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Jeremiah 1:4-8 – 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."
I Corinthians 13: 1-7 –If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Luke 4: 21-30--Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
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We're still in January. A question regarding 2010: What will be the character of this year, for you and me, as we live into it? Here are three possible life positions or stances. The first is expressed by the character played by George Clooney in the movie Up In The Air. When asked, “what's the point of it all,” the answer is: “there is no point”--but it's better when you're with someone. A second position; there is a point to it all, but you make it up yourself. The third position: there is a point, and it is more deeply understood by connecting with and serving the Spirit which is to be found in your deepest being and which moves in a transformative way not only within you but within others and in the world around you.
We talk about this notion of “whether there is a point” in a context. First, many of us are dealing with real, unasked-for struggles due to the Great Recession or just because of life. Second, it's quite easy periodically to lose a sense of personal purpose or connection with the Spirit, and be overtaken by day- to-day coping, or sometimes burnout.
Our scripture passages today are about three different individuals who displayed a sense of purpose, and did things with their lives under non-ideal conditions. They each felt prompted by the Spirit, in responding dealt with challenges and a variety of difficult circumstances, and affected the lives of many others—far more than they could have known about at the time. And in the process they themselves were transformed.
First, Jeremiah. Jeremiah initially felt unworthy—the image is of being just a boy. Nonetheless he had a personal sense of vision, of feeling called to make a difference for and with his people. The passage says: “”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.” That suggests there also may have been fear or discomfort involved.
Jeremiah dwelt in the midst of a people who were in a mess. Jeremiah felt his prompting in a context: people had fallen on hard times, actually and spiritually. There was a place-and-time reason for him to feel called to action. Something needed to be done. Like Jeremiah, some of us may feel unworthy to “do something,” and shrink away from what we sense that might be. We also know instinctively when it's a boat-rocking thing that may complicate our lives.
Our life and times serve up all kinds of time-and-place promptings. For example, the Haiti disaster earlier this month has prompted many of us in a very place-and-time-specific way to make contributions for earthquake relief. We have seen via TV how people step forward and suddenly make a difference in the lives of thousands and hundreds of thousands. Two weeks ago on one of the news programs interviewed a doctor, part of a team that had arrived, gone to a hospital and was operating without electricity. They were saving lives that would have been lost if they had waited. His sense of purpose shone through. Many thousands of people including folks in this room have made disaster relief contributions that carry a sense of purpose as well.
Haiti offers ready-made prompting for compassionate and purposeful action. There remains the deeper question for each of us: outside of something like disaster relief, what are each of us doing with our lives day in and day out, regarding our sense of purpose? What's your answer to that question? It doesn't have to be a big answer, could be highly targeted. I recently spoke to a young mother of three. Her focus is clearly on doing the best parenting job she can so that those kids get the best launch, one with a spiritual foundation.
There are different approaches to answering this question—which by the way may come into and out of focus as you and I go through life. Jeremiah offers one approach--the laser. Some of us are like Jeremiah: we have always basically known what we feel called to do or what we are here for. Or else we know it in particular situations. Jeremiah was animated by a clear sense of calling or prompting, and some of us have that—I am called or prompted to do X, like the doctor who went to Haiti.
Promptings can also come in a less clear cut manner. Julia Child in the film Julie and Julia has an obvious muse—I love eating. But she only gradually discovers how to transfer her love, first into competence at cooking, and then into inspired teaching for others. Teaching comes at first directly via classes, later through writing and still later through the medium of TV—which hardly even exists when she is first learning the art of French cooking. Very slowly she gets clearer about what she is doing—which one could argue is transformative, teaching about much more than cooking. Maybe you're a little bit like Julia: you wander around, and seek to follow your muse.
Let's look at the Apostle Paul. Here's a brilliant man who literally needed to fall off his horse and see a blinding flash before he got that he needed to go in a different direction. We see a smart guy being turned around 180 degrees! Some of us here may feel like Paul, like we know what we're doing but are now confused, having been turned around by life. He went from being the Jesus followers' biggest enemy to their most tireless champion. Paul's experience suggests: if that is not clear for you or you have lost your way, don't be afraid to feel like you have gotten it wrong or feel dumb. Life, or the Spirit, may turn you around and use you in ways that you did not expect. And what happened after he fell off his horse and went blind? It wasn't as if he knew quickly just what he had to do; he felt full of confusion. His ministry to the Gentiles was then improvised from scratch.
