Jeremiah 1:4-10, the First Reading appointed for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany in the Year of Luke, is an interesting pairing with the Gospel reading from Luke 4. In each text we have one who has been set apart from before birth to preach repentance to God's people. In Jeremiah's case, we get a snippet here of his call story while yet a lad. With Jesus, he is already an adult and returning to the town of his youth. In both cases it will be fruitful for the preacher to identify with those to whom the Word is spoken, and to preach that word as one who has also received it.
(The following questions have been developed to explore the function of the Word in the text, a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers. Preachers of Law and Gospel understand that as the Word functions, so must the sermon. For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? This is a call story, and so, as such, the Word is functioning as a classic call to obedience. Traditionally a call to obedience is understood as an invitation to live in a certain way in response to God's grace in Christ. Here that grace is announced as God's foreknowledge and God's promise that "I am with you to deliver you."
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? There is little evidence of Law here, except in Yahweh's response to Jeremiah's insistence that he is only a boy. Even that response is mild, not what we might term a summons to repentance. Also, the Word functioning as Gospel, that is to say, declaring God's favor or forgiveness, is not present, except in the sense noted above, that God will be present to deliver the prophet from his enemies.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? Since it is always best to identify with those to whom the Word is spoken, we identify here with Jeremiah. We are those who are diffident in the face of God's call. We are afraid to speak truth, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, even though to do so will lead to building and planting anew.
4. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? In spite of this being primarily a call to obedience, we can use the terms at the end of the passage to come up with couplets: pluck up/plant; destroy/build up.
5. Exegetical work: One of the most startling parts of Jeremiah's call is that Yahweh says that he has been set aside to be "a prophet to the nations." The Hebrew term for nations is goyim, a word often translated "Gentiles.". So in Yahweh's promise to him, he is speaking not only of his calling to the nation of Israel, but his calling to the nations outside of God's covenant. If we look at the book as a whole, we see this playing out, as the first half of the book is directed primarily at the Jews, but the latter half is directed at the Gentiles. In both cases, Jeremiah announces God's plan to pluck up and destroy as well as to build and plant. In a parallel with the Gospel, Jesus also, of course, was appointed to be a prophet to the nations. Jesus, like Jeremiah, also speaks words of rebuke as well as words of comfort, tearing down and building up. In speaking of that call there is an interesting word-play going on, as Jeremiah is called to natosh, to natotz, and to natoah, to pluck up, to tear down, and to plant. This might have been a memory device for the oral learner. I like how the gifted 4th century exegete, Jerome, finds connections with Jeremiah's call and that of Jesus: "It is important to observe here that two joys succeed four sorrows. The good cannot be built up unless the evil is destroyed, nor can the best be planted unless the worst is eradicated. For 'every plant that the heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted,' and every building that does not have its foundation on rock but was built on sand is undermined and destroyed by the word of God. But that which Jesus will consume by the breath of his mouth and destroy by the coming of his presence, indeed, all sacrilege and perverse doctrine, he will annihilate forever." (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, OT, vol. XII, p. 8)
Blessings on your proclamation!
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