In today’s gospel, as at the wedding in Cana that we heard about two weeks ago, Jesus is going to do what Jesus is going to do. He isn’t going to be about what his mother wants, or what people back home expect. Even when that causes disappointment and provokes anger. Jesus is following God’s Word, and his actions are grounded in the relationship that he has as the Son of God.
In the Old Testament reading from the prophets, the prophet Jeremiah also encounters God’s Word and it changes how he acts. God spoke to the prophet and when Jeremiah raised his objections and doubts about the work God was calling him to do, God reminded him that he has been known to God from the very beginning of his existence. And knowing Jeremiah as God did, God appointed him to go forth with God’s Word in his mouth and take it to the people in the nations and kingdoms of Judah.
We, like Jeremiah and Jesus before us, are known to God and chosen by God to be God’s presence in the world where we are. And today’s Scripture shows us how being known and chosen by God is very different from being known and chosen by the world or by other people.
From as far back as the ancient prophets, “people” will talk. Jeremiah feared that he could not speak for God because of his youth – whether in actual years, or his lack of experience or knowledge. I expect most of us have had the experience of “imposter syndrome” sneaks into our thoughts and we find ourselves wondering if we are enough; whether we can speak with clarity and authority, or whether we belong in the place and role where we find ourselves. And, even as a congregation, whether we matter because we are small. Here God tells Jeremiah, you are enough because you are mine.
Jesus was more unflappable. He knew how people are; he wasn’t surprised or thrown off when people questioned how he could have knowledge of God’s Word, whether that was because they couldn’t imagine that the son of a carpenter could be a teacher, or because they thought he had gotten too big for his britches, so to speak. This episode in the synagogue follows the temptations in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus had been tested by the devil and refuted false claims at every turn, trusting instead in God and God’s Word to guide him.
Throughout Scripture, people say one thing and God shows them another way to be because God knows the capacity God has created within us to be God’s people, made in God’s image and living out God’s kingdom here in this world.
As the Lord says when Samuel is meeting Jesse’s sons, looking for the one who is to be anointed king, “the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1Samuel 16:7 NRS)”
And as we hear in Paul’s letter today, “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.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
We trust that God will continue to reveal God’s purpose and future for us, because we trust who we know God to be, and here we are reminded too that God knows us and entrusts us to go into the world bearing God’s Word.
In 2014, you called me as your pastor and invited me into your lives to care for you and listened to me as I have preached and taught. I am grateful for the ways you have cared for me, Jamie and the girls and for your curiosity about our VW buses and four-legged companions. I love you and I am so grateful for the ways you have let me know you and your stories and the ways we have shared together in being Jesus to each other and to our community.
Even now as there are questions about what’s next for the congregation and what the next season of ministry may look like, the promises from today’s Scriptures center our lives going forward:
God knows us and entrusts us with the care for the world around us.
God says we are enough and claims us as God’s own.
And God believes in our future because God formed us and shapes us for our life together.
Remembering these promises, we recognize with the psalmist that our trust and hope is only found in God and find our comfort in God’s boundless love for us.
Let us pray…
Good and gracious God,
We give you thanks for your Son Jesus who comes into this world to
reveal your Word and presence to us.
Thank you for the ways Jesus shows us that we are chosen by you and
called to be your people, faithful to your Word.
Forgive us when we place more value on others’ opinions of us or doubt
who you have created us to be and the gifts you have given us.
By your Spirit, give us courage to live out your Gospel and love in the
world every day.
We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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