{"id":511391,"date":"2001-01-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-01-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-17T16:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T20:44:24","slug":"in-the-days-before-kindergarten-epiphany-4-c-2001","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/in-the-days-before-kindergarten-epiphany-4-c-2001\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Days before Kindergarten…, Epiphany 4 (C) – 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the days before kindergarten gave pupils their first taste of learning, a teacher gave a first grader a gift he would use every day of his life. She taught him to read. The teacher, whose name was Nanny Arbuckle, \u201cloved\u201d her pupils into learning and taught them the joy of school. In a way, though, she taught them too well. Their attachment to her left them terribly fearful of 2nd Grade. Imagine their surprise and chagrin to be called by the school system to move on to another grade \u2014 a new class \u2014 a challenge they had not imagined and for which they felt unprepared. Many panicked when they realized Nanny would not be their teacher forever and that they would have to move up to a new class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, Nanny and the pupils\u2019 parents reassured them, the students were promoted to the next grade, and it all worked out. The experience, though, gives us a tiny glimmer of understanding, a sense of what Jeremiah felt as a young man when he was called by the Lord to be a prophet to the nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine poor Jeremiah \u2013 minding his own business, when suddenly God barged into his life \u2013 when he heard God\u2019s call to him. Calling him to be God\u2019s prophet, to speak God\u2019s word to the people. And he was not called to be just any old prophet. God would set him \u201cover nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah resisted. He was reluctant to obey this call, much as Moses, Noah, and Jonah, among other Old Testament characters, had been. But God wouldn\u2019t take a simple, \u201cNo,\u201d or any kind of \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So God and Jeremiah engaged in a little dialogue. God said, \u201cI picked you out \u2013 even before you were born \u2013 I chose you to be my prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah replied, \u201cO, no, I don\u2019t even know how to speak. I am only a youth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God countered, \u201cDon\u2019t say that. For to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you shall speak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah pled out of fear. God assured him, \u201cBe not afraid for I am with you to deliver you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Jeremiah was speechless. But he must have continued to indicate his resistance to God\u2019s call, until finally, as Jeremiah remembered, \u201cThe Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, \u2018Behold I have put my words in your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This dialogue was critical for Jeremiah\u2019s decision, in a way similar to that of many other leaders of the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we should pause to wonder why God, in biblical times, seems to have continually chosen the most unwilling characters to do God\u2019s will. Why would God have enlisted so young and inexperienced a person as Jeremiah for so awesome a task?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obvious answer is that the one God called was called for qualities other than gifted speech. We can be certain that Jeremiah\u2019s success rested, not within himself, but on God\u2019s word and God\u2019s strength, as God promised this reluctant prophet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, as we learn from the latter chapters of the Book of Jeremiah, all the power and success of Jeremiah\u2019s life resulted from his new relationship with God. As his dialogue with God continued, as God taught him what to tell the people in God\u2019s name, God empowered Jeremiah with the strength and courage to do the work he was given to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremiah was able to move ahead into the new day because he learned to trust God\u2019s assurance. God said that, despite whatever hesitations Jeremiah might have felt, God absolutely wanted him to be a prophet and would support and sustain him. God would love Jeremiah as would no other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not the end of the sermon, though. We don\u2019t get off lightly here. We don\u2019t get the comfort of just learning about God\u2019s dialogue with Jeremiah. For God did not limit to Bible times the blowing of God\u2019s spirit among God\u2019s people. God\u2019s spirit moves among us in our day as well. So we might ask, \u201cAre we, too, called by God as Jeremiah was called?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often we must confess our reluctance to heed God\u2019s call. We can always find a reason not to continue the journey of faith and commitment to which we feel God calling us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n