I Chose You

My latest sermon...the one I wrote and preached at the last minute :) Feel free to leave comments! Enjoy!

John 15:9-17 (The Message)
9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.11-15"I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father.
16"You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.17"But remember the root command: Love one another.

I remember it like it was yesterday…I was in 2nd grade in gym class, standing in the wet grass with my pink tennis shoes on, waiting to be picked for the softball team for the game that day. Kickball I was good at, soccer I was good at, basketball was ok…but softball was the worst…I knew I would be picked last. So I waited for my name to be called and watched the “better kids” go to their team. Finally, someone called my name and I breathed a sigh of relief. Not picked last at least, I thought. Somewhere in the middle…that’s when I was usually picked…except when the person picking the teams was a boy who liked me or something- then sometimes I was first! Then there were always the questions- who will be on my team? Will I be with my friends? Will I be with that person I don’t get along with? We’ve all been there…waiting, watching, hoping to be picked first or somewhere in the middle…and some of us wondered if we would even be picked at all.

In my first year of marriage, I have discovered the joy of continuing to learn new things about Corey, especially about his childhood. Of course, I hear a lot of the really good stuff from his mother, but every now and then he will tell me something funny or interesting about himself growing up. The other day we got to talking about elementary school and we were reminiscing about the good old days when we had recess on the playground. The jungle gym, the swings, the girls chasing the boys and vice versa, and of course, picking teams for the game of the day. I proudly told Corey that I was hardly ever picked last for games on the playground or in gym class, and he just got this goofy smile on his face as he said, “I bet you did…I, on the other hand, was always picked last because I was the fat slow one with no athletic ability!” Of course I immediately felt bad for bringing up this obviously traumatic memory, but at least he was laughing about it now, so we had a good laugh together. I realized as I looked back at these memories that at the time, being picked or not picked for a team was one of the most important experiences having to do with a sense of belonging and acceptance- knowing that people wanted you or not, or just wanted you for your abilities or looks, or whatever you had or didn’t have. At the time this seemed like a life or death experience! The most important thing in the world for that moment was what team you would be on, who would pick you, and when and how you were chosen- and then who was on your side.

If you think about it, even now as adults we have these anxieties. Who are my true friends? Will I be chosen for the job? Am I loved even though I have done wrong in the past? Do people accept me as I am? Will I be chosen as part of the group? And unfortunately in our everyday lives, so often we do not feel accepted or we are not chosen for the job or as part of a group.

During my sophomore year of college at Butler, I decided to rush and try to join a sorority. Most of my girlfriends had rushed during our freshman year while I had decided not to, and I regretted the decision somewhat because I saw how much they were accepted by their new friends and the fun things they were getting to do, so I decided to rush the next year. I went into this knowing that sophomores were not the first choice for sororities looking for new members, but I thought, “hey, I’m a cool chick, I get along with people, and I can be social,” and I went for it anyway. To my huge disappointment, I wasn’t chosen to be in a sorority, and it felt like my college life was coming to an end. The thought of being rejected by large groups of people horrified and embarrassed me. I felt so down, so low, that the rest of my sophomore year I was very upset and didn’t want to be a part of much on the Butler campus. To this day I still feel the scars of this experience, and it is hard for me to talk about. In the end, I know that it was in my best interest not to be in a sorority, and maybe this all happened for good reasons. But there was a hopeful moment within all of this- I was lucky enough to have my faith and my church. At the time, I was a youth leader at St. Luke’s in Indianapolis. So after a weekend of crying and talking on the phone with my mom, I went to my normal Sunday evening activities with the youth group at church. In the midst of all this, I found myself outside on the phone with my mom again, telling her how hurt I was feeling, and once again the tears began to fall. Out of nowhere, a woman I had never seen before was walking into the church. Before she reached the door, she turned and put her hand on my shoulder for just a few seconds without saying anything, and then walked away. I don’t know who she was and I probably never will, but to this day, she was the face of God for me at that moment. She was the reminder that while I was not chosen by a group of people, I was chosen by God. God chose me, Jesus Christ chose me, and God still chooses me today to bear fruit, to love, and to follow through with what God has called me to do as a child of God and in my ministry.

