“Chosen” (John 15:9-17)

The summer before my freshman year in high school I decided I would try out for the baseball team.  I felt like I was a decent baseball player.  So I grabbed my glove and headed over to the tryouts.  For about two hours the coaches ran all the potential players through various drills of fielding, hitting, and throwing the ball.  I did okay, but I could see that I was towards the bottom when it came to skills . . . the very bottom in my estimation.  But after running through the drills the coaches brought everyone in to talk to us.  They explained that there were two more boys trying out than there were slots  on the team . . . they would have to cut two people, and they would let us know the next day.

Well, I may not be Brooks Robinson or Cal Ripken, Jr., but I’m not stupid either.  As everyone was heading for home, I walked up to a coach and said that I’d save him some trouble . . . I quit.  Now you would have thought that the coach would have put his arm around my shoulder and consoled me . . . but, no.  Instead a smile crossed his face and he thanked me from having to make a painful call. 

I never enjoyed the way that teams were chosen in P.E. classes or among the neighborhood kids . . . you know the way . . . you choose sides.  Two people would take turns picking from the rest of the kids.  And, you know that the idea is to win, so you pick the best kids first and avoid the ones who weren’t so good.  Then in the end there was always an argument who got the last kid . . . the kid no one wanted.  I was usually towards the bottom of the choices for a long time . . . it doesn’t do much for one’s self-esteem.  Someone always got hurt . . . someone always got left out . . . someone always got the message that he or she was not wanted.

Life is like that in all things.  We must make choices regarding who we will play with . . . who we will work with . . . who we will hang out with . . . who we are compatible with.  We make choices of who is in and who is out.  Who we want on our team.  And, we have all been on both ends of the stick.  We know what it feels like to be on the winning team . . . and, what it feels like to be on the losing team.  We know what it feels like to be wanted . . . and, what it feels like to be rejected.  That is just the way life is in the world that we live.

Thank goodness that is not the way it is with Jesus.  WIth Jesus it is totally the opposite . . . he has chosen us . . . all of us.  In our reading this morning he is addressing his disciples shortly before the whole ordeal of his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death take place.  He is having a “heart-to-heart” conversation with them.  In this conversation he tells them, “You did not choose me, but I chose you . . .”  Think about the men he chose to be his disciples . . . think about how they would act in the last couple of days of Jesus’ ministry . . . think about how they would deny him, run away from him and hide, and even betray him.  Jesus knew their strengths and their weaknesses.  Jesus knew what they would do.  And, yet, he chose them . . . he picked them to be on his team.

And, he chooses us . . . all of us . . . each and every individual create in God’s own image.  He has chosen all the people of the world to be on God’s team . . . for God desires for the whole team to be one . . . one family reunited and together . . . just as we are with all of our strengths and weaknesses.  God wants us all and Jesus demonstrates it through the words that he speaks and the life that he lives . . . he chooses us all.

In a like manner, he expects us to do likewise in the lives that we live.

Jesus tells his disciples--and us: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

Because we have been chosen, we are to become the choosers who emulate the example of Jesus in our own lives.  We are to go out into the world and chose to love others . . . others who are not like us . . . others who we would not want on our team . . . others we would typically reject.  We are to go out and love others . . . all the others of the world.  To love them and to welcome them back into the family . . . the family of God.

It is a choice to be made.

That is the ironic thing about it all.  Even though we have been chosen, the choice is still up to us as to whether or not we want to be a part of the team . . . to be a part of the family.  It is our choice . . . our choice as to whether or not we will take our rightful place in the family of God, and whether or not we will do as Jesus as done for us . . . to love us in spite of ourselves.

It is tough to get out of the mindset of the world and into the mindset of Jesus.  The world tells us that it is the survival of the fittest . . . that it is “us against them” . . . that there have to be winners and losers . . . that there are those people who are just not worth the time and the effort.  Jesus tells us, “This is my command: Love each other.”  Jesus chose to love the disciples even in their cowardice . . . their betrayal . . . their denial.  He chose them to be a part of the family . . . a part of the team.  They were still God’s children.   Yet the stress of our world pulls us back and forth between choosing the world’s way and Jesus’ way.

It always seems to come down to choices.

God demonstrates God’s choice through Jesus.  Jesus’ way was love . . . love for others.  Not a simple mouthing of the phrase of “I love you”, but in the willingness to love another to the point of giving one’s life for another.  As far as Jesus and God were concerned, everyone was on the team . . . everyone!  And, because everyone is on the team, everyone is to be loved.  They are to be loved just as we love ourselves . . . treated just as we would treat ourselves.  Jesus calls us to choose . . . to choose love . . . the greatest of all commandments . . . the greatest testament of faith.

In the world in which we live . . . with the standards we have grown up with . . . and, with the attitude that there is a pecking order in life . . . it is tough to live up to this call of Jesus to choose to live our lives in love.  I must admit that there are days when it is difficult to choose love, and to especially love those situations and people who I think make my life miserable.  There are days I just assume to use some timely sign language to let people know exactly how I feel.  Thankfully, God is patient . . . God is understanding . . . and, God is always rooting for me to get it right. 

Why?


Because God chose me . . . welcomed me on God’s team . . . welcomed me into the family, despite myself.  Because God loves me.  Jesus tells this to his disciples in our reading this morning . . . demonstrates it with his life . . . and, calls upon those who he has chosen to do likewise.  “This is my command: Love each other.”

Don’t give up on yourself . . . God believes in you!  You can do it!  Together all of us are the family of God . . . all of us.  We have all been chosen.  Amen.