Rev. Kevin M. Pleas

Colossians 3:12-17 December 27, 2009

As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. You have been especially chosen by God. You are holy and beloved. So, be compassionate, kind, humble, meek, and patient. Work at getting along with one another, and be forgiving….

Paul was full of good advice like this, for the people of the young churches he planted. From the time of his revelation experience on the road to Damascus, clear through to the end of his life, those churches were his entire focus. He traveled all over the ancient Mediterranean world, gathering together groups of people, introducing them to Jesus, and teaching them how to live together in Christian community. It was his whole life's work and ministry: forming and nurturing new churches.

He didn't just make up a whole new religion though, after he saw the blinding light of Jesus. Paul was a Jew. More than that, he was a Pharisee; a particularly passionate and devoted Jew. The Pharisees were quite strict about their faith and, we're given to understand, Paul was sort of a Pharisee's Pharisee. He adjusted some of his former thinking when he found Jesus, but certainly not all. He probably thought of himself as a Jew right up until the day he died. It wasn't his intention to start a new religion. Jesus, he believed, simply fulfilled the ancient prophesies of the Jews themselves. Paul taught that Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had always been waiting for. Ultimately, as we know, those who accepted Jesus became Christians, and those who didn't remained in the Jewish tradition. But, it's important to understand that the roots our own faith are Jewish. Many of the ideas we get from Paul come straight out of the faith he grew up in.

This morning's passage is a good example. Paul starts it off with the words, "As God's chosen ones," and then goes on to talk about how people of faith ought to behave. There are plenty of things we could say about this reading, but just for today I want to look at the whole idea of being "chosen." Paul didn't invent this. The idea goes way back into the mists of history. The Jews had thought of themselves as "the chosen people" at least as far back as Abraham. So when Paul calls the people of his new churches "chosen," he isn't creating something new. He was just saying that those who follow Jesus are the inheritors of that ancient idea.

Being especially chosen by God is a theme that runs all through the Bible. It certainly runs all through the Christmas stories. Elizabeth is chosen to bear John, who is chosen to be the herald of Christ. Mary is chosen to be Jesus' mother. The Angels are chosen to announce the birth. The Shepherds and Wise Men are chosen to bear witness. If we had to leave out the idea of being chosen, we could hardly tell the Christmas story at all. When the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, the first words out of his mouth are, "Hail, O favored one." What does it mean to be favored? It means chosen.

When you begin looking for it, the idea pops up everywhere. Think of those familiar words from Matthew, that all this happened, "to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 'Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, with whom my soul is well pleased.'" Matthew also says that, "No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." In John, Jesus tells the disciples "I have chosen you out of the world," And then there's the leper who says to Jesus, "Lord, if you choose you can make me clean." Jesus responds, "I do choose. Be made clean." Throughout the Bible, people are being especially chosen, especially favored, or not favored, everywhere we turn.

This choosing of God isn't always such a great thing though. Think of Jesus' parable of the Wedding Feast. I'm sure you know it. Jesus is trying to tell people what the kingdom of heaven is like. He compares it to a wedding feast to which a whole collection of people are invited. For various reasons they refuse to come. They even abuse the servants sent to invite them. The king is furious, and tells his servants to go bring in people off the streets, whoever they can find. But when one of them arrives without the proper wedding apparel, he is cast into outer darkness, "where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The story ends with this enigmatic line: "Many are called, but few are chosen."

Now for me, from the first time I heard it, that was a really challenging line. I think it was confirmation when I first came across it. The minister who was teaching the class was trying to make a point about something; I've forgotten just what. But he quoted that line, "many are called, but few are chosen," and for some reason it really grabbed me. I spent a lot of time wrestling with that idea, and right from the beginning, I didn't like the way it sounded.

It made me wonder about what it means to be chosen, and who is chosen, and why they are chosen, and what happens to all those who are not chosen. The most obvious reading is that some will go to heaven and some won't, but I never liked that idea, not from the very first time I heard it. I don't like the exclusivity of it. I suppose I have a Universalist soul. I want everybody to go to heaven. I always have, which is why I have tended to latch on to passages from the Bible that suggest that, in the end, everyone will be saved.

In the first chapter of Colossians, for instance, verses 19 to 20, we find these words: "for in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." To me, all things in heaven and earth sounds a lot like it includes pretty much everybody. And then there's a passage from first Timothy, chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, "God our Savior … desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." I've always felt that if it was in fact God's desire that everyone would be saved, in the end, one way or another, God was going to make that desire happen. I don't claim to know how, but I think God is smart enough to figure it out.

To be fair, of course there are passages that support the idea that only some people are going to get into heaven. Theologians have long argued the question in both directions. In the end though, it all comes down to which passages we pay the most attention to. Whether or not all people will ultimately be saved is largely a matter of interpretation and belief. To me though, the idea of some being chosen and some not seems completely out of keeping with the loving and forgiving God Jesus was always talking about. Eventually, I decided that if being a Christian meant believing that some will be eternally excluded from God's grace, then it wasn't a faith I could live with.

