Go Where I Send Thee

Earlier this week I was with a group discussing this Sunday’s Old Testament reading from Jeremiah. For days afterwards I had a song running over and over in my head. Those of you of a certain generation will remember it: "Jeremiah was a bullfrog. He was a good friend of mine." Over and over and over in my head. More recently, that song has been displaced by another… mercifully displaced by another. I’m not sure how well known it is; I know it through Peter, Paul and Mary. "Children, go where I send thee. How shall I send thee?" Children, go where I send thee.

I realize that for some of you, the total result of this sermon may be to lodge one of these songs in your mind for hours or days to come, accompanying you wherever you go, repeating over and over and over again in your head. And that wouldn’t be a bad result. Because the main thing I want to talk about is taking what we are given here, what we experience here… taking the Lord’s song with us from here as we go away from here.

Children, go where I send thee. God says to each of us: My child, go where I send thee. Where is God sending you? A question each of us should ask ourselves. Where, or to whom, am I being sent? We say it every Sunday. "Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart." Or, a little more obliquely in Rite 1: "We humbly beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in." I think there is a tendency as we hear and pray these words to interpret them as a prayer for God’s company as we go about our daily lives… for God to keep us company… and maybe the additional hope that God will guide or support us in the decisions of activities that are part of our routine Monday through Saturday wanderings.

And, of course, that is a good prayer, to be accompanied by God. But maybe there is even more to the Christian life than the hope that God will ride shotgun as we go about doing what we always to do. Children, go where I send thee, God says. Maybe the Christian life is about being sent by God to some other place where God wants us to go to do what God want us to do. Where is God sending you?

Both the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah and the Gospel reading today shed light on God’s directive sending us forth. The reading from Jeremiah is written as Jeremiah’s own description of his call to be a prophet. And remember that no less a figure than Moses, in the Book of Numbers, reminds us that all of God’s people… all of God’s people… in some way, shape or form are called to be prophets. Jeremiah is very clear that he is sent, directed. Jeremiah had no choice. From the womb, God knew him. For every single minute of his life, God intended him for this task. God sent him to speak God’s word to the people to whom God commanded him to speak.

And the prophet’s word, the prophet’s task… remembering that all of the people of God are called from the womb to be prophets… the prophet’s word is always countercultural. That’s why it is spoken; that’s why it is needed. Prophets bring God’s word, God’s presence, to a place where that word is not known or not heard. All of God’s people are sent as prophets to people or places where the word of God does not dominate in culture. Prophets are always countercultural. Sometimes the prophets… we bring a word of judgment against the secular status quo; sometimes we bring a prophetic word of hope to counter a culture in despair… sometimes prophets bring a reminder of life’s sacred holiness in contrast to a culture of competitive materialism. As the people of God, we are always sent to bring God’s word to a people or a place or a culture that is not already hearing or heeding that word. So, where is God sending you?

It may not be where you expect. The people of Nazareth thought they understood God’s ways, and as Jesus’ own neighbors and kin they expected to be the recipients of his ministry. They expected Jesus to perform a few self-congratulatory parlor tricks for their benefit. They seem to have thought that their now famous townsman might autograph a few copies of the Torah for them and then leave them in complacent peace. But most of what Jesus seems to be saying in today’s Gospel passage is that his ministry is not about perpetuating the status quo, not about affirming existing presumptions. It is about bringing the word and presence of God to those who do not know or have it. Naaman and the widow at Zarephath were Gentiles, for God’s sake! Gentiles. And Jesus was sent to bring God even to the Gentiles and he seemed to suggest that maybe the people of Nazareth, if they really wanted to share in his light, should do the same. Where is God sending you? Probably to some place or task that you do not expect. And almost certainly to someplace that is out of your way, off your beaten path, outside or beyond your normal routine.

Where is God sending you? Where can you go to bring God’s word, God’s presence to people who do not know or hear God in their lives? What culture do you have access to that needs the Word of God? The prophet’s task is bound to be difficult and uncomfortable. No wonder we avoid it. But that’s maybe the best way to recognize your own call… It will be difficult and uncomfortable. A minor example: I have recently committed myself to a certain degree of political activism. Don’t worry; you won’t even notice the difference. All that I am doing is sending e-mail letters, with the help of the Episcopal Public Policy Network, to elected officials. Sending them as an Episcopal Christian. But even that is new for me and way outside my comfort zone. Washington is a culture I have at least electronic access to that needs, I believe, to hear my prophetic voice. What culture do you have access to that needs to hear God’s word, know God’s presence? Where is God sending you? Maybe it is to a political culture. Maybe it is to some element of your social or local culture or activities or job, where a word of mercy or hope in God’s name is needed. Maybe it is the culture of your own family. Where God’s word is not spoken or heard, but is needed. You are being sent to something new, probably difficult and uncomfortable… but not necessarily far away.

Jeremiah worried that he was not up to the prophet’s task, that he did not have the skills or maturity. And Jeremiah heard God say, "Don’t be afraid. I will be with you to deliver you, and I will give you the words to say." And that same assurance from God is, hopefully, what we receive here. Here at church, in this community. This is a place of comfort, connection, reassurance. This is a place to share stories with one another about our prophetic endeavors… to get moral support and encouragement and sympathy from our fellow Christians. This is a place where it is not difficult or uncomfortable to hear or bear God’s word and presence. And that should rally and strengthen us when God sends us from here as bearers of God’s word to others.

This is a place to hear and learn God’s word in Holy Scripture… and to explore and interpret it, as Paul reminds us, with the help of others. Here we learn God’s living word for us in our time. This is a place to receive God’s presence in Holy Communion. To receive the living presence of Christ in our hands, in our hearts and souls, so that we can, with assurance, take God’s presence as go forth. Even when we are sent from here, we are never alone. Through this fellowship we are united one with another and all of us with the very living presence of the risen Christ.

It is here that we learn and sing together the Lord’s song. We pray that, with God’s help, the Lord’s song will repeat over and over and over again in our minds wherever we go, whatever we do. The song of God’s love for us and for the whole world. Here we learn and rehearse and celebrate the song of God’s love. Where will you carry that song? To whom will you sing the song of God’s love? Children, go where I send thee. Will you go where God is sending you?

Amen.