A Blink of An Eye

Trinity Presbyterian Church of Bethesda; United Korean Presbyterian Church
08.26.07; Rev. David Williams; Rev. John An

(Preached Concurrently in English and Korean)

Scripture Lesson: Jeremiah 1: 4-10

It’s good to live in the modern world.

We human beings have changed dramatically in the last 100 years.

Our world is full of machines that would dazzle our ancestors

We have magical chariots that run without horses

We have pictures that talk and move

We have machines that think.

At least, it seems like my computer has a mind of it’s own.

But of all of the things that would startle our ancestors

One of the most striking is our age.

How long did the average human being in the Roman Empire at the time of Christ live?

Twenty-eight years.

We live, on average, three times as long today.

For them, saying you expect to live into your seventies

Would be us saying we expect to live to be 200.

Increasingly, human beings are among the most long-lived of God’s creatures.

We’re rapidly gaining on the current long life champion:

The giant tortoise.

Those slow moving giants live well over 100 years.

As just walking over to the lunch buffet

Takes them three hours

A long lifespan seems only fair.

We’ve left the loser in the long-life battle well behind.

That’s a tiny little freshwater animal called the gastrotrich.

Haven’t heard of that one?

It’s pretty much just a little living stomach.

I know a few people like that myself.

The gastrotrich lives only three days.

This means they don’t really get much enjoyment out of their retirement

But at least their teen years only last forty five minutes.

As exciting as our newly found human lifespans are

I’m not sure how much those extra years matter

in the eyes of God.

In our reading today from Jeremiah

The prophet finds out that age means very little to God.

The passage we’ve just heard read

describes the call story of the prophet.

Like many of the other prophets and leaders of the Bible,

Jeremiah does not feel worthy of the call God gives him.

The prophet Isaiah said his lips were unclean.

Moses said that he couldn’t speak well enough.

Jeremiah has his own excuse, too.

“I’m too young.”

“I haven’t learned what to say.”

But that doesn’t matter at all to God.

He hears that excuse for what it is.

An excuse.

God has a purpose for Jeremiah

And he’s not about to let the one he has chosen weasel out of it.

Jeremiah may not feel that he is prepared

But the truth of the matter is

That God has already prepared him.

Jeremiah may not understand his purpose

but in Jeremiah 1:5, God says:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you

And before you were born I consecrated you.”

God has had a purpose for him from the moment creation was made.

As we Presbyterians like to say,

He was “predestined” to be a prophet.

It didn’t matter that he was young

What do differences in the little flicker we call life

Matter to the Eternal God?

God had a purpose for him

And God would give him the strength to fulfill it.

It is that call that Jeremiah needed to hear

And it’s the call we need to hear in our lives.

All of us need to find our purpose

Whether we’re students

Or in a career

Whether we’re raising children

Or in our retirement

All of us need to know our purpose

As we struggle to find a sense of mission in life

And wrestle with our sense of direction

We need to hear what Jeremiah heard:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you

Before you were born I consecrated you.”

God knows who you are

Not just who you are today

But who you are tomorrow

And who you are next year.

Though our lives may be getting longer

There’s not a moment of them

Not a moment hidden from God.

God knows that self you will become

And God will give you the strength to get there.

All we have to do

Is to let go of our fear

Let go of our reluctance

Let go of our excuses

And let ourselves listen to God.

If we give ourselves space to hear,

We can turn ourselves over

to the purpose he has consecrated for us.

You can make that change

Because God will help you make it.

You can face those challenges

Because God will be with you to deliver you.

We have to let ourselves find His presence

And know His purpose

Because God’s purpose for us

Is not just long life

But a life worthy of eternity.