A Chosen People
1 Peter 2:9-10 (p. 1201)
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to god that
you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful
light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you
had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
We have company arriving tonight -- friends of ours who live in Karachi, Pakistan.
We haven't seen them in several years, so of course, in anticipation we have been
going through the ritual of trying to get the house in order. I was working on
it Friday night. Now a funny thing happens to me when I get serious about attacking clutter.
I put off this mild mannered exterior and I really come alive. Sometimes I get
positively frenetic. I rush from task to task. I pick up a book here, a stack of
papers there, I passionately go after stray lego pieces, I stick marbles in my pockets.
Everywhere I look there are things to be done, and of course I want to do them
when I see them, so I find myself trying to do everything at once. And it works
fine for a while, but every once in a while I stop dead in my tracks -- I'll find myself in
the basement, or in the attic, or on the stairs. And I have NO idea why I'm there.
I know there was some reason, but I've completely forgotten what it was.
I often face a similar predicament when I come to church. I know that there must
be some important reason why we're here -- but it just seems to have escaped me.
So I need to be reminded, and I suspect you need to be reminded, over and over
again of why we are here and who we are as the church.
So through the month of June we're going to be focussing on the question, WHO ARE
WE? And to help us we're going to focus on a single verse, one of the verses I read
a minute ago, 1 Peter 2:9. Let me read it again:
But you area chosen people
, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to god that you may declare
the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light.
This verse will be our outline. I encourage you to meditate on it and memorize it
if you haven't done so already.
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Today we start with the first phrase: You are a chosen people.
Talking about being chosen people is a bit awkward these days. It goes completely
against the grain of our culture. We are used to choosing, not being chosen.
So it has become a bit embarrassing to talk about being chosen people. Yesterday
I was studying over at the Thirsty Mind coffee shop. And someone asked me what my sermon
would be about. So I told him it was about being chosen people. As I was leaving
he looked me over and he said, "You look chosen." From the gleam in his eye I think
he was making fun of me, but it raised an intriguing question: What do chosen people
look like?
What does it mean to be a chosen people?
Let's do a simulation: Imagine that I was to choose five or six from the congregation.
If I point my finger at you, you are chosen. From among the whole congregation
this morning I have chosen you. And I have one simple question to ask you: How
does that make you feel? What does it feel like to be chosen?
Very few of you would be enthusiastic about being chosen. Not many would jump up
and say, "Oh Thank you so much for choosing me! It is such a privilege!" And most
of those who were not chosen would be quite relieved. Why? Why weren't you clamoring to be chosen?
My guess is that you suspected there would be a cost to being chosen. You were afraid
that I would make you come up front and do something embarrassing -- do a liturgical
dance, or answer some silly question. So when you are chosen you are wise to ask, chosen for WHAT? There is something uncomfortable, something vulnerable about being
chosen. Most of us would rather do the choosing. We're afraid of giving up control.
I want to choose what I will do and what I will say, and when you do or say it.
Being chosen is a fearful thing. It's like the terror of being called on randomly
by a teacher in class. It takes you out of the drivers seat, and it puts someone
else in control. And that explains why people in scripture who are specifically
chosen by God are often less than enthusiastic. They don't say "wow, what a privilege."
They usually respond with fear and alarm. (e.g. Moses, Jeremiah 1:4-8, Jonah)
These people knew perfectly well that being chosen by God was a fearful thing. And
so they responded the same way you did: Who me -- why do you want me? I never
ASKED to be chosen. Which is exactly the point: We don't do the choosing. God
does the choosing. We aren't the ones in control. These men knew very well that when God
chooses it is also the end of your life as you knew it. Being chosen may be an
honor, but it has costly implications. Being chosen means God takes control and
we must relinquish control.
And we find the implications of being a chosen people spelled out for us throughout
the book of 1 Peter.
1. Chosen to be strangers.
Look at the very first verse of the book of 1 Peter: Peter, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, To God's elect [that is, his chosen people and then he describes the elect]
strangers in the world. Strangers in the world.
And then again in chapter 2 verse 11 right after he has called us a chosen people,
Peter says: Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to
abstain from sinful desires.
When God chooses us, we become strangers in the world.
We are chosen to be refugees.
A few weeks ago Kosavar refugees begain arriving at Fort Dix in New Jersey. And
there they were given housing and beds and medical care and recreational facilities.
