JEREMIAH 1:4-10
THE BACKGROUND
Today’s reading is the story of the call of Jeremiah to become a prophet. Jeremiah lived during the time before and during Judah’s exile. In the early years Jeremiah’s life, Judah was full of prophets. But they did not speak for God. These so-called “holy men of God” told the people what they wanted to hear, not what God wanted them to hear. God called on Jeremiah to be a beacon of truth- God’s true spokesman- in a time of trouble, even if it was bad news.
THE DETAIL
- Our passage is the conversation between Jeremiah and God. God tells him that He had chosen him long before he was born. (vv. 4-5)
- Jeremiah tries to weasel out of it, by claiming that he is too young. (v. 6)
- God won’t hear of it. He seems to say “I don’t want to hear it! You’re gonna go where I tell you to go, and say what I tell you to say.” Jeremiah’s not getting off the hook easy. No, he’s not getting off the hook at all. (v. 7)
- God takes a softer approach. He touches Jeremiah’s mouth and says that He’ll supply the words. (vv. 8-9)
- Then, He inaugurates Jeremiah’s mission as prophet. (v. 10)
THE TAKEAWAY
God had big plans for Jeremiah. Jeremiah tried to get out of doing this, because he realized it was going to be a difficult job. But God prevailed, providing Jeremiah with the strength and the words to do God’s work.
We, too, are called to do God’s work in our time and place. It’s not a good idea to resist the call. Better to accept God’s plan for us, and look to Him for the strength and words to carry out the task.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Can you think of any modern day “feel-good” preachers? Do you think they are truly speaking for God?
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-13
THE BACKGROUND
Chapters 12-14 address the problems that this church was having with spiritual gifts, especially with the gift of speaking in tongues. We’ve just spent two weeks studying the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians. Some like to call these three chapters an Oreo cookie on this subject of the abuse of spiritual gifts. If that is so, then today we get to study that white creamy filling.
The last words of chapter 12 were: “But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
THE DETAIL
- Paul starts out with a bang. He gives three examples of outstanding gifts. But then to each he says “without love, I am nothing”. (vv. 1-3)
- In the next paragraph, Paul gives us a beautiful description of what love is and what it is not. It is patient, kind, rejoices in the truth, ears all things believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It is not envious, boastful, arrogant or rude, and does not rejoice in wrongdoing. (vv. 4-7)
- He goes on to say that many gifts will fade away, but love will never end. (v. 8)
- As for the other gifts, we receive them only partially. More is yet to come. (vv. 9-12)
- His parting words tell us which gifts to treasure the most—faith, hope and love. And love is the best of all. (v. 13)
THE TAKEAWAY
We always read this chapter 13 at weddings. We call it the love chapter. But I have news for you. Paul is not talking about romantic love, the love between two people. He is talking about the love that we share as a community of Christ. He’s talking about the love that comes with sharing each other’s burdens and weaknesses; relying on each other’s strengths and spiritual gifts. When we all shed ourselves of our petty grudges, and embrace one another with this love, we truly become Christ’s body in this time and place.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Have you ever experienced this sort of love at your church, or within a group of Christian friends? It is a rare and beautiful thing. In this reading, Paul is saying “GET THAT LOVE!” How do we make this happen within our faith-group?
LUKE 4:21-20
THE BACKGROUND
As we read last week (in Luke 4:14-20), this story occurs at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He starts in the region surrounding his home village of Nazareth. Now, he’s speaking in his home “church” (synagogue, actually). He has just read a prophecy from Isaiah, which proclaims a golden jubilee year. People look to him for his explanation.
THE DETAIL
- He surprises them by telling them that the prophecy has been fulfilled by his reading it. (v. 21)
- At first, they were amazed at his reading and his words. But then, they had second thoughts. “Wait a minute, isn’t this is that carpenter Joseph’s son?” (v. 22)
- Jesus takes the offensive. He knows where this is headed; he knows what they’re going to say He’s heard it all before. (v. 23)
- He reminds them of another saying—that a prophet is never accepted in his own land. Then, he goes on to give them examples from two all-star prophets, Elijah and Elisha.
- When there was a 3-year famine in the land, Elijah went to live with a widow in a foreign land, instead of with one of the many widows in Judah.
- Elisha cleansed a Syrian (non-Jewish) leper instead of one of the many Jewish lepers.
Jesus was clearly telling them that their hearts were hardened to the point that they could not see who he really was. (vv. 24-27)
- This was more that they could bear, so they drove him out of town in a rage. They were prepared to throw him off a cliff, but he mysteriously just walks away. (vv. 29-30)
THE TAKEAWAY
On the one hand, I can see the scene from the perspective of the Nazarene villagers. They weren’t expecting much from this son of a carpenter. After all, they had watched him grow up. Of course they had heard about the great things he had done in other Galilean villages, and they wanted to see this for themselves. “But this Jesus has changed. He’s talking crazy stuff…”
We, of course, know the whole story. We know that Jesus was actually not Joseph’s son, but the son of God.
This is a classic case of people’s misguided expectations coming in conflict with God’s plan. They had it all figured out, but they were wrong.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
I wonder how often we allow our human perspective to interfere with the work of God? We allow our frustrations and opinions to affect our actions. We end up doing a lot of things that Jesus would never do. Can you think of an example from your life?