Dr. Walter Bruggaman, a Biblical scholar of international renown, and so I am sharing with you an approach, an easy summary of the approach that we are to have when we take the Bible in our hand and open it and read it when we come on a Sunday to hear the scriptures proclaim from here to hear the word of the Lord. His approach, his summary is this, more of the same, still to come. When you open the Bible, when you hear the readings from here, think, more of the same, still to come.

So what do we learn about God in this account from Jeremiah, more of the same, how does it translate into our lives? Into your life and mine, still to come, or to put it another way. If God behaved this way with Jeremiah, spoke this way with Jeremiah, if the Sovereign God became in fault with Jeremiah as present here in scriptures, well, then, we can expect the same in our lives. We can expect the same kind of treatment. And that, to me, that is the power and the purpose of sharing these readings Sunday after Sunday, or in our personal devotion to open the scriptures and read, not just an exercise but beginning to expect God to behave the same way with us. So that account begins with God’s initiative before I formed you in the womb, Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born, I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations. These are the words of God the words of scriptures, and these are the words that both inform and to thrill all of us - every one of us. Before you were ever conceived, you were known by God, by the God who created all that is. Everything seen, and unseen that God knew you. Before you were born, you were blessed, you were made holy, and you were consecrated - by God. If that’s true for Jeremiah, it’s true for you and me.

Then our story in Jeremiah’s begin to diverge, from the moment recorded in the scripture and passed on to us here, Jeremiah discovers that God has called him and appointed him to be a prophet to the nation -- given him something to do -- sent him out from his home into the nation. So, as you sit here today, what have you discovered? What have you discovered about God’s appointment of you or to you, God’s call to you? What are you discovering maybe for the first time about God and you or something discovering it anew in terms of God’s call to you. Every one of us, if we are to believe the scriptures, every one of us is known and consecrated by God, and then called or appointed to use our very lives to serve others. God gives us something to do.

In God’s mind and heart, everyone is known. Even you. In God’s mind and heart, everyone is blessed and made holy, even you. In God’s mind and heart, everyone is consecrated and appointed, given a work to do by God. Even you.

So, next in the dialogue, comes Jeremiah’s protest. God couldn’t possibly have the right person here. Ah, Lord God, says Jeremiah, "Truly I know not how to speak for I am only a boy." And then we hear God’s response: "Do not say, I’m only a boy, for you shall go to whom I send you and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord." So, how similar is your response to God? I’m only a boy I’m too young. Ah, Lord God, we might say, I do not know how to speak, I don’t know how to serve, I don’t know how to give, I don’t know how to receive I don’t know how to love, I don’t know pray, I don’t know how to guide, I don’t know how to heal, I don’t know how to endure Lord, you couldn’t possibly have the right person, for I am only a boy, I’m only a girl, I’m only a teenager, I’m married. You couldn’t mean me, I’m single. You couldn’t mean me, I’m divorced, I’m a widow, I’m a widower, I’m too old, I’m too rich, I’m too poor, I’m too new to the faith. You couldn’t possibly mean me. I’m too tired in the faith, Lord, you couldn’t mean me. I’m too filled with doubt; I’m just a hopeless shell. What do you mean you’re calling me? Our excuses are many, they’re varied, and usually they’re very creative --- and I think that God’s response is the same way He responded to Jeremiah. He listens politely, and then quite firmly says, do not say, I am only a boy, a girl, or I’m married, or single, or whatever I’m too old or too young, don’t say that for you shall go to whom I send you and you shall do the work that I have given you to do and then the part that really allows us to do that, do not be afraid, for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord. Jeremiah didn’t have to do his work alone, nor do we. God goes with us and I think that is what the psalmist discovered. The fact that you were here this morning and sang these words of the psalm with me means that at some fundamental level, you too hold on to the truth that the psalmist discovered. His words to our faith, even in the face of our fear, you are my hope oh, Lord God, my confidant since I was young, I have been sustained by you ever since I was born. From my mother’s womb, you have been my strength. My praise shall always be of you. And as I say, we know the truth of this prayer at some fundamental level, yes we may doubt, and yes we may turn away for a time, we maybe in a dispute with God, we may even be in a dispute with God right now, we may have our way for a long time or a short time or a long time, but today we’re here, and today we join together with the psalmist, and today we sang from our hearts, you are my hope Lord God, you are my strength and have been my strength, my praise shall always be of you.

