Jeremiah 1:4-10; I Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30
The Reverend Paul D. Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, January 31, 2010

When God called Jeremiah, Jeremiah said, “I can’t. I’m too young.” When God called Moses, Moses said, “I can’t. I don’t speak so good.” When God told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, Abraham said, “I can’t. I’m too old.” When God called Amos, Amos said, “I can’t. I’m just a farmer.”

When God called me to be a priest, I said, “I can’t. I am a professed atheist.” Soon after I was ordained, again I said, “I can’t do this anymore. Its too hard.”

We all have good reason to resist God’s call because what God calls us to is very difficult. Jeremiah spent his life warning the people that unless they turned back to God and stopped running after idols they would be destroyed. They never listened to him. And legend tells us that even after all the destroying transpired, they blamed Jeremiah and stoned him to death. And what of Moses and Abraham? Their lives were very hard and they never saw the fruit of their answering the call of God.

Look what happened to Jesus. He is shunned, hounded, and ultimately executed. Even Jesus the night before His arrest tries to give that cup back to God.

The difficult news for each of you here today is that God is calling you. Each person here who is baptized has been ordained to the ministry of Christ. In our confirmation we affirm that call as ministers in the Body of Christ. We promise to continue in the Apostles teaching, in the prayers and in the breaking of bread. Thus we promise to make our study of our religion, our participation in the sacraments, and the worship of our God the center of our lives.

Further we promise how we will live in the world. We will respect the dignity of every human being. We will proclaim by word and action the Gospel of Christ.

And those who are here that are not officially part of this Covenant, you have a call on your life as well. If you are sitting here today God called you here for a reason.

Now the Good News for each of us this morning is that we do all of this with God’s help. When Jeremiah resists God reassures him. God touches his lips and says, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.”

God does not call us and then abandon us. If we stay close to Him we understand that He walks with us. We stay close to Him by doing our best to do what we promised to do. We study Scripture and Tradition in community. We pray regularly and we attend Eucharist as often as humanly possible. We constantly strive to serve others not to be served.

At the heart of it all is love. As St. Paul writes to the Church in Corinth, love is what energizes all of our spiritual gifts and our efforts to be the Body of Christ. Love is patient and kind. It is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way.

Faith infused with love will keep us safe. We see that after Jesus gets the insiders all upset for challenging their preconceived notions, they set out to kill Him. He has pointed out that when they were rejected, the prophets Elijah and Elisha went to minister to the gentiles. As they charge Jesus toward the cliff to throw Him over, what happens? He passes through the midst of them.

God’s grace and wisdom is so strong with Him that no envious and rude crowd can overcome Him. This is how we live out God’s call on our lives. We trust and owe no one anything except love. We walk through the midst of all the anxiety and frustration; we glide through all of the stubbornness and arrogance of our own hearts.

Love opens doors for us. Love makes a way for us. We follow God and we begin to know Him and ourselves better. We begin to see others better. As St. Paul writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Don’t avoid your calling. Don’t find reasons to tell God, “I can’t.” Spend that energy getting closer to God and each other. Spend that energy to step up and serve in the Body of Christ. God is with you. He has known you all along. He will show you in good time just how wonderfully made and wonderfully strong you are.