Hi ‘Room’mates!
After the first night, I was approached by a couple who were keen to base their growth group discussions around the Living Room preaching series. So I will aim to post a devotion each week — the intention is that they can be used by a group or by an individual. At the beginning I have three readings (OT, letter, NT) to reflect on throughout the week. Next week’s readings are also printed. I have also attached the powerpoint used and the sermon script.
An mp3 of the sermon can be found here.
Stranger in a Strange Land series (part 1)
“Recognising Your Call”
Devotional notes
Readings to reflect on throughout the week:
Jeremiah 14-10
Ephesians 31-6
Matthew 2816-20
Next week’s readings:
Jeremiah 319-23
Romans 39-18
John 1720-24
Personal/group study:
Pray alone/as a group. In particular, praise God for the privilege of joining in God’s life and work. Ask the Spirit to renew the sense of call in your life.
Have you ever received the call from God on own your life? If alone, you might like to journal the experience and reflect on why/why not. If you are a group, share your stories with each other.
Read Jeremiah 14-10 – you might like to read it two or three times, allowing space in between each reading for God to speak to you.
What strikes you about the story of Jeremiah’s call? Do you react personally to it – why/why not?
Verse 10 says, “to pluck up and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow”. What does it mean to worship and serve a God who calls Jeremiah to this? What might that call mean today?
In what ways are you living God’s call in your own life? In what ways could you do better? (If you are group, perhaps discuss how you can better live God’s call as a group)
Jeremiah prophesied in the months leading up to the exile of Israel in the empire of Babylon. This language of exile is perhaps useful in understanding the place of the Church in today’s society. Do you find the metaphor helpful? Why/why not?
Close by praying for the community/suburb you live in and serve.
Powerpoint: 9.8.15 Your Call
Sermon script:
“…we wanted to explode
to pull my ribs apart
and let the sun inside…”
Apologies for the slightly coarse language in that song,
I will explain why I chose it shortly.
But for now let’s hear from scripture.
We’re beginning a series on the book of Jeremiah.
If you haven’t read Jeremiah,
it’s not exactly light reading.
Like Isaiah, he’s one of the major prophets in the OT
and prophesied at a time in Israel’s history
when foreign powers were flexing their muscles
and Israel were trying to make sense of it all.
And Jeremiah certainly makes sense of it with some strong language.
If Isaiah is good cop,
then Jeremiah is bad cop.
It’s a pretty dark and morose book,
but that’s not to say there’s no hope,
nor that God is not always present and faithful in amongst Israel’s suffering.
And in fact, today, we live in a time and country when things aren’t too rosy for the church.
And so, I believe we have a lot to learn from Jeremiah
who spoke at a time when things weren’t too rosy for Israel.
Today we’re going to hear the very opening of Jeremiah.
It tells of how God called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 1:4-10
A Radical Call
Did you pick up on the magnitude of Jeremiah’s call?
— the radicalness of it.
This isn’t just a call to preach the status quo…
but I think the last sentence says it all:
“see, I appoint you over nations and kingdoms,
to pluck up and pull down,
destroy, and overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Do you sense the magnitude of the call?
Do you sense the power of the call?
I think you get that same sense in the song before —
of something radical, something big:
We blew the doors, didn’t we?
*tinkled* in their champagne
and did a real thing, didn’t we?
Gave ourselves a name
and peeled away our shame.
I like the coarse language and the strong imagery
because it highlights the radicalness of Jeremiah’s call —
and the radicalness of the Christian call.
If you think that being a Christian is about being tame,
or maintaining the status quo, then think again.
What’s that famous quote about Aslan in the Narnia books?
He’s not a…tame lion. He’s not safe, but he is good.
Similarly with Jesus.
He didn’t come to merely teach a few decent morals.
He came to establish a kingdom
that would overthrow the power structures of our world;
a new community
that would be formed by love and peace
rather than fear and difference;
he was radically subversive —
and it’s that subversiveness, that radicalness,
that Christians are called to speak in the world.
