Broadway Christian Church
Columbia , Missouri
Morning Worship
August 22, 2004

Prayer of the Day

Gracious God, we are in awe that you should choose to work through us to accomplish your holy intention.  Help us, in this hour of worship, to hear again or perhaps for the very first time your call to discipleship.  Grant us the courage to respond in faith and love.  Amen.

Scripture - Jeremiah 1:4-10

The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

“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.”

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, “ I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.”

But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’  You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Message
Extreme Makeover
Rick Frost

Jan and I were out having lunch with a few friends several weeks ago.  We were ordering from the menu, and we were waiting for things to be prepared.  We were also engaging in pleasant conversation.  I don’t remember the topic particularly.  I do remember that jalapeno pork tenderloin sounded good.  Whatever the topic, we were talking, and my friend, sitting next to me, leaned over and slipped this little piece of paper in front of me on the table.  It had some images drawn on it, like the ones drawn at the beginning of this sermon.  She said to me, “Pick one.”

And she said, “I will tell you in a minute.  Just pick one.”

So that’s what I’m asking you to do in the next two seconds.  Just pick one.  It doesn’t matter which one.  Thank you.  You did well!

Now this is what my friend said.  She said, “Rick, if you picked the square, it indicates you like thinks organized.  You like things that fit together.  You like everything in its place, and you are probably a person who really likes those people who pay close attention to detail.  You would make a wonderful organizer.”

Then she said, “If you picked the circle, you’re probably a person who is very inclusive.  You like everybody.  You want everybody to be in the mix, and you have never met a stranger.  You want everybody to get along, and you would probably do really well in sales.”

Now she said, “If you picked the triangle, you are probably a decision maker.  You’re a leader type.  You are a person who knows where you are going, and you can offer direction to others easily.  It works for you.”

Then she said, “If you picked the rectangle, you are a person who probably likes to work in a group.  You’re a team-player-type person.  You ought to serve on a committee – a group that gets things done.  You can follow instructions and move in a good direction and get things going.”

Finally, she said, “If you picked the squiggly line, you are the creator.  You’re the visionary.  You’re the artist type.  You are someone who has something of a spontaneous nature.  You think and operate outside the box.”

Well, my goodness.  I thought I was just passing time until the pork tenderloin arrived!

As you know, leadership is all the rage nowadays.  The military is telling everybody in the world that they can make you a leader.  Universities are offering courses in leadership skills, leadership techniques.  There are professors of leadership.  There are institutes of leadership.  There are consultants of leadership development.  There are seminars in leadership.  People flock to these things.  Some of them are paying big bucks for these things.  And they are, most people report, generally helpful.  After all, who among us does not enjoy thinking of ourselves as potential leaders of something? 

The church is no exception.  Leadership is a very real issue for us.  It is a big issue today.  The bulletin I received from Lexington Theological Seminary just this month headlines “Graduates Called to Be Leaders.”  The Lily Foundation pours millions of dollars into efforts designed to improve the leadership skills of main-line clergy.  Our own Kim Ryan, right here at Broadway, is working on the Bethany Project, which is designed to build the effectiveness of young clergy and to retain their services throughout their careers as spiritual leaders of today and tomorrow’s church.

Now, I know, and you know, there are such things as leadership skills, and leadership strategies, and various leadership traits.  Those are the kinds of things that can be taught and can be learned by almost all of us.  But something in me resists the notion that one can make oneself a leader.  Perhaps it is due to the fact that I call myself a Christian, and it is also due to the fact of the way I read the Scriptures. 

Today’s text, folks, is about how Jeremiah became a leader – a spiritual leader.  It is about what the Bible calls a spokesperson for God.  It all starts in verse 2:  “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.”  Religious leadership, as far as the Bible is concerned, is always something that begins in the heart and the mind of God.  It doesn’t matter whether you are 18 or 80, or somewhere in between, it is God who calls all people to their true, really true, vocations.

They tell me young Harry Truman failed at just about everything he undertook when he was a young man.  However, historians tell us he had an indomitable sense of destiny for as long as he could remember.  He actually believed in this odd notion that this kid from Missouri was born to lead.  He believed one day he would be a Caesar, or a Hannibal, or a Robert E. Lee.  He had a calling.

In our text today, Jeremiah might be 17 or 18 years of age.  That’s my guess.  It doesn’t actually say.  Certainly he was a young person.  Evidently, he had no particular talent, no inclination, no ambition, no natural abilities.  He may have had some of those things, but they are not listed in the Scripture.  It doesn’t tell us anything about that.  But according to today’s text, God tells young Jeremiah these things, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.  I chose you.  I consecrated, set you apart, appointed you.  For what?  I appointed you to be a prophet?  What’s a prophet?  A prophet is a person who will speak for me to the nations.”

Oh my goodness!  The whole thing starts in the mind of God.  Can’t you just see your job application that says, “Since I was a fetus, I had a dream I was going to join the accounting department of your auto-parts company.”  Can you see that?  But biblically, folks, that’s right on target.  God calls us to our vocations.  It doesn’t matter what they are, as long as those vocations serve the purposes of God.

Jeremiah hears God’s call, but it doesn’t make any sense to him.  He says in the text, “Lord, I hate to talk in public.  I don’t know how to do that stuff.  Besides, I am only a kid.”

Then God’s call, God’s invitation, becomes God’s rebuke: “Don’t give me that stuff about being a kid.  You must go where I send you and say what I tell you to say.  And you must not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will rescue you.”

“Oh sure, you want me to grow up and be one of those abrasive, in-your-face type, who goes to the governor’s mansion, the White House, Wall Street, the palaces, and say to the movers and the shakers that they are fools, and that their state, their nation, their enterprise, whatever, is going to be uprooted and torn down, so that it can be rebuilt and done properly, to do what it is suppose to be doing.”