The rest of the account from Jeremiah then God touches the mouth of Jeremiah, which is words into the mouth of Jeremiah and send him out to the nations. In the rest of the book, we learn of the struggles, we learn of the faith, we learn of the doubt, we learn of the persistence of Jeremiah to do the work God has given him to do, and God was faithful, and God is faithful.

So today, may you be blessed with a clearer understanding of your treasured relationship with God for God truly treasures you even before you were born. Before you were in the womb, I knew you, consecrated you; may you have a clearer understanding of how precious you are to God. May God meet your every excuse, to shrink from the work you have to do for God, and God’s Kingdom, may He do that gently. And may God’s knowledge of you and who you are and what you are to be, give you hope to find a way also to find God’s strength to be your strength as you step out as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. May all this be yours -- and, yes I could end it here, but now I’m not, I’m going to give you a little challenge, a work that I think God has given me to do, has given you to do has given all of us together including you the choir, we need to do this. This is a little challenge, I’m going to pick up a portion of Paul’s letter that was written today and applying the same principles, more of the same, still to come, let me finish with this challenge to you as individuals, to us as a congregation. And I set out this challenge against the backdrop of the words of Jesus, as recorded by John, Jesus said to His disciples; Jesus says to us, "By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Imagine, now, Paul’s letter to the Corinthian’s going instead to our presiding Bishop Katherine, or Paul’s letter to the Corinthian’s, or a part at least a part of it, our bishop in San Diego, Jim Mathis, or to your priest back home or to your pastor back home or to your relatives that may have seen St. Margaret’s on television in December, in what follows, I’ve taken some license with Paul’s poetry to set forth a challenge, but, you’ll get the point.

So, dear Katherine, or dear Jim, or dear pastor back home, I want to share with you a great joy. I’ve just spent a year with people of St. Margaret’s and I’ve learned something about their love for each other -- I’ve learned something about their seriousness of following Christ. Young and old alike, rich and poor, gay and straight, new to the church and those who have been with the church forever, all of them have a love for each other that is patient and kind. It’s a light to others, attractive and comforting at the same time. In worship, in fellowship, in meetings of all kinds, in classes, in serving others, no matter where they gather, I can testify that their love was not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, they deferred to each other in patience and kindness, most remarkable. I did not witness anyone insisting on his or her own way. Their love was not of the variety labeled "my way or the highway," no not at all, their love for each other did not give way to irritability or resentfulness --- don’t get me wrong, they did not rejoice in wrong doing, they rejoiced in the truth, all right, and as I’ve written elsewhere, they practice speaking the truth, with love.

The love I have witnessed at St. Margaret’s is able to bear all things --- even the disappointments they feel in each other now and then. It believes all things because they believe in the One who has called them and loved them into this family. Their love for each other is resilient with hope because, because, they trust the One who called them to be in this place at this time and who walks with them, day by day. Ah, their love endures all things even the death of those they love, for they are filled with believe in the Christ who rose victorious from the dead and they’re filled with the hope that those they love, will rise as well, yes their love endures all things, even death. I can tell you two things about the people of St. Margaret’s, I know they are disciples of Jesus Christ because of their love for one another, and I can tell you that their love will never end. Signed: Paul, an apostle by God’s call and choice and grace.

Now, wouldn’t that be marvelous if Paul could write that about us and isn’t it marvelous and isn’t it a challenge for all of us to live up to and live into, a terrific challenge, and you know here is a wonderful thing about that, called Grace. We have only to try; just to try to live this way, to try to love this way, because God’s grace working in us, God’s Grace working in us will complete the picture. And that’s worth living for. And that’s worth inviting people to come in and taste that love, so I hope you will join me and trying to have Paul write about us like that. AMEN.