going to entail; “See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,” God says. God appoints Jeremiah for this, to “pluck-up and to pull-down, to destroy and to overthrow…” 

Pluck-up, pull-down, destroy and overthrow… 

Not exactly the most welcome kind of activities. 

Why, I doubt if someone asked you why you go to church, you’d tell them because you want your life plucked-up, pulled-down, destroyed or overthrown…

BUT ISN’T THAT WHAT MAKES THESE HOLIDAYS ARE SO HARD?

The truth is; our lives are constantly being plucked-up or overthrown. Aren’t they? Only there is no place for that, amidst our unrealistic expectations of the holidays!

Our expectations tell us everything should be perfect. 

But, they have nary a word for when they aren’t. When the expectations go un-met. Those holidays when it’s hard to find much to be thankful for. When all isn’t calm or bright…

The truth is, we don’t need a prophet to come in and pull-down or destroy. Do we? We do it to ourselves with all our expectations!

Christ the King, the day the church refuses to add one more to your series of expectations. So, on this day, let me give you a word of advice; Something will go wrong this holiday season. 

I hope it’s small. But no matter what, something will go wrong. 

And when it does, all your expectations will come crumbling down. You will have done to yourself what God has appointed Jeremiah to do; pluck-up, pull-down, destroy and overthrow. 

First I gave advice, so now let me preach; when that happens, you cannot trust yourself! 

You cannot trust yourself because in that moment all your instincts will tell you to fix it. Maybe by pretending everything’s alright. Or by getting angry at yourself or others. Or by working even harder. As if your not already working too hard…

But that will only make matters worse! And I’m speaking from experience here…

Remember waaaaay back at the beginning of the sermon; when I told you the placement of Christ the King after Thanksgiving but before Advent was providential?

Well, what I meant was, in the moments between now and Christmas, we’ll find ourselves amidst the kind of places Christ’s kingdom comes to. 

Only, they’ll be the kind of places we’d NEVER expect! Because they’re the moments when things go wrong! The moments we’ll try and fix our way out of!

You may have noticed I have only been using two-thirds of verbs God appointed Jeremiah for; Jeremiah is not only to pluck-up, pull-down, destroy or overthrown; he is also appointed to build and plant!

But the building, the planting only come amidst, come after, the plucking-up, pulling-down, destroying and overthrowing!

Christ’s kingdom comes amidst un-met expectations! Those times when our expectations have been plucked-up and overthrow!

This holiday season something will go wrong. And when it does, you will be amidst God’s holiness; only it will be hidden. When all your plans are uprooted you will be in fertile territory for Christ to plant his kingdom! 

When everything has been destroyed, you will be most ready to welcome your king! You will have more than enough fallow territory in your life for Christ to bring his kingdom! 

We would never expect it, but Christ’s kingdom comes amidst Thanksgivings spent missing loved ones or walking on egg-shells! And it comes amidst blue Christmases, too!  

You see, you already have everything Christ needs to make this holiday season truly holy! Only it doesn’t look like what you’d expect. And that’s the good thing! 

Because our expectations aren’t real, are they? 

Christ the King, though, is for real people! 

Real people who have had their lives plucked-up and pulled-down a time or two. Real people who know what it’s like to wait for another kingdom, an eternal one!

So if that’s you; listen up! 

I’ll stand in the doorway and block you from leaving, if I have to! 

Christ the King build his throne in the midst of your overthrown expectations! He plant his kingdom when everything else in your life has been plucked-up!

Plucked-up, pulled-down, destroyed, and overthrown.

When that happens, all your expectations will fade away and you will be in the kind of places the Holy Spirit calls Jesus to come to building and planting every time! 

Planting his everlasting throne! Building his eternal kingdom! 

This holiday season won’t go to plan, and when that happens; things will really HOLY!

Today is Christ the King; and your King come to build his kingdom. Not where we expect it to come, but where we need it to come. And it will be his work, his mercy, his grace, his kingdom that will make this season—this moment, even—truly holy!