When did you last get to enjoy sitting by a campfire?
It’s a great thing to be outside, sitting by the fire, staying warm, either taking a moment to reflect, reading a book or having a chat, whatever you like to do around the campfire!
The last time I was by a fire was at a friends’ place with the indoor fireplace variety, but out by a fire happens a bit less often – had a few opportunities to be by the fire here so far, really nice to do when the opportunity comes up!
Why are we talking about campfires?
Because we’re continuing our theme today looking at how God’s word is like fire – we heard how it’s like fire and like a hammer last week, and we continue with fiery themes today.
Last week we heard how the fire of God’s word and its hammer blows can hit us hard at times, the heat gets turned up a bit when we apply God’s word! We’ll get to more of that next week, when God gets ANGRY, the temperature goes through the roof we could say.
But today we’re thinking about fire in terms of how it warms us when we’re cold, how it lights up in the darkness. A campfire is like this, we enjoy the warming glow of the campfire as we sit around it. We can be calm and centred as we look into the fire, as we enjoy the company we’re in around it. A campfire is something to gather around as well, it can be the centre of a gathering > just like God’s word, the central point of our gathering here today.
So how do we get some of that warming glow, how does God’s word centre us and calm us as we hear it today?
Let’s have a look through the interaction we see today between Jeremiah and God, there’s a direct interaction, a conversation Jeremiah has with God.
And remember last week how we talked about taking our time with God’s word, taking notes when things stand out to us, and also sitting in the questions, sitting at the feet of Jesus so we can know him better – today we’ve got a passage to walk through and spend some time doing exactly those things!
So, God says to Jeremiah first:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”
Let’s hear that again, let the meaning of this very first bit sink in: BEFORE I formed you God says, not even while it was happening, but BEFORE it happened. It happened that God knew him BEFORE he was born > how could that be?
We heard this last week, God has always been there and is still there. He is ALMIGHTY GOD, who knows the number of hairs on our heads (some of us have less than others!), he knows our comings and our goings. He has the knowledge, and if we believe as we say we do that he is the almighty and everlasting God, then of course he can know us before we were even born!
We said this in our creed just today, we used the Nicene Creed which we haven’t said together for a fair while, what was the line? ‘We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth (that’s the same as the Apostles Creed) but then in the Nicene Creed we’ve got another bit: [he’s the maker of] all that is, seen and unseen.
So he’s made what we can see AND what we can’t see. This is the confession of faith of millions of Christian people over many years. If we say we believe this, let’s act like we do! These are not only words to say but it’s about the changing of hearts. Give him the glory, give him the credit, give God our worship and admiration, let’s recognise what he’s done for us and where we get to be all because of him. As we know this is no small thing, this is not a minor difference in us as Christian people compared with the world around us: this is life-changing, life-altering, transformational stuff that means we are no longer guilty but are set free, and what news that is to share with the world around us!
So that was the first line, what’s next?
God says, “Before you were born I set you apart”
God knew the way our lives we’re going to go before they went there! He is all-knowing, he is fully aware of all the highs, lows and in-betweens of our lives.
This is true for Jeremiah, but also for us, for all people: God knows you, he knows me, he knows us.
And not just to keep stats on how much he knows, but for another purpose: for us to be set apart.
We know what this means, being set apart: made holy, made right with God, it means we’re given new life and new hope to live in. And again that’s not based on anything we did or will do is it – this decision was not made by us, this decision was made before we were born > very much like being baptized as a baby or young child, God’s grace comes to us when there is no way we could’ve done anything to earn it. It comes to us because God wants it to, because he knows us and he has set us apart.
And this reminds us of probably the most famous line in Jeremiah, much later in chapter 29 verse 11, where God says, in the midst of the Israelites being exiled in Babylon, “For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
It’s beautiful isn’t it, a comforting image, the warm glow of the campfire right there!
And then God says:
“I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”
This is an important job isn’t it. ‘A prophet to the nations.’
What is a prophet, and who are the nations? There is some serious mission work for Jeremiah to do here > God has a role for Jeremiah to play among his own people and among foreign powers. Mission work of proclaiming God’s word – that’s what a prophet does, passing on what God has said, to people who may not want to hear it! Tough gig.
We might think of church leaders, pastors, missionaries, evangelists having this sort of role today, the role of passing on God’s word to those who might not want to hear it. But the truth is we are all in the ‘I don’t want to hear it’ group at times, AND we are all called to hear and to speak God’s word into the lives of others. Not just a role for church leaders or pastors but for anyone who believes in Jesus. We are all ‘appointed’ people who know something about Jesus, can grow in our knowledge of and relationship with him, and can share that journey with others.
So that’s what God leads off with in this conversation, now Jeremiah replies, and what does he say:
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” or we might say “You’re joking mate, what are you talking about!”
Jeremiah says, “I do not know how to speak: I am too young”
2 excuses there. Don’t know how to speak, too young. Ok fair enough, Jeremiah could learn how to speak better and wait until he’s a bit older, sure. We’ve seen this before though haven’t we > about 500 years or so before, rough estimate of when Moses was around, someone else who said to God ‘not me, I can’t do it.’ He also made excuses for God not to use him.
Remember how we’ve got a God who ‘knew us before we were born?’ That knowledge hasn’t gone anywhere! If God can know us then, he surely knows us now!
He knows our weaknesses, our struggles, what we are good at or not so good at. And he calls us anyway, not because we’re going to suddenly be able to do something that we couldn’t do before – although that can happen, we do pray for miracles and God does make miracles happen as we’ve heard in our gospel reading today – but he calls us all that his strength might be revealed in our weakness. Our weakness makes way for God’s strength, he can do what we cannot do.
So God has a pretty rapid-fire response to Jeremiah’s measly excuses doesn’t he! Now God applies the heat, he drops the hammer on Jeremiah’s excuses:
“Do not say, “I am too young.”
You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.”
A swift rebuke here, but just as swiftly God reminds Jeremiah he’s not on his own in this.
‘Do not fear for I am with you,’ one of the most comforting words God has for us, the same words he says to Isaiah, to Moses, and to you and me today. Don’t forget to remember I am with you! I haven’t gone anywhere, I am still here God says.
You will be rescued, you will be safe, taken care of, looked after, a place of safety and security in God’s house will be kept for you!
Jesus will be sitting with you around that campfire, alongside you every step of the way. Pretty comforting words there.
Then it gets intimate, it gets personal for Jeremiah, he is touched by the Lord, he is given God’s own words:
“I have put my words in your mouth.”
There’s some relief here, thank goodness I don’t have to come up with the right words to say – God’s got me!
Not only relief but the power of God’s word too, God’s word carries serious weight. God’s word makes things happen that we can’t do.
And finally God mentions the application of all this, what sort of things are going to happen for Jeremiah as an appointed prophet to the nations:
“See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow”
This is the power of God’s word! Doesn’t always sound good, like acceptance and love and all those good things we know God’s word is about, but here we’ve got uprooting, tearing down, destroying and overthrowing.
So there’s that, but then here’s the ending to our passage today. God says there’s also going to be some building and some planting:
God says to Jeremiah he is “To build and to plant”
As God builds us up in faith, as he plants seeds of faith in our hearts, we are called to build up others in faith and to plant seeds of faith among other people. Nurture the seed of faith within us, and plant it for others to see.
So let’s take that image and feeling of the warming glow of the campfire today, where Jesus sits alongside us, the Holy Spirit goes with us and the Father makes sure we are safe and secure in him.
Because we’re all ‘appointed’ people who know something about Jesus, can grow in our knowledge of and relationship with him, and can share that journey with others.
Tom Kitson 