"I Choose You" - God

Ephesians 1 - The Power of Being Chosen

When I was young, I remember the playground games (basketball, tag, baseball, dodge ball, etc) and how the captains would choose their teams. Let's just say I was tall, very thin, clumsy and speed-challenged (the nickname "square wheels" comes to my memory). I was always either last or next to last to be chosen ("Cotton, I guess we'll take you."). Except, there was one day in about fourth grade when the popular kids decided to start a "Monkees Club". To get in you had to be able to name the four Monkees (the rock group - yes, the spelling is right). I hollered out "Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork." They said, "Ok, you're in." For a brief shining moment, I was chosen. To be fair, I was chosen for spelling bees, singing ensembles, and other academic groupings, just not chosen in the way I wanted to be chosen. I think most of us grow through those kinds of in groups and out groups and know what it is like to be chosen or left out.

Notice the language of this first part of Ephesians 1. If you let these words sink in, it'll make your heart sing. Verse 4 reads, "For HE CHOSE US in him before the creation of the world to be hold and blameless in his sight." Jesus said, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." (John 15:16) The LORD said to Jeremiah, "...before you were born I set you apart." Paul writes that the Gentiles were "grafted in" (Romans 11:17ff). Consider for a moment that God has chosen you generally (along with all those who respond to his loving grace with faith and dedicated lives) and personally (giving you a unique purpose and mission), as his initiative of grace.

Verse 5 follows, "In love, HE PREDESTINED US to be adopted as his sons and daughters (the words sons is generic and all inclusive in the Greek here), in accordance with his pleasure and will..." I chose not to translate sons as "children," because it is for a step less personal than what the Greek communicates. Don Kinder, our congregational care pastor, has a way of communicating this value (both in baptism and in prayer) to people when he says "God is saying to you, my son...my daughter." I believe John Calvin had predestination very wrong when he created Geneva as a city only for the chosen. His doctrine of double predestination in which some were chosen for heaven and some were chosen for hell does not square with who Jesus was or is. God is an inclusive chooser, not an exclusive one.

Verse 9 reads, "And HE MADE KNOWN TO US the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ..." Even though we are nearly two millenia removed from those first received the mystery, there is still the sense that we are privileged to know what we know in Christ. It is the secret to life, a holy mystery, that we are invited to share with the world. I have never lost the sense of privilege it is to share God's love in Christ through the power of the Spirit with people, and I hope I never do. You have that privilege just as much as I do.

Verses 11-12 repeat the themes above and then verse 13 adds, "And YOU ALSO WERE INCLUDED in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed YOU WERE MARKED IN HIM WITH A SEAL, the promised Holy Spirit..." My experience of coming to faith in Christ was a profound sense that I was "totally loved," that in a profound way I belonged to God and God belonged to me. I was now included in God's big story of love. To be marked is to say that God has said, "This one is mine." But his marking of us is accomplished by making himself portable in us through the Holy Spirit. Parents do that with their children, for good or for ill. We mark them not just with our looks and talents (genetic), we mark them with our values, our styles of conversation, our virtues and vices, and our behavior examples. We mark them with our spirit. God has done that profoundly with you and me, all for good.

When you consider this level of grace in your life, doesn't it want to make you say thanks to God and just pray? That's what it does for Paul. He has seen this chosenness and life-changing grace operating in the people of the church of Ephesus, a place where there had been great resistance and even imprisonment for him. He prays that the Ephesian Christians will get to know God more, that they: 1) will be given a Spirit of wisdom and revelation (God is always wanting to take us further on our journey with Him, but we must have seeking and open hearts and minds), and 2)will have the "eyes of their hearts enlightened" to both the great hope that is theirs in Christ and an awareness of God's great power that is working in us (resurrection power, heavenly power,timeless power and reigning power). As you read this, I pray the same for you.

"May God fill you with wisdom and new insights. May God make you more aware then ever of the hope that is yours in Christ (no matter what is happening around you) and the power that is within you and available to you through God's Holy Spirit. Amen and Amen."