Fruitful: Being Who God Made Us

Sermon for 8.22.10 - 13th Lord's Day After Pentecost

Jeremiah 1:4-10

            Three weeks ago we began a series of sermons focusing on God’s graciousness and God’s expectation that we be fruitful people who share God’s love through works of justice and holy living.  Here’s a quick recap of who we’ve seen God to be in recent weeks.   In Hosea 11, we saw God depicted as a loving parent whose children (Israel, and us) have turned away.  Yet, God still waits with open arms ready to receive God’s children when they turn back to God.   In Isaiah 1, we saw how God made a legal case against the people of Judah (and us), accusing them of being unfaithful to God, failing to do justice, and ignoring the way of holiness.  Still, God promises to transform us, making our crimson sins like white snow.   In Isaiah 5, last week, we saw God depicted as a Vineyard Owner who planted choice vines and expected an excellent harvest.  We are those vines, but instead of yielding good grapes, we bore God wild grapes, grapes that are separate, loose, and unfit for wine.

            With these things in mind, it should be clear to us that God expects something of Creation: God created us and expects us to be fruitful, to live lives that bear fruit.  For those of us who have spent even a little time in churches, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.  And what’s more, we, who believe in and love God, want to live in ways that are pleasing to God.  Sometimes, we talk about fruit as our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.  Often, we talk about fruit in terms of transforming lives or making disciples.  And in all this, there’s an obvious desire: we genuinely want to be fruitful.  However, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in the chapters following today’s reading recount that we, with all of God’s people, are frequently unfruitful.  We have failed to be as fruitful as God desires.  Sometimes we’ve even run away from God, not wanting to do what we know is good or just: like refusing to help those who call out in hunger and need, as I did to people seeking handouts in recent weeks; or from our decreased membership and worship attendance we can see that something is not quite as it should be in terms of fruitfully making disciples of Jesus.

            This is our reality as good church people and followers of Jesus.  No, we’re not as faithful or fruitful as we know God desires us to be, BUT we do share in God’s desire to bear good fruit, to make disciples, and to love into the kingdom all God’s children – we do.  So why then do we struggle with fruitfulness?  Today’s reading, in which God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet, suggests a few answers to this question, as well as a way toward greater fruitfulness and a fuller relationship with God. 

            Later in life, God instructed the prophet Jeremiah to write down all that God had told him about God’s people (Jer36.2).  And so, today, we hear God’s initial words through Jeremiah.  They are familiar and heartwarming words, perhaps the best-known words of Jeremiah.  Many of us probably hear these words of God as words to us: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” – set you apart (v.5a).  It’s comforting to know that God has always known and cared for us.  Yet, it’s the next phrase that catches Jeremiah’s attention: “I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (v.5b).  It’s this phrase that prompts Jeremiah’s quick excuse:  “Ah, Lord GOD!  Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy” (v.6).  It’s as though he’s saying, God, you’ve got the wrong guy.  I’m too young for this and I don’t have right skills.  At this, we see that Jeremiah was afraid.  He found no comfort in God’s initial word of intimacy.  He was afraid of being called, afraid of being set apart to proclaim God’s word to the nations, afraid of being called to fruitfulness.  He was afraid, because he thought he was inadequate – too young and not a good speaker. 

            Ah…afraid of being called to fruitfulness;  we can relate to that, and it’s these similar fears that limit our fruitfulness for God.  We can sum it up like this: God calls us to be fruitful, which is to make disciples of Jesus Christ and love into the kingdom all God’s children (Faith’s mission), but we feel, at least at times, inadequate for God’s mission. 

            Here are two examples from my life.  Maybe you can relate to them.  First, in my middle years of college, when I first started sensing that God was calling me to be a pastor, I didn’t really want to admit it or accept it.  Honestly, I was afraid.  And one of the things I was afraid of was of people like you.  I’d protest to God: God, how can I be a pastor to people twice my age, or even three times my age?  I thought I was too young to be seen as pastor, too young to be taken seriously. 

