April 2007
Preached on 4/22/07
Confirmation Sunday
NO EXCUSES!
Introduction
When Jeremiah first received this call from God, he was probably in his late teens or early 20s. Now your average teenager is always trying to appear older than they actually are. They want to show that they are in control, independent and able to handle things. That is, until they find that they have gotten themselves in over their heads - then, like Jeremiah, the response might be, “Hey, I can’t do that! I’m only a kid!”
The Call
I suspect the idea of becoming a prophet was not high on Jeremiah’s wish list for his future. Most teenagers don’t have the ambition of “growing up to become an abrasive prophet who goes up to the palace and tells the king that he is a fool and that his kingdom will be destroyed.” It’s little wonder then that Jeremiah showed some reluctance to heed God’s call. On Wednesday night this past week the confirmation students met with Session, several of them shared their hopes and plans for the future. Not one of them mentioned anything about becoming a prophet.
So what does Jeremiah’s call have to do with us? Granted, most of us have a problem relating to Jeremiah’s call. After all, we have not been summoned to be a prophet. Most of have not been called to even be a minister! But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a call. God calls each one of us, old and young alike. There are people in this church who are called to be faithful Sunday School teachers. There are people who are called to take care of the building and its grounds. There are others who are called to oversee the finances or provide leadership in the church. Still others are called to reach out into our community and our world, giving food to the hungry and hope to the despairing. We are all called to be faithful disciples in our homes, our families, in our places of work, our schools - wherever it is that God has placed us. “There is not one person in this church community who has not been called by God.”
The Objection
But Jeremiah resisted God’s call. “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” These are the words of one who is complaining. Oh Lord, not me! Pick someone else! What was Jeremiah so afraid of? God had called him to be a prophet to the nations. That sounds like a might big job to me! Perhaps he was afraid he would be unable to fulfill that task. Or maybe what frightened him were the consequences if he failed.
Some years ago the Standard Oil Company was working to establish itself in Indonesia. They were looking for someone to manage the operation and were told the best qualified person was a missionary working in the area. They offered him a sizable salary but he turned them down. They raised the offer even higher and again he turned them down. Finally they said, just name your salary. We will pay it if the salary that we mentioned isn’t large enough.” “Oh, replied the missionary. “the salary is big enough. But the job isn’t big enough!”
What are some of the excuses that we use for not responding to God’s call? Perhaps we are afraid of the task being too big for us. But I wonder if there might also be other reasons why we object to God’s call in our lives. One of the most pervasive ills of our society today is our unwillingness to take responsibility. If there is blame to be had, let’s try and re-direct it anywhere but here. If there is work to be done, let’s pass it on to someone else. Searching a little deeper this attitude seems to stem from selfishness. It’s taking the Burger King motto and applying it to all areas of your life, “Have it your way!”
This Was God’s Idea!
Perhaps the most shocking and unexpected aspect of this whole thing is that it was God’s idea in the first place! Jeremiah did not go looking for this job. God did not place a want ad in the Jerusalem Journal, “Prophet wanted. Low pay, high visibility. Must be thick-skinned”. No, God went straight to Jeremiah. The opening words begin: Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah...” This was no haphazard decision made by God.
Although Jeremiah may have wondered if God had the right man for the job, it is very clear in verse five that there was no mistake. In this verse there is a string of four strong verbs that God uses to let this young man know that he has indeed been called. God says to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” I formed you - I knew you, I consecrated you (that is, I set you apart for a special task), and I appointed you. The one who calls you is the same as the one who made you. To accept God’s call in our lives means having the courage to believe that the Sender knew just knew who he was sending.
“Yes, Jeremiah. I am sending you. With all your foibles and fears. With your youth and inexperience. With your anxieties, uncertainties. With all your fears and imperfections. I am sending you.”
“Yes, says God. I am sending you. You who are just starting high school or finishing up middle school. Yes, I am sending you, who haven’t even gotten your driver’s license yet. Yes, I am sending you, who are still trying to figure out which end of life is up!”
What is God Up To?
What is God up to anyway? Did God turn to Jeremiah because everyone else that God asked had turned him down? Was this young man God’s last hope? Or perhaps God saw something in this young man. Did God run the equivalent of a divine vocational assessment test on Jeremiah and the results came up: good speaker, strong back bone and an excellent writer.
Of course not.
Perhaps one of the most revealing aspects about this story is that we learn that God’s calling is not based upon our capacity or our abilities. God does not ask about our ability or our inability, but our availability. Or as Corrie ten Boom once wrote: It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts. I still remember something that one of my pastors said years ago. God wants FAT Christians: Faithful, Available and Teachable. God calls not the talented but the willing.
So what is God up to anyway? Does God call young people? If you have any doubts, remember David was a young boy when God called him from taking care of sheep. Some feel that Jesus’ disciple John was not very old when he was called to join the twelve. The apostle Paul’s traveling companion, Timothy was not very old when Paul began working with him.
But before the rest of you think that God only calls the young, remember that Noah was 600 years old when he climbed into the ark!
Conclusion
Where the heart is willing it will find a thousand ways, but where it is unwilling it will find a thousand excuses. Lord, I am too young, I’m just a kid. Well, God says, “Don’t try that excuse. I’m not buying it. You see, I made you. I know even better than you what you are capable of doing if you but trust me. I formed you, I know you, I consecrated you, I have appointed you. All that is left is for you to step forward in faith.
