Today the Armenian Church recalls and celebrates Prophet Jeremiah.   There was a calling, a vocation in the ancient Israel nobody liked or wanted. The lives of the great prophets of God were often filled with rejection, suffering and persecution. This was a vocation, that one could not simply pick (not that anyone ever wanted!), they had to be called and raised by God. Those that were chosen often did everything possible to avoid it (think of Jonah). Some tried to get out of it by trying to convince God that a bad decision was made and they are poor choice (think of Moses).

But something profound happened when they finally embraced their calling and the prophetic office. The hesitating, doubtful and shy servants of God were suddenly filled with courage to march to the courts of kings to boldly and bravely declare the will of God, stand by the poor, heal the sick, part the waters of seas and rivers, resurrect the dead… always radiating with the presence and power of the living God.

What about us? Could we as a faith community, as the body of Christ become instruments of healing, help remove suffering and injustice from the world we live in and become witnesses of the living God like the prophets of the Old Testament? According to Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, that is exactly what the Church is called to do, “We burn the prophetic incense in every place and we sacrifice to him [God] the fragrant fruit of a theology lived out.”