Moving beyond “Who, me?”

Minister Sharon McRann,

Jeremiah 1:4-10 has always been one of my favorite passages, as I can relate strongly to Jeremiah’s reaction to God’s call. I especially like the way it is written in the New Jerusalem Bible. Jeremiah claims, “The word of God came to me saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you; I appointed you as prophet to the nations. I then said, ‘Ah, ah, ah, Lord God, you see, I do not know how to speak: I am only a child!’" I spent a good many years fighting an incredible urge deep in my soul to be about God’s work. I was not able to determine just what it was God wanted me to do however, as I often felt very inadequate. For some time my excuse was perhaps like Jeremiah’s, that I was too young. But I grew older and often the excuse was that there was not enough time or enough money. Finally, I came to realize that I was simply afraid, downright scared, and eventually I clued in to the fact that fear can be an extremely selfish excuse. Many times I convinced myself that I was not being selfish, that I simply was a fearful person; that if anyone understood that, God should. But God never gave up on me. Finally, I was prepared to simply put my future in God’s hands so to speak. Have you ever said, “Ah, ah, ah, God, you see, I don’t know how to speak, I’m much too young, too old, too tired, too busy, too unable, too scared? Who me! I couldn’t possibly.” The challenge, I’ve found is to put my faith in God. What a difference it makes to our lives when we put our trust in God. What a revelation to realize that, “Yes, we really can!” God promises to be there for us, to give us the words to speak, the power to carry out what we are asked to do. Jeremiah says he’s much too young. The Hebrew word ‘na’ar,’ meaning youth, could refer to anyone between young childhood and 30 years of age. What is significant about the word is that it refers to someone who in the eyes of the society has not yet reached a sufficient age to be recognized as having authority. Jeremiah was not taken seriously. The people did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say and so they used the excuse that he was too young to know what he was talking about. That often happens in our society as well. There are often people who we have a hard time hearing. Some of these are the young, the old, women, the poor and those who in some cases have less than a university education. We often have difficulty getting past the person to hearing what they have to say. And often those labels are put on those whose message or voice we do not want to hear. In Luke 4:21-30 we find that Jesus, too, was judged on the basis of who the people thought he was. At first they seemed to be proud of their ‘hometown boy,’ but when he began to say things that went against their own thoughts and beliefs, they turned against him because, they declared, “Isn’t he Joseph the carpenter’s son? What does he know?” How often do we make the same judgments, saying, “Oh well, she’s just a kid,” or “He’s an old man, what does he know?” or “Well, he’s really not qualified to speak, I mean. . .I don’t see any letters after his name,” or “Huh, she’s a woman, what would she know?” Often, these kinds of comments are heard following an unpopular statement made by the person they are criticizing. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that no matter how spectacular one’s giving or awesome one’s knowledge, it is to no avail without love. Jesus was unpopular because he spoke the truth in love. The way to grow spiritually is through love. In Christian growth, love is the essential ingredient. Knowledge, insight, religious cleverness, may all have their place: but they amount to little or nothing without love. Love has a great deal to do with how we perceive ourselves. The way in which we relate to others is largely determined by how we were treated and raised as a child and how we have been treated since then. People who are treated with love and respect soon learn that they can (within reason) trust those around them. Often our fears or the voices that say, “Who me...no way!,” are voices that have been instilled in us due to a mistrust of ourselves and/or others and has come about either because of messages from our childhood or from negative lessons we’ve learned from other significant people in our lives. Whenever we are tempted to criticize others, let us pause and remember Paul’s lesson on love. Let us show love and affirmation to one another, so that all may know their self-worth and loving goodness and be empowered to trust and move beyond, “Who me?” to “Here I am God, use me!”