Not long ago in London I was talking to my friend Mike, a management consultant, In the most recent stage of his career, Mike had arranged a number of seminars and a teaching program at a business school in South Africa. How did this come about? He'd had a heart attack. During recuperation he had re-evaluated his work, life and priorities. And he felt it was important to make a contribution in South Africa, the country he'd emigrated from many years before after participating in civil rights struggles.
How many stories have you heard of individuals who have run onto the rocks at some point in their life journey and then discovered a new direction or purpose? Some of us here may have been through that. For Paul the new direction meant being a follower of Jesus rather than his enemy. His “life after” was anything but easy. Here's a partial list of what he went through: shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonment, a fugitive from justice, hungry and cold. Yet this man, following that path, produces the transcendent passage in I Corinthians which everyone has heard so many times—“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels and do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbol. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love I am nothing…” And also this: “love is patient and kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth…” Paul's writing suggests some of the personal transformation happens if we allow the Spirit to guide us in what we are doing purposefully with our lives.
Paul and Jeremiah remind us that we all have talents. But the Spirit can transform our talents and makes them and us larger, putting them in and us a context which can produce a transformative effect for others. Julia and Mike in their own ways remind us of the same thing. Follow your talents. Follow the Spirit's leading as you do so.
Finally, we have Jesus himself as an example. Let's say that you are pretty clear what you are about, and doing, and feel encouraged by Spirit. You just wish you were more appreciated. That's very natural. Yet despite enormous clarity within Jesus about his mission, despite his manifest gifts, when he shared his sense of calling, he got from friends and neighbors a combination of surprise, awe and angry rejection. A point here is that people are not necessarily welcoming when you have something to do and start doing it. Jesus whole ministry was carried out against a backdrop of appreciation but also resistance and hostility. Resistance and criticism are often a natural part of our lives. Hence the need for friends, encouragement, people who can cheer us on and say that's the Spirit.
If you are not clear in this moment, what sort of promptings is currently going on in your life? It could be something familiar that continues, or something new. Promptings are nudges, pulls that seem connected to a deep place of conscience or some cause larger than yourself. Promptings or callings are not just something interesting to do. They emerge from a sense of deep intuition that is sometimes hard to ignore. A prompting has a sense of directionality to it but doesn't necessarily paint the whole picture. For instance, Camilla Barry is following her prompting to educate girls and others in Afghanistan. My guess is that initially Camilla only knew she wanted to offer her teaching skills and didn't know how extensive her involvement in Afghanistan might be. When Mickey Golbus, one of the guiding spirits of the Guatemala Medical Mission, asked a young nun there how she planned to keep a small orphanage going, she said, “you're here, aren't you?” Mickey was struck but still had no idea how involved he would become as a major sponsor and fund raiser. Promptings get you going and then the Spirit participates with you on your way as you figure the rest out.
There is always, for each of us, plain old faithful living. My consultant friend Mike told me about a coaching client, the leader of one of England's largest companies, a deeply spiritual—and ethical--person. For instance, this CEO doesn't submit business expenses. He figures he is well enough paid by the firm to absorb them himself. He foregoes bonuses. He makes very significant charitable donations, and is directly engaged with some large charitable organizations for several weeks per year, and so on. My friend learned none of this from the CEO himself, but from others who knew of his activities. I would call this CEO's behavior an ongoing witness shown through everyday action.
With us today we have the spirits of Jeremiah and Julia, Paul and Jesus. In terms of what you or I are about doing, Jeremiah reminds some of us that we can feel deeply called—and that we might feel inadequate, but that's OK—we have help. Julia suggests to some of us that trusting our intuition and wandering around can work. Paul reminds some of us that we can be headed in the wrong direction and take a fall still get it right. Jesus reminds some of us that we can sometimes be misunderstood or rejected but still get on with what we're about. As we do so, let us be encouraged to follow our muse, our talents, and be willing to allow ourselves to be progressively transformed by the Spirit's guidance and prompting in our lives this year. In this way we contribute to, and experience, the Spirit's presence and blessing in the world.
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