January 15, 2011
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Chosen by God
What does it mean to be chosen? Most of us have painful memories of what it meant to not be chosen. Some of us weren’t picked or were picked last to be on a team because we lacked any talent for playing the game or we had lots of talent but we were considered to be the wrong gender to be good at the game. We weren’t chosen to go to parties or we weren’t chosen by the person we wanted to ask us on a date. Not being chosen can be painful. Being chosen can also be painful, I grew up during the time when young men were still be drafted/chosen to serve in the military and many of us didn’t want to be chosen to serve in an unpopular war. Some are not thrilled when they are chosen to serve on a jury. Our society depends on people who are willing to serve in our military and to serve the justice system, we would just prefer it not be us because it interferes with our life plans.
Isaiah tells us how God chose one to be the savior of the nation of Israel and the rest of the earth. God calls this person in utero and takes the child by the hand at the moment of birth. Isaiah makes it very clear this person is chosen by God for great things. This passage is called the second servant poem of Isaiah. The servant poems tell of God’s plan to send a savior, messiah, to Israel and to the world. God has chosen this person to love, teach, heal, and serve the people of earth and this person will suffer as a result of being chosen of God. Paul also shares how he is called of God through the risen Christ and shares how all are called by God and God provides them with all they need to do what God has called them to do. This is the same Paul who will be scourged, beaten, spit upon, and imprisoned as a result of being chosen by God. The final text for today describes how two of John’s disciples come to Jesus and he asks them, what do you want, what do you seek, or what are you after depending on what translation you read. This seems such a profound question from someone you have been told is the Lamb of God but their answer is to inquire where he is staying. I wonder, if Jesus were to ask today what you or I wanted, sought, or were after, how would each of us respond? I also think it is interesting that, when the disciples of John asked where Jesus was staying, he took them to where he was staying and they stayed with him. While, when the teacher of the law told Jesus he would follow him anywhere, Jesus responded that foxes have dens and birds have nests but the son of humankind has nowhere to rest his head. The disciples were prepared to follow Jesus and he took them with him but the teacher of the law was conflicted about the demands of following Jesus and Jesus told him the choice would be hard. God never deceives us about what it means to be chosen by God.
The danger is that we may think God chooses a select few into a special relationship with God. We talk about those who are called into some particular ministry which is accurate but not limiting. We are all called into a special relationship with God and into a ministry. God is not like the people of our past who made us feel less than by not choosing us. God chooses all of us and God gifts all of us with particular skills and talents we are to use in the service of God and each other. The problem is not being chosen, the problem is being willing to be chosen. St. Teresa of Avila put it this way in Come Close, “God desired me so I came close. No one can come near God unless God has prepared a bed for you. A thousand souls hear God’s call every second, but most every one then looks into their life’s mirror and says, I am not worthy to leave this sadness.” We may feel we have not been chosen by God when the truth is we are afraid to be chosen. Like military service or jury duty, being chosen by God is likely to disrupt our life plans.
Those who accepted Jesus’ call to be his disciples had their lives radically changed. Saul and Simon were changed so much they got new names. It is a tradition in some faith communities to give a new name to a person when they are ordained and to people when they are baptized. This tradition recognizes the radical change in us when we accept God’s call. God has given us a name and called us by that name from the time of our conception, maybe even before, that name is beloved child of God. There are no favorites among the children of God; God loves each one of us in abundance. God’s love is limitless and so God’s love for us is not diminished by God’s love for others. It is not necessary for us to believe God does not love some so God can love us more. It is not even important for us to decide what behaviors will increase God’s love. We can do nothing in ourselves to increase God’s love. And we certainly can do nothing to make others more or less loveable to God. What we can do is to live into our choseness, fully embrace that we are chosen by God, gifted by God with skills and talents, and given all that we need to accomplish all that God has chosen us to do. If we can do that, we will use less time and energy worrying about whether we are adequate for the tasks ahead of us so we can be about accomplishing the tasks. We are all God’s chosen, get on with it! Amen.
