The Call of Jeremiah (The Reverend Deacon Jackie Cherry)

"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.”
These are the words God speaks to the young Jeremiah. This passage, known as “The Call of Jeremiah,” is often read at ordinations and confirmations. I’ve always been skeptical when I hear someone talk about their calling; “God is calling me to…” – fill in blank. Calling me to work with the homeless, calling me to take a new job, calling me to vegetarianism. It seems like a convenient way to do the very thing your heart desires while putting the blame on someone who isn’t around.
But, I have to wonder, what are the criteria of an authentic call? What gives me the right to think that God has called me by name to my ministry? An authentic call originates from the outside; not from within. As Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me.” That phrase as well as, “Thus says the Lord,” is repeated over and over again by the prophets in the Hebrew scriptures. Sometimes a call is auditory and visual. And sometimes, as Jeremiah describes, it’s physical, “Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth.” But always, it is definitive with the prophet repeating the precise words spoken by God, words that compel them to action.
An authentic call pushes us outside of our comfort zone, often to be the messenger of uninvited news. God said, “I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah resisted arguing that he is only a boy and therefore not equipped to be a prophet. God offers reassurance and promises to deliver him. Then God commissions Jeremiah to pluck up and to pull down, destroy and overthrow, and build and plant kingdoms and nations.
I was called by God…but my call was nothing like Jeremiah’s. It happened about ten years ago, I was asleep, alone, in my house. “Jackie,” I heard a voice say so clearly that it woke me up. Again, “Jackie,” and I sat straight up in bed and looked around to see who was calling my name. Nobody was there. Then I heard these words clearly and distinctly: “Don’t be ashamed of your Christianity.” This phrase, “Don’t be ashamed of your Christianity,” was repeated aloud three times with such clarity that even today it is like a recording embedded in my memory. That call was an awakening for me; I understood the words.
Our dear friend Liz Specht coined the term “Secret Deacon” to describe a person who is a deacon at heart, but not ordained by the church. Liz considers herself a Secret Deacon. I wholeheartedly agree that she is the quintessential deacon; Liz Specht is a holy woman, one of the holiest people I know. Well, I thought the Secret Deacon model was a great idea – I could be a deacon and not have to go to school for three years or deal with the grueling ordination process.
The truth is, and this is what God called me on, the Secret Deacon plan was a way for me to remain closeted about my faith. I was a Christian for sure, but I didn’t talk about it much, and I certainly didn’t want my religion to shape my identity. Understand – it’s much easier to come out as gay than it is to come out as a Christian.
Most of us will probably never have the supernatural experience of being woken up from a sound sleep by a voice issuing a command. That’s just as well, because while some might consider it a blessing, there are others who believe hearing voices in the night is a sign of mental illness. There are a thousand books out there with instructions on how to be receptive to God. How to pray, meditate, practice mindfulness, all with the end goal of hearing God when he calls.
But being still and listening for the voice of God doesn’t always work. Sometimes God is silent. In fact, God is silent almost all of the time.
I’d like to suggest that suspending your life waiting to hear God’s call contradicts our Christian responsibility. Today, burning bushes are few and far between. Today, the prophet is moved instead by a burning conviction, perhaps by outrage at the social injustices that burden the people. Look at the example set by the bent-over woman – crippled for 18 years and unable to stand up straight, the unnamed woman refused to sit around and wait for God to come to her. Instead, she hobbled her way to God and made herself known to Jesus. Jesus did not call the bent-over woman until she had placed herself squarely in his line of vision. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
God the Creator is made known through Jesus, and sometimes, before we can hear a call, we have to stand up-on-our-own and make ourselves known to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just set the bent-over woman free. By healing her on the Sabbath, he set the Sabbath day free too. He unbinds the spirits of the people in the synagogue to make room for the possibility of something new. The leaders of the synagogue were mad because Jesus had broken a long established, this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it, rule that binds and burdens. And St. Luke said, The entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things he was doing. 
Today’s prophets are not passive receptacles who recite God’s word verbatim. Today’s prophets actively see and then reflect on the issues in the world around them. This week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his indelible I Have a Dream speech; a speech inspired by the Holy Scriptures. This is how King prayed:
“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”
And King’s dream for the world was no less than to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the same vision Jesus has for us. Reverend Vincent Harding, a scholar and activist who worked with Dr. King, says the anniversary we celebrate is not the anniversary of a speech, but the anniversary of a very important point in history when black people were leading a movement to expand democracy, to deepen democracy, and to make democracy more faithful to its own sayings.
We must take note that after the speech, Dr. King continued his prophetic work in the world. He didn’t get down from podium, get down from the pulpit, in 1963 and say, "We’ve made the speech, we’ve made the march, we’ll see you in 50 years." King knew there was no time to wait around listening for a call. And he was right, this country continues to stagger under the weight of injustice; injustice that bends us over and prevents us from standing up straight: Voters’ rights, immigration, environmental, disparities between whites and blacks in education, employment and incarceration. Injustice so pervasive it could easily be crippling. Dr. King stood up to it all.
He had a vision, and as he proclaimed it his voice shook the earth: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King, Jr. never questioned whether or not his dream would come true. And when this happens, he said, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old blessed spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! Amen.