Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
July 2, 2006
Jeremiah 1: 4-12
In a recent Christian Century magazine article, Rob Merola, an Episcopal pastor, shared this true story. “Rephibia is the kind of pet store that most other stores don’t want around. It doesn’t carry cats or dogs or anything else that is cute and cuddly. All its animals are cold-blooded, and some are quite large. The first thing you see as you walk in the door is a massive python almost 18 feet long. But there are also monitor lizards that are bigger than dogs, frogs the size of dinner plates (looking strangely like Jobba the Hutt), and even an alligator snapping turtle that is so big you think it might be older than you are.
“Because most people don’t even want to know that animals like these exist, the store is not located in the best part of town. So, when the guy who comes in on Christmas Eve is slightly inebriated, storeowner, Tommy Montrose, is not surprised. He has seen worse. The customer explains that he has always wanted a python and has finally figured out how to get it. He’ll give it to his wife as a present for Christmas. (yes, this is a true story! As Dave Berry says, “I’m not making this up.”) And he doesn’t want a small python either. He chooses a snake over ten feet long. He figures that since snakes like to hide in tight, dark places, he can wrap it up in a box, put it under the Christmas tree, and it will be just fine. He has convinced himself his wife will love it.
“He purchases the snake, wraps it up, goes home and puts it under the tree with the rest of the presents. Then he goes upstairs and passes out. About three in the morning, his wife tries to wake him. She thinks she has heard a crash in the living room and is afraid someone is in the house. But her husband is still pretty much out of it and cannot be roused. She hears another sound and decides to check it out for herself. Taking a flashlight, she heads downstairs. She goes into the living room and freezes. Someone is in the house and has knocked over the Christmas tree. As she shines her light on the fallen tree, she notices movement. And then she sees it – the triangular head, a disturbingly large triangular head, with unblinking slits for eyes, the flashing of a forked tongue. Ah yes, it seems that her husband did not turn off the Christmas tree lights when he came home and the heat from the lights raised the blood temperature of the snake. Not waiting for morning, it had decided to do a little exploring.
“Meanwhile, back at Rephibia, Tommy Montrose comes into the store as he does every day, including Christmas morning, to take care of his animals. He is surprised to see so many messages on his answering machine. Listening to them, he finds they are all from one man who has been calling every fifteen minutes since about 3 a.m., when his wife finally woke him up. There is a lot of yelling in the background. It seems that his wife is not particularly fond of her Christmas present. In fact, he is hearing something like ‘this marriage is over if he doesn’t return it.’
“What should Tommy do? After all, a sale is a sale and it was nice to have the extra Christmas cash. If the guy doesn’t want the snake he can give it to the zoo. Technically, this is not Tommy’s problem. He fulfilled his end of the bargain. But, he doesn’t really run Rephibia for the money. In many ways he is a little boy who never outgrew his love for snakes. His animals are his passion. He cares about them, and in the caring there is an obligation. Tommy takes the snake back.”
In the caring, there is an obligation. Strong word…obligation. Not a word we hear very much these days. The dictionary tells us that the word carries with it the idea of being constrained, bound, compelled and indebted. Synonyms are words such as accountability, burden, commitment. It seems to me that a lot of people these days spend a lot of time running away from words like that. “I don’t want to be tied down to any long-term commitments, I don’t want to feel constrained in any way, I don’t want to have some sort of obligation.” People who work in the non-profit world hear comments like that all the time.
So Jeremiah is walking along, minding his own business, feeling unconstrained, unburdened, uncommitted in any way, when God decides to have a little conversation with him. “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.” “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” What wonderful poetry, beautiful words, comforting words…or maybe discomforting words. Jeremiah isn’t sure he likes what God has to say. In fact, his faithful, committed, courageous response to these words, to this call from God, is, “You can’t be serious! You can’t be talking to me! I’m too young, I’m a terrible public speaker. I don’t have time, I need to walk the dog and mow the lawn. I can’t do this!” Jeremiah does not want the job. He does not want the commitment, does not want to feel obligated to God.
The call of Jeremiah really isn’t about Jeremiah at all. It’s about God – the God who can pluck up and break down, who can destroy and build, the God who can bring endings and who can bring amazing new beginnings in situations that seemed hopeless and closed. But how will the will of God be made known? How will this word of God be spoken? That’s where Jeremiah comes in. But Jeremiah resists. Who wants to share such a burden, who wants to speak a word many will not want to hear? But the word overrules his objection. The word obliges him to speak.
I realize that I may be speaking a foreign language this morning. My efforts to speak Spanish in Nicaragua might have made more sense than this sermon. After all, what is July 4th if not a celebration of the land of the free, as long as you overlook the scrutiny of phone calls and bank records and the prison at Guantanomo. Today and the next couple of days, we will read and hear many words celebrating our freedom. We will boast that we have more freedom than any other people on earth. Freedom is what this holiday is all about. We are free to do as we please, as long as no one gets hurt. We are free not to do what we choose not to do. As Justice William O. Douglas said, “The right to be left alone is the beginning of freedom.”
But then here is Jeremiah, confronted by a God who won’t leave him alone, who will not allow him to be a free agent, unattached, un-obligated, able to do whatever he wants. I wonder, could this same word that is spoken to Jeremiah, be spoken to us, to people of faith? “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and now I have some work for you to do.”
What we find in Jeremiah, what we find in Jesus of Nazareth, is really a very counter-cultural view of freedom. Peter Gomes of Harvard University explains it with these words: “In a world of rampant individualism and materialism, the hard task is to use freedom so that we do not become slaves to what freedom allows us to obtain. Such freedom is a freedom of affirmation, of affirming our pursuit of the good and of affirming our participation in that good for others…. This is a freedom that disciplines and liberates at the same time, that engages us in nothing less than the maintenance of the world...freedom becomes the means to help us practice the three great theological virtues of faith, hope, and love.”
‘Freedom that disciplines and liberates…’ the discipline of freedom…. When are we most free? When we are doing whatever we want? I would argue that for people of faith, for followers of Jesus, we are in fact most free, most liberated, when we seek to live out the identity bestowed upon us in baptism, when we begin to understand that finally our lives are not primarily about us, indeed, that they are not finally our own. As one pastor has said, “To be a follower of Jesus, means that there are some things for us that are not optional. We have obligations. It goes with the territory. A disciple of Jesus is someone who, in every situation, tries to respond to other people as Jesus responded. Christians are those who through baptism have signed on, have committed themselves to obey Jesus’ commandment to love.”
A man stood before God, his heart breaking from the pain and injustice in the world. “Dear God,” he cried out, “look at all the suffering, anguish and distress in the world. Why don’t you send help?”
God responded, “I did send help. I sent you.” In the caring, there is an obligation.
“Before I formed you in the womb… ” Again, I believe we are most free when we seek to be the people God created us to be, to live lives worthy of our Lord, to live lives in thankfulness for all he has done for us. Is this onerous obligation? Not hardly. In the words of Rob Merola, “Make no mistake. For children of God and co-heirs of Christ who are led by the Sprit, our obligation is not something carried out begrudgingly and with resentment. It is the expression of our deepest love and truest heart, a clear and unambiguous proclamation to the world of how much we care about God, others, and living life well.”