FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY Year C January 30, 2022
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Jeremiah
1:4-10 • Psalm
71:1-6 • 1
Corinthians 13:1-13 • Luke
4:21-30
Have you heard of the “Tall
Poppy” syndrome? In Christian circles we
quote our Gospel reading and say, “a prophet is never accepted in their home
town”. In Australia we’d simply say it
is the tall poppy syndrome.
In essence it is the
rejection of a person because of our perception that they are just one of us
and when they appear to have success, beyond our own experience, we can’t
comprehend it. And that is the nice
definition. A more truthful and blunt
definition would be to simply name it as ugly jealousy.
In a way, the rejection is
due to a perception.
Have you ever had someone
have a perception of you that you just can’t change? I have.
I was studying at the conservatorium of music and doing performances
with the Jazz department. Even though I
would do my solo gigs on the weekend, carrying and setting up all my own
equipment, for some reason I was labelled as Barbie who wouldn’t lift a finger
to help in case I broke a nail. I
remember one time as I was carrying gear, I put it in place and turned, empty
handed to go and get the next load. The
person in charge had a go at me for not having anything in my hands and told me
to go and help.
Perceptions can be
completely false and lead to others having the same misconception because of
the way we talk about them. Are there
any people that we have misjudged?
Another aspect of the
perception is that people can become what we judge them to be because if we say
it to them enough, they start to believe it.
There is a meme I have seen often on social media. It is often attributed as a quote from
Einstein, but where it really originated, no one seems to know. It is this;
"Everyone is a genius. But if
you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid."
Who are we and what are
we? The truth of our identity is found
in God. What God says about us is the
bottom line and a truth beyond all perceptions.
In our first reading we find
a young prophet who does not see himself as anything significant, let alone a
prophet. Jeremiah was too young to be
taken seriously, what’s more he was in his father’s shadow. His father was the priest Hilkiah. While the fact that Jeremiah’s father was
priest, meant that Jeremiah was likely to have a thorough knowledge of the
scriptures, it is clear from our reading that Jeremiah felt very insignificant
in the bigger scheme of things, yet God chose him and gave him a reassurance that
leaves a legacy of truth for us all.
God explains to Jeremiah
that God had chosen him before he was born.
In fact we read that God had chosen him before he formed him in the
womb. How wonderful it is to know that God
not only chooses us, but that there are aspects in our being and nature that
are there, because that is the way that God formed us in the womb.
Even though Jeremiah feels
that he is too young and there is a perception that his youth might disqualify
him from being taken seriously, God anoints him as a prophet to the nations and
admonishes him, saying, “Don’t say I am just a boy”.
We may feel we are
insignificant, but God says to us, “Don’t say that you are Just…that… . “ what
ever it is that you feel…. He says, “I
have chosen you…. I chose you before I formed you in the womb”. Just sit with that for a moment and let it
sink in……
Jeremiah was also known as
the weeping prophet. He had great
compassion, and had the difficult task of telling the nations that they needed
to repent. Can you imagine… he was
possibly about 20 years old and being told to proclaim about disaster that was
coming because of the sin of the nation.
Hmmm… I wonder where the
prophets are today and what they would say….
Do we have any ways in our society that God would deem sinful? Are the laws of the land at any time or in
any way against the values that we find in God?
I’ll leave that as a point
to ponder, but most importantly, point out that God is a compassionate
God. When God asked Jeremiah to proclaim
disaster to the nations it was God giving the nations a chance to repent to
change and to be saved. In every
prophetic disaster it was God’s compassionate way of saying, “you are hurting
my children. You need to change”. Do you remember Jonah and the people of
Nineveh? The Ninevites repented and God
did not send the disaster.
Jeremiah was a powerful
prophet because he had such compassion and love for those to whom he had to
give the prophetic word. He expressed
the heart of God and embodied the love described in the letter to the Corinthians;
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and
of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
Jeremiah was something… he
was a faithful prophet. Where is the
faithful prophet today? I suspect some
in the freedom rally thought that they were being faithful prophets…. But the
proof would be in their love. Do they
have the deep compassionate love of God.
Are they speaking up for the voiceless… and are they protecting the
vulnerable, or are they causing fear and division? And I don’t actually have the answer. Are our own opinions being voiced in a
way that causes division and hurt? Are we
speaking up for the voiceless and vulnerable?
I can tell you that as a compassionate society, we ought to be concerned
about protecting the vulnerable and not just counting them as collateral
damage. Sometimes we need to stand up for things or
against things, but if we do this without love, scripture tells us, and makes
it clear, that we are nothing but a clanging cymbal.
Last week we read that Jesus
had just proclaimed that the prophecy from Isaiah was being fulfilled. He proclaimed freedom and the year of the
Lord’s favour. People enjoyed that
speech, but when he continued to talk about how they would reject him and then
talk about the prophets, and how they were rejected by their own people, the
people were so enraged that wanted to throw Jesus off a cliff. The truth hurts I guess.
It was pride that stopped
them from hearing God’s message. It was
also fear and jealousy that stopped the people from accepting the Good
News. Actually it is interesting that Jesus
uses the example of Naaman who was cleansed of leprosy, as he nearly let pride
get in the way of his healing. Perhaps
our world can be healed in the same way…. Letting go of our pride and humbling
ourselves….
Naaman was told to plunge 7 times in the river
Jordan. Naaman was indignant and wasn’t
going to wash in the muddy river, but his servants spoke up. We could say, they were minor prophets… and
little insignificant ones, who were not even identified by name, but without
them there would have been no healing.
We were chosen before God
formed us in the womb. We are not
insignificant, but we all need encouragement to know that the little things we
do have a great consequence. It is
possible that the best thing we can do for each other is to encourage each
other…. To look for the great in each other and to strive to see each other as
God’s purposely designed and chosen people.
Our nation is in need of
healing and it isn’t just healing from COVID-19. Our nation and our world is divided and
hurting. People are feeling frightened,
rejected and that they have no power or control over their lives. For our nation to be healed we need to humble
ourselves before God and rid ourselves of hard-hearted pride. We need hearts filled with the love of God
and to be encouraged that we, like Jeremiah, though feeling insignificant have
the ability to bring about great change when we speak the words of God.
May we be filled with the
Holy Spirit of Jesus, whose anointing we share, to bring Good news to the
poor. To proclaim release to the
prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to
proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
Today, this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing, if only you
accept the mission.
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