Creekside Church Sermon of November 3, 2002 "The Frozen Chosen " 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10	Rev. David Bibbee
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While traveling north on my annual Wisconsin fishing trip, there is a sign I always read. It is just north of Madison on I-90. It has three large red letters on it…A B S which stands for the American Breeder's Society. It is a large complex of silos and long buildings which are literally "full of bull." ABS is in the animal husbandry business, and under the roofs of its buildings are the finest breeding bulls in the world. There was a story a while back on the national news about one of ABS's long-term residents whose contributions had been used to artificially inseminate and produce over four hundred thousand offspring all over the world.

Now back to the sign. There is always a quote on it which changes at least twice a month…clever wordplays which highlight some aspect of ABS's purpose. I passed it four times this summer, and one of the quotes was especially creative. To appreciate it you need to know the meaning of the word "cull". To cull something is to reject it because it is inferior or worthless. Applying this to ABS's principle product, the sign said, "Many are culled. Few are frozen."

Throughout the Bible there are many references to God's chosen people. The Old Testament refers to the people of Israel as God's chosen. Their task was to be a light to the world. Later the flock of the chosen grew to encompass the church. Its responsibility was to reveal the light of Jesus Christ to the world. To be chosen didn't simply mean being the recipient of God's good favor, nor did it imply that all others were therefore written off. To be numbered among the chosen people was a blessing and a burden. It was cause for rejoicing to be drawn into relationship with the Creator. But it also required shouldering responsibilities.

"You are a chosen race," Paul said. "Once you were no people but now you are God's people." It sounds good when we hear the words in church, but it seems too improbable along side what society says we should be. What makes sense on Sunday is a stretch come Monday. Many are called, people of every stripe and persuasion. Many are called, but many are frozen. It takes a strong person to be a disciple-one who believes, trusts, hopes, and serves regardless the difficulties and pressures. To be chosen as a disciple means one endeavors to consistently embody love and steadfast commitment to Christ, come what may. But this is mighty hard to live up to. Our discipleship is erratic. We freeze. But despite all that we aren't; despite a resume full of disqualifications, we remain God's chosen and continue to be the ones to whom Jesus entrusts his message.

Our great need is to claim and reclaim our chosenness. The world bombards us with the fat lie that we are nothing as we are. To be someone you need to have a Capital One Visa Card, work out on a Bow-Flex, drive an SUV, own the fastest computer, and read the Wall Street Journal. But our sole security continues to be something not of our choosing at all.

"For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you." (1 Thessalonians 1: 4) These are Paul's words in his first letter to the Christians in Thessalonica, the first church founded in Europe. Thessalonica was situated in a strategic location. The roads leading east to Asia and west to Rome met there. If the church there was successful, Christianity would spread east and west. It was a tall call for such a little church which was being pummeled and persecuted by society and the synagogue. Paul himself had been thrown out of town. Unable to come back, he wrote a letter thanking them for their work of faith and labor of love and steadfast hope in Jesus. The words in verse four reminded them of why they would not freeze in the face of opposition. "For we know…beloved by God, that he has chosen you."

God's world has been taken over, and God is going to take it back, a decision at a time, an act at a time, through people like you and me, who don't seem to have much to offer.

My favorite elementary school teacher was Miss Hart. She was unique. She didn't give homework assignments. I guess she figured if we didn't learn it in class we weren't going to "get it" at home, either. I recall something else she did. Whenever she asked the class questions, there were always kids who were overly eager to answer. They waved their hands frantically and had that "know-it-all" look. "Oh! Oh! I know! Call on me! Call on me!" But Miss Hart would often not call on them, but instead called on the quiet, timid ones, or in my case, the ones who didn't know. But choosing the easily overlooked kids, Miss Hart instilled confidence in their abilities.

"Consider your call," Paul says in I Corinthians 1: 26. "Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, nor powerful, but God chose what is foolish to shame the wise. God chose what is weak to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world so that no one might boast in the presence of God." When it comes to choosing, God isn't just looking for the extraordinary people. God is biased toward ordinary people.

By virtue of your baptism you are chosen people. God has deemed you fit for service. You have what it takes to serve God and pave paths for Christ into the lives of others. A disciple is someone who is called out and set apart for service that suits who they are. With this in mind, let me offer some insights that might begin to thaw us from our frozen chosenness.

