The Second Sunday after Epiphany
Year A

Chosen of God

Readings: Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 19-42

The season of Epiphany helps us to focus our attention on how God is revealed to us.  Last week reminded us of all that our baptismal covenant calls us to.  Above all it was a reminder that we are beloved of God.  Yet having a sense of our baptismal vocation is not always enough.  Not only are we beloved of God; we are also chosen.   God has a plan for our lives.  Do you see yourself as some strategic weapon to be brought out at just the right time in the world’s history?  Do you have the right word at the right time?  It is important that every Christian discern whether God is calling us to greater or costlier vocation.  What good news is God communicating through us?  Are we willing bearers of that good news in our daily walk?

Yet knowing that we are chosen of God does not make the task of living the Christian life easy.  To be God’s chosen bears with it a responsibility for which we often feel totally inadequate.  It always reminds me of Tevye in “Fiddler on the roof”.  Nothing is going right for him.  He has daughters, not sons.  His daughters don’t respect Jewish family traditions.  They are poor.  When the horse goes lame it is the last straw.  Tevye rails at God.  “I know we’re your chosen people.  Do you have to choose us all the time?” 

And if we are chosen, what happens to our ability to choose for ourselves?  Especially since free will, choose for yourself, is the answer given when disaster strikes.  Free will doesn’t always give us the answer we are looking for. 

Isaiah knew that he was chosen of God.  "The Lord called me before I was born," he says.  He sees himself as a servant of God.  It is that sense of call, that sense of identity and purpose based on belonging to God and doing God’s will, that sustains Isaiah through the difficult times.  His nation has been torn apart, the people scattered throughout the Mediterranean.  Trying to rally them is no easy task.  It saps his strength.  It makes him question his call.  Yet he knows that God will keep calling.  And he trusts that he is God’s chosen.  He trusts that he will find the inner strength and resources that he needs to sustain himself.  He holds onto the knowledge that God is calling him and it has not been in vain.  

Paul struggled, not with his sense that he was God’s chosen.  He knew that.  The Damascus encounter brought about such a powerful change in his life, he could not help but know that he was God’s chosen.  However, he had a problem with some of God’s other choices.  Truth to tell, God's choice is not always our choice.  The community to whom Paul writes at Corinth is not known for its harmony.  It is a fractured and divided community.  They are richly endowed with spiritual gifts, but love often seems to be lacking.  Paul knows that God has chosen them.  God only knows why.  He continues to pray for them, to give thanks for their gifts, and to understand that part of his call is to bring back those who are struggling with the faith.  He affirms the work they are doing.  He affirms their gifts. 

Somehow or other God does get it right.  Everything comes together.  That is the sense one gets from the gospel.  It doesn’t simply affirm that we are God’s chosen.  It demonstrates how God calls us.  It gives us a wonderful model to follow. 

There is John the Baptist.  He simply and bravely told the crowds what he had seen and knew to be true.  God had promised that he would see the Spirit descend like a dove on the one that God was sending.  When he saw the dove descend on Jesus he told everyone who Jesus was. 

There is Andrew.  The first thing that Andrew does when he is introduced to Jesus is to take his brother to see him.  He shares his faith.  Heaven forbid we should ever consider that might be our call! We think that it is such a big deal to share our faith.  It is so 'unanglican'.  It was natural for the disciples.  How do we make it natural to share our faith in our workplace and in our community?  How do we begin to share our religious experiences?  How do we acknowledge that we are God’s chosen?  Do we even want to be chosen?  

Let’s face it! Sometimes it feels as if we have no choice.  I felt that way about my call to ordained ministry.  I have had a sense of call since I was a small child.  I didn’t pay much attention to it until the first ordination of women in our diocese.  Then I kept getting this nagging feeling that it was something I was supposed to do.  It took a couple of years of struggle before I was ready to take the first steps.  I went to my parish priest to talk things over with him.  He leaned back in his chair. 

“It is to be avoided if at all possible,” he said to me.  I began to tell him about my discernment process.  We talked for a couple of hours.  He leaned back again.  “To be avoided if at all possible!”

I almost screamed in exasperation.  “I have been telling you for the last two hours that this is something I have to do!”

“Well, that’s wonderful, isn’t it?” he said to me.  And he became my mentor on that part of my journey. 

Sometimes in churches like St. Francis we make it seem as if there is no choice.  As Vestry approaches we are looking for people to fill roles.  I actually have a nagging suspicion that these readings about call are in the lectionary when they are because of Vestry.  The work of the church needs to be done.  We depend on the laity to run the church.  We couldn’t function without it.  We need people with financial expertise.  We need good leaders.  We need people with a good business sense.  We need people to teach in our Sunday School and serve at the altar.  We need people to sing in our choir.  But the choice needs to be God’s. 

The knowledge that we are chosen of God comes with a sense of urgency.  The work that you do in the church should be the work that God is calling you to do, because what God calls us to do is life giving.  It comes with the sense that Isaiah had that God called us before we were born.  Where is your passion?  That is where God is calling you.   And the wonderful thing is that when we follow that passion we end up in the right ministry.  If we find the right ministry it may even seem as if it is no ministry at all.  The test of the vocation will be if it is something we can offer to God. 

So learn to listen to where God is calling you.  Step boldly into the activity of each day with the assurance that the grace of God will enable you to face any circumstances, to confront violence with courage, hatred with love, and to reflect the joy of your relationship with God in the darkest and most difficult hours that come your way.  For not only are you beloved of God, you are God’s chosen.