23rd January 2022 - Youth Sunday sermon - Christian calling and identity
Theme: Christian calling and identity. Scripture readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (God calls Jeremiah) and Luke 4:14-30 (Jesus rejected at Nazareth)
Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable to You, O Christ, our Strength and our Redeemer, amen. Today’s theme of “Christian calling and identity” is demonstrated in two different ways in the two scripture passages based on Jeremiah’s calling and Jesus being rejected at Nazareth. Both men proclaimed the Good News. Good news breaks into the “now” for all of us, including those low in status, those unable to see God’s presence, or those captive in cages. Preaching doesn’t just teach something. It does something in the “now.”
In the Old Testament reading, Jeremiah had more to say about repentance than any other prophet. Preaching throughout Israel, he called upon men to turn away from their wicked ways and dependence upon idols and false gods and return to One True God. Jeremiah’s work bore fruit: his spiritual leadership helped his fellow countrymen survive disasters that included the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the exile of many Judaeans to Babylonia. Because of his connectedness to God, Jeremiah was willing to confront the nation of Israel and point out their wrongdoings. He was not prepared to sacrifice his beliefs and convictions for the sake of popularity. This is the same conviction we find in the New Testament reading, where Jesus confronts his hometown of Nazareth.
The scripture reading that Jesus chooses from Isaiah speaks of healing and freedom and favour. Comfort, rather than fear, seems the order of the day. And all is well. But then the sermon takes a turn. As if Jesus’ proclamation of fulfillment was a dividing edge, he follows Isaiah’s promises with challenges to his listeners’ hometown expectations. God’s year of favour does not privilege home or country, and God’s people are not always playing the roles they expected to play.
Proclaiming good news to the poor often means proclaiming upsetting news to the comfortable. Whenever I think of what Trinidad and Tobago is comfortable with, I remember a funny Facebook video where a mother is checking up on her son’s schoolwork. She asks him, “Yuh do yuh Social Studies homework?” and her son replies, “Yes Ma, daddy teach meh.” So she asks him what the national watchwords are and her son eagerly replies, “Rum, horn and wine!” The video ends with the mother chasing the father out of the room. Every time we speak against the evils in our society, such as alcoholism, adultery and corruption, we are placing ourselves in danger. Challenging social norms will evoke anger, but it is the good and true message. It is good news, but more than this, it is freeing news, if it can be heard and adhered to.
When Jesus proclaimed upsetting news to the comfortable people of Nazareth, His listeners did not have their eyes opened. They remained spiritually ignorant. In what way was this scripture fulfilled? It is Jesus’ presence that makes a sermon a sermon, not the congregation’s response. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus continues to proclaim release, recovery, and favour in ordinary communities, through ordinary people today.
To illustrate the Christian calling, I would like to use an allegory: To provide water for her family, a woman carried a big clay pot to a spring every day. However, this pot had a small crack in it, so each time the woman made her journey, half the water spilled on the side of the road. One morning, as the woman was returning from the spring, the leaky pot spoke to her and said, “You have perfectly good pots at home, why don’t you use one of them to carry water? None of them are broken like I am! You have to work twice as hard when you use me.”
The woman replied, “Instead of lamenting your own brokenness, have you noticed your surroundings?”
The pot looked around and saw that the side of the road was covered with blossoming flowers. The woman said, “You may be broken, but thanks to your imperfection, I am able to give life to all of these flowers and make the world more beautiful.”
So it is when Christ calls us to His service. Just like Jeremiah, we too are insecure. We say that we are foolish and ignorant. We claim that we are too young, or too old, as the case may be. God knows that we have problems, but you must appreciate that, in the history of the entire world, God only chose one sinless servant. That one perfect servant was enough to take death itself captive and conquer sin. Thus, all His other servants, imperfect though we may be, still carry out His work and accomplish His goals in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.
Living a Christian life means that you won’t please everyone. Charles Spurgeon, an English Particular Baptist preacher, said, “If your neighbours are hard to please, don’t seek their praise, please your Master. If they reject your love, your Master still loves you and your deed is as acceptable to Him as if it had been accepted by them.” So do not be discouraged if you cannot please the people nearest to you. After all, God’s only Son was crucified, so He knows what it is like when people reject His love. Seek solace in Christ, and love your neighbour anyway, for in doing this you are following in the footsteps of Christ.
We all search during our lives for our individual identity. Who am I? What am I supposed to do? As Christians, our identity is fulfilled when we identify and live with Christ. He pours His Holy Spirit into us so that, broken as we are, His love and Spirit through us is given freely to others. Amen.