Now please hear me correctly,
I’m not saying we need to start using coarse language
or urinating in people’s drinks…
…please, don’t do that…
but I am saying, we need to recognise
and re-recognise, and re-re-re-recognise
that we serve a God who is not only building and planting
— bringing new life —
but also pulling down, overthrowing, destroying
all that is evil, all that is unjust, all that is corrupt.
We live in a society that is increasingly hostile to the Christian message,
if it’s not indifferent, then it’s actively scathing.
But actually, if Jesus came to overthrow the ways of this world,
then why should that be a reason to shy away from our calling?
And in fact, if we look at Israel in the book of Jeremiah,
we see that the people of God have been here before.
Jeremiah tells the story of Babylon’s conquest of Judah
and the consequent exile of the Jews into the Babylonian empire.
At times, isn’t it a bit like we’re in exile?!
The church is certainly not central in our society anymore.
And yet, it was exactly into this situation
that Jeremiah was called to proclaim God’s message…
…a significant challenge for us.
A Cold Call
But how do we proclaim this radical message
and how do we live these subversive lives?
— because we come from our culture,
we’re as captivated by it as anyone!
I love the image in the song before:
“we wanted to explode
to pull my ribs apart
and let the sun inside”.
It’s pretty graphic imagery…
but stunning.
Because it’s as if we’re trapped in our own little world,
concerned with living how we want to live,
set on establishing our own career,
or starting a family,
or making money —
our culture tells us to be self-obsessed,
and I reckon that’s our default setting.
But it’s like God comes and pries our ribs open
so that the light can pour in.
As you can imagine, that would be painful.
But who said, dying to our old selves
so that we can life this new life
wasn’t painful.
Actually, it’s the hardest thing we’ll ever do,
but it’s also the most liberating, life-giving thing we’ll ever do.
See, if we’re truly going to live this message of peace and love,
then it needs to come from outside
because we don’t know anything but the culture we grow up in.
God needs to “cold call” us.
Interrupt us in our busy-ness, and technology-saturated lives
and shake us awake.
Did you notice, how it wasn’t Jeremiah who approached God…
the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,
and initially he put up a fight
but the thing about God’s Word is that it can’t help but be spoken,
it’s a life giving message,
and when we encounter it
we can’t help but be changed.
Your Calling
You might be thinking at this stage,
well that’s all fine, but we’re talking about Jeremiah,
one of the big prophets in the Bible…
how does this apply to me in my ordinariness
with my insecurities, my inexperience
my doubts, my failings…
I’m just average.
Well stop it.
Just stop it.
Jeremiah had similar insecurities:
“Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a child”.
And God said, stop it, Jeremiah.
You think your own self-worthiness has anything to do with this?
I’m calling you and there’s an end to it.
No ifs, no buts, no I’m-not-worth-its, or I-can’t-be-bothereds.
I’m calling you, I will make you worthy, now go.
The same is true for you. Do you believe it?
I love how God calls Jeremiah.
God reaches out and touches him on the mouth
and says, now I have put my words in your mouth.
What if that truth is the same for you?
What if, when you speak, God can be heard?
What if, when you act, God can be seen?
What if, when you made a decision to follow God
it was as if God reached out and touched your mouth
and said: now I have put my words in you?
That’s pretty big, pretty exciting, pretty mind-numbing.
You know, the church has a particular practice
that recognises this call on a person’s life…
baptism.
And so I wondered if we could remind ourselves of our baptism this evening
and remind ourselves of that calling to be God’s witness in the world.
Or if you haven’t baptised, maybe to take a step towards that point of commitment.
On the communion table we have a bowl of water.
We’re going to sing a song taken from Jeremiah’s call,
(it’s new but repetitive and easy to learn)
and as the song is being sung, if you’d like,
come up to the table, dip your fingers in the water,
and like God touched Jeremiah’s mouth,
so touch the water to your lips
as a reminder of your calling to proclaim Jesus Christ in the world.
Now I know with these sorts of things, sometimes it’s awkward
and no one wants to go up.
But I think we need to get over that awkwardness.
Because if we can’t stand up and reaffirm our faith in front of each other,
how on earth are we going to do the same in the world?!
So I encourage you, during this time to make a concrete action
to remember your baptism and to recommit to your life in Christ.