Jeremiah 1:1,4-10; Psalm 70(71):1-6,15,17; Matthew 13:1-9
Poor Jeremiah is often named as a prophet of doom. This is not completely fair as his book of prophecies includes several Isaiah-like prefigurings of the good news of salvation that is to come. For example Jer 31:31. However it is true that Jeremiah lived in times of great turbulence and difficulty for the tribes of Israel with King Nebuchadnezzar who in his lifetime sacked Jerusalem and took the people away into slavery just as Jeremiah had warned. If you do not change your ways and repent of your sinfulness then this will happen to you, he said.
Jeremiah was certainly a reluctant prophet - personally I think all the best are - and a sign of this reluctance is the words he used to God to try and wriggle out of becoming a prophet: “I am but a child” in Aramaic is a - A - a, sounding like someone who stutters. Jeremiah was deliberately trying to show that he could not speak!
God has none of this and insists, and we should be glad because Jeremiah is one of the great prophets. Speaking truth to our obstinacy, he also models how we should respond when God calls us to some mission - no ‘a-a-a’ but lets try for a ‘Yes, with Gods’ help’.