"The Cost of the Call"

Rev. Kathryn Threadgill

January 31, 2010

When I was young, I was never any good at making excuses. My teacher would ask why I had not done my homework, I would respond with the classic “because, my dog ate it!” But, what I had forgotten was that the prior week I had used the excuse, “because, my dog died.” And so, I learned at a very young age that excuses, particularly those based on a bold face lie, were not good…which ironically didn’t serve me well in subsequent years when teachers would ask why I had not done my homework, and I would respond with the very true excuse: “because I didn’t feel like it.” So, the moral of the story (Youth) is that excuses, no matter whether they were true or not, were still just excuses.

So, as we encounter Jeremiah making excuses this morning, I cannot help but be somewhat amused. I mean, his excuses are as hilarious as my own. Here the Lord is calling Jeremiah to do this great thing and his excuse is: “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” Really? The maker of heaven and earth, the powerful and almighty, the alpha and omega…sent His Word to communicate with you…to say that before you were formed, before you were born, He had a special call for you…this is not some eccentric 7^th grade Spanish teacher, this is the Lord…and the best Jeremiah can come up with is I’m too young and I don’t speak well?

Let me interject here…questioning God is fine, but when God sends His word to you, when He tells you he fashioned and formed you for this distinct call…it’s probably best not to tell Him He has made a mistake. After all, it didn’t work out so hot for Jonah or Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.

But the truth is we all do it. We all make excuses when it comes to matters of God. We all question whether God has made a mistake when He calls us. And Jeremiah is no different. Jeremiah made excuses because he was being called at a very young age to do this very hard thing. He was to go up against kings, and priests, and the people of God…and deliver the very harsh reality of a corrupt people who had broken covenant with God. Clearly, this is not an easy message to deliver. And the book of Jeremiah is filled with his cries to God, his lament in the midst of persecution and anguish. This call was not easy; it was a life of being hated, of being uncomfortable, for the sake of God.

Following the call of God is never guaranteed to be easy or comfortable. Even in our New Testament text this morning, we encounter Jesus after having spent 40 days in the wilderness with the devil, and he comes back only to be rejected in his hometown. You don’t think Jesus could’ve made excuses? When he was rejected, denied, betrayed, and hated you don’t think he could’ve said… “This is way too hard…find someone else?” Though he was Christ, he was also fully human, and thus he was given the free will we all have been given. He could have made excuses as to why he would not follow the will of God the Father in heaven.

Think about this for a moment. As human beings, we don’t want to be rejected by our hometowns. We don’t want our lives to be threatened. We don’t want to deliver a message we know we will be hated for. After all, we spend our entire lives just trying to fit in and be accepted. It started when we were young, and we wanted to be picked first for dodge-ball, and it continues even now. We want to be connected, accepted, and liked. It’s why we’re so technologically connected in this day and age. When Facebook asks if you want to add so and so as a friend, we feel good. Dr. Sinclair is amused because my phone buzzes, chimes, rings, sings, and dings about a million times a day. I tried to explain to him, this is because my address book is hooked to my email, which is connected to my Facebook, which corresponds with my MY Space, which filters through my gmail, which contacts my twitter…and yahoo…there it is….

Connected, accepted, and liked by all….comfortable and cared for….routine and predictable…And so, why would our faith be any different? But, is it faith when there is no radical change from the world? Are we Christians, followers of Christ, if there is no chance of persecution and rejection? Are we saying “yes” to God’s call if we are liked by everyone and comfortable in everything? Can we play it safe by making excuses in our faith, and still be the body of Christ, His faithful disciples in this world?

Miguel De Unamuno was a Spanish philosopher and poet who wrote, “Those who believe in God without passion in their hearts, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God and not in God himself.”

See, anyone can believe in the idea of God. Everyone can make excuses within their faith. We can all minimize our faith in God into a nice neat box of comfortable companionship, and easy evangelism. We can attempt to manage God to fit into the various routines of life. But I don’t think it’s really that easy, that neat or comfortable. I think, when we answer God’s call to follow where He sends us, to speak the words He places upon our lips and in our hearts…I think it is then that our lives are flipped upside down and inside out, and the glory of God is manifested for all the world to see.

