A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .
turn off your cell phone
Jeremiah 1:4-10, Preached by Tom Lacey at
Congregational
So Mildred and Violet are driving in Mildred's car one day. They come up to a stop sign, and the goes right through it without stopping. Violet was surprised by this but didn't want to say anything so as not to embarrass Mildred. A little while later they approach another stop sign and again Mildred drives right through, not even slowing down. Violet was worried now and was going to say something but again decided not to. As it happened, they came up to a third stop sign, and after they buzzed right through it, Violet couldn't control herself, and shouted out, "Mildred, that is the third stop sign we just went through without you stopping." And Mildred turned to Violet and asked, "Oh, am I driving?!" You have to be careful about who you choose to drive with.
We love choice. We want to have things the way we want them. Advertising slogans often try to entice us with the illusion of choices. Go into any store to buy nearly any product and you face a mind-boggling array of choices. You cannot just buy aspirin, you have to choose: what strength? What shape? Is it coated to protect your stomach? Does it have an antacid built in to sooth you? Is it long-acting, time-release? And are you sure you don't want Tylenol or Advil or Alleve, or one of the other twelve hour acting pain killers? But God is not always so much into choice. We may have our uncertainties and insecurities, as Jeremiah did in our text, but God brushes them aside and calls us to service. As it was with Jeremiah, so it should be with us. When God speaks, you're it.
Of course, our lives are not precisely like Jeremiah's. He was a prophet. Dr. Patrick Baker, professor of Old Testament Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, says, “In Jeremiah’s case, the prophet’s vocation was given to him before he was even born–before he was formed in embryonic state (v. 5a), before he came forth from his mother’s womb (v. 5b). The call of Jeremiah is one of the clearest and most explicit biblical formulations of the experience of election. Indeed, it is a genuine example of predestination, but not in the sense of a predestination to salvation or damnation. The destiny that matters in Jeremiah’s case is his calling, his vocation. Jeremiah is predestined to be the bearer of God’s word. He came into being under the divine commission. There was certainly no escaping this calling. He could not even go back to some other vocation, as Amos did. Jeremiah was brought into the word to be a prophet of the Lord.”
He was a prophet, told by God to do those things God had planned. I imagine that none of us claim we have heard the direct voice of God calling us like that but I'm sure God is in some way or another trying to communicate to you. If only we would let God catch us.... If only we would let ourselves listen.
We live in a culture of endless chatter. Ours is a society of noise. The busier, noisier life is the successful one. But the gentle truth is that living this way means we don't rest, we can't clear our mind, and we won't listen to our heart. There is just too much static, too many impulses, an overload of information distracting and overwhelming us.
The phrase "too much information" isn't just a gentle whack at
someone who tells you more than you want to know about his or her personal
experience. There is more to it, a lot more. In 2006, the world produced 161
exabytes (an exabyte is 1 quintillion bytes) of digital data, according to
Columbia Journalism Review. Put in perspective, that's 3 million times the
information contained in all the books ever written. By next year, the number is
expected to reach 988 exabytes. The truth is our brains simply aren't wired to
receive and process so much information in such a compressed period. Unchecked "infomania,"
yes, there's even a term for this instapathology, can lead to a lower IQ,
according to a 2005 Hewlett-Packard study. The research, conducted by a
It appears today that because of the increasingly complex world we live in, people are trying to get as much as information as possible. The more we know, the more we will be in control, or at least we want to believe. And, of course, it's fun. The urge to know and be known is a uniquely human need. Being connected to friends and colleagues through emails, text messages, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, etc., etc., without having to inconvenience one's gluteus maximus surely must stimulate our pleasure center or we wouldn't bother. But what we need now isn't more, but less, more of less and less of more. So turn off the switch, tune out the noise, unplug the headset, and drop in on the Lord.
