Don’t Be Afraid
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Luke 4:16-30
February 26, 2006
There was this old mule that was owned by a Quaker farmer. This was the most stubborn animal that God ever created. The farmer couldn’t get this mule to do anything. He coaxed, cajoled, and even pleaded with this animal, with no success. Finally at the end of his rope, the farmer got a stool, sat down in front of the mule, and looked him square in the eye.
“Mule,” he said, “You know that because of my religion, I can’t beat you, or curse you, or abuse you in any way. But mule, what you don’t know is that I can sell you to an Episcopalian.”
One of my heroes of the Hebrew Bible is Jeremiah, who has become more and more important to me over the last few years. I have a feeling that there were times when he felt just like that farmer.
God has called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations. Now we know that prophets seldom have an easy time of it. People generally don’t like to listen to prophets. But it seems that Jeremiah had it worse than most.
The people just wouldn’t listen to him, no matter what he did, what he said, or how he said it. He told them that God was going to come down and punish them if they wouldn’t listen, but that didn’t do any good. Like that farmer’s old mule, they just refused to pay attention.
It is a tendency of human behavior that when we don’t like the message we are getting, that we take it out on the messenger. Things were no different for Jeremiah. I have lost track of the number of times that he was threatened. He was arrested and put into jail. He was cast into a cistern and confined in stocks. When they failed to kill him, they had him exiled to Egypt.
Over and over again, Jeremiah kept telling God that he wanted out. He complained and cried. We call him the “weeping prophet” because of all the times his tears flowed for his condition. He moaned and groaned and threatened to quit.
God would listen to him and then say, “Well Jeremiah, I have something else for you to do. I have somewhere else for you to go. I have another message that I want you to deliver to the people.” And Jeremiah would say, “OK, Lord. I’ll go” even though he knew that he was going to get into trouble again.
When Jeremiah’s call came, he told God that he couldn’t do the job, he didn’t have what it took, he wasn’t smart enough, he didn’t have enough “gravitas,” he didn’t know the right people, he was too inexperienced, he didn’t know what he was doing. The list of his deficits kept growing and growing. In fact, he went out of his way, laying awake at night, trying to think of ways to convince God that he wasn’t the right man for the job.
I think he knew that the road ahead would not be an easy one for him. Perhaps he knew the trouble for which God was asking him to sign up. Perhaps he knew that one day he would be the most hated man on the block. And he knew that he didn’t need that. Who does?
A few years ago, a pastor was appointed to a church which was located in a fast-growing suburb of greater Chicago. The potential was there for some significant growth. The pastor went into the church full of expectation that things were going to go very well and that he would have a very successful ministry, if you define success in terms of financial and numerical growth.
The reality was different. This assignment turned out to be the most difficult the pastor had ever had. He started to call the church to account for some of the things they were doing which were not advancing the kingdom. He began to try to move the church out of old patterns of behavior to see new possibilities. He found new ways to reach out to the surrounding community. He began to pay attention to some people who had little institutional power or prestige, which in turn angered long-standing members. The result was that he was derided and harassed. He was unfairly accused of unethical behavior. Finally, he was forced to leave.
To paraphrase the language that the Apostle Paul uses in I Corinthians 13, church people are sometimes arrogant and rude, not always patient and kind, sometimes boastful, envious, irritable, resentful, don’t always rejoice in the truth, and don’t always exhibit the sort of love that bears all things, hopes all things, or believes all things.
One pastor was in attendance at a continuing education event when he told of his experiences in serving the local church a number of years ago. The pastor really poured his heart out. He said, “The bishop sent me to a little town in South Carolina. I preached one Sunday on the challenge of racial justice. In two months my people were so angry that the bishop moved me. At the next church, I was determined for things to go better, so I didn’t preach about race. But we had an incident in town and I felt forced to speak. The board met that week and voted unanimously for us to be moved. My wife was insulted at the supermarket. My kids were beaten up on the school grounds. “
The leader of the event looked at this pastor and said, “And your point is what? We work for a living God, not a false, dead God. Did somebody tell you it would be easy?”
I’m not talking just about preachers here, or those who are professionally religious. Any-time someone gets fired up to work for the Lord, he or she is apt to find that there is another team on the field. You see, I am convinced that Evil gets worried when people start working for the God. And when Evil gets worried, things start to heat up.
I’m always a little surprised, quite frankly, when Christians are surprised by trouble. After all, remember Jesus. Early in his ministry, he was back home in Nazareth where he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath as was his custom. He was the one chosen to read the Scripture that morning, so he took the Isaiah scroll and read “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
After that, he began to tell them some uncomfortable things about the sorts of people upon which God spread his grace. These people God would bless, he said, were outsiders, sinners, and foreigners. The good and faithful Jews didn’t like to hear that message, so they took Jesus outside the city and tried to throw him off a cliff.
So I am surprised when Christians are surprised when things don’t always go well. Even Jesus had trouble. Jesus experienced what Jeremiah experienced. Being about the Lord’s work, whether you are a preacher, prophet, or faithful lay person is dangerous business. Answering the call to serve God often opens you up to the possibility of all sorts of abuse.
One evening, the organist of First United Methodist Church in Houston was in this downtown church practicing for worship the next Sunday morning. He was a great organist and had a great instrument. The magnificent pipe organ was full volume. It was the sort of organ playing which you expect to greet you when you get to heaven.
Then he heard pounding on the front doors of the sanctuary. You see, some of the homeless people in Houston would sometimes sleep on the front steps of the church during the summer months and one of them was pounding and pounding on the door. So the organist opened the door to see what the trouble was, and the fellow standing there said, “Would you hold down the noise. We’re trying to sleep out here.”
Just like that, Christians aren’t always understood. Sometimes the things we do breeds hostility, distrust, and anger. People don’t always understand our passion, our commitment, or our joy. They don’t understand why we see the world differently. And when people don’t understand, they often lash out.
When we talk about Christians being unafraid to stand up for what they believe, we most often, think about heroic acts and heroic people. Now, we need heroes. We need people who stand out with their witness. We need people who are on the frontlines of the necessary battles of everyday life. But honestly, the most important battles are fought by ordinary people like you and me who just go about their business each day with a quiet confidence that God is working in the world, that Jesus is in control, and that we are continually being strengthened by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
But whether we are on the front lines of the fight, or are quiet foot soldiers in the battle, the news that Jeremiah received still holds. “Do not be afraid…for I am with you to deliver you” (Jer. 1:8).
None of us would be standing here this morning if it were not for the grace, mercy, and protection of God which has gone on before us in the tough times. We stand here, not because we are strong enough, but because God is strong enough. That is the word that Jeremiah learned. That is the truth that Jesus taught. And that is the faith that keeps us still standing. “Do not be afraid…for I am with you.”