First, we are not the best judges of our own call. Sometimes individuals feel a tap on the shoulder and know they have been called to do God some definite service. Most of the time, however, the call comes through others in the body of Christ. In The Church of the Brethren we believe that we discern the call of God best when we discern together as the church.

I've been asked numerous times about my call to ministry. But when I tell people how it came about, some look disappointed. Many people have the idea that the call to ministry is accompanied with heavenly voices, visions, and special effects. None of the pastors I know were chosen like that. Most of us heard God's call in the voices of Sunday school teachers, pastors, members of the kitchen committee who said things like, "You read the Bible so well. Have you thought about being a minister?" Had you asked me twenty-five years ago if I could see myself as a pastor, I would have replied, " Have you lost your mind?" Ministry was something I never would have picked for myself, which explains why I am in this pulpit. I didn't pick ministry. It picked me.

I'm doing things that plain ol' people said I could do when I knew all along I couldn't. It turns out that people in the church knew more about me than I knew about me. It was tough, but along the way were people who believed in me. A college professor took me under his wings and mentored me. He believed in me more than I believed in myself. He taught me that trusting God meant "goin' without knowin'". He taught me that the only thing to fall back upon is the belief that God chooses us, and God knows what he is about, and that he has chosen me for a life's work more meaningful than any I would have chosen if I had been the judge. The same goes for you. Being chosen is to hold up your corner. It is often more clear to others. Sometimes we are the last to know.

First, we are not the judges of our own call. Second, there is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy of being chosen. If our status to God was determined by our worthiness. God would pass us over for better prospects. But as you have heard before, being chosen, just as being saved, has nothing to do with us and everything to do with God. I want you to listen to something written by Father Brennan Manning;

"God's love is based on nothing, and the fact that it is based on nothing is what makes us secure. Were it based on anything we do and that anything were to collapse, then God's love would crumble as well.

In living out being-loved we must move beyond the oppressive demands we place upon ourselves that tell us what we should be, must be, and ought to be. My friend Sister Mary O'Shaugnessy has a banner in her room that says 'TODAY I WILL NOT SHOULD ON MYSELF.'" Manning goes on; "I don't have to be somebody else-Mother Teresa or Saint Francis. As my spiritual director says, 'Be who you is, because if you is who you ain't, you ain't who you is.'"

We are God's chosen people, not because we are so wonderful, worthy, or loveable. Most of the time we don't live as though we are precious in God's eyes. In our own right, we aren't wonderful, worthy or loveable, but God continues to love us. "God has shown his great love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus' first disciples weren't especially bright, steady or reliable, nor were their motives always the best. Neither are ours. We fall short of God's design for our lives. We crush ourselves under the load of should, must, and ought, and freeze up. But what makes Christianity so special is the belief that God's grace always exceeds our capacity to fail him. God doesn't unchoose us.

Perhaps someone this morning is saying, "If I'm chosen, why don't I feel like it?" Feelings have nothing to do with it. This is our third insight. Being chosen means you act like it whether you feel like it or not. One of my seminary profs said; "Sometimes we act ourselves into believing." You may have difficulty believing God has chosen you. If so, why not "make believe" you are chosen?

Josef Casimir Hoffmann was a prolific piano player. But he had limitations which made it difficult for him to play a standard sized piano. He was only five foot five inches tall. His hands were so small a special keyboard was made for him. He poured himself completely into the piano and greatness was the result. While traveling on a train across Poland, his traveling companion noticed Hoffmann staring straight ahead. His eyes were transfixed. He appeared to be in a trance. He sat like a statue. Finally the friend asked, "What are you doing?" "Practicing!" Hoffmann replied.

No one can be accomplished at anything without practice. Early on the goal may seem unattainable, but the ability to see ourselves succeeding in our pursuit is what keeps us going. It is true of athletes, artists, and average people. Making believe we believe, living as if we are loved by God, living as if we are chosen, living as if we do not fear rejection when we take a stand for justice, or call a wrong a wrong, or share the love of Jesus we know with those who don't…this is what brings about what once seemed like wishful thinking.

We aren't meant to be the judges of our own call from God. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves worthy of being chosen. Being chosen means acting chosen whether we feel chosen or not. If we will try taking this to heart, maybe we will begin to thaw, and realize who initiated it all in the first place.

Remember what Jesus said, "You did not choose me. I chose you and appointed you that you should bear fruit and that your fruit should abide."

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