“That’s right,” says God.  “And I will give you all that you need to do the job right.”

The question for today:  What’s your vocation?  What is God calling you to do?  From our text today, I want to offer you three principles.  These are what I think are three principles we can deduce from what we have today about God’s call for any person’s life.

1.      God has a purpose for God’s creation.  I believe Scripture certainly says there is a plan for humanity, and it is a plan you and I are invited, not forced, but invited to participate in.  Now, you don’t create the plan, and you don’t name the purpose.  Those things will be given in the proper time.  Those things begin in the mind of God – not in your mind, not in my mind, not in anybody’s mind.  If it is of God, it begins in the mind of God.

2.      Those who are called, at least on the face of it, don’t seem at the time to have what they need to get the job done.  Maybe God believes in us more than we believe in ourselves.  Maybe God sees in us things you and I don’t see in ourselves.  Maybe there is some potential God sees waiting to be developed in any of us.  Maybe God likes a challenge.  I don’t know.  Maybe God enjoys making something out of nothing.  It’s hard to say, but it is biblical.

3.      What we do know is there is joy, and meaning, and purpose waiting for the life that responds to God’s call.  A life that is unafraid to match its will with God’s will.  Now I know we want so much to think of our lives as something we decide, a project we choose, a path we have picked.  But the Bible says it doesn’t begin with our ambitions, but rather with a summons – a call.  As Jesus told his disciples in John 15, “You did not choose me.  No, I chose you, and I appoint you to go and bear fruit – fruit that is going to last.”  No one who is a disciple of Jesus decided that on his or her own.  According to John, God chose you first.  Isn’t that amazing?

So the invitation today is the invitation for an extreme makeover of the first order.  It’s a makeover that does not involve surgery.  It does not involve a diet.  It does not involve orthodontics, and it does not involve a new wardrobe, or a bolstered bank balance, or cosmetics of any kind.  It is an invitation from the Creator of all that is to live a called life, in a world where way-too-many folks are answerable to nothing other than their own ill-formed desires. 

Sometimes… sometimes that call comes early, like Jeremiah.  Sometimes, even before we are born.  It’s amazing!  Sometimes it comes late in life.  You remember how it came to Abraham and Sarah?  It was way, way late in their life.  Whenever it comes, whenever it comes to you, in saying “yes,” the Bible says God will place your feet on the right path.  The direction of your life will become very clear to you.  Your energy will become focused and lifted up.  The decisions you have to make will get more simplified.  Most importantly, you will be empowered.  You will be given what you need to accomplish what God wants you to do.  Isn’t that amazing?

Proverbs 19 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

When Jesus started his ministry, he called a bunch of fishermen.  (Good choice.)  Tax collectors.  (Another choice.)  Assorted peasants.  (You bet.)  And he told them, “I am the way.  I am the truth.  I am the life.”  Not only did he tell them that, to each of them he gave authority.  He gave authority to go out to tell people the kingdom of heaven was near, to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse the leper, to welcome the outcast, and most importantly, to speak truth with power.  By definition, that’s a plan that is to be spread, literally, throughout all the world.  Guess who is going to help make that happen?  Just look around you.  Folks like you.  Folks like me.  Regular people.

You have a calling.  Do you know what it is?  Can you name it?  Can you name your calling?

Most of us in this room probably never heard of J. Irwin Miller.  J. Irwin Miller died this week, on Monday, at the age of 95.  But what a life!  He headed the Cummins Engine Company of Columbus, Indiana for more than 40 years.  He helped transform this little, family business into a literal Fortune 500 enterprise, inter-nationally.  More importantly, he was a disciple of Jesus.  He helped organize the little church in Columbus.  He was a leader who created something called the Board of Church Extension.  Those are the folks who, years ago, decided they were going to lend money to people like you and me at a very, very marginal interest rate to build places like this.  In fact, where you sit today is because of that lending.  Did you know that?

In time God led him to become the first layman ever to be president of the National Council of Churches in the United States of America.  Under his leadership, that council formed a commission on race and religion, and they coordinated all of organized religion’s support for the strong civil rights legislation that exists in this country today.  He helped launch that council as a nationwide program for peace.

Perhaps his greatest contribution is that he had the ability to bring business leaders, leaders in enterprise throughout the world, together with leaders in the Church, so that they could address common issues and challenges for a more just society. 

J. Irwin Miller had a calling.  It was a calling he responded to since he was a kid, but I think most powerfully, as he matured, as he grew, even into his later years.

But the call that intrigues me is the call that I think is being issued to today’s young folks.  People like Josiah Brian, a young junior at Rock Bridge High School.  He is a gifted musician and a clearly avowed Christian.  Josiah played the piano at 11:00 a.m. worship last week.  He is the only person to receive an unplanned, spontaneous, standing ovation in my 35 years of attending worship in any church.  It was amazing.  In a discussion group in his school last spring, the teachers were there.  The students were there.  The topic was “What are you planning to do with your life?”  When it was Josiah’s turn, in front of all his peers, in front of all his teachers, he very humbly and boldly said, “I want to do whatever pleases God.”  That’s pretty gutsy for a teenager, don’t you think?  I think it’s pretty gutsy for any of us, any time.

“I am sending you with authority,” he said, “to speak to the nations for me.  You will tell them about destroying and tearing down so that there will be a rising and a rebuilding again.

And we all say together… “Amen.”

Benediction

Author of Life, thank you for writing us into your plan to transform the world.  Our presence in this place, on this day, is evidence that you are calling us.  Help us to stay on your same page in serving one another, and in doing do, serving you.  You are the author of love.  Make us eager to be part of your unfolding mysteries.  Amen.