Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!
As we continue our journey in the church season of Epiphany, we recall that it is the season of light and revealing. It is revealing to us exactly who our Messiah is in Jesus Christ and what He has come to do for the life of the world. We’ve encountered many examples of this already. The Wisemen visiting the infant Jesus, revealing that the Gentiles will be drawn to the King of Kings. Our Lord’s Baptism in the Jordan river, the great Theophany that revealed to us our Triune God - the Father speaking from Heaven, the Son of God sanctifying the waters and the Holy Spirit in the appearance of a dove descending upon Him. Then was our Lord’s first sign and miracle at the wedding in Cana of turning water into wine. And last Sunday we had our Lord in the Nazareth Synagogue reading the Scriptures that revealed the very Messiah that Isaiah wrote about was in their midst! The prophet’s words were fulfilled in Christ our Lord. And now on this 4th Sunday after Epiphany, our Messiah marches on. His mission expands as the Kingdom of God is revealed more and more to the world. Miraculous healings are taking place. People are being freed from diseases and demons, both physical and spiritual oppression at the same time. Miraculous stuff is abounding wherever Jesus goes! But the prime directive was what our Lord tells the crowds in verse 43: “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose” (LK 4:43).
It’s kind of a funny thing, when you think about church and the way God has always “got the word out” over the centuries. Preachers a preachin’! That has always been the way from the very beginning! Men have been called to preach and proclaim the Word of God to every culture, language and tribe around the world. People have been the chosen vessel to get this job done. God could have used anything really. He could have printed the message on the sky! Just imagine, you could look up any time and read God’s Word wherever, whenever. Unless of course you can’t read. Then you probably need someone to tell you the message. And maybe this is why God sends out His message of salvation through preachers. That verse that St. Paul writes from 2 Corinthians sticks out to me. “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (4:7). The treasure is the Word of God. The jars of clay are the preachers - vessels of the dust of creation, perhaps rather fragile but purposely so, to draw attention to the great treasure they bear rather than the jar itself.
We have a great reading to illustrate this today with the call of Jeremiah. “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” (1:4-5). How’s that for a Divine Call to a preacher, hey?! You Jeremiah, before you were even a twinkle in your daddy’s eye, you were appointed and called to this task of preaching and getting God’s word out. You would proclaim Good News to the nations who need to hear words of grace and consolation. You would proclaim a stern word of Law to induce repentance in the hearts of sinful people. You would literally be born for this purpose. This would be your life’s work and mission. But even Jeremiah was apprehensive about this daunting task. Like all good preachers do, they like to tell God all the ways they can’t do it. If you remember Moses, he was slow of speech, perhaps he had a stutter or something like that. Or the prophet Jonah, remember him? Go to Nineveh and preach, God said. And what did Jonah do? He ran the opposite direction! But he did manage to still have a whale of a time! So what’s Jeremiahs excuse: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth” (1:6). I’m too young, Lord! I can’t possibly do this task. I need to go play Fortnite with my friends online! “But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord” (1:7-8).
Jeremiah’s excuses are eliminated! The jar isn’t as important as the treasure within. “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth” (1:9) God tells Jeremiah. And truly, this is the same message God tells to all of us as His baptized children. Proclaiming God’s word isn’t only the role of professional church workers. It’s a role for everyone. Sharing the Good News of God’s Kingdom, that Jesus Christ our Lord has been crucified and resurrected to save all who believe, is a mission for us all. So don’t make excuses. I’m too young. I’m too old. I can’t tell my adult children to go to church and baptize my grandkids and take them to Sunday school! … Yes you can and yes you should! “But what if they get mad?!” But what if, what if, what if!? We don’t need to be worried about the “what ifs” when it comes to God’s word. What if they listen, like they did for Jonah? What if they respond favourably like the people of Nineveh did, repenting from their sins and embracing God’s word? You never know unless you try. Don’t be afraid of what “might happen.” Look forward to what might happen! The Lord is with you in your baptism, the same way He was with Jeremiah. So don’t worry. Be faithful to God’s word and share it richly.
And this goes for both God’s word of law and God’s word of gospel too. To recap our confirmation lessons, God’s law has 3 functions: 1) Curb. 2) Mirror. 3) Guide. As a curb, God’s law tells us what not to do, just like a curb stops a car from driving on the sidewalk and running everybody over! Don’t do that! That is sinful, bad and leads to death. All of God’s commandments draw that line in the sand for us, telling us the difference from right and wrong. As a mirror, it “show us our sin.” It shows us that we have done what we were not supposed to do! We have broken God’s laws in our sin and need to repent. So we plead God’s forgiveness for what we have done in thought, word and deed for what we have done and what we have left undone. And finally, we have the guide. God’s law tells us what we should do. This is the good stuff God wants us to do and as we follow His commandments, the world is transformed by works of love and mercy and grace. Simple right?
But St. Paul warns us about this in his second letter to Timothy. As St. Paul encourages young pastor Timothy to preach the word in boldness, he’s also not naive to reality. He writes “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (4:3-4). Yeah we’re pretty much there now in our society! The world has lost its mind and has wandered off into every weird thing known to mankind. Hostility to God and His word - particularly His word of Law - is possibly at an all time high. This is happening in the political worldly realm as well as even in denominations who have largely abandoned the word of God in favour of the fads of the day. It’s all quite anti-Christian. But again, this is not new, right? St. Paul wrote this letter 2000ish years ago! The quest remains the same though throughout all generations: “Preach the word” (4:2). Be faithful to Christ because He has the words of eternal life. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isa 40:8). And as we stand strong on God’s word, we too will stand forever. Preach the word. Amen!
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