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Chosen

Chosen

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I was invited to lead worship again this morning at the Deer Isle/Sunset Congregational Church as their pastor is out of state until Thursday. This was my sermon for this second Sunday of Christmas …

So, how many of you ever listen to EDM?  How many of you even know what EDM is?  EDM is electronic dance music, a musical genre characterized by strong rhythms, lavish electronic orchestrations, ethereal vocals, and cosmic themes.  I first heard of EDM about a year or so ago when I discovered an artist whose music I instantly liked by the name of Laura Brehm.

Laura Brehm does some beautiful singer-songwriter stuff of her own, but also regularly puts out EDM recordings in collaboration with other artists.  Just this week, I was listening again to a song she released about ten months ago with Anna Yvette and a German dance music composer and producer who goes by the name, The Fat Rat.  The song is entitled, “Chosen,” and these are the lyrics …

Greetings chosen
I’ve been waiting here for you
Since the beginning of this universe
You know the world is fading
There’s a secret power hidden in your soul
Don’t be afraid to use it
‘Cause you’re the one

You’re the one
You’re the chosen one

There are voices in your head
Saying that you’re a failure, misfit
You’re not good enough but you know
That’s not true
There is a secret power hidden in your soul
Don’t be afraid to use it
‘Cause you’re the one

You’re the one
You’re the chosen one

See what I mean about cosmic themes?

I’ve been waiting here for you
Since the beginning of this universe

The song taps into an enduring and powerful motif in our human story: the chosen one, the “reluctant hero,” the one born into a particular time and a particular place to fulfill a very particular and world-changing purpose, the one chosen but reluctant and hesitant, feeling not good enough, feeling unworthy, unready, not up to the task.

The reluctant hero must learn to accept and embrace their calling and commit themselves to a purpose much bigger than themselves.  Think of Luke Skywalker or Katniss Everdeen or young Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone.

Or think of Moses.  “I am nobody.  How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  Moses was right, at partly right, because the reluctant hero is no hero at all, but simply one chosen, one chosen to fulfill a timely and vital role, not so much hero as servant, serving the plans and purposes of something far beyond themselves, or of Someone far greater than themselves.

We are waiting for such a hero, for such a servant, a chosen one who will not be too afraid to use the power planted in them to rescue this fading world.  This new year, 2020, is an election year in the United States.  Did you know that?  To be honest, I think that’s what so many of us are looking for, for one who will emerge from the crowd of career politicians and self-important candidates to claim the mantle of the one chosen for this time, one who will lead us out of our malaise and divisiveness, one who will help us reclaim our identity as a people united by higher principles and our destiny as a harbor of liberty and justice for all.

But you will not find such a candidate.  Even though some may have been anointed by their followers as the chosen one, it is simply not true.  I know that for a fact, because I know who the chosen one is.  I know who the one is we have been waiting for, the one born into this time and this place with a cosmic purpose.  It’s you.  You’re the one.  You’re the chosen one.

Or, I should say, we are.  We are the ones we have been waiting for.  We are the chosen ones: “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us.”  Do you need to hear that again?  “Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us!”

How does that make you feel?  Reluctant, hesitant, not ready, not worthy?  But think of what it means!  To be chosen!  By God!  From the very beginning!  It means our lives have meaning … for this time.  Our lives have purpose … for this time.  We are called to serve God’s purpose … in this time.  We are chosen.

Being chosen means being blessed.  “In our union with Christ, God has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing.”  It’s right there on our banner: “Enjoy this life.”  We can enjoy this life because we are blessed.  Regardless of the course of our lives, regardless of any hardship or trouble or loss, we may have joy in this life because we have the blessing of being chosen by God to belong, to belong to him, to be made God’s own children in union with Christ, and “there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from God’s love which is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

But we are blessed to be a blessing.  We are chosen to fulfill a purpose, God’s own purpose.  And that’s all about the rest of our banner: protect the environment, care for the poor, forgive often, reject racism, fight for the powerless, share earthly and spiritual resources, embrace diversity, love God.   Be the church!

You see, being chosen isn’t a matter of being pulled aside from the rest of humanity to be given some seat of honor, some special status.  Being chosen is a matter of being given a task, of being offered the role of a servant.  We are chosen by God in this time and in this place … to be the church!

You’re the one.  You’re the chosen one.  There is a secret power hidden in your soul.  Don’t be afraid to use it.

Paul declares: “God made known to us the secret plan God had already decided to complete by means of Christ.”  Our secret is knowing God’s secret.  And what is God’s secret plan?  God’s secret plan is “to bring all creation together, everything in heaven and on earth, with Christ as head.”

