Chosen in ChristChosen in ChristIt often amazes me how God works things out. Most of you know that I was at the national youth gathering this week with 8 of our high school youth. And the theme was Chosen in Christ. As I was looking over the lessons to preach on this week, it was incredible to me that that same theme comes out in the epistle lesson today. So we’re going to talk about that, about being chosen in Christ.
Look in the epistle lesson today in verses 12 – 14 Paul says this 12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
So let’s think about this; who is chosen and who are the chosen ones? This last week as we made our way back from the national youth gathering I asked some of the youth, ‘What do you know now about being chosen that you didn’t know a week ago?’ I asked that because our theme verse for the week came out of 1 Peter 2:9. That’s the verse that says in part, "but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God."
So again, like I said, I asked the youth what they knew about being chosen now. Among the things they said was; that they knew that it wasn’t just Jesus that was chosen by God. They were chosen by God. That it wasn’t just pastors or parents that were chosen by God; they were chosen by God. Also that they could see from all the others there, that they each and individually were chosen by God.
For many of them and for me too, we came to a fresh understanding this last week of that fact. The fact that in Jesus Christ we are chosen to be God's own people. It helped for all of us to see 25k others, who like us, were learning that being chosen by God in Christ meant that we are not alone and that we are different in this world.
That’s a hard thing for a teenager, or any of us for that matter, to want to grab hold of, the idea that they’re different. So often teens struggle to fit in, and anything that makes them stand out from others is often seen as something to be avoided. And yet this week they had the opportunity to see that, while it is true that each of us is chosen in Christ, there are literally thousands of us that know that in Christ, we are chosen by God.
And, as I said, there were 25k of us together this week. And that number, by the way, represents only ¼ of the LC-MS youth who could have been there, so I was told. There are 100k youth in the LC-MS right now and we were together with only ¼ of them. It made for an impressive sight.
It also made for an impressive feeling of togetherness. When we had communion on Tuesday night I, Vicar Michael from loth, along with Kathy King and Shelby Velte from loth made up one team of 150 teams of communion servers. That’s where I got this cross, was at the rehearsal for communion. Well because of our location in the building, the 4 of us got walk across the front of the altar area twice in front of all 25k people. We all got to look out at the sea of chosen Christians gathered together. It made for a real feeling of humbleness and unity.
St. Paul in today's epistle lesson reminds us that as we are forgiven in Christ so we are bound together in unity in Christ. Christians are the chosen people of God. Do we realize that? Do we live that way? This week the high school youth here got a glimpse of heaven in a sense. They got to see and live in the unity of being chosen in Christ with a large number of other Christians. Extraordinary numbers like that can be good to experience once or twice in life.
I remember being in Seattle at two separate promise keepers events in the old Kingdome. There I twice got to stand among 60k other Christian men and sing ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’. And to me that was a glimpse of what we will be dong in heaven as we all stand to praise our Maker, our Redeemer and the One who has chosen us out of our sin in this world to make us His own.
I’d encourage each of you to sometime go to as a chaperone to the nyg or to a woman of grace or a promise keeper’s event and be among such numbers for yourself. It’s very different than a sporting event or concert or anything like that. To be among a vast number of other Christians can be encouraging and can help cement the idea that you yourself are part of a chosen people.
But numbers like that are the rare thing, they are a once or twice in a lifetime opportunity, they’re not the daily thing. Being among such numbers, does give encouragement and strength for our daily journey when the rest of the time; you’re either quite alone or among only 2 or 3 other Christians at school or work.
Another thing to come out of the week was how to begin to think theologically. Oh, those words weren’t used with the youth but that’s what they experienced. They learned to think about life in the context of being chosen in Christ because of what He has done in the cross.
We witnessed a recreation of Jesus being crucified. It was a powerful image and one that will forever remain with all who saw it. We saw Jesus being led through our midst by roman soldiers. We witnessed Jesus being beaten, spit on and the crown of thorns forced on His head. And then what was most compelling was the blood that was smeared on His body. It was put there by regular people, in street clothes.
Some of the youth had been chosen before hand to come, and as our sins were talked about, they dipped their hands in a bucket and then spattered, what looked like, blood on Jesus as He hung the cross. He hung there, bearing our sins for us. He bore the blood of the sins we placed on Him. He took the shame and guilt our sins, that by our hands, were put on Him.
It was an image that will forever change how our youth think about themselves as chosen to live under that cross. Thinking about life in light of the cross of Christ is all there is to thinking theologically. So when we look at today's verses we see them through that theological lens, of living life in light of the cross.
Paul said in our verses today to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” That thought of forgiving as the Lord forgave you is what comes from thinking theologically; it comes from thinking about life in light of the cross. We are forgiven, because of that cross and so, therefore, we forgive, as the Lord has forgiven us.
That’s what makes us, as Paul says today, holy and beloved; it’s the cross that does that. And because of that we are to live differently. We’re to live as is said today with compassion, with kindness, with humility, with gentleness and with patience. When we think of being chosen to live under that cross, these attributes, or virtues, as Paul calls them, is how life is to be lived. We’re not to pretend about them or try to make them up on our own. We can’t. We are chosen for that kind of life by God. And He gives us that power and that ability to live life that way.
We’re to act in this way because that is how God has acted toward us. Let me as you to take with you what some of the youth told me that being chosen meant to them. That it means they, each are chosen by God… So are you. That being chosen is not limited to others but, it includes them… So are you. Being chosen means that I’m not alone in this world… neither are you. It is the heart of God that has chosen you in love. It is that love that sent Jesus to the cross as we witnessed it.
And then, before we close, there was one other thing to tell you about that we witnessed. We saw Jesus taken down from the cross and laid, dead, on the altar. I’ll never look at the altar again the same way. His broken body was laid there. And then it was encircled by the soldiers and the youth and in moments Jesus came up from that altar alive and radiant in white.
He rose and was reaching out in love to all of us to tell us that because of what He has done we are now God's chosen people. We are people who live now free of the stain of our sin, since He has borne it away. By grace through faith we are made God's chosen people forever. Can you see that risen Christ saying that to you, can you picture it? You are now free to live as His chosen race, His royal priesthood, His holy and beloved people. You are now and forever free, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be His people, bearing with one another in love, in the love that is yours, mine and ours in Jesus Christ alone.
In his Name we pray, Amen.