But, obviously, some people really like the idea of and exclusive Christianity. Some people are deeply committed to the notion that they are among the select few who are blessed by God. We are seeing a lot of that these days, and not just in our own faith. Virtually every major religion has its group of people who believe they are the chosen ones. They have been singled out by God to go to heaven, and if the great majority of other people end up burning in hell for all time, well that's just too darn bad.

There is a wonderful novel written by Pearl S. Buck called Peony. It's about a Jewish community in China back in the 1800s. Some generations earlier, a group of Jewish settlers went to China, taking their faith with them. In the beginning they flourished, building their temple and establishing themselves in their new home. As the years passed, they sought to hold on to the purity of their faith, but gradually they became more and more absorbed into the larger Chinese culture that surrounded them.

As the story opens, the remnants of the community are being held together by the shear force of personality of one old blind Rabbi. The Rabbi knows he is not long for the world and has placed all his hopes for the next generation on a young boy named David. He had selected David out as the one person to whom he could teach the Hebrew language and introduce the subtleties of all their ancient traditions. David, he prayed, would be the one to carry on the torch for their small community.

However, David himself is torn. He has been raised in the passionate Jewish faith of his mother and that of the old Rabbi. He well knows they are counting on him. But he has also come to have great respect for the Chinese culture in which he lives. He is trying to sort out what he believes, and whether or not he actually is called to be the community's next Rabbi.

In one wonderful scene, David and the Rabbi are together in the Temple. The Rabbi has become angry with David because the boy had read something carved in the Temple wall that struck him as funny and he had dared to laugh. In frustration, the Rabbi jerks the Torah out of David's hands and sends him away. But then he immediately regrets his anger and kneels down to pray that the boy will return.

David, meanwhile, reaches the gates of the temple grounds on his way out. But there he encounters Kung Chen, a respected Chinese elder. Kung Chen asks David if he would be willing to give him a tour of the temple. David doesn't want to run into the Rabbi again, but he neither does he wish to refuse the elder. So the two go back inside. They stroll around the grounds with Kung Chen making appreciative comments, eventually working their way back to the heart of the temple where the Rabbi is praying. At first, the Rabbi believes his prayers have been answered. David has returned. But when he realizes that the boy has allowed Kung Chen, a heathen, to enter their sacred temple, he becomes incensed.

After an argument, in which the Rabbi makes it abundantly clear that Kung Chen is not one of the chosen people, the elder leaves. David is mortified by the whole scene, and runs to catch up with Kung Chen and apologize. The scene ends like this:

"I beg your forgiveness," he said. Kung Chen turned his benign face to the young man. There was no trace of anger left in him. He spoke very gravely. "I feel no wrong and so there is no need to forgive. Yet for your sake I will say something. None on earth can love those who declare that they alone are the sons of God."

I love that line. "None on earth can love those who declare that they alone are the [children] of God." I certainly don't believe this story is typical of Judaism. The vast majority of those in the Jewish faith seem mostly very open and welcoming. Certainly that's true of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and every other major world religion. The great majority of people of all faiths, I believe, are reasonable and tolerant. Yet there always seem to be a few, within all the faiths, who believe they alone are the children of God. And the rest of the world can agree with them or, literally, go to hell.

No question, there are passages in the Bible that say clearly that accepting Jesus is the one and only way to get to heaven. If you're among those who are determined to take the Bible literally, I suppose that's what you have to believe. For myself, I choose to believe these passages are not in keeping with the spirit of Christ. For me, to be chosen of God is not to be favored above others. It is simply to be selected for some particular ministry using those particular gifts that God has given particularly to us. After a great deal of wrestling with it, I've come to believe that line "many are called, but few are chosen," is simply misleading. The overarching themes of the Bible make it clear that we are all are called into ministry. God is calling out to all of us, and all who dare to answer that call will be chosen.

To be chosen of God is never to have some divinely bestowed right to lord it over others. It is simply to accept that God has blessed us in unique ways and encourages us to uniquely share those blessings. That's an important message, perhaps especially so in the season of Christmas when the unique claims of our faith are so much in evidence and so easily misunderstood in exclusive ways. It's important to recognize that what we have is very special, but not exclusively so. What we have is precious, but must never be made an excuse for intolerance.

Let me close with a beautiful expression of the particularity of our faith that comes from Frederick Buechner. This is the way he tells the Christmas story.

The claim that Christianity makes for Christmas is that at a particular time and place God came to be with us Himself. When Quirinius was governor of Syria, in a town called Bethlehem, a child was born who, beyond the power of anyone to account for, was the high and lofty One made low and helpless. The One who inhabits eternity comes to dwell in time. The One whom none can look upon and live is delivered in a stable under the soft, indifferent gaze of cattle. The Father of all mercies puts Himself at our mercy.

Paul was right, we are chosen people; and embracing and sharing this beautiful story is the ministry for which we have been chosen.

Amen.