Before?
Today’s sermon was brought to you by a typo. When I sent the bulletin information to Mary, I was struck by the two uses of the word “before” in the Old Testament reading from Jeremiah, and I didn’t have any other plans for the sermon, I was waiting for the Saturday afternoon surge of inspiration to hit me, likely between scoops of cookie dough ice cream. But when Mary sent out the bulletin, I took a close look at it, and noticed that she added something to my sermon title–a question mark. So, suddenly, the title of my sermon was no longer “Before”, statement, but “Before?” question. Huh. Then I realized…it’s perfect. This passage from Jeremiah chapter one, Jeremiah’s call narrative, has long been a favorite passage of mine. But I’ve preached it several times before, and 13 years deep in this line of work, coming up with new things to say about multi-thousand year old words can be a challenge. Not always, but certainly this week. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And b...