My elementary school gym class met outside on a fall day to begin a weeks-long session on soccer. The teacher blew her whistle and called everyone to attention, telling us to line up on the edge of the field. Two “captains” (read popular kids) were chosen by the teacher and then they began to pick teams.
We all know the anxiety of this moment. Maybe it wasn’t on the soccer field for you, but you know the unease of wondering if and when you’ll be picked. Will your name be called early in the team selection or will the line of players dwindle with you standing there until the brutal end? And if it isn’t you, then it will be someone else.
We all want to be chosen. We want to be included. We yearn to be part of something bigger and hope to share our gifts and skills as a way of contributing to the team.
God spends a lot of time choosing. Early in the pages of Scripture, God chose the Hebrew people and set them apart as holy. God went on to select locations where people would encounter God and named commandments which would enable deeper collaborations and relationships between God and humanity.
When Jesus’ ministry fired up, God chose a batch of diverse and unqualified disciples to learn his ways, held up women and children as examples of faith, and sought to align himself with the sick, the outcast, the refugee, and the sinner. He named cheaters and criminals, screw-ups and deserters as holy, chosen, and beloved.
Jesus declared that the blessing and favor of God was evident in those who were poor in spirit, mourning, humble, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, and making peace. The last, they will be the first. The ones who appear to be least, will be the greatest.
God’s choosing and invitation spills into our lives, too. 1 Peter 2:9 proclaims, “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 him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” You have been chosen in love to love. God has chosen you, loved you, and empowered you, so that the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – would spill out into the world.
As I write, our 2020 presidential election has yet to be decided. Sometime in the coming days, some will be chosen and others will not. Headlines will declare “winners” and “losers.” Our election cycle may be over for this fall, but every day is an opportunity for us to choose.
Who will you choose? How will you serve? What will fill your time? I pray that you and I stand with Joshua and declare, “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15).
We’re in this together,
Pastor Lowell