Author: Pastor Horton

Passage: Jeremiah 1:4-10

Date: February 2, 2025

There was a commercial a few years ago which took place in a baseball dugout.  The team, made up of community adults were watching their at-bat play out.  The coach says, “we need a clutch hit”, and looks down the row of men on the bench and calls out a name: “Derek.”  And an average athlete with an unkept appearance jumps up  – albeit surprised that he is one called upon in this moment.  The coach clarifies, and pointing behind the man says, “Derek….Jeter.”  And the Hall of Fame Yankee shortstop, hero to some, with 14 All Star Games and 5 World Series Rings stands up behind him ready to score the needed run…and does.  Whoops.  That’s the one the coached wanted – that’s the chosen one.

It’s a short commercial but one we can relate to because we have maybe been that child on the playground wanting to get picked – or have wanted to be the one chosen for special academic recognition – or chosen for an artistic award.  And simply as social human beings we long for acceptance and want to be chosen as one of the team with equal respect among our friends, our family, and our peers.  But what about when it comes to being chosen by God? 

We may know some of the Bible stories with “chosen ones,” those heroes of faith.  We hold them in high regard, and rightly so.  The things they endured.  The crosses they carried – both figuratively and literally.  The times and places in which they served.  And, over and above all that, the confidence with which they stood . . . firm and unmoved.  Rightly, they hold the title: “hero.” 

But remember also what some of them endured as “chosen” ones of God.  Hebrews 11:36-38 tells us that, “Still others experienced mocking and lashes, in addition to chains and imprisonment.  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were tempted; they were killed with the sword; they went around in sheepskins and goatskins, needy, afflicted, and mistreated.  The world was not worthy of them as they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”  And yikes!  Who would want to be chosen for any of that!?!

Even though his name doesn’t appear in that chapter, Jeremiah is for us, a deserving “hero of faith.”  His steady proclamation of God’s Word and warning took place over the reign of a number of kings who drifted with the people away from God and away from repentance before God.  For his steadfastness, Jeremiah would be threatened, imprisoned, and call a national traitor.  And this morning, our lesson takes us all the way back to his calling.  We see him as the Derek-Jeter hero type, but he may have initially been feeling like more of the bum on the bench.  How could Jeremiah serve as he did?  Where did Jeremiah’s confidence come from?  And like him, we also have been chosen by the same Lord God to speak for him and to represent him in this world.  We find an answer in this account of Jeremiah, for our confidence comes from what the LORD did, what He does, and what He will do.  Our reading highlights this.  It beings:

“The word of the Lord came to me.  Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I set you apart.  I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”  Perhaps the first thing we need to note is that, in grace, the LORD came to Jeremiah – that’s important.  This prophet wouldn’t be chosen by his own selection.  He didn’t discover the word of the Lord by meditation and breathing exercises.  He didn’t suddenly find himself learning gospel promises while out on a walk one day in nature’s cathedral.  Nor did he empower himself to be this hero – taking a stand before the kingdom and its rulers.  Rather a quick glance and we find Jeremiah to be somewhat of an outcast at work during the Babylonian Captivity, Judah’s low-point, and, most likely, was an eye-witness to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

And yet, in the midst of national turmoil and tyrants, the LORD taps an unlikely hero on the shoulder through his Word and says, “I know you.  Jeremiah, I have set you apart and I am going to use you for my purpose to accomplish my will.  Jeremiah, your confidence cannot be in yourself; but it has to be in what I’ve already done.”  God knew his past – all of it.  God knew him even as a cute little baby.  But God knew him even before that. 

What a great reminder!  You are not a cosmic accident.  You are not subject to the random events of the world and the universe.  You are not living as one adrift upon the blustery winds of life.  God knew you, like he knew Jeremiah, from well before your birth.  God cared dearly for you even back then.  God formed you as one uniquely and wonderfully made.  And God placed you into this time and place, he gave you the precious gospel of salvation, and he gives you purpose within his good will for you.  No matter your age or your issues or your hesitations: That is incredible!  And that is special!  And that is gracious!

But while we’re speaking about our hesitations about being chosen by God, hero-of-faith Jeremaih’s response: ^“But I said, “Ah, Lord God!  I really do not know how to speak!  I am only a child!”  (And yes, there really is a Hebrew word for the interjection “ah-hah”).  Jeremiah may have been born into a priestly line but calls himself “a child” – a word used for one young enough to not yet have a profession or fully know yet what direction they would go in life.  And now, God would give him this life at this time and in this place to these people?  “Ah-hah.”  Sounds like the response of other prophets God chose like Moses in Exodus 3 and Gideon in Judges 6.  Jeremiah’s self-concern is familiar, “I’m not quite ready for this yet.”

And perhaps, this seems to be where our similarity to Jeremiah is amplified.  As sinners, we tend to make excuses to what our God commands.  And, often times, our excuses shift the focus from His Words to our feelings.  He says to each of us, “Go and make disciples.”  We say, “well, I kind of feel like someone else is probably more qualified.”  He says, “make disciples of all nations.”  We say, “but that might make me feel pretty uncomfortable.”  He says, “baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  We think, “maybe there’s an easier way to attract new members other than by using the Means of Grace.”  He says, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  And we say, “I mean, everything?  I don’t know if I’m ready or willing to be chosen by God for this!”  Wow.  How embarrassing!  In sin, we turn inward and make it about ourselves and hide behind our feelings; and at times want to cut the rope ourselves and be adrift from the challenges which come with of God and his Word.

But look at how our God responds to our feelings of inadequacy and doubt.  ^“The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’  You must go to everyone to whom I send you and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, because I am with you, and I will rescue you, declares the Lord.”  God says, “It is I, the great the ‘I Am’ who makes you chosen!”  The LORD redirects Jeremiah’s focus from what the prophet can’t do to what God continues to do!  Because it is he who gives the word of salvation to us and there remain people who still need to know about Jesus.  People in Jeremiah’s day and in ours still need to understand that sin separates, sin kills, and sin condemns.  People then and now who need to know what the God of free and faithful love did and still does!

And what does he do with you and me?  He calls us off the bench and to get into the game – into this life and these times with purpose.  He says, “My child, you have nothing to fear!  I am with you.”  And then he sets your heart on the cross as proof.  For God knew you – and he knew how to save you through Christ Jesus.  He is one who wiped every sin away there at the cross.  He is the one who rules and reigns and promises to go with you and to help you.  His promises are certain in an uncertain world.  And that’s your confidence. 

Even if, as it was for those other heroes of faith, things get unpleasant or downright dangerous.  Our final verses tell us, ^“Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth.  The Lord said to me: There!  I have now placed my words in your mouth.  Look, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”  We fear not for we, for like Jeremiah, have been chosen to be equipped with God’s words.  And when God wields his word, it is powerful and effective – greater than the strongest of nations.  And that powerful Word he gives to you, even if we are simply unsure of ourselves. 

And since we have his words of salvation in Christ, and we therefore have life with God.  Life through the forgiveness of sins.  Life through the new creation that we are in Christ.  And life with our Lord in heaven one day.  Dear fellow heroes of faith, through his Word God has made you an all-star on his team.  You have his precious gospel to live and to share and to rejoice over – come what may.   For you have been chosen by God.  And his gospel will win more chosen souls still.  Go with God confidently every step of life’s way.  Amen.