We Have Been Chosen

This passage is a beautiful piece of Scripture. While one commentator notes that this long Grecian sentence fragment was the “most monstrous sentence conglomeration… I have ever met in the Greek language,” this is a remarkable and instructive word for us this morning. In the middle I wonder if you heard the notes of a hymn not too dissimilar from our own. It begins with “As we confess…” We have here a hymn that may have been used during the enactment of the Last Supper. We see that Jesus was present with God at the formation of the world, that Jesus had chosen the world even before it was formed, and that Jesus the Messiah willed not to be apart from it and from us. The totality of God’s gracious manifestation is extolled in this blessing. We have been chosen. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

When I was in my middle and elementary school years, I was an awkward, goofy little boy. I wore big glasses, was longed limbed, and skinny. If you have seen any kind of show or movie about high school and middle school… you know the character. At that time, I was a lot less athletic than I am now. I was never the fastest kid nor the most coordinated one. I was the guy who had to work extremely hard to be any good at physical activities. Whereas some kids made it all look easy- they didn’t break a sweat, their hair stayed perfectly in place- I was the red faced, frazzled, crooked glasses noodle looking guy. Despite my best efforts, I was the one who was most frequently chosen last. 

When you’re in that line, waiting, it is an agonizing moment. You hear name by name being called. You start to look around and you still think you’re better at kickball than the person next you, but you’re starting to lose hope. And then, you are side-by-side next to one another unfortunate sole. Meanwhile, the captains are cajoling each other to pick one of us. “They aren’t any good.” “You can have Abe…” and the other says, “I don’t want him!” Well the dust settles and I’m picked last. You do your best to buck up and play, to show that you are worthy of being picked first- that you aren’t really all that bad. Then, the next day, you end up in the same place as you were- in an agonizing line that will decide your fate for the next day.

And, yet, God is not a schoolyard captain. God is not one who stands over and above us rigidly judging our day-to-day performance. God is not saying, “Oh, Emma you forgot to turn off the lights this morning.” God is not saying, “Oh, well, Frank, I noticed you weren’t so nice to your server.” No, not at all. God is not the judge, jury, and executor of our lives, God is the ground of being, the source of all that is, the power of life, death, and regeneration in the universe. God’s presence fills all creation and creation simultaneously dwells in God. God is the reality that unifies creation. Believing in God means affirming that, despite the fractured, scattered, and conflicted nature of experience, there is a unity that embraces and contains diversity and connects all things. 

But, how do we know that to be true? How do we know that God is not the captain of cruel schoolyard picking lines or the author of rigid and manipulative sin lists? How do we know? Well, this hymn tells us exactly how. Before the foundation of the world, before there was a Pastor Andrew, or Corvallis, or Christianity, or dinosaurs, or the created world there was God, Father, Son and Spirit. This God in loving freedom created in the fullness of love as an expression of their being. In this act, God willed that the created world would not be apart from God, but would also have freedom to participate in the divine. Before there was, God had chosen creation as God’s own. 

The same act that would will creation from fullness, is the same act that gives the created order an opportunity to choose. This God is not coercive or manipulative, God did not demand that we partake in this divine movement. We can be astounded by the care, altruism, and intricate interdependence found everywhere in nature and in ourselves, but more often we see an ambiguous, mixture of motives, and effects. And, let’s be honest, our performance in the playground isn’t always worthy of us being picked first. What we call trespasses, debts, or sins are lapses. These instances are lapses because they cannot separate us from God, they cannot revert God’s decision to have chosen us. Sin is not the basis or presupposition of grace nor is it the foundation which theology rests. They are lapses because no matter what we have thought, said, or done, God is the loving parent who welcomes us with open arms and says, “You are my beloved child.” We are positioned as being before God in a place of immediate presence and experience. The foundation of our worship is that God in loving freedom chose to become God for us.

Consider the playground once more. The schoolyard captains are picking their teams. Names are being called, and I am standing there among the people. Now, consider those people that aren’t being selected. Those names that weren’t even considered in the first place. Folks who, because of their abilities, appearance, or disability, were excluded. These names, these people who aren’t even counted as “pickable” who stand in the distance and watch, these too are counted as first in the Kingdom. July is Disability Pride Month. It is a chance to honor each person’s uniqueness as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity. It is to the people that are categorically excluded and forgotten about that God says, “You were chosen.” God does not forget people or exclude them from playground activities. God has called us ALL, regardless of ability, regardless of appearance, regardless of place of origin, regardless of all, God has called us daughter, son, child, beloved.

While the creative energy flowing through the world may have no moral purpose, the notion of God’s unity or oneness provides substantial grounding for moral reflection and action. God’s decision and action were made in the Christ who shed his blood on earth, and who was established ruler of heaven and earth. God sent Jesus the Messiah to the earth, so that the separation between God and creation would be null. Jesus the Messiah came so that we might participate in the divine without strings attached. To say that the divine presence that animates the universe is one is to say that we are all bound to each other in the continual unfolding of the adventure of creation. When we harm, diminish, or oppress anyone we harm ourselves. This is true not just of human beings but also of creation. We are linked to one another in a remarkably complex, chaotic yet ordered web of life because we have been chosen. 

The Father’s conversation with his Son before the creation; the promise and hope given to his people before the coming of the Messiah; the charge entrusted to Christ; the pouring out of Christ’s blood; the formation of the congregation; the gift of the Spirit; the destination of creation to be free to praise God; and the unification of the universe under one head—these eternal, past, present, and future events are carefully knit together. In this family, for all our differences, we are more alike than unlike. All of us are faces of the God who dwells within us. We are not chosen for what we do, or how we perform. We are not chosen for our righteousness, morality, or system of beliefs. All of us have been inexplicably chosen because God willed out of the fullness of love to be our God. None of us have been chosen last nor forgotten. We have been chosen. Praise be to God.