Michael Yaconelli is the cofounder of Youth Specialties, and has written several books including, Messy Spirituality – God’s annoying love for imperfect people. In his book, Yaconelli says, “All of us tend to seek comfort, to structure predictability, to eliminate the new and different from our experience. The word messy strikes fear into the hearts of the comfortable. There are those in the church who honestly believe God is a nice and neat God. One quick run through the Bible gives you a different picture. The God of the Bible is the master of surprises: frightening clouds of smoke, fire, windstorms and firestorms, donkeys that talk, pillars of salt, oceans splitting apart, our Savior on a cross. No one can follow God and be comfortable for long.”

No one can follow God and be comfortable for long. Kenda Creasy Dean is a youth professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, and she told the story of an inner city church that had to learn this reality the hard way. In her book, Practicing Passion, Dean interviewed the pastor of the urban church who told the story of how they kept the doors of their church locked for comfort and safety against the escalating gang violence of the city. The Pastor said the danger became evident and real, when one day a young boy was being chased by some gang members. He ran to the double doors of the downtown church seeking refuge and help, only to find the doors of the church were locked. The pastor of the church was quoted after the young boy was gunned down on the front steps of the church….he said, “Never again will the house of God be locked for those who are desperately seeking to enter.” 

No one can follow God and be comfortable for long. Jeremiah learned this lesson of his faith when the Lord said, “You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. “ And, Jesus knew this as he obediently and faithfully followed the will of his Father from the rejection of his hometown, all the way to the cross and beyond. And I wonder, do we do the same? Do we live out our faith in the same way as our Savior? My mentor in Youth Ministry once told me, “Kathryn, if you take that which is the hardest thing to do…that which suppresses your own instinctive desire… that which offers no guarantees in this life….then it is there that you begin to discern the will of God for your life.”  See, when we answer God’s call for our lives in true and genuine faith…there is radical and transformative change…predictability and comfort are replaced with messiness and surprise.

Dr. Sinclair preached last week about the prayers for baby Patrick as he grows up and decides to accept his faith or not…and I wonder….when we decided this for ourselves, for our own lives…when we decided to accept our faith in God and live to follow Him….did we realize the radically uncomfortable, uncertain, unpredictable, unimaginable, and awesome call we were saying “yes” to….or are we still trying to make excuses, like Jeremiah? Are we still trying to fit God into a neat and comfortable space? See, faith in God is not a half-hearted effort; it’s not a dip your toe in, only select what you want, box it to your convenience sort of thing….It is all or nothing with God “You Shall Go, You Shall Speak…whatever I command.” He doesn’t tell Jeremiah, if or when you feel up to it. He doesn’t say…when you learn how to speak well and stand strong. He doesn’t say when it fits into your predictable routine. He wants all of us, all of our being that he fashioned and formed by the work of His own hand for a purpose as great as this….

When we say “Yes,” when we accept our faith….when we answer God’s call…and dare to do extraordinary things for His sake….there is NO guarantee….except one! The Lord looked at this young boy Jeremiah, who was afraid to talk and made excuses in his faith, and He said to him, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.” The guarantee of faith is this…that the Lord our God, who fashioned and formed us, who came down to earth and suffered for our sake….is the same God who promises to be there with us and to deliver us, and so we do not have to be afraid. We do not have to try and control our faith with comfortable excuses of predictability. When we accept our faith, when we live out our call, the Lord is there in messy, passionate, amazing, and surprising ways of grace. And so the question for us then becomes…is the guarantee of God’s presence sufficient enough for us?

Many of you read my article in the paper, which is being deemed: “bigger the Sabbun,” and I greatly appreciate all your comments of love and support. But, what I want you all to know is that my faith journey with God…the family I was brought into…is the work of God with us. I assure you, a family of 13 was not always comfortable and seldom was predictable.  When my parents spoke of “answering the call” ….they meant in the literal sense, but they also knew it was God’s call for their lives. I’ll never forget when my little brother Quinton, called…. He was my nephew, and my sister had left him with a family that did not take care of him. I remember when he came to spend one Christmas with us when he was about 4, and he told us he doesn’t eat peanut butter, because he had been left in front of the tv for an entire day with only a jar of peanut butter to eat. So, at 5 years old, Quinton called my parents and said, “Granddad, when are you going to come pick me up?” The woman he had been left with had passed away suddenly of a stroke, and their neighbor who had taken Quinton in had 3 children of her own and worked 2 jobs, so she could not afford to take care of him. So, my parents answered the call…and they adopted my nephew…who became my brother…and brought our family total to 13.

When we answer the call to faithfully and wholeheartedly follow the will of God, comfort and excuses are lost, but the presence of God is gained. Isn’t God’s presence sufficient enough? Amen.