Sermon for 2nd Sunday of Christmas – Ephesians 1:3-14

So, some of you know I don’t care for sports. Probably because I hated gym class. How many times we had to pick teams. Teacher always picks a couple favorites to be captains. Never a surprise who those kids are, right? So they take turns picking kids, one by one, until guess who’s the only one left. Like usual. Good times! Couple decades of therapy. No big deal! Has this ever happened to you? Doesn’t have to be gym class. Have you ever applied for a job that you didn’t get? Some group that either didn’t let you join or kicked you out? When you find out that your so-called friends are getting together without you? Lots of different situations here. But is there anyone who hasn’t ever felt left out or left behind? So many popularity contests in the course of our lives, and are they ever fair?

On the other hand, how does it feel when we actually ARE chosen? Kind of makes up for all the other times, doesn’t it? Memory is a funny thing. Our high points kind of obliterate our low points. It’s selective amnesia. We all have it. We’re all human. But it’s not really fair. When we get consumed with our own chosenness, it’s hard to really get back to those times when we weren’t.

This all matters with our reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Honestly, it’s fabulous. He’s not telling us to do anything. He’s not accusing us of anything. He just goes on and on about all these things Jesus does for us. “God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Redemption through his blood, forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. Now, it’s easy to kind of get lost in all the platitudes. But what else is there to say? Let’s read this EVERY Sunday!

On the other hand, the fact that this passage sounds so uplifting is a little misleading. If we read the whole letter, turns out that Ephesus has big issues. There’s a lack of unity in the congregation. Arguments about who gets to do what. Who they’re choosing to be an apostle, or a pastor, or a teacher. Who’s important and who’s not. Do you think that screams popularity contest? When you’re chosen, everything’s great. When you’re not, you’re pissed off. Is that fair? So Paul tries to yank things back on track by “reminding” (“ignorant”, “hard-hearted”, Paul never disappoints!) them that it’s not up to them to decide who’s who. It’s God’s choice, but they’ve felt chosen for a while and now they’re wallowing in selective amnesia. They’ve conveniently forgotten what it was like when none of them were chosen.

So, now that we know the real situation, we come back to this reading and now something starts to stick out. “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.” What sticks out is that word “destined”. Destined for what? Destined for adoption as God’s children through Jesus. Destined to live for the praise of his glory. “Destined” is a strong word. It means God didn’t ask us. God already made a decision. Maybe we could even say that God has certain preconceptions about us. What preconceptions? That we would all live for the praise of God’s glory. Everyone. Because of who God has made us to be.

But do we agree with God? What are our preconceptions? Think about folks who say and do things we disagree with. What do we do? We label. We judge. After a while the only thing we expect is disappointment like a foregone conclusion. It’s hard to think “children of God” when we don’t think they represent. But let’s push this further. What’s something REALLY divisive especially right about now? How about who we vote for? Say what you want about the election process but it still ends up a popularity contest. We’re all got strong opinions about folks in office and especially about all those folks who don’t vote the same way we do. Deep down, what do we think about them? That they’re ignorant? That they’re divisive? That they’re destroying society and opposing God’s will? What do you think they think about us in return? Of course, we’re talking about this during worship when we’re at our most pious, but we’ve got a week of so many controversies to go. We get so polarized without even realizing. Paul preaches God’s “glorious grace freely bestowed on us in the Beloved,” but in the end our hearts always decide who’s chosen and who’s not, and guess who we always choose? Ourselves. We deny our prejudice, but who could account for every little thing we think or do or say? We’re just like the Ephesians in our own selective amnesia. Except, God doesn’t have amnesia.

Yet, Paul knows this and still preaches God’s “glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” He means Jesus, the Son of God, who knew us from the very beginning of creation and still he freely chooses to go to the cross to die, for Ephesus and for Paul and for you and for me. On the cross he gives away everything he has and is for our sake, And yet after 3 days he rises in the glory of his resurrection. By this Paul says, “in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.” All so that we would finally know what true grace is actually like. But what is this grace? It’s one of these words that we say all the time, when we really just mean turning a blind eye or holding our tongue or delaying the inevitable. But that’s not the true gift of grace given to us by Jesus. This grace is exactly the opposite. Jesus doesn’t turn a blind eye. He looks squarely upon us exactly as we are. Jesus doesn’t hold his tongue. He comes right out and proclaims us forgiven. Jesus definitely doesn’t wait for the last day. There’s no time for that. He comes right now and immediately forgives us all our sins.

That’s true grace, and when we have it, we know we don’t have to prove anything to anyone anymore. We certainly don’t have to prove anything to Jesus. I mean, how many times does Paul confess his violent story of having persecuted the vulnerable? He’d be the first to tell you what a monster he was, not to brag or top our stories, but because he’s so humbled that God chose him anyway. Because what he wants more than anything is for us to know that there is absolutely nothing in heaven or earth that could separate us from the love of God in Jesus. That’s why God chose him, because he’s the last person you’d expect to be chosen. Is it fair? Absolutely not. But thank God it’s not up to us, because this is the God who “gathers up all things in Jesus, things in heaven and things on earth.” So God chooses you and me.

This is why we can speak out and fight against injustice and evil with everything in our being, and yet be gracious to the folks who oppose us. Because we know that if facts and winning arguments was enough, we wouldn’t be in this situation. If laws or rules could change hearts, God would have stopped with the commandments. But God didn’t. So God grants us this gift of undeserved grace. It’s the only thing that really does transform us. It’s the only way we can hope that God really is gathering up all things, in spite of everything we see to the contrary. So we cling to a stubborn faith that cuts through divisions. We know life is complicated. We don’t know the whole story of the trials and tribulations folks have faced that lie underneath what they do and say and how they vote. But faith makes us want to know them better, because God loves to shatter our preconceptions. God knows it’s just too easy to hate a stranger. Likewise how easy to show compassion when we look someone in the eye and call them by name as Jesus called us. Called by name because we have been “destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.” But even so, God’s will be done. Thanks be to God.