            The second example is something more recent.  The mission of Faith is to love into the kingdom all God’s children and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  That’s the fruitfulness God calls us to.  It’s clear to me, and should be to all of us, that in order for Faith to be fruitful in the future requires that it’s fruitful in its calling now.  That is, if this congregation is going to exist to love into the kingdom all God’s children in the year 2030, then we have to be bringing new people into relationship with God and loving into the kingdom God’s children today.  As the pastor appointed to serve Grand Island through this congregation, I am especially called to bear fruit in this way – to offer God’s invitation to others, to draw new people into relationship with God in Christ, to make disciples, and to love into the kingdom all God’s children.  And once in a while, like Jeremiah, I question if God called the right person: How can I bring new people to you?  Where do I meet them?  What if I don’t have the gifts necessary to draw others to you?  Are you sure you’ve got the right person here?

            I share these stories specifically because I suspect that it’s not so uncommon to feel inadequate and mistakenly called.  Yet, the reality is that God does call each and every one of us to be in ministry, to be witnesses of God’s kingdom, and to be bearers of God’s love, grace, and justice for the world.  To be called by God to bear fruit in the form of making disciples and loving others into the kingdom is, at the same time, both a glorious invitation and a daunting challenge. 

            Yet, to these struggles and fears, God’s call of Jeremiah is a strong and hopeful message.  No sooner could Jeremiah utter his excuses of inferiority and inadequacy than God offered a reassuring rebuke: “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” (v.8).  And this helps us hear God’s first words to Jeremiah for what they are: as reassurance that calms our fears of inadequacy. 

            Jeremiah felt mistakenly called and inadequate.  So too may we feel mistakenly called and inadequate, but this passage bears God’s reassuring message to Jeremiah and to us.  It’s as though God says, Don’t be silly.  You’re just who I need.  God can say this because God knows us fully. God knows Jeremiah and has called the right person, and God knows us too.  Before our birth, God had already set us apart for the special work of spreading God’s love and making disciples.  God has tailor-made us for the mission of sharing God’s love.  What is more, beyond knowing us intimately, God assures Jeremiah and all whom God calls, of God’s continued presence.  Finally, in case the promise of God’s presence wasn’t reassuring enough, God continued to give Jeremiah courage by reaching out and putting God’s words in Jeremiah’s mouth.  God equipped the one whom God called, which is true still today: God doesn’t call the equipped; God equips the called to be fruitful and faithful.

            Now, this message must have been reassuring enough for Jeremiah because the verses following today’s reading recount Jeremiah stepping into his role as God’s prophet.  However, perhaps there are some here who are not quite as reassured.  That’s okay, after all, God has given us quite a charge – to make disciples of Jesus and love into the kingdom all God’s children.  Perhaps what you’re thinking is, If only God would have given me a sign that what God said to Jeremiah was true.  Just give me a sign, and then I’ll trust you and get busy with this disciple-making-, loving-into-the-kingdom- thing. 

            I don’t blame you a bit, and God knew that there would be people who would need such signs (remember: “Before I formed you…I knew you”).  For those of us who need signs as assurance that God has called us and also equipped us, God gives us a powerful reminder in the waters of Baptism.   In baptism the congregation celebrates the reality that God has always been about the work of drawing creation into closer relationship with God: from the very beginning of creation that there might be someone else to receive God’s love; in saving Noah from the flood and the Israelites from Egypt; and in freeing us all from slavery to sin and death through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  In baptism, the Holy Spirit pours over us with the water as the preacher calls us by our first names.  This is no accident.  In this act, it is God also calling us by name and saying, I have created you for good works.  I know all about you.  I cleanse you of all sin.  I fill you with my Spirit that you might continue to grow in faithfulness and love.  You are my sons and daughters, whom I will always love.  You are my dear child, whom I adore, and with whom I will always be. 

            Need a sign?  Need reassurance to calm your fears so that you can be faithful and fruitful?  Here’s your sign: this water, this font.  When you see water, when you bathe, when you drink, remember that God has said to you as to Jeremiah, Before I formed you, I knew you.  Before you were born, I set you apart for the mission of loving into the kingdom all God’s children and making disciples of Jesus.  Don’t worry.  Don’t doubt that you can do it.  I created you for this work, and I will be with you.  You will be fruitful and faithful, for I have put my word in your mouth and my Spirit fills your body.   Go, therefore, and be fruitful.  Go, and make disciples.  Go, and love into the kingdom all my children. You’ve nothing to fear.