There is no doubt we have substituted constant noise, constant information, and distraction to block out any unwanted interference from a divine source of news, of good news. Now don't get me wrong: Any person living in any historical age could shut his ears to God's call also. But it's just that today, it's so much easier. Now I'm not sure God will talk to any one of us, but I am sure that if we don't stop polluting our lives with massive overdoses of chatter, we will have no chance to hear even if God wanted to tell us something.
The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk said, "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me...." Habakkuk knew, even though he lived in a much calmer time, that to hear God he had to first go to a quiet place, pay attention, and listen. In Psalm 46:10, the psalmist encourages us on this path toward the Lord, saying, "Be still, and know that I am God." There is a deep inner knowing in our spirits that each of us can experience when we quiet our flesh and our minds. If we are not still, we will sense only our own thoughts, or other people’s thinking for us.
Fortunately, God alone is not the only one who has to speak for us to hear the message, to be reminded of what we are to do, to be told God's will for our lives. One definition of paga, a Hebrew word for intercession and for meeting another, is "a chance encounter or an accidental intersecting." When God wants us to listen and change, to follow and do, the Lord places people in our paths. The next time you hear God's word calling you, you probably will not hear it sitting on a mountaintop or standing on top of a wall or even kneeling down in prayer. The Lord will meet you in another, and give you your call, perhaps even your conversion.
Jack took a long look at his speedometer before slowing down: 73 in a 55 zone... Fourth time in as many months. How could a guy get caught so often? When his car had slowed to 10 miles an hour, Jack pulled over, but only partially. Let the cop worry about the potential traffic hazard. Maybe some other car will tweak his backside with a mirror. The cop was stepping out of his car, the big pad in hand. Bob? Bob from church? Jack sunk farther into his trench coat. This was worse than the coming ticket. A Christian cop catching a guy from his own church. A guy who happened to be a little anxious to get home after a long day at the office. A guy he was about to play golf with tomorrow. "Hi, Bob. Fancy meeting you like this." "Hello, Jack." No smile. "Guess you caught me red-handed in a rush to see my wife and kids." "Yeah, I guess." Bob seemed uncertain. Good.
"I've seen some long days at the office lately. I'm afraid I bent the rules a bit, just this once. Diane said something about roast beef and potatoes tonight. Know what I mean?" "I know what you mean. I also know that you have a reputation in our precinct."
Ouch! This was not going in the right direction. Time to change tactics. "What'd you clock me at?" "Seventy-one." "Now wait a minute here, Bob. I checked as soon as I saw you. I was barely nudging 65." The lie seemed to come easier with every ticket. Bob started to scribble away on the pad. Why hadn't he asked for a driver's license? Whatever the reason, it would be a month of Sundays before Jack ever sat near this cop again. A tap on the door jerked his head to the left. There was Bob, a folded paper in hand. Jack rolled down the window a bare two inches, just enough room for Bob to pass him the slip.
"Thanks." Jack could not quite keep the sneer out of his voice.
Bob returned to his car without a word. Jack unfolded the sheet of paper. What was this? Some kind of joke? Certainly not a ticket.
Jack began to read: "Dear Jack, Once upon a time I had a daughter. She was six when killed by a car. You guessed it, a speeding driver. A fine and three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his daughters. All three of them. I only had one, and I'm going to have to wait until heaven before I can ever hug her again. A thousand times I've tried to forgive that man. A thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did, but I need to do it again. Even now... Pray for me. And be careful. My son is all I have left.
"Bob," Jack twisted around in time to see Bob's car pull away and head down the road. Jack watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes later, he too pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and hugging surprised wife and kids when he arrived.
What God desires from us and for us is not as clearly spelled out as it was for Jeremiah. So there is no doubt if we could get just one little straightforward suggestion from God, we would give an awful lot in exchange. And also like Jeremiah, the truth is, what we would be told would not always be what we would choose. But then again we don't always know what the heck is best for us either. Still, you are called. You have been touched, and tagged, and you're it. You're one of the good ones for God. You have something the Lord wants. We've been given something the Lord is asking us to return now. Listen ... you can hear your heart hearing the call. The choice is yours. Are you going to answer this one?
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