(Photo by Gregg Brekke/WCC)
Good morning and welcome to us this morning as we join you here from the Öresund bridge, which is the bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark, on this 21st Sunday of the year in ordinary time, the 21st of August 2022.
Let me tell you that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, whether you are on a ship, whether you’re on land, whether you are in a congregation, our whether you are at home: God loves you.
This morning the passage that I will read for us is from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah, chapter one, beginning at the fourth verse.
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Then I said. “Oh God, truly I do not know how to speak for I am only a boy.”
But the Lord said to me: “Do not say I am only a boy, 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”, says the Lord.
Then the Lord put his hand out, and touched my mouth.
And the Lord said to me: “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to put down, to destroy, and to overthrow. To build and to plant.”
May God bless the reading of God’s word to us this morning.
What an astonishing thing to read this morning. God says to Jeremiah – Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I consecrated you.
Now the one thing that I can tell you without any fear of contradiction is that the saying that God gives to the prophet Jeremiah can be said for each one of us. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. God knew you. And before we were even born, God consecrated us. God consecrated you. And while each one of us may not be called as Jeremiah was here to be a prophet and to speak God’s word to the nations, each of us has a sacred calling that we are consecrated for.
In a very real sense, the way that God engages in this world of ours is through you and me. In a very real way, the way that people experience God’s love is through you and through me. In a very real way, the way that God acts in the world, is through your hands and mine; through your eyes and mine; through your ears and mine. And where your feet take you, there God is present. And where my feet take me, there God is present.
And so there is a sacred ministry, a sacred mission for each one of us that only we can fulfil. Now that places a huge burden of responsibility upon us, because there is a specific task to which you have been called that only you can fulfil. And if you are not able to fulfil that piece of God’s task in the world, God will find other ways of engaging, but there will always be a brick missing in the wall.
The brick that was your task. Your mission. Your ministry.
Now the ministry that we have may not be the ones that you think of. It doesn’t have to be involved in the church as we would think. The calling that you have is not necessarily to be a chorister or a server, a side person, a priest, a Deacon, a Bishop, the Pope. That calling doesn’t have to be an ecclesiastical calling.
Each of us has a calling to live our lives most fully, as God called us to be. And in living our lives most fully, we fulfil a sacred function for God.
One of the callings that is probably the most important that we will ever have in our lives is the calling of being a parent. Last week I was privileged to be with friends of mine in Uppsala, where I attended their daughter’s confirmation. And at that confirmation I said to my friend Mattias, “Congratulations” and he said no, it is Elsa that must be congratulated. I said no, when you and your wife held Elsa in your arms, and took her to church and had her baptised as an infant you took vows that you would raise her to the best of your ability as a Christian in the knowledge and love of God. And you took vows that you would lead her, by your example, into being a faithful servant of God. And today, Elsa is standing here in this church confirming those baptismal promises, those baptismal vows for herself. And therefore I said to you, congratulations, because you have fulfilled this sacred function of parenthood. The function of being the ones who initiates our children into relationships with God. No priest can do that. No, nun can do that. No Monk can do that. No teacher in a school can do that. It is a sacred function that parents have and while others will help, this is their function.
And then we have the unique callings that we have in our workplaces, that we have a calling to bring the presence of God where we are in our place. This is and in so many ways, bringing the love of God into a work contract, the way in which a service is delivered, the way in which we make people feel. That is a sacred function that is entrusted to you and you only and if on this moment, while you wait that table, while you cook a meal for this person, you don’t put all of God’s love into that activity, the moment is lost, the opportunity is gone. And so this sacredness with which we come into our relationship with God, where God knows us or we are formed in the womb, where God consecrates us before we are even born, that sacredness lives out in every moment of every day, in the way that we make God present to those whom we encounter.
God bless you this day. May you this day find the strength and courage to live out the calling and mission to which you have been called. On this day I will pray for you as I pray for myself that you will discern more fully what God’s calling is on your life. And I pray for you this day that the Holy Spirit descends afresh on you. Descends afresh on us to strengthen us and to draw us deep into the heart of God, that we know more fully what the calling is that God brings us to.
And don’t for one minute think that if you are fearful of fulfilling that calling as Jeremiah was, that God will not be there for you. It means God will be there for you even more because when we are weak, then God can be strong within us.
We close with a blessing.
The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be amongst you, those you love, those you pray for and those whom you ministered to as you respond to your calling, this day and always.
Amen.
