Pentecost 7, July 11, 2021

I wasn’t great at kickball when I was a kid (I say that as if my skills somehow improved as an adult!) so it should have come as no surprise to me to be chosen near the bottom when it came to picking teams during recess. We’re all familiar with this playground ritual in which two captains take turns choosing, in descending order, the roster of each of their respective teams based on their abilities. It can get very awkward as the process plays out – captains sizing up each player – evaluating specific skills, remembering past performance.  You know how it goes! 

And this selection process becomes a template for other experiences as life goes on. We’ve all been through this. Trying out and not making the cut. Auditioning for something and not getting in.  Applying for a job and not getting the position.  Looking for friends or a mate or a partner and feeling alone.  And even if we ARE chosen for something, I think we all have this nagging feeling that if anyone could see past the polished charade we are presenting – if they saw who we really were – we would NOT have been chosen. And what’s worse than not being chosen at all is to be chosen and rejected.  We know what that’s like too. So we ALL come to today’s scripture reading and the beautiful promise it contains with a common understanding of what it means to NOT be the first choice.

The good news revealed to us today is: YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.  In today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we have these three words – perhaps the most beautiful words in the New Testament.  “He chose us.”  Those three words are good news for all us who have felt the sting and pain of .  And we need to hear them over and over again.  “He chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world.”

God chose us.  He chose to love us.  He chose to make us his.  He chose to forgive us.  He chose to give us life.  He chose US!  This is remarkable news.  It’s shocking, actually.  This is what makes grace so amazing!  When Jesus walked this earth, he looked his friends in the eye at one point and said pretty much the same thing, “You did not choose me, but I chose YOU!” 

Now Jesus’ friends provided plenty of reasons why they were not the best choice to serve as Jesus’ closest allies and disciples.  But Jesus chose them.  And we are told he showed them the “full extent of his love.” 

We have been chosen to belong to Jesus – to experience the full extent of this love.  Maybe you think I’m too old.  I’m too young.  I’m not attractive enough. I’m not smart enough.  I’m not successful.  I’ve made mistakes. I’ve done too many bad things. I’m a screw up.  I’m a fraud.  I’ve got too much baggage; too many skeletons in the closet.  I’ve got too many doubts and questions.  Have you ever believed any of this about yourself?  Well, you’re wrong.

The words of Scripture today tell us that God chose us before the foundation of the world!  That means he made his choice BEFORE we had time to screw things up.  It also means he chose us before we had any opportunity to prove ourselves worthy of it.  That’s what happened to Raymond here this morning.  He was chosen long before anyone knew how cute he is.  Or what potential he would have or how successful he would become.

So God’s choice to love us is unique.  It is not based on anything we do or don’t do.  It’s not based on our compliance with arbitrary standards imposed on us by others.  It’s not based on performance or character or talent or beauty.  It is most definitely not based on us being anything other than who our Creator made us to be.  God’s choice of us is not something we can qualify for or be disqualified from.  It is, according to the words of Scripture today, something we were destined for.  Our reading today says, “We were destined to be God’s children.”

God’s unconditional love can probably feel like a lot of wishful thinking and nothing more than positive self-talk.  And when we have so many experiences in life where we feel at the bottom of the pecking order, it’s easy to doubt this love.  But there’s one thing we can’t ignore or deny:  There’s a cross.  And the cross is real.  Jesus, Gods’ only Son, actually died on a cross.  Voluntarily. To set God’s choice of us in permanent and eternal reality. That cross confirms God’s choice.

And Paul says in our reading today that we were marked with that cross.  That’s what happens in Baptism. We are marked. We traced that cross on Raymond this morning. That cross – that mark — makes God’s choice undeniable and irrevocable.

When we see people we think are more normal or just generally more awesome than what we see in the mirror, feelings of inadequacy are hard to overcome. Perhaps doubts and insecurities about ourselves are, in fact, impossible to silence.  But God says, “I love you just the way you are, my child.” 

You know what it looks like to be chosen to be loved this way?  It looks like exactly what we saw gathered at the font here this morning.  It is being held by loving arms.  It means not standing alone but surrounded by those standing with you. It means hearing the voice of one who calls us by name. It means love being poured out generously in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

You know what it looks like to be chosen?  It looks like YOU.  No matter how traumatized or beat up we are by the brutalities of a world that makes choices based on standards and expectations we can never achieve or sustain – YOU can return to the safety of those loving arms today – YOU can claim that promise today –  And today, YOU can hear again God’s loving voice saying: “I choose you.”