But they know very well that Fort Dix is not their final destination. It will
never be home. It is only a temporary stopping place. They are free to make use of it
-- but they don't belong there.
That is our relationship to the world and the things of the world as the chosen people
of God. The world is ours to use, but we are only temporary residents and must not
grasp onto the things of the world or act as if this is our permanent home. We don't belong here. We are refugees in a holding camp, awaiting final relocation.
This is not a comfortable situation to be in because it means that we don't belong
-- that we are misfits in the world. But that is not the worst of it.
2. Chosen to be servants.
vs. 13 -- Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among
men. whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or the governors, who are sent
by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
As the chosen people of God we are called not to superiority, but to submission.
And we are called to submit not just to God -- but to every
authority instituted among men. From the President down to the local building inspector
or the foreman on your job.
To submit means to willingly place yourself in someone else's control. To allow your
well-being, your safety, your life to be put in someone else's hands.
This might not be all that difficult if those we submit to are good and trustworthy.
But we are called to submit not just to good rulers, or good governors, or good
bosses, or good parents: Verse 18: Slaves submit yourselves to your masters with
all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
God's choosing is a call to radical submission even to those who mean us harm. We
are called to willingly give up our rights and give up our autonomy and to place
ourselves at the mercy of other people who are in authority over us -- even when
they are unjust and harsh.
And that's not all . . .
3. Chosen to suffer
vs. 19 -- It is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because
he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you do wrong and endure
it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before
God. To this you were called.
We are called to suffer unjustly. We are called to suffer for doing good. You might
object, well the context here is slaves -- and we are not slaves.
Look ahead to 3:8-9. We find the same thing:
To this you were called. To what? To respond to evil and insult with blessing.
An essential part of our calling, as the chosen people of God is to willingly endure
injustice and insult. We are called to accept whatever treatment the world gives
us without bitterness, without vengeance, and without retaliation. And we are called
to pay back evil with blessing.
It is our calling. It is who we were chosen to be. And it is our calling to endure
suffering when we have done good -- when we have been righteous. When we are blamed
wrongly, when we are falsely accused. It is our calling not to fight back, not
to seek vindication, not to retaliate.
And let's not imagine that this only applies to dramatic cases of persecution. When
your wife or husband yells at you -- it is your calling
not to repay evil for evil. When a friend says something hurtful, it is your calling
not to be bitter or to strike back. Not even to think vengeful thoughts. This
is what you were chosen for. Your were chosen to do good and to continue to do
good when you are repaid with evil.
And you will be repaid with evil. We get this idea that if we do good, then good
should be done to us. If I do good work I want it recognized. If I work hard
I should be rewarded. If I love, I want to be loved back. But it just doesn't
work that way. And our calling is to endure injustice and evil and to return blessing.
We are chosen to be refugees, chosen to be servants, chosen to suffer. This is not
a very encouraging picture of what it means to be a chosen people. It's easy to
sympathize with Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof crying out: "Master of the Universe,
I know it's a great honor to be your chosen people, but just for once couldn't you choose
someone else?" And there's the key point: We would never choose these things
for ourselves. It is goes against our very nature. It goes against every instinct.
Our instincts are to want to belong and to seek security in the things of the world,
our instincts are to want to take control our lives, not to submit; our instincts
are to seek justice to seek vindication.
We would never -- we could never choose these things ourselves -- but we are not
the ones doing the choosing. God does the choosing. And to be a chosen people
means requires us to give over control to God -- to accept his calling on our lives.
To give up our choices and allow him to choose. Being a chosen people means entrusting
ourselves to God. It means findout our security in him, finding our treasure in
him, finding our joy in him.
What do chosen people look like?
1 Peter 2:21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you
and example that you should follow in his steps.
Chosen people look like Jesus. What we have been chosen for is to follow in the
steps of Jesus and to become like him. And EVERYTHING that God calls us to is to
this end. If he calls us to be strangers and to be rejected, it is no more than
what Jesus experienced. He lived his life like a refugee. If he calls us to submit, even to
evil men, it is no more than Christ did. He submitted himself to his enemies, to
those who wanted to kill him. If we endure abuse and insult when we do good, we
are only doing what Jesus did.
What do Chosen people look like? They look like Jesus. That is our calling as a
church. That is who we are: People chosen by God to follow in the steps of Jesus
and to be like him.