I wonder what
Jeremiah thought when the Lord spoke to him thus. Did he think he would have a glorious
prophetic ministry? He must have been
quite young given his objection, I am only a youth. He sounds a bit like Moses when he objected
that he didn't speak well. The Lord says
not to worry about it, he was chosen for this work before he was born, and that
the Lord will be with him in this work and will protect him from harm. He will give him the words to say. He is set over nations and kingdoms to destroy
and also to build. Surely he heard that
he is not to be afraid, so he had to know there was something not completely
edifying in the words he would be given, but what a promise the Lord makes to
him to call him to the work. Little could
he have guessed how difficult his life would be in following this call.
In our liturgy on
Sundays we talk about our brother, Jesus Christ. It always makes me a bit
uncomfortable to say those words but here Jesus says we are brothers and
sisters of His if we "do" the will of God. The call is always a call to action, not
study and contemplation alone. The purpose
of those activities is to prepare us to do what we are called to do, bear
witness to Him in word and deed. The parable
is one we see in the lectionary multiple times through the year and sometimes
we focus on one aspect and other times another.
This time it seems that we should pay attention to the fruitfulness of
the seed, is it doing what it is intended to do, produce something. What is it in your life that is keeping you
from producing the fruit God intends?
The work we do is
built on the foundation of Jesus and Him crucified. How would the people you meet every day know
that He is the foundation and cornerstone of your life? If we are Christians we are building our
lives on the foundation that is Jesus and if that is true then everyone you
know should know that truth about you. Whatever
is not Him, all the other things in our lives, our work, our friends, our
hobbies, will come to nothing in the end.
It doesn't mean we shouldn't engage in these things or invest in them,
but our investment in each and every thing in our lives should be based on
producing some return for Him. That is a
high standard but it should absolutely be driving our thoughts. How can this produce fruit for the kingdom? I wonder how our lives would change if we
thought that way?
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