Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 4:21-30; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” He continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.
25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.
26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.
27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy[a] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Once again, the lectionary presents us with two scriptures with a common theme. This time is the call of Jeremiah and the call or beginning of Jesus’s ministry. In our text from the Old Testament the prophet Jeremiah gives us a description of how God called him to be his messenger; the chosen one to bring God’s message to the people of Israel, the one called to be a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah also describes his response to God’s call, “Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, I am only a boy.” When God called Jeremiah, first thing Jeremiah did was, look at himself and what he saw was a boy who did not know how to speak.
Jeremiah’s response to God’s invitation is “normal” among those who God calls; he is not the only one with this attitude. There is another well-known God’s servant who did the same, Moses. When God called Moses from the burning bush, Moses response was, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Again, the first thing this great man of God did was to see himself and his limitations, his past and then compared them with the task God wanted him to fulfill. To both leaders God promised his company, “I will be with you.”
Every time I read about Jeremiah and Moses call, I conclude that there are three words that have the power of ruining God’s call and will for our lives, and we must get rid of them; those three deadly words are the words spoken by Jeremiah, “I am only….”Moses’ version are “Who am I.” Both expressions have the same purpose, to look down on us.In Jeremiah’s case, those three words were followed by “a boy.” Later, Jeremiah who saw himself as a boy, with God’s company and help became one of God’s greatest spokespersons.
Before God could use Jeremiah, he had to deal with those three deadly words. God begun dealing with Jeremiah’s own limitations assuring him that He knew him better than Jeremiah knew himself. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” This is what John Wesley called Prevenient Grace. God working in us even before we can even realize it. Jeremiah had been being prepared since he was in his mother’s womb. Prior God’s call, Jeremiah the boy -as he called himself- was simple the son of Hilkiah, but after God’s call and his promise to be with him, this was no longer the case. God reminded him he was more than that; he was the creation of the Almighty God. And God has claimed him as His servant.
You see, until here we have two perspectives on the same person: two views of who Jeremiah was. First one is how Jeremiah saw himself, “I am only a boy”, the son of Hilkiah, uncapable to do what you want me to do. The second perspective is how God saw Jeremiah, “you are my prophet.” You are not a boy; you are someone I have chosen and I have been working with you even before you knew it. But there is a third perspective, a third view of Jeremiah and that is found all over the book, that is how others saw Jeremiah. Chapter 43:2 gives us a glimpse, “Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.” The leaders in Israel saw Jeremiah as a liar, a false prophet. So, we have three perspectives of the same person.
The second reading is from Luke, which is a continuation of last week, here, we also find the same case as in the previous reading. Three perspectives of the same person. Let us begin with what leaders of Israel saw in Jesus. Luke 11:15, “But some of them said, By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” In other words, you do not represent God, you are a false prophet, we do not believe your power comes from God. Now, same Gospel chapter 3 verse 22, says how God saw Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” And Luke 4:18, the one we read last week, says how Jesus saw himself, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me…” There was no doubt in Jesus about who he was, He was the anointed, the Christ, the Messiah. Contrary to what Jeremaih and Moses thought about themselves, Jesus saw himself as God saw Him!!! And because he did, he was able to fulfill his call and to live according to God’s will. Because Jesus saw himself as God saw him, he was able to obey and trust his Father; he was able to endure the cross without any doubts.
Those who followed Jesus, saw in him what God saw in Jesus too. When Jesus was baptized a voice from heaven said, “you are my son whom I love.” In Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, “who do you say I am?” Peter’s answer was “you are the Christ, the son of the living God.” In Nazareth Jesus said, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me…” In his answer to Jesus’s question, “who do you say I am?” Peter said you are the Christ, which also means anointed. Peter who represented the rest of disciples saw Jesus the same way the Father did.
What can we learn this morning? What is the message we can take with us this morning? If there is something we can learn this Sunday is this: see yourself as God sees you; take ownership of the call, he has given you. Do not look down to yourself and then use it as an excuse for not doing what God want you to do.
Remember, when we see ourselves, we see our limits, we see what we can and cannot do. When we see ourselves, we remember what people think and say about us and how they see us, and that can mislead our understanding and how we see ourselves, that gives us a false image of who we really are. Remember, regardless of all what we see in us, God has called us because he knows us better, because he knows what he can do thru us. God has endowed us with the spiritual gifts we need to proclaim his kingdom and regardless of all that faults we see in us, God calls us “my chosen people, my royal priesthood, my special possession.”
Next, after we see ourselves as God sees us, let us see others as God sees them and help them to be what God wants them to be, because that is the only way to grow together and to testified of what God has done in us.
One of the most well-known German writer Johann Von Goethe, wrote “The way you see people is the way you treat them. And the way you treat them is what they become.” He also said, “If you treat an individual as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.” End of Johann’s quote. And that is what our God does, he sees us not as we are but as he wants us to be.
Remember when Jesus sees us, he sees his church, his people and he expect us to see ourselves the same way too. Remember, it does not matter what had happened in the past, in Jesus we can always have a new beginning, because his love for us “it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
If God has called you and you are doubting, just remember who you are. 2 Peter 2:9 remind us of who we are, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,” Let us live our lives and call according to those titles. See yourself as God sees you; see others as who they are for God.