But why is it a secret?  Because no one would guess it.  So much of human history, so much of our own history, is about pulling things down and tearing things apart, about getting ahead of them, about protecting ourselves from them, about overcoming, about defeating, about separating the good from the bad, friend from enemy, mine from yours.  Who would guess that God’s plan is not about any victory of God’s people over their enemies, not about separating sheep from goats, but about bringing sheep and goats together, about bringing all creation together? 

This is what we are chosen for.  In union with Christ, we are chosen for this time and in this place to play our part in Christ’s task of bringing all creation together.  Every time we share what we have, every time we care for a neighbor, every time we forgive our enemies and pray for our enemies and love our enemies, every time we embrace a stranger, every time we do whatever we can to heal the earth’s wounds and nurture its health, every time we refuse to divide people into us and them, we fulfill our calling.

But every time we divide the world into us and them, every time we judge and condemn, every time we are care-less with what we have and with our earthly home, every time we refuse to share not only what we have but also who we are, we betray our calling, we work in direct opposition to God’s purpose which is to bring all creation together.

Sometimes I wonder …  If we just read our Bibles, if we just listened carefully: “God has chosen us to be his in union with Christ … and has made known to us his plan to bring all creation together.”  If we just listened …  Would we still be so divided: evangelicals from progressives, conservatives from liberals, evangelicals divided among themselves, Methodists divided among themselves?  Would we still argue about what it is that matters most?  Just listen!  Jesus already told us what matters most.  Jesus already told us the key to bringing all creation together: “Love God with all your heart and mind and strength, and love your neighbor, just as you love yourself.”

It’s that clear.  It’s that simple.  And when we try to make it more complicated, when we are divided even among ourselves, we fail our calling, we fail to be the church.

You’re the one.  You’re the chosen one.  You know the world is fading, but there’s a secret power hidden in your soul.  Don’t be afraid to use it, ’cause you’re the one.  You are chosen by God for times like these.  Embrace your calling!  Be the church!  We are the ones we have been waiting for!

faez

faez

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Lats October, before the election, I preached a sermon entitled You. It seems particularly apropos now. I concluded the sermon by retelling Faez’ story. The details of his story come from an article by Alex Altman, “A Syrian Refugee Story” (http://time.com/a-syrian-refugee-story/)

Your name is Faez and you are a refugee.

You were not always a refugee.  There was a time when you were happy, at least as happy as you could be, considering.  Considering the turmoil and violence that engulfed your hometown and your homeland.

You lived with your wife in Daraa in southern Syria, walking to your healthcare job each day and returning each evening, even as Syrian army troops and rebel insurgents clashed in the streets around your home.

But one morning, as you walked to work, they stopped you.  They stopped you and accused you of being a terrorist.  They made you raise your hands and they aimed a gun at you and you “felt death upon [you].”

But an old woman suddenly came into the street, pleading for your life and for the lives of those detained with you.  And the soldiers let you go.

But everything had changed.  In your mind and in your heart, everything had changed.  You feared for your life and for the life of your wife.  You knew you had to leave, leave your home and your homeland.  You were a refugee.

You gathered your wife and a few belongings and the next morning you left your home — forever — walking an hour and a half through the streets of the city even as deadly missiles crashed into the buildings around you.

You met the car of a smuggler who drove you to the Jordanian border where you were taken to the refugee camp at Zaatari.  From there you were smuggled again out of the camp and into the city of Amman where you spent two years working “off the books” and waiting for the UN to find a place to resettle your family.

Life in Jordan was difficult.  You were a refugee.  You felt exploited at work and shunned at home.  You received little or no aid and glimmers of hopes for resettlement in Sweden and then Finland quickly faded.

But then they told you you were going to the United States.  You were scared.  It was so far away, so far away from everything you knew.  You would go with almost nothing to a place you knew almost nothing about.  You had never even flown on a plane before.

But you went and now you and your wife and two baby girls live in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. You work third shift at the local Walmart and life is good … considering.  Considering you are still a refugee.

You are safe.  Your family is safe.  You have work.  You have a home.  But you are a refugee.  A Syrian refugee.

Most of your neighbors oppose admitting refugees into “their” country.  In the nearby town of Irving, protesters, armed with masks and tactical weapons, gathered outside a mosque, protesting the “Islamization of America.”

Your governor wants to deny entry to any and all future refugees, quite probably including the six of your own relatives from Syria who were supposed to be relocated to Dallas to be near you.  And a candidate for president of your new home country has vowed to deport any refugees already here and to keep watch lists of immigrants like you, to keep close tabs on refugees like you.  You are worried.  You are worried about your family.  You have a home, but you are not home.  You are a refugee, still a refugee, still an outcast.

Who will see you?  Who will see you?  See not a refugee, not a Syrian Muslim, but see you?

Who will heal the deeper wounds in you?  Who will make you well?