Chosen people.
Several times in the first chapter of Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminds us that we are “chosen people.”
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul writes, “who has blessed us…with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he CHOSE us in him before the creation of the world…”
Think about this wonderful foundation upon which our faith is built. Before the world was created…before the Big Bang Banged…before the dawn of creation…when the cosmos was nothing more than chaos…when not a human being yet existed…God CHOSE…you.
If you did not know it before, you need to know it now. There is an underlying purpose to your life. A God-breathed purpose. You were CHOSEN. You are chosen people.
What do you suppose we were chosen for?
On some tragic occasions in the history of our Hebrew forbears, there was a thought that being “chosen” meant that they were better than everyone else and so they had to purify themselves from everyone else. You read about it on the pages of the bible when whole Canaanite communities of men, women and children – along with their dogs, cats, cows and chickens – were mercilessly wiped out by those who thought they were “chosen people” acting in the name of God.
In our own Christian tradition, there has often arisen the idea that we “chosen people” must conduct crusades to drive out and wipe out the “infidels”.
This notion of being “chosen people” can be a dangerous thing!
Vernon Wayne Howell was born in 1959 to a 14-year old girl in Houston, Texas. He never knew his father, and grew up in a terribly unstable and violent family situation. Vernon’s childhood was a nightmare. At age 8 he was gang raped by a group of boys. He was dyslexic, and illiterate. So he was placed in Special Education classes. He was made fun of by the other students. But one remarkable thing about “Vernie”, as he was called back then, is this: by age 11 he had memorized the entire New Testament.
His religious interest led him to a Southern Baptist church, but he saw the members there as hypocrites and spiritually inferior to himself. Then he joined a Seventh Day Adventist church where he told the pastor God had told him to marry the pastor’s daughter. The pastor threw him out.
In 1981, Vernon moved to Waco, Texas and joined a group of people who thought of themselves as the only true people of God. They were known as the Branch Davidians. And Vernon became known as David Koresh, a cult leader whose misplaced sense of “chosen-ness” led to the tragic deaths of many innocent adults and children.
The idea of being “chosen people” is not to be taken lightly. If used to feed our own ego and sense of self-righteousness, it can become a very dangerous and destructive thing.
So when we hear in today’s scripture that we are “chosen people”, we need to carefully understand what we are chosen for. Paul mentions four things in this first chapter of Ephesians:
First, God has chosen us to become whole, happy and well. This is what it means to be holy and blameless before God – to become all that God created us to be. So claim that promise of chosenness. God chose to make life good for you! You are “chosen people!”
Second, God has chosen to love us as his own children! If you are carrying with you today some thought that God is out to get you, or that God could not possibly love you, let it go. God CHOSE to love you as his own! You are “chosen people!”
Third, God has chosen to forgive us. Rather than relate with us through wrathful “pay back” for all that we are not and all the bad things we have done, God chooses to relate with us through grace. You are forgiven! The slate is wiped clean through Christ! You can have a fresh start! You are “chosen people!”
And finally, God chose us to help him with something really big – really important. Listen to Paul describe the mystery of God’s will:
“…to bring together all things – things in heaven and things on earth – uniting them in Christ.”
The whole purpose of Jesus’ coming is to bring the world together – all humanity reconciled with each other and with God through Jesus Christ. This cross that we Christians look at and sing about has a crossbeam that reaches outward to embrace the whole world. And that same cross has an upright that unites heaven and earth. Do you see the connection between the two? Can you visualize what the bible is saying about uniting all things in heaven and on earth? The cross is a beautiful symbol of what we have been chosen to do.
And it is the mission of the Church.
We have been “chosen” to unite people with God and with each other.
I have shared with you before that the fastest growing religious movement in America today is the Church Alumni Association. People are disillusioned today about a faith that talks about love but practices judgment and hate. Many younger people who grew up in the church no longer have a connection with it because it seems so irrelevant to life in the real world. Someone recently said, “If you want an organization that seems bent on returning women to the status they had in the 1800’s, that wants you to stop thinking for yourself, and that routinely demonizes and oppresses whole groups of people, join a church.” That is a sad commentary. But it reflects a sadder reality and that is that there are millions of people out there who, because of the church, are estranged from God.
So we’ve been “chosen” to do something about that. Our job as a church is to reach out to those who live beyond our walls, to offer them an introduction to a God who is quite a bit different than the god they no longer believe in. Our job is to connect people with Jesus Christ.
And with each other!
I don’t know if you are on Facebook, but if you’re not, you probably will be sooner or later. Chances are your kids and grandkids are on Facebook already. Facebook is described as a social networking web site where you can connect with family and friends – share photographs, write on each other’s wall, keep up with the day-to-day goings on in each other’s lives.
And Facebook is hugely popular! More than 3 BILLION people are active users! More than half of them log in at least once a day. The fastest growing demographic is people over 35. As one of my Facebook friends recently wrote on his wall, “Be careful what you write here now that my grandmother is on!”
You don’t have to probe very far to understand why social networking sites like Facebook are so popular. It’s because we are living in an increasingly impersonal world where families are scattered and people are lonely. There is something at the heart of us human beings that cries out for relationship, and there is something life-giving about “belonging.”
I was visiting at the hospital the other day with a couple from our church. D. – the wife – told me that B – her husband – has been hospitalized now for 13 or 14 weeks – more than 3 months. Then, with tears welling up in her eyes, Donna said, “You would not believe how the people of our church have loved and supported us.”
When God made human beings, he created us to need each other.
The job of the church is to reach into the loneliness of the world to bring people together in a community that will care for them and nurture them into a healthy relationship with God and others.
Reaching out and connecting people with God through Jesus Christ. Reaching out and connecting people with each other as a community of love.
This is what it means to be “chosen people.”
How do we do it?
Well, by sharing the gifts – the talents – the time – God has given us.
You didn’t see him do it, but Don D. came through the church early this morning. He unlocked the doors, turned on the lights, made sure the air conditioning was working so that we all could have a nice place to worship God and be with each other. While Don was doing that, Joe K. was getting the Tellico Joe Café ready and Don and Donna F. were getting ready to be hosts for our church-wide effort to help people know each other and find that they belong. Earl B. was warming up the bus to pick up the folks at the Neighborhood, and Barbara will be helping the people board the bus. Woody K. ran the golf cart shuttle for the early service, and – did I mention Don D. already? – well, Don will be the driver for the 10:15 service.
Everything of meaning that takes place in and through our church is brought about by someone stepping up to the plate and using some of the time or talent God has given them. Prayer shawls are made, soup is delivered, endangered women are supported, abused children are protected, candles are lit, people are ushered, prayers are offered, faith stories are told, songs are rehearsed, hands are extended to say “Hello!” to a stranger.
These are some of the simple and humble ways the church connects people with God and with each other.
What have you been “chosen” to do? What is your gift? What are your talents? What amount of time can you give to God?
The stakes are high. People all around us need God more than ever before, and they need the God who is reflected in the life of Jesus – not the false god of judgment and wrath who is so popular in some quarters. We have a calling to reach out and introduce people to this God who loves the world and its people. And people all around us need community more than ever before. People need friendship and support from caring friends. We have a calling to reach out to those beyond us and welcome them into a family that will embrace them as brothers and sisters.
The individual gifts we have may seem small, but when added together create a church.
We are “chosen people.”
All of us are “chosen people!”
Thanks be to God!
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