May 17, 2009 | 8:00 a.m.

Frozen Chosen Freezer Burn

John W. Vest
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 98
John 15:9–17

“You did not choose me but I chose you.
And I appointed you to go and bear fruit,
fruit that will last.”

John 15:16 (NRSV)

The kingdom of God, in short compass, is the society in which the will of God is established to transform all of life. The kingdom of God is more than what God is doing “within you” and more than God’s personal “dynamic presence”; it is what God is doing in this world through the community of faith for the redemptive plans of God— including what God is doing in you and me. It transforms relationship with God, with self, with others,and with the world.

Scot McKnight
A Community Called Atonement

Do you remember when you were a little kid in school, out on the playground for PE or recess, and you were playing a team sport? There were captains who chose the teams, one player at a time, until everyone was picked. Unless they were forced to do otherwise by a teacher or a coach, the captains always chose the best athletes first and gradually worked their way down to the weakest links.

Do you remember the looks on the faces of the kids who were picked last? Do you remember the pain and the shame in their eyes to know that all of their classmates and all of their friends considered them the least desirable player? Do you remember those kids? Perhaps you were even one of those kids yourself.

Being picked last in playground situations like this has become something of a cultural cliché for us, something we joke about and don’t take too seriously. But I’ve worked with youth long enough and I’ve seen this situation happen often enough to know that it’s no joke, and it’s quite serious. It’s tough to be picked last. It can hurt. It can be embarrassing. Even when kids seem to shrug it off or joke about it themselves, you know that deep inside they hate being picked last. It’s just one step above not being picked at all. In fact, it may be worse, because those kids know that they have to be picked, and sometimes they know that the captains would just as soon not pick them at all. We like to be picked. There’s something special about being chosen.

This past week was the fifth season finale of the television show Lost. I’m a pretty big fan of this show, and like most fans of Lost, my enthusiasm for it borders on obsession. I watch and rewatch episodes. I read about it online and discuss it with my friends. I was greatly anticipating this week’s big finale, and I was definitely not disappointed. So I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I saw it on Thursday. It must be on my mind, because I managed to work it into two wedding homilies yesterday, and I guess I’m doing it again today.

Without giving anything away for people who haven’t seen it yet or who need to catch up and don’t want things spoiled for them, there was one powerful scene toward the end that fits our emerging theme this evening. There is a character named Ben, who for many years was the leader of a group of people who live on the island on which the show takes place. Even as the chosen leader, Ben himself took orders from a mysterious and powerful figure named Jacob, whom no one ever sees, almost like an unseen god. It turns out, to our surprise, that Ben has never seen Jacob either. When Ben is replaced by a new leader named John, John requests an audience with Jacob and is granted it.

For reasons I don’t want to give away, John brings Ben along for the meeting with Jacob. When Ben finally meets Jacob for the first time, he is angry. For years, when he was the chosen leader of his people, Ben wanted more than anything to meet Jacob. Time and time again he requested to do so, and each time he was denied. He was told he needed to be patient. He was told that he wasn’t ready. But when John is chosen to be the new leader, almost immediately he is granted access to Jacob.

Naturally, Ben feels slighted. Why, for so many years, was he denied what this newcomer was granted immediately? What is so special about this new chosen one? What does John have that Ben doesn’t? “What about me?” Ben asks Jacob in pain and humiliation.

There’s something special about being chosen.

In our scripture lesson today, Jesus tells his disciples that he has chosen them. More than this, he is clear to point out that it was he that chose them, not the other way around. They are chosen, and there is something special about that. By extension, we understand this passage to mean that we too are chosen, chosen by God to be a part of this faith community, chosen by God to do something meaningful in this world. And there ought to be something special about that as well.