“I chose you”- this is what Jesus tells us in today’s passage. “You didn’t choose me, but I chose you.” Over the past few weeks, we have been talking about the kind of love that Jesus shows us- sacrificial, unconditional, and risky. We have talked about the fact that God is love, and love comes from God alone. So today we talk about the love that is shown because Jesus chooses each of us, no matter who does or does not choose us in our human lives. And to push this even further, he tells us that we are no longer servants, but friends. So often we see images of the servant or slave and the master in the Bible. This relationship by definition is one of authority and inequality, and injustice. The slave never knows really what the master is doing or thinking, or what his next action will be. The servant doesn’t know what the master is planning, and may feel fear toward the master. But Jesus tells us that we are no longer to be servants- we are friends. And we all know our friends- we know their thoughts, their secrets, their quirks, their traits, good and bad, and we accept them no matter what. By telling us that we are friends, Jesus gives us the chance for an intimate relationship with him- a clearer picture of who he is and what kind of love is meant to be there. This relationship is one where we know that He accepts us no matter what, no matter how flawed and imperfect we are. Our relationship with Him should be one of total disclosure, of honesty, and unconditional acceptance. In the Message translation, Jesus tells us to make ourselves at home in his love. I love this because I think of when I enter someone’s home and it is so warm and inviting that it feels just like my own home- I can take my shoes off, put my feet up, I can sit in front of the fireplace, and I know my way around the kitchen already, because someone has offered their home to me as my own. It’s the same way with Jesus- he wants us to make ourselves at home in his love- to be comfortable, to be open to this awesome love, and to share it with others- to make our newfound home an open house to those around us.

When Jesus chooses us, we are given an open invitation to be at home in his love. After a long day of being anxious about our lives, whether or not we will be chosen, we can come home to a love where we are always accepted and always loved. And this is a perfect time to remind you all of our Wesleyan heritage as United Methodists- the term prevenient grace is what we use to describe the kind of love that God shows to us before we are even conscience of this kind of love. For example, when we baptize babies in church, we celebrate God’s prevenient grace- the love that goes before us, before we can acknowledge it ourselves. We celebrate the love that has been there all along. It’s a fancy way of saying that God chose me before I chose God. When we do acknowledge this kind of love, we are to, in a sense, breathe back our love to God through our commitment to love and serve Jesus Christ, to acknowledge our shortcomings as humans, and to love one another. This is the next part of our passage today- we must bear fruit and love one another, following this example that Jesus lays out clearly for us. And this is all because Jesus chose you, he chose me, he chose all of us to bear fruit for him.

But we know that God has a history of doing the most unpredictable things and choosing the most imperfect people, people that we probably wouldn’t ever chose, and yet they always have a way of fitting into God’s divine plan- remember David, poor little shepherd boy turned mighty warrior, an obedient servant of God, but he was also an adulterer and a murderer, and God still chose him to do great things. Or what about Moses? He also killed someone and was running for his life, not knowing completely who he was, and did not know the God of his people. It is written that he did not speak well and needed someone to speak for him- he was lost and afraid, and yet God still chose him to free his people from slavery in Egypt. There are many stories like this in the Bible, but there are countless stories in our world today, aren’t there? God chooses each of us for a purpose. God chooses us as friends. God chooses us one by one to love. And the pure joy in this is that we are, in fact, chosen by Jesus Christ. The pure joy is that we don’t have to stand there on the other side of the line, shaking, anxious, wondering if we will be picked for the team, because we are already chosen. So relax, be at home in Jesus’ love, put your feet up, and breathe a sigh of relief. You have been chosen. What a wonderful feeling! Amen.