Sunday Sermon, 24 August 2025
Tenth Sunday after Trinity, St Bartholomew’s Day
A reading from the prophet Jeremiah
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ But the Lord said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
for you shall go to all 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.’
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.’
Jeremiah 23.23–29, NRSV
I’d like to introduce the theme for this morning’s sermon with a riddle:
All possess me, but all are seeking me.
I come from outside, but also deep within.
I am the same for all, yet unique to each.
The answer to the riddle is also at the heart of today’s reading from Jeremiah. It is vocation.
Vocation is the word we use to describe the call of God upon our lives. It comes from the Latin for ‘call’, ‘invitation’, or ‘summons’. It means following God, and listening for his guidance in our lives. So this morning we will consider the different aspects of vocation, and see how these themes are illuminated in our reading from Jeremiah.
* * *
All possess me, but all are seeking me.
Each one of us, whatever our background or circumstances, has a special calling from God. At certain points in Church History, the word vocation has been restricted to talking about those who are called to ordained ministry within the church. This can lead to a wrong assumption that only special people are called. But since the Reformation the church has sought to return to the New Testament idea of the priesthood of all believers, and that all are called into God’s service.
But pursuing God’s call is a bit like living in a house that is permanently under construction. We worship an infinite and boundless God, so there is always more to discover of the fulness of God’s call on our lives. The end of our vocation is to be in the presence of God, to see him face to face in eternity. Until then, we are pilgrims searching for our heavenly home.
We see this pattern in Jeremiah’s vocation. His calling was given even before his birth. God says to Jeremiah:
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
And yet we also get the sense that Jeremiah is constantly seeking and wrestling with his vocation throughout his life. He had to give an unfavourable message to his contemporaries, which led to his being mocked, reviled, and imprisoned. The psychological and social pressure that his calling placed upon him caused him to complain many times to God, and on one dark occasion, to curse the day of his birth (Jeremiah 20.14). Jeremiah’s vocation was not something fixed, but something which developed as he wrestled with God.
* * *
I come from outside, but also deep within.
We worship a transcendent God who calls us from outside of ourselves. God is above us, and far beyond our understanding. His call comes as an alien voice, calling us beyond the threshold of our comfortable lives and into a world which is bigger and grander than we could have imagined.
At the same time we worship an immanent God who is present in every breath that we take. So his call comes from within, a voice that knows us intimately. The call of God resonates deep within us, calling us to be a truer, better, more authentic child of God.
Again we see this in Jeremiah’s ministry. He recognises his vocation as coming from the transcendent God as he describes the immensity of his task: ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy’. Yet as a call from the immanent God, it was also a call that was planted deep within him. In a famous phrase, he says that the word of God is like a fire within his bones, and to resist it would be fatal.
* * *
Our vocation is the same for all, yet unique to each.
The New Testament vision of the call of God is expressed most fully in the life of Christ. Christ is the one who has been called by his Father, and the one who fulfils his calling perfectly. As we trust in Christ, we are incorporated into his body and receive his call. It is given to all alike, regardless of status or social standing: “Take up your cross and follow me”.
Yet at the same time, we are each invited to find our own place within Christ’s body. We each have different roles to perform. The way in which we are asked to serve Christ is tailored to God’s deep knowledge of each one of us, and this is a humbling thought; another person’s calling might seem quite strange and obscure to us, but that is because we a diverse people of God. Consider the fifth century Syrian saint, Simeon the Stylite. His vocation was to spend over three decades living on top of a high pillar, in prayer, fasting, and preaching. We should be slow to judge another’s calling!
As a prophet of God, Jeremiah stands in the line and tradition of the Old Testament prophets. In this sense, he is one of many, and shares the task of the prophets. Yet the message God had for Jeremiah and the people of God was uniquely relevant to the difficult times they were living through.
* * *
All possess me, but all are seeking me.
I come from outside, but also deep within.
I am the same for all, yet unique to each.
I have presented the theme of vocation as a riddle because it stands in the wisdom tradition of the faith. In the book of Proverbs, Lady Wisdom calls out to all who pass by, but in order to receive her call, the listener must integrate and apply her teaching to the specific context of their own lives. The application will look different for each of us.
You may be wondering whether or not God is calling you in your life. I can assure you that he is. But the way in which he calls you will be different to the person you are sitting next to. Sometimes God calls in dramatic ways, but often he speaks to us in quieter ways, through scripture, through prayer, through conversation with friends, or through our reasoning as we mull over a difficult problem.
One thing is for sure: we learn from Jeremiah’s calling that our vocation does not guarantee a comfortable and easy life. It often means the opposite. The God of Jeremiah calls us from outside of ourselves, sometimes into difficult places and challenging circumstances. But he promises to always be with us as we seek to follow him.
As we listen for the voice of God in our own lives, may we receive both the outward call, and the inward confirmation, that we are walking in the way of Christ and following him as our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.