We have already reached the midpoint of Epiphany, a season first liturgically celebrated by Egyptian Christians in the fourth century. A season in the church calendar sandwiched in between the Sundays of Christmas and the observance of Lent, Epiphany moves us away from the vision of a tiny, helpless, infant Jesus and shifts our focus to the way God's works are made manifest among us.

In Jesus' ministry, this work begins with his baptism (the gospel reading on the first Sunday of Epiphany). In this week's Old Testament text, we are provided with another way in which God's presence became vital and God's Word came alive through a profoundly personal and totally transforming "call" in Jeremiah's life to a prophetic ministry.

We gather up Jeremiah's background and personal history in bits an…