
This is a sermon Pastor Will preached at Lutheran Campus Ministry on Wednesday January 29th, 2025 reflecting on Jeremiah 1:4-10, and is modified and expanded a little for this blog post.
(In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
I’m sure you all have seen the posts, clips and memes, and perhaps even watched it unfold live… the sermon Bishop Mariann Budde preached at the National Cathedral on Inauguration Day with President Trump sitting in the church pews.
If you haven’t watched and listened to it, I encourage you to listen to the whole seron.
The first 12 minutes of the sermon is a calm and eloquent sermon about the true nature of unity and the false unity of conformity…
Bishop Budde’s biblical case and call for unity is founded on 3 principles.
- Seeing the dignity of all human beings
- Honesty
- Humility
I know, everyone calm down, that’s super radical…
I hope you’re not too offended.
The final minute of the sermon got most of the attention, social media posts and reposts, and sound bites… it was a direct plea to the president to “show mercy” to the marginalized and to those who are rightfully scared of his posture and policies directed at the marginalized and powerless.
AND as we may have predicted, the president got super defensive.
Calling her a “so called bishop” and the sermon “boring and unexciting.”
AND in the days that followed there were even a group of congressmen who called for Bishop Budde to be censured, which is a way the government can officially call someone out for “disorderly behavior” and for them to be “disciplined.”
Yep, you heard that right…
Calling for mercy was seen as “disorderly behavior.”
Prophets are rarely popular
Even modern-day prophets like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and in some ways Martin Luther, during their lives were not beloved by the whole… distance and time often domesticates and romanticizes their words and movements… keeping them at a safe distance.
For example, former Pastor here at Holy Trinity Pastor Frank Perry, rightfully beloved and one of my own role models for faith and ministry… when he was a pastor here during the civil rights movement and participated in a sit-in on Franklin Street…
He got death threats for participating and for speaking up against racism.
Prophets are rarely popular
And their words and message are super risky, even dangerous.
Prophets are NOT fortune tellers or future predictors, and they don’t foresee the future.
But what they are, are those called to speak and reveal God’s Word into the present context… So, think MLK Jr, Martin Luther, Gandhi, Pastor Perry...
Speaking truth to power
Making God’s nature and character and priorities known
And this Word and Message (God’s Word) for sure has ramifications for the future depending on how we react and respond to these words.
God knows… in the days ahead we will need more prophets...
and pastors and priests and poets to articulate truth to power and to comfort and guide those on the underside of the powers that be.
A Prophet makes known, illumines… God’s word and purpose for the world
A Pastor, another word for “shepherd”, is one who shepherds and guides the flock of the communities they are entrusted with
A Priest is a mediator, intercessor, one who speaks up on behalf of their people and community
A Poet is one who artistically expresses and articulates the realities we are experiencing
Prophet, Pastor, Priest, Poet
All of these vocations/callings have the purpose and intention to...
“comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”
In these disorienting and uncertain and scary times,
How do you resonate with these vocations?
Which one do you need right now?
Sometimes we need a Prophet, or a Pastor, or a Priest, or a Poet...
Most of the time we need all of the above.
(short side quest)
The Bible is a library of genres that span 1000’s of years with many and diverse authors and generations.
A question I often get asked as a pastor is,
“Is the Bible infallible without error?"
That’s a weird question to ask a library.
That’s like walking up to the outside of a library and asking someone…
“Is everything in that Library true and without error?”
Well, that depends… what genre and context are we talking about?
Sure, there’s history in that library, but there’s also, poetry, music and hymns…
And Legends and Fables and Cautionary Tales and Parables…
And prophetic sermons directed to a particular people at a particular time in their history.
Now there’s a reason we read and contemplate these words on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings….
They speak and illumine truth that hold up against the test of time, but we also need to understand that there is a lot of context and nuance and exploring and investigating to be done when curating and taking care of this library we call The Bible.
All that brings us to our reading from the prophet Jeremiah
Jeremiah is in the Prophets genre/section of the library of the Bible.
In our reading we hear Jeremiah’s calling to bring God’s word to God’s people…
He obviously reluctant… he says, “I am only a boy”
In other words, "Who me? But I’m so young! I’m not sure I have what it takes to be a prophet."
He also knows history…
Prophets are rarely popular
They are often, at the least “censured”…
At the worst, crucified and executed by the state.
To set the context…
Jeremiah was around 626 BC/BCE (so 2650 years ago).
It was a time of war and exile and uncertainty for the nation of Israel and their surrounding neighbors.
The call was to plea with God’s people… to remain faithful.
To not forget who they were and who they belonged to.
Yes, judgement and justice are realities of unfaithfulness, but that all flows from the loving, merciful and grace filled covenant God made with them as claiming them as God’s people.
God’s assurance to Jeremiah is this…
Yea, you are young (in the relative scale of the age of the universe, we are ALL young)
Yea, things are uncertain and scary
Yea, honesty and humility and mercy are hard to find
AND YET, I know you inside and out
You are mine and I’m dedicated to you
Do not be afraid, I will deliver you
You will be called to pluck up and pull down
To destroy and overthrow
To build and to plant
Go back and read that last paragraph again and read it as if God is saying this directly to you.
Yea, prophets and their message are rarely popular…
but God's Word to Jeremiah (and us) is a message that will never go stale or outdated…
there is a reason we still read and reflect on words over 2600 years old.
Over the next few days, weeks and months, and 4 years…
Don’t ignore or discount the prophets, they are out there in the world, and they are here in our midst.
Pay attention to the poets and artists and what they are illustrating for us.
Notice what the pastors and priests up to and who they are paying attention to and not paying attention to.
And don’t be surprised if your pastors become more prophetic and poetic in the days that follow… especially when political leaders swerve into our lanes when mercy, grace and empathy are called “unexciting and boring.”
And so as one of your pastors, who will embrace the title prophet when need be…
It’s time to love deeper, and speak up louder, and not be shy or timid when it comes to those “boring and unexciting” things like…
Seeing the inherent dignity of all people,
Honesty
Humility
and Mercy
…especially for the marginalized and powerless.
Every generation has its challenges and callings, and we certainly have ours.
We too are called to "pluck up and pull down, destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
Word of God. Word of Life.
Comfort us when we are afflicted.
Afflict us when we are too comfortable.
Challenge us. Provoke us. Inspire us.
Thanks be to God.
At Lutheran Campus Ministry we do a “turn and talk” and have some discussion questions after the homily. These are the questions we reflected on and discussed this past week, perhaps "turn and talk" with your family or friends or coworkers....
how would you answer these questions?
- What do you need right now… a prophet, pastor, priest or poet? (Don’t feel like you need to choose just one)
- What you feel called to be right now… a prophet, pastor, priest or poet? (Again, going feel like you need to choose just one)
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