Mission

Jeremiah 1:4-10

 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 
‘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.’ 
Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ But the Lord said to me,
‘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.’ 


Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
‘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.’

This text from Jeremiah is at the same time both comforting and terrifying.

It’s comforting that God knows us back even before we know ourselves.  Before our parents have even laid eyes on us.  It maybe should be scary that God knows us so well that we can’t hide anything, but instead that comforts me.  Honestly, there are times when I don’t know which way is up or down about myself, so it’s good to know God does.

For me the scary part is the consecrating and appointing part - especially here, before Jeremiah was born.  For Jeremiah it came early.  When God wants our service, God gets it.

No matter how ready – or unready – we are.

Jeremiah the child can’t use the excuse of childhood as a way out of service, so it’s unlikely that any feeble excuse I can come up with is going to work.

God’s mission comes first.  And it is sometimes scary to feel the weight of responsibility for that.  What if I mess up?  What if I'm not sure what to do or how to do it?  For the mission, God’s emphatic response is that God will be there to lead.  It is God who builds and plants, who plucks up and puts down.  

And that included plucking me up when I fail.  When I fall. 

When I put God’s mission front of me, the rest will follow.  "Do not be afraid," God says.  As I've said before, those words appear over and over in scripture - more than almost any other phrase.

It doesn't mean we will get it right all the time.  It doesn't mean we won't fail.  But it does mean that God is with us, and ready to pluck us up to start all over again.

We aren't all prophets like Jeremiah.  But we do all have God's abiding presence and strength, urging us on to carry out God's mission in whatever ways we have been gifted.

Gracious God, there are so many times I feel unprepared for the tasks ahead of me.  Help me to discern the tasks required for your mission to separate them out from busy work, and help me to reach into the deep well of strength that you provide to carry them out.  Amen.