Chosen
Acts 10:44-48; John 15:9-17

May 17, 2009


The short episode in the Acts of the Apostles seems at first listen almost a throwaway tale, a typical day in the life of the post-resurrection church and its earliest disciples. Don’t throw it away, there’s something in there worth paying close attention to.

Peter had been preaching one of the earliest sermons we have on record, a summary of who Jesus really is. At the end of the sermon the Holy Spirit fell on all who were listening, which is what the Spirit tends to do. The verb “fell/fall” is not an arbitrary choice; the Spirit falls upon us and we know we’ve been hit.

The surprise comes after the fall. There were Jews and Gentiles in the crowd and the believers noticed that the Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles, who in a matter of moments were speaking in tongues and praising God just like their Jewish neighbours. They noticed this because they had assumed God only visits the pure and faithful, those who had earned the Spirit, those who had chosen to follow Christ. Paul asks the obvious question, “How can we turn down these people from baptism, becoming Christian, when it is obvious that God has chosen them?” No objection surfaced, though a few mumbled, so all were baptized.

This incident is told in such typical brevity and absence of extra detail that we don’t get the edge involved. The circumcised believers, those who had accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour - a very radical political statement for that day - seemed to be convinced that the Spirit was naturally discriminating, knowing which people belonged and which were outsiders. They easily could have instructed the Spirit which ones to choose. Instead, even the Gentiles were chosen.

Right from the beginning, church people believe that it is their right and responsibility to do the choosing, the selection and weeding out of those who have not made the standards and commitment to the way of Christ. That fits in well with our consumer-oriented culture in which one’s personal choice is the ultimate measure of ethical behaviour. If I can make the choice about what is right and wrong for me, my family, and my community, then that has to be right. In fact, anyone who tries to restrict my choices is probably violating the charter of human rights!

Fans of Corner Gas know that something is amiss with so much choice. Garrison Keillor’s fictitious hometown of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, has a single grocery store with the disarming name, Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery. Ralph’s motto emblazoned over the front door is, “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!” We lived in Lake Wobegon for a number of years and it was amazing how freedom from choice was liberating. One consequence is that when we first took our young children to a bigger city and went into a shopping mall like the Cornwall Centre where there was an escalator. They thought it was an amusement ride.

Jesus has told his disciples that “I am the vine” and just keeps going until he is talking seriously about love. In the next nine verses are found a slew of the Top Ten one-liners about love. Jesus begins by observing that just as God the Father has loved him, so Jesus loves you and me. Jesus has kept God’s commandment and that’s what we should do as well, keep the commandment of Jesus, to love one another as Jesus has loved you. It’s just a top-down simple chain of love. But he’s only getting warmed up. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Are you a friend?

“You are my friends if you do what I command you.” That does not go well in a culture like ours. We object vehemently to having to submit to another person’s desires in order to stay friends with him or her. In other words, you bristle at the idea of having to obey someone else’s orders and commands. It is exactly why many people claim they don’t want to go to church, to have to obey the minister or the priest or even Jesus and God. I want to be an independent agent, an independent thinker, who is not subjected to the control of any person.

Who do you think you are fooling? Every one of us obeys somebody or some institution or some idea. A husband obeys his wife, we listen too seriously to what our peers think is right, we listen carefully and obey the next fad in fashion and consumer products, we obey our government, our bosses. Seldom do I hear people obeying their ministers or priests! We are all just doing what we are told.

Jesus calls us friends, no longer servants or slaves. Slaves have no rights, only duties; they just do as they are told, never allowed to question or even think about the moral and ethical ramifications of their actions. Jesus has made us into his friends.

Now if you are still all worried about having to obey and submit to an authoritarian religious figure, remember that commandment that Jesus says you need to obey in order to become his friend - to love one another as I have loved you. Do you need to be commanded that? Are you “just following orders” if you love another person with the passion and self-effacing love with which Jesus has loved so many? Or, having obeyed, are you now somehow very different?

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” You and I are the Chosen Ones, with unique opportunities, with incredible possibilities, with daunting responsibilities. Again, we either resist the notion, because that means we have no choice, only commandments to obey. We are chosen, however, to do nothing less than to love other people with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. No task is greater, and none is more difficult.

Going back nearly 30 years, a university chaplain remembers encountering a secretary in one of the academic departments who told him about her coming to know a graduate student from Iran. This was during the height of the Iranian Revolution, the “hostage crisis” and the Ayatollah Khomeini. The student had been essentially stranded in the country of Satan (that is, the U.S.), all his home funding had been cut off. He was living now with this secretary’s family and she was helping him find various odd jobs to support himself. The conversation had actually started by attempting to get the chaplain to hire the student to do his yard work.

The chaplain’s antennae were raised and his first question was significant, “Does he support the revolution?” “He thinks it’s all wonderful,” she answered. Then the chaplain, totally blown away by her generosity of spirit to a stranger from a strange land, asked, “How did you come to do this?” She slammed her fist down on her desk, “Because I am a Christian, darn it! Do you think this is easy?”

She was chosen, and it is never easy. She could have stood with the Jewish Christians listening to Peter and when the Holy Spirit fell upon all present in the crowd, including those hostile Gentiles, how easy would it have been for her to say - “He’s Iranian, our worst enemies, a Muslim, a Shi’ite Muslim for that matter. The Holy Spirit shouldn’t bless someone undeserving as this.” But the Spirit does choose to bless those people we don’t believe are worth blessing. Remember, the Spirit has blessed you and me, and who wants to go into our qualifications? We are chosen for the remarkable assignment of loving other people, without qualification. It is not easy when you are chosen.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan