God's Calling ~ Jeremiah Redux

 

See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant ~ Jeremiah 1:10

Jeremiah’s call and commission comes from God and his first assignment is to preach the sermon above.  Not exactly the easiest thing to say.  Let’s hope the offering was received before the sermon that day!  The verbs in the passage (pluck/pull/destroy/overthrow) are often seen through a negative lens.  We are a culture that loves growth and success and building, not dismantling or destroying.

Yet, I would suggest there are good moments to pluck up and pull down.

What about an invasive weed that can choke a healthy plant?

What about pulling down personal/communal habits that can cause hurt and harm to another.

I certainly want to pluck up, pull down, do what I can to overthrow racism and homophobia that do not honor a person as created in God’s image.

To dismantle systems that continue to push the people to the fringe and fray generation after generation.

Because of our tendency to only hear, “pluck” and “pull” down as negative, we may not consider how important this work can be with God. 

I wonder is there something in your life you would like to uproot?  Perhaps it involves your health~ physically or mentally.  Perhaps what you’d like to overthrow is a perspective or habit that is causing hurt to yourself or others.  Perhaps what you’d like to tear down are ways of being that are not life giving. 

Jeremiah was sent to people who were going through the motions religiously.  He was sent to a political system where Kings were oppressing their own people.  He lived in a time where priests preached passionately about doing justice and loving kindness and walking humbly with God but those words did not change the people’s hearts.  Like an internal weed, sometimes I need to tend to the garden of my soul.  Like walls of division, sometimes I need to tend to the systems that keep me segregated and separated.  Once the soil of my soul has been cleared, then with God’s grace and love, I can be ready to envision what might be around me.

Today, ponder where you might want to pluck up or what needs to be pulled down personally, in your family, in our church, and country.  What could be built if we had space and grace and a place for all to dream and envision a new way of being where all can thrive?  May the response to that question be a living prayer you embody each day this week.  Amen.