St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - July 12, ’09
“Take A Look. Children Chosen For!”
Text: Ephesians 1:3-6
Children! In view of recent, positive, encouraging conversations in our congregation about World Vision & sponsoring children who have lost their parents to AIDS, and in view of watching a brief DVD about Brent’s Place in the Denver area which helps parents stay close to their children who need major surgeries & aggressive treatments to fight cancer, I prepared both this worship service & this message to focus on the theme: Children Chosen For! Not just children in the narrow sense meaning small, little people. But I’m thinking children as that which all of us are - small, large; young, old; shy, shining; working retired; struggling, coasting; single, married; all of us at whatever stage we’re at in life are “children of God” or “chosen of God!”
Martin Luther once wrote, “When I preach I regard neither doctors nor magistrates of whom I have about 40 in my congregation; I have all my eyes on the servant maids and on the children. And if the learned men are not well pleased with what they hear, well the door is open.” One thing learned men needed to learn in Luther’s day, as well as in our own day, is that no amount of learning is more important than learning what a privilege it is and what a challenge it is to be alive to the grace of God & live as children of God.
So the question this morning is not when do we stop being children but rather, if all of us, no matter how old we are, are “children of God,” than what are we children of God here for? What are we chosen for?
We have been chosen, first of all, says St. Paul in the Epistle reading for this Sunday, “to be holy and blameless in God’s sight.”
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . for He chose us . . to be holy and blameless in his sight,” writes St. Paul.
What does that mean? Does “holy & blameless” in God’s sight mean wearing little halos over our heads? Does it lead to having a ‘holier than thou’ attitude about ourselves, that we’re a little better, nicer, closer to God’s heart than those who don’t go to church?
Actually, “holy & blameless” in Christ means living lives of personal integrity. That word integrity comes from two smaller Latin words “in” & “tangere” or “in” & “to touch”. Integrity is literally having everything in your life touch, match-up together so your life is whole, integrated. Integrity for children of God is wakinh up every day to the challenge of living as God would have us live. Integrity before God and before our fellow human beings is knowing & choosing to do the right thing, keeping our word, being honest, being truthful, morally responsible, setting a good example, standing for what’s just & fair, and not falling away from what you believe in.
Chosen to be holy and blameless in God’s sight doesn’t mean we’re perfect, it means, by God’s grace, as redeemed, forgiven children of God we seek daily to be people of character and responsibility.
George Bernard Shaw once pointed out, “The best brought-up children are those who have seen their parents as they are, people of character and responsibility. Genuine, not artificial; faithful, not faultless; and forgiving, not grudge-bearing.
Hypocrisy is not a healthy thing for families. If hypocrisy is what children see in their parents, it will it will follow that children learn it’s OK to be hypocrites themselves.”
If honest, loving, caring, genuine, truthful relationships are a family’s best protection against the challenges of the world, how much more honest, loving, caring, genuine, truthful forgiving Christ-centered relationships among children of God build us up as family of God when things get dark or difficult.
Which brings me to a second unique thing about being chosen childen of God, and that is, as God’s children we are chosen to love others. St. Paul writes, “In love God the father predestined us to be adopted as His sons & daughters through Jesus Christ . .”
Interesting image St. Paul uses here. We are none of us born children of God, but we are chosen in love to be adopted as God’s sons & daughters”.
What’s interesting is that when adopted children learn they are adopted they find out how much they are truly wanted. Adopted children are wanted, & prayed for by the parents who adopt them. It doesn’t just happen. It isn’t an accident. Parents who want to adopt go through a lot of paper work, a lot of inter-viewing and waiting, a lot of expense to bring an adopted child into their home.
So also God the Father has gone thru a lot of expense, waiting, sending, blessing, forsaking, offering up His own son in love in order to adopt us and make us forever a part of His family.
Last Sunday I said in the Kingdom of God money isn’t everything. This Sunday I say to you, as children chosen for love winning isn’t everything.
About 10 years ago, an article appeared in an Arkansas newspaper, about a very small school in Arkansas named Witts Springs.
The article started off: “The 1997 graduating class of Witts Springs, Arkansas – population 100 – produces few athletes from a student body of 41 students in grades 7 through 12. But they manage to produce athletes that take team play to a new level.
“In a basketball game with rival Leslie, Witts Springs trailed by over 30 points with just two minutes to go. The fans began to chant, “Put in Scotty. Scot-TEE! Scot-TEE! Scot-TEE!’ The coach obliged and inserted senior guard Scotty Harmon. Harmon had cerebral palsy, a brain disorder meaning his physical skills weren’t all that developed.
“Once in the game, left alone and unguarded on the perimeter, Scotty received a pass and threw the ball toward the hoop. He missed. His teammates scrambled for the rebound and gave Scotty a second chance. He missed again, which started another fight for the ball.
“Said the coach, ‘The kids know when Scotty’s in there their game is over. They’re doing it for him now; the atmosphere changes. If they’re worn out, they’ll break their necks to get that rebound. Our kids will go above everybody to get the ball to Scotty.’
“On his fourth try, Scotty Harmon actually hit a three pointer. Fans on both sides of the gym cheered wildly. The scoreboard said Leslie 89, Witts Springs 58, but everybody left a winner, especially Scotty’s teammates.”
What does it mean to be chosen to love as children of God? It means winning isn’t every thing. It means loving, lifting one another up as family, God’s family. Besides living lives of personal integrity, we are chosen, challenged to reflect God’s love for us, lifting each other up because Jesus said, “This is how you will know that you are my disciples, if you let go, loose your lives for one another.”
The third point the apostle Paul makes is that we are chosen as God’s children to bring God praise, to sing God’s praises, to let the whole world know, God is worthy of all praise.
Listen again to St. Paul. “In him we were also chosen . . in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.”
In other words, praise is witnessing to the world that God rules in our lives. Did you know in the hymnal we use now, LSB, there are 33 hymns for Easter, 31 hymns for Christ the Redeemer, and 32 hymns of praise and adoration for god. Just as there is no salvation without Christ our Redeemer who rose triumphant from the dead on Easter, so there is no living as chosen children of God without praising God.
Praise is not an option for children of God. I know in every congregation there are members who usually don’t show up in church unless their son or daughter wants to be married there or unless their own funeral is held there. Many a pastor will say, those members though they may be baptized children of God, just don’t get it. Worship & praise are not options for Christians.
As children of God, brothers & sisters in Christ, we gather each week in this place to say to each other, to say to the world, “God has got the whole world; God has got all of us in His hands. God lives! God matters! “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
I love the little Christmas hymn we sing when Christmas comes around, but it’s a hymn I’ve learned to sing a good hymn to pray all year long.
Let us all with gladsome voice, Praise the God of heaven,
Who, to bid our hearts rejoice, His own Son hath given.
We are rich for He was poor; Is not this a wonder?
Therefore praise God evermore Here on earth and yonder.(390, LSB)
It is the motto of World Vision that “Sponsorship changes the life of a child forever, and it can change your life, too.”
It is the goal of Brent’s Place, to be “a community where we are helping children with cancer and their families . . one day at a time.”
So also, it is challenge of being chosen children of God that in Christ we are chosen for and in Christ we strive for integrity, for loving one another, for praising of God . . in ways that change our lives one day at a time.