But if we are chosen by God, and if there really is something special about that, why is our brand of Christianity often referred to as the “frozen chosen”? Is this just a joke about our somewhat reserved worship style, or is there more to it than that? Does it mean that we have somehow squandered or misunderstood this gift God has given us by choosing us? Does it mean that we have allowed ourselves to become complacent in our work and satisfied with where we are as a community? Are we so proud of our accomplishments that we get stuck in a moment and don’t move forward? Have we allowed ourselves to be frozen for so long that we’ve developed a bit of freezer burn?

Sometimes I feel that this is the case. When I think about how slow the process is for the Presbyterian church to move toward full inclusion of its members, it seems like a bit of freezer burn. When I see how much time and effort is spent, on every single level of church governance, to maintain the institution rather than do ministry, it seems like a bit of freezer burn. When we run churches like businesses instead of communities of faith, it seems like a bit of freezer burn. When we spend more time looking inward than looking outward, it seems like a bit of freezer burn.

When I think about these things, I believe that God is calling us to thaw out and to live into our mission as God’s chosen people. And so I think it is good for us to pay close attention to Jesus’ words in this farewell discourse to his disciples, words through which God also chooses us and calls us to service.

It is more than a clever turn of phrase when Jesus says that we did not choose him, but he chose us. What that means is that in this new community created by Jesus, in this new expression of God’s kingdom, it is God who sets the agenda, not us. When we decide to make church into a social gathering rather than a place of transformation, we are not following God’s agenda. When we allow ourselves to be shaped and defined by our culture rather than act as yeast for cultural revolution, we are not following God’s agenda. When we are content to give handouts to the poor without challenging the systems that create poverty or actually living alongside the poor as Jesus did, we are not following God’s agenda. When we create divisions among ourselves and don’t share power and responsibility equally, we are not following God’s agenda. When we fail to welcome every single one of God’s children into our midst, we are not following God’s agenda.

It is more than a metaphor when Jesus tells those he chooses that they are to abide in his love just as he abides in God’s love. He is saying that central to the relationship between him and God is a sense of community, a real sense of reciprocal and communal coexistence. He is saying that we too have access to that kind of relationship with God. And he is saying that we are called to develop those kinds of relationships with each other. When we come together in love, God is present in that love. Indeed, God is that love, a love we are called to share with each other. Living in loving community is part of the nature of our triune God, and living in community is central to who we are as human beings created in God’s image.

It is more than self-serving heroics when Jesus tells those he chooses that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for friends. Jesus is telling us that self-sacrifice is the ultimate act of love, the clearest expression of God’s love for us and the love we are called to share with others. This doesn’t mean that we need to march out and seek to become martyrs. But it does mean that we need to put others before ourselves. It does mean that sometimes we are called to sacrifice some of our own comforts, some of our own privileges, some of our own pride. It does mean that we need to die to the narcissistic parts of ourselves and be reborn as selfless servants.

It is more than a pretty image when Jesus tells those he chooses that they are appointed to bear fruit that will last. Bearing fruit turns our focus away from ourselves and toward others. God is calling us to nothing less than the transformation and redemption of the world we live in. In his excellent book A Community Called Atonement, North Park University professor Scot McKnight argues that atonement and salvation is about much more than personal spiritual transformation. It is about the kingdom of God.

“The kingdom of God,” writes McKnight, “is the society in which the will of God is established to transform all of life. The kingdom of God is more than what God is doing ‘within you’ and more than God’s personal ‘dynamic presence’; it is what God is doing in this world through the community of faith for the redemptive plans of God—including what God is doing in you and me. It transforms relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the world” (A Community Called Atonement, p. 9).

Bearing fruit that will last, then, is about reshaping our communities into the kingdom of God Jesus modeled for us and calls us to live into now. It truly is about changing the world.

We should never take it for granted that we have been chosen by God to do these things. We should never grow complacent and self-satisfied when God’s children are still hurting. We should never underestimate God’s love and its power to transform us and to transform our world. We should never forget who we are and who God calls us to be.

“You did not choose me but I chose you,” says Jesus. “And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”

May it be so among us. Amen.