Texts: Revelation 19:1-8
Psalm 113
Preached on 4/8/07 - Easter
David Endriss
HALLELUJAH!
Introduction
What! No scripture reading of the Easter story? No account of the women finding the empty tomb or of a surprising appearance of Jesus to one of the disciples? What are we doing in the book of Revelations?
In some churches and communities, Handel’s Messiah is often sung during the Christmas season. But the whole composition was actually written to serve as an overview of Christ’s life and the faith of the believer. The Messiah is in 3 different sections, the first part telling the classic Christmas story. The Hallelujah Chorus, the most familiar part of the Messiah, concludes the second section which tells the story of Christ’s passion, his death and resurrection. The text for this part of Handel’s Messiah comes at least in part from this portion of Revelation chapter 19 that I just read for you.
One of my favorite traditions in this church comes on Easter morning. At the end of this service we invite all who would like to join the choir in singing Handel’s famous Hallelujah Chorus to do so. And every year I can’t help but get a little choked up. Even the composer himself became emotional when composing this piece. During his legendary feet of writing the Messiah in 24 days his servant discovered him with tears in his eyes as he was working on the "Hallelujah Chorus". Handel explained, "I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!"
One elderly saint of God was attending a performance of the Hallelujah Chorus and when it came to those great lines: “King of kings and Lord of lords”, he could hardly contain himself. With tears streaming from his eyes, he leaned over to his friend and said, “That was my Savior they were singing about.” Perhaps we should all get a little choked up on those lines.
Hallelujah
But what does Hallelujah actually mean? It comes from two Hebrew words: Hallel meaning “praise” and jah, which is a shortened form of Yahweh. Hallelujah simply means “Praise God”. Later, the Greeks translated the Hebrew into the word Alleluia.
What better word can there be to express our joy, our deepest emotion on Easter morning? Christ is no longer in the grave! Death itself has been vanquished! Darkness, gloom, hate, and despair need not have the last word! Hallelujah!
This morning we read from Psalm 113 which is one of six psalms together referred as the Hallel or Psalms of Praise. These psalms are read or sung even today during the Passover meal celebrated by our Jewish friends. These psalms, as their name suggests, are songs that extol God’s work and presence in the life of the nation. Certainly the Jews had something to praise God about that first Passover when God led the people out of slavery from Egypt. Today we can sing that same song of praise because God has led us out of the slavery of death.
Early on in my ministry I personally vowed not to be that kind of a pastor who always harps on the negatives. It can be pretty tempting to do nothing but complain about the evils of our world - the immorality of the youth, the evils of drugs and alcohol, the increase in crime and the general downward spiral of the world towards hell. The problem with that kind of finger-pointing is that it can keep us from looking here, closer to home. But today is not a day for negativity. Today is a day of celebration! Hallelujah! Christ is alive!
One pastor was studying Revelation 19 while at home. Her children had just put on the video “The Wizard of Oz” and she found herself humming, “Ding, Dong the Witch is dead.” She began to realize that the Munchkins were rejoicing, at least in a small way, what we are celebrating: that evil has been defeated.
A Song for the Whole Church
Interestingly, of all the songs in the Book of Revelation, and there are quite a few, not one of them is a solo. Each time we read about a song being sung in heaven, it is not by just one person, but by groups, even multitudes of people, angels or other creatures. Yes, we can sing our praise to God as a solo, but the church is meant to sing together. Somehow, the Hallelujah Chorus would not be the same if it was done only by one person.
Many of us are probably familiar with the tradition of standing during the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus. The perhaps fictional story is based upon a time when the King came to hear the chorus and could not help but stand during the singing of this great passage. And when a king starts something, the rest of the people are obliged to follow. One little girl asked her mother why people were standing and this story was explained to her. After a moment the girl replied, “Oh, it’s kind of like the seventh inning stretch.”
A Note of Discord
Of course, not everyone is willing to join in this celebration. Some may believe such emotion is frivolous and improper. King David was once accused of conduct that was unbecoming of a king when he danced before the Lord. His uninhibited display of joy before and about his God was embarrassing to others. It didn’t fit with what some thought was appropriate behavior.
There are those today who still feel like that. And so we keep our Hallelujah’s reserved and at respectable levels. We certainly wouldn’t want others to get the wrong impression of us.
Initially, even Handel’s Messiah was not always received with universal acclaim. When it was first performed in Dublin, Ireland in 1742 it met with controversy because Handel's use of Biblical words in the theatre was revolutionary. Both secular and religious critics opposed it. The secular critics didn't want to hear scripture when they paid good money to go to the theatre. Religious critics thought that singing the scripture in a theatre was sacrilegious. Ironically, these secular and religious critics made common cause to oppose Handel and the Messiah. Certain wealthy women gave large teas or sponsored other theatrical performances on the days when Handel’s concerts were to take place in order to rob him of an audience. Others of his critics hired boys to tear down the advertisements for Messiah performances.
But two contemporaries of Handel felt differently. Because John and Charles Wesley had already taken sacred music public, they saw the enormous power and possibilities for good in the Messiah. The efforts to oppose the Messiah failed, of course, and it became -- and remains -- one of the most popular musical compositions in the Western world.
Conclusion
As we come to this table this morning we are declaring that we worship a living, risen Christ. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he shall reign forever and ever. As we learn what that means in our lives we join with believers from across the ages proclaiming, Hallelujah!