"A Clear Word from God"
Sermon Presented September 30, 2007
Jeremiah 32:1-15
On the last night of my recent high school reunion, I was seated across the table from a classmate who was a school leader and athlete. Before we even began to eat, he started bombarding me with questions about how I knew I was called to be a minister, my thoughts on miracles, and God's answer to prayer. I wanted to raise my hands and say: "Stop! I'm on vacation! Please treat me as you would anyone else at the table", but I didn't. I tried to answer as best I could, but these weren't simple questions with easy answers, and follow-up questions kept coming.
This was an uncomfortable exchange for me! There were ten people seated at our table and Butch was the third person to my left. With 150 people being served and all of the background noise, our conversation was front and center!
After dinner, Butch came around the table, pulled up a chair and continued the conversation. It was then that I understood what had prompted his questions. Last Spring, he was spending a couple of months in California and had a lung infection that he couldn't shake. He went to a doctor, who wouldn't prescribe antibiotics unless he had a chest x-ray. He thought this was ridiculous, but because he needed the meds, he had the x-ray. Immediately after arriving back at the condo, he received a call from the hospital to come in immediately for an MRI. He saw no point to this, so he went to the golf course. He received another call telling him he must get the test, so he went. A radiologist told him he needed immediate surgery because he had a large tumor on one lung and it looked as though it was malignant. The radiologist gave him the name and number of a surgeon. Butch obtained a copy of the radiology report and called his family physician in St. Joseph, another member of our class and read the report to him. Bob told him to get on the next flight home.
From that moment, everything moved quickly. From St. Joseph, Butch flew to M. B. Anderson's, where the surgery was performed a day and a half later at 6:00 AM. In the meantime, people in California and Missouri were praying for him. During a lengthy surgery, the tumor was removed. Tests showed that the tumor was benign and outside of the lung, and there was no need for follow-up treatment.
Butch's real questions were: "Do you think God changed the tumor from malignant to benign and moved it from inside the lung to the outside? Do you believe God does this kind of miracle? " Butch had been asked to share his testimony, and he didn't know what to say.
I answered as best I could. I told him that I believe in miracles, but I doubt if God changed the content of the tumor or moved it outside of his lung. I then shared that I believed that the real miracle for him was how this experience changed his life, because he has changed dramatically! He treasures each day, where before he took life for granted. He appreciates his family even more than before, and each trip to the golf course is a reminder to him of how good life is. He experiences God differently and is grateful to God for what he has.
How do we recognize a word from God and how do we test it? The prophet Jeremiah was faced with questions like this. It's 587 BCE and Jeremiah has prophesied to Zedekiah, the puppet king of Judah that God wants him to surrender to the Babylonians. Because Zedekiah doesn't want to surrender and doesn't believe God spoke the word, he orders the prophet arrested for treason and places him under house arrest in the palace in Jerusalem. The city is desolate; food and water are in short supply; disease is rampant; and property is of no value. In the midst of this hopelessness, God again speaks to Jeremiah. Hear the message from Jeremiah 32:1-15.
What is going on here? First God tells Jeremiah to prophesy the defeat of the nation of Judah and now Jeremiah understands that he is to buy property there! It doesn't make sense! Real estate agents tell us that location is the operative word for property sales, and property in a nation under siege doesn't sound like a good investment. However, this public purchase becomes a sign of hope - that one day, God will bring them back to their land.
When I preached this text four years ago, I zeroed in on the topic of hope. This was a logical direction to go with it then. However, my conversation with Butch gave me a new focus for this sermon. How do we know that a word we believe to be from God is really from God, and if we believe it is from God, what should we do with it? I believe this text gives us some insight to these questions.
First, a word needs confirmation. When I spoke my call to pastoral ministry to someone I trusted, she immediately confirmed that she also believed this was my call. In contrast, I'm convinced that some people in my seminary class who also believed they were called to pastoral ministry had only heard what they wanted to hear. In my opinion, their obvious psychological and intellectual deficits should have kept them out of seminary. How could I say I heard correctly and they did not? How could I question their call? When we believe we have a message from God, we need to check it out with someone who not only has discernment, but will also be honest with us. Jeremiah's confirmation came when his cousin asked him to purchase the farm - exactly what God had said would happen.
The next step is to act on that word. If we do nothing, the word helps no one. God gives people choices - to accept or reject a message. What do we do? After I graduated from seminary, I had a position at a Kansas City church with very little pay. I was invited by a pastor friend to talk with him about a full-time associate pastor's position at his church with the primary emphasis on Christian Education. At first I was excited about the opportunity, but the morning I went to talk with him, I was in tears. This wasn't what I wanted. I believed my gifts were preaching and pastoral care and not ordering Sunday school literature and training teachers. I went to the interview and told Mike that this wasn't right for me. Jeremiah acted on God's word by purchasing the land and sealing the deed for the future. I declined the offer to pursue the position. Both Jeremiah and I needed to act on the word we received.
The message to invest in property in Judah didn't make sense! It would be like investing in Enron or WorldCom today! There isn't a good reason to buy the stock now or the land then - even if it's cheap. Because Jeremiah believed that God caused the crisis, he couldn't understand God's command to buy the farm. This is where faith in God's wisdom comes into play. In the context of God, we witness the transformation of the negative and foolish into the positive and wise. And this can only be seen as an aftermath to obedience.
Part of discernment is the understanding that a word from God will be consistent with the nature of God. We read of people who claim that God told them to kill someone or do an unethical act. People who are passionate about a cause sometimes justify their actions as being God's will. A good test is to ask if the understood act is consistent with God's nature - if it's something Jesus would do.
The next insight is to share God's word with others. When we do this it strengthens the faith of those who hear as well as our own faith. In Jeremiah's case, the message strengthened the faith of a nation that would soon go into exile. The witnesses to the act were strengthened in their faith that God would provide for them. It wasn't until many years later that God's people returned from exile, but the action engendered hope and sustained them during captivity. It symbolized God's intent to provide a future beyond the present judgment.
Jeremiah's original prophecy was a dire word, and we don't like to speak or hear dire words. The word spoke captivity, desolation and the imprisonment of the king. By daring to speak that word, Jeremiah landed in prison. And yet, God gave the people another word that Jeremiah was privileged to speak. The second word offered hope.
God spoke to Jeremiah and Jeremiah recognized God. We don't usually have that confident recognition. The impressions we get during prayer, while reading the newspaper or Bible, during a visit with a friend, or while listening to a speech or sermon can be more difficult to understand. If it is a strong impression, check it out with another before you act. Don't go off half cocked!
Are there actions we need to take - individually or as a congregation - as a response to God's word to us? I have thought about this a great deal lately. If we sit on ideas and fail to act, our hope may die. I invite you to pray about what actions this congregation needs to take to push us out of limbo and move us toward a new vision. What is God's word? Shall we buy a field?
