The Scouting of God
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
February 5, 2023
Good morning Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections. This week at the Meeting we are celebrating Scout Sunday. We will acknowledge all our children and young adults who are currently scouts and adults who have served as leaders as well as being scouts themselves. Our scripture for this morning is Jeremiah 1:4-10 from the New Revised Standard Version of scripture:
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5 “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.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”
7 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.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the Lord.”
9 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.
10 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.”
When I think of the word “SCOUT,” several things come to mind. I remember fondly my many years as a Cub Scout, and helping our oldest son, Alex, work on badges, pinewood derby cars, and serving the community as a Cub Scout.
Yet, when I hear the word scouting these days, I am often reminded of sports. With next week being Super Bowl Sunday, March Madness just a month away, and for baseball fans, Spring Training just around the corner. There’s a lot of “scouting” going on out there. If you are not a sport’s person,
A scout in sports is one who actively and intentionally seeks talented players that may develop into star athletes to benefit a team for years.
Quite often, scouts do their work largely behind the scenes. Unlike the players, coaches, managers, agents, and owners, we rarely see their faces or hear their names.
Chances are, you still can conjure up an image of former Colt’s quarterback, Andrew Luck, pretty easily. But I bet you would have a hard time picturing his scout, Mel Kiper Jr., who realized his potential and placed him at the number two spot of top 10 quarterback prospects that he scouted.
Still, it is good for us to remember it is the scouts who combine methodical approaches with sheer gut instincts to discern which players to pick, and which to ignore.
The great ones have a knack for sensing which athletes have not only the physical skills to perform, but also those qualities of temperament, character, and grit that we might call “intangibles.”
This image of a scout, as one who identifies something special - that “diamond in the rough” – is helpful as we reflect on today’s passage near the beginning of the book of the prophet Jeremiah.
We think we know some things about this perhaps unlikely prophet. The consensus is that his father was among the priestly class, so Jeremiah was a PK and probably like my three children, he knew a thing or two about matters of faith and the church.
Yet his times were wrought with trouble. Talk about a guy under stress, like I spoke about last week.
The people had been led by several inept and corrupt and morally bankrupt kings. Interspersed among these was Josiah, perhaps a lone voice of justice and faithfulness, trying desperately to steer God’s people back to the faithful living demanded by their covenant with God.
Like Jeremiah, King Josiah saw the relationship between the political and religious, but his efforts at reform and repentance fell largely on deaf ears. Sounds very familiar to the political and religious still today.
Through those years, the people chose idolatry, directing their worship elsewhere besides the God who created and would save them. The people chose to forge political alliances at odds with God’s purposes. The people turned from the covenant call to practice social justice, failing to provide compassion to those on the margins: the widow, the orphan, and the stranger among them.
Looming on the horizon were the suffering and those in exile... Through all of it, God had a purpose, a vision, an intention... a promise to love and hope for this people.
God already knew the one to deliver the difficult truth to the people. God selected Jeremiah for what was to be among the most awful and stressful of tasks. God had scouted Jeremiah to be the voice confronting the people with God’s message. Jeremiah’s mission was to preach faithfulness to a people who had long lost their way.
This PK was not scouted to tend to worship planning or being the youth minister. There would be nothing pretty or delicate about Jeremiah’s calling. Jeremiah’s ministry would actually not be in the church but out in the streets.
Jeremiah would be consecrated by God (now, there is a big churchy word). In more familiar language, to be consecrated is to be: set apart as sacred / not allowed for some other profane use / designated, or dedicated, for a holy purpose.
So, the God of the Universe scouted, selected, and set apart Jeremiah for this job. And how does Jeremiah initially respond? He says, “Ah, Lord!”
That’s not, “Ah, I see...” but rather a complaint, a lament, more like “Uh, are you kidding me, Lord?”
We guess Jeremiah to be anywhere from his late teens to early twenties at the time of his call.
(We are not sure whether he has earned his Eagle Scout rank like Jack here), but at any rate, he protests and he questions his call.
Notice God does not deny there are valid reasons to have anxiety. He has all the right to be skeptical, anxious, even stressed over this calling.
The message Jeremiah was given to deliver would not be well received. He would actually face a hostile audience. Throughout much of his ministry, Jeremiah would know little but frustration and failure.
Carrying out his mission, Jeremiah would often be mocked, beaten, and incarcerated.
Jeremiah wrote the book of his prophetic ministry only to have King Josiah’s successor destroy it, prompting Jeremiah to rewrite the whole thing! (Just checking, is it too late to find another vocation?)
Seriously, all Jeremiah’s fears were valid, but God says,
“Jeremiah, I know all that, but here’s the thing. I scouted you. That means I have always been and I will always be with you. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
And God is saying that to each of us this morning. “I know you, I scouted you, and I will always be with you – through the good, the bad, the stressful, the ugly.”
We must remember that what God commands, God empowers. Like the prophets, each and everyone of us would do well to remember the courage of our convictions: the courage to speak truth to power (as we Quakers say).
Of all the prophets of the Hebrew Testament, Jeremiah may be most like Jesus in his selfless, sacrificing, daring, and committed dedication to the call for which he had been scouted, set apart, chosen.
So, I ask each of our scouts this morning, each person in the pews, or watching online…
What is your calling?
And what is our shared prophetic mission in this time and place?
God has scouted each and all of us to carry and share the love of God into the midst of a broken and troubled world. I pray we would respond with humility and hope.
As we enter waiting worship, I ask you to ponder those two queries:
1. What is my calling?
2. What is my shared prophetic mission in this time and place?