A chosen people....for what?

By Ilene Bergen

September 6, 2009.

1 Peter 2: 9-12, Isaiah 43: 1-4a

 

A woman named Elizabeth Canham travelled with a group of North Americans to the United Methodist Church of Maputo, in Mozambique. 

 

The Maputo church building was made of simple, cinder blocks. Inside women wore brightly coloured dresses, children played games laughing and racing around while the men waited by the door to greet guests. The pungent odours of cook fires filled the air. Dogs barked near by.

 

Elizabeth's pilgrim bus rattled into the dusty parking lot. Her group entered the church. They were quickly embraced in the arms of their Christian sisters and brothers. Within a few minutes the group felt they belonged. They were not strangers in this church, but members of a community of faith where walls of difference had been torn down. Elizabeth felt tears prickling behind her tired eyelids as she experienced a generosity of spirit that is rare in her affluent, Western world.

 

Mozambique is a country struggling toward stability. Civil wars have caused extreme poverty and homelessness. Millions of land-mines continue to plague the countryside and claim many victims. Yet in this place of deep need Elizabeth's group was invited into a circle of belonging.

 

The deep fatigue that had settled on them lifted as they sang, danced and reflected on Scripture with their hosts, who then invited them to share a meal. On makeshift tables many small dishes appeared, each a gift from members of the church: rice, beans, and a few plates of chicken. As each of the travellers approached the tables, someone poured water over their hands into a basin and then offered a towel for drying. This loving gesture and the realization that the food they were about to eat came from those who were often hungry, made the experience sacramental – something through which they could see the compassionate and loving face of God. That evening they ate the Lord's supper, a feast of thanksgiving, offered out of an overflowing abundance of love and grace. God's love rained down on both the guests from far away and their hosts.[1]

 

Rain down

 

The letter we find in our Bibles and know as first Peter was written to the churches in the five Roman provinces of Asia Minor, today's western Turkey, to congregations in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

 

Now, don't imagine well established churches, with pews and pastors, ushers and worship leaders, by-law committees and spending plans. Don’t even imagine a church built of cinder blocks. Instead, see living room fellowships with small numbers of Jesus' followers gathered in a circle for worship and praise. Look a little closer and you'll see these worshippers glancing hurriedly over their shoulders from time to time. They didn't go to church as we do, never giving a thought that we might be stopped, never imagining we might be thrown into jail or tortured for going to church. These Christians didn't have our luxury of freedom.   

 

All of them were new Christians, living brand new lives. Each one lived a life now quite different from what they lived before. They tried bravely to stop being deceitful, to approach everyone with good will to always speak well of others, to set aside envy and be sincere in all their relationships. Sounds good but that's where the rub came. Their neighbours and families and friends noticed the difference and were unsettled by the changes they saw. It’s not clear exactly why these early Christians were mocked and feared and persecute, but it clear they were.

 

One day each of these living room fellowships hosted a messenger bringing a letter. I Peter with it's encouraging and loving words was read to each congregation. The listeners must have felt warmed by the intimate understanding of their situation. Finally someone understood what they were going through. They could trust his words, including the stunning claim, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people.”

 

Images of the exodus flashed into people's minds. How God rescued the slaves of Israel, and how after they wandered for 40 years God brought them to the Promised Land. I Peter's claim invites those who received the letter to find comfort in this story for themselves. They are those on whom God has had mercy. They are God's own people. God's love rains down on those who had found no mercy in their society and makes a community from those who had no sense of belonging.

 

Rain down, rain down  

 

My family gathered this week at the funeral of our Uncle Norman. He was a faithful generous man...he laughed a lot  and when I told another uncle I'd be preaching this Sunday he said, “Oh that'll be easy, just tell them about your Uncle Norman.”

 

Uncle Norman suffered an aneurysm 12 years ago. It paralyzed him and left him confined to a wheel chair, no longer able to do his wood working and lots of other things he enjoyed so much. But when asked what he missed most he said with tears in his eyes, “I can't kneel down beside my bed in the evenings any more to say my prayers.”

 

Uncle Norman was a faithful man. But even so in the last few months of his life he worried. He worried whether he belonged to God's people, worried his life hadn't been good enough, fretted about God's mercy for him. Perhaps he thought of all the times in his life he'd missed the mark, when relationships went sour when he wasn't the kind of son he'd wanted to be or the kind of father or husband he though he should be. Times when he'd said things that had strained relationships, thought angry thoughts and in the words of I Peter had not gotten rid of all malice and guile, insincerity and envy and slander. For my uncle Norman and for all of us who try to be faithful but recognize we fail hear these words again, “You are part of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people. Not because of us or our perfection, but because of God's mercy and love through Jesus.

 

Rain down,

 

But after all I've said so far it really seems to me it can be pretty dangerous to think of being a chosen people. I remember a friend telling me, “That whole chosen people thing in the Bible...I wish it weren't there. It's caused so much arrogance and grief.” Didn't cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh  believe that they were chosen of God? Don't warmongering political leaders still go to the battlefields of our world claiming God has chosen to be on their side? Zionists claim God had given the ancient lands of Israel to them alone.

 

My friend wanted to erase the idea of a chosen people, but it's pretty much inescapable in the Bible. Over and over, God speaks of Israel and later the Christian church as a chosen people. “Once you were no people, now you are God's people.”

 

If certain people are chosen, does it mean that others are not? And what does it mean to be chosen? Does God pick people much like our school yard rituals of picking teams? Where the best athletes get chosen to God's soccer team? And the rest...well they're simply not chosen. Not good enough! And the chosen mock the un-chosen!

 

The biblical story paints a much different picture. God chose the weak people of Israel. God hand-picked the beleaguered churches of Asia Minor. In God 's plan Moses was chosen to lead, but Moses couldn't speak in public. God pointed to Abram and Sara to be parents of countless children but they couldn't conceive a child. God chose Mary to be mother of Jesus, but she was a poor, unmarried, pregnant teen.

 

They were chosen all right...but they knew they couldn't do it on their own. And when a child was born to Sara and Abram when Mary's son was conceived these chosen ones knew it didn't happen without God. Mary sang out in praise...”My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour for God has looked with favour on my lowliness.”

 

In joy Mary proclaimed God's faithfulness and mercy.

 

And that's exactly the part of this whole chosen stuff that we keep forgetting, that Jews and Christians over the millennia have forgotten.

 

God's declaration of chosen – ness as recorded in the Bible always comes with a second part. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of God who called you out of darkness into God's  marvellous light.

 

The early nation of Israel was chosen to be a light to the nations so others would see God. The church was and is called to be a light to all people and to proclaim that light boldly.

 

When we are strong and self sufficient we'll rarely even notice God in our lives. Crazily its in our weakness and in our humility when we can point to God's light and live it boldly.

 

And so we pray...Guide our feet...hold our hands, as we run this race...We are first of all your children and we don't want to live our lives in arrogance or in vain.