The prophet Jeremiah has been so touched by God that he can’t help but talk about God and share his prophecy with others. Even if people threaten to hurt him, denounce him as fake and attempt to get a group to kill him, Jeremiah can’t help himself. It makes it seem like Jeremiah has no choice, but that would be wrong. Jeremiah has been anointed by God for a certain purpose and sent on mission to speak His word. God is so real to him that he is impelled to talk about Him and try to bring people back to Him. But Jeremiah, like all of us, always has the freedom to do or not to do what God asks him to do. He feels the pressure to do it but has the freedom to choose. The images of “imprisoned in my bones” and “like a fire burning in my heart” are vivid and powerful.
When God asks you to do something or say something, would those be the images you would use or has the fire gone out? Jesus says that to be His disciple we must “deny ourselves, take up His cross, and follow Him.” He adds that to “gain life we must lose our lives.” Do you experience that intensity of faith and call or is it more mediocre?
Please don’t panic or believe that you are on the wrong path: Most of us are truly trying to be disciples and live as Jesus asks us. Most of us live fairly good lives and are plagued with the “regular” sins of our lives. We confess them again and again and try as best we can, with the grace of God, to become a more faithful person. But what of this intense and powerful call to lose our lives? What does it mean for us to burn within and be set on fire for Jesus? How can we become so close to Jesus that we can’t help ourselves but to speak His words to all? How do we do that? Or do we want to do that?
As you can imagine, safety and security cannot be our first concern, and for most of us it is. We are willing to do what God wants us to do as long as it doesn’t cost us too much. Our service to others is often at arm’s length and at a safe distance. Our discussions of faith and our practices of fidelity are often done with those who absolutely agree with us and are very much like us. Most of us feel secure in upholding the sanctity of life for unborn children, but what of the sanctity of life for those in prisons, those of other cultures, those roaming the earth without a home or food or clothing? Do our hearts burn within us for our enemies or do we profess that their lives are not worthy of dignity? Are they worthy of our prophetic words and actions? Does a fire burn within our hearts for them as well?
I hope we have all come to know and witness the prophetic persons in our time who truly live out their burning call. We pray for them and admire their courage. But do we wish to follow in their footsteps and in the footsteps of Jesus?
Father Wester is pastor of All Saints Parish in St. Peters.