Today our church lectionary* begins a seven-week series on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. So, I thought it would be a good idea today to look at the opening passage of this letter that we have just heard. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is just six chapters long. It can easily be read in one sitting. It is filled with important insights on our Christian faith as well as very specific teachings on how we are to live out our Christian faith, and we will be looking at these teachings over the next several weeks. 

Today’s passage begins right after Paul’s initial greeting and is a wonderful blessing for all that God has done for us. In the original Greek, it is literally one long, run-on sentence, like an excited child trying to describe an important event. It is almost as if Paul can never say enough or pause for breath when he is praising God. And what is the first thing he thanks God for? He thanks God for choosing us. Isn’t that incredible? Even before the world was formed, God knew you. God had already planned to create you and chose to be in relationship with you. You and I have been chosen to be part of God’s family. It is an amazing, liberating truth, when we really embrace it. 

God chose us, in Christ. We can be confident of that. And even when our plans for this life don’t work out, we can trust in this knowledge: that God has chosen us, and nothing we do can take God’s choice away. But let’s think a little more about what Paul means by this, because he has a very specific meaning in mind.  

Paul grew up reading the Hebrew Bible, known by many of us as the Old Testament. And a prominent theme in the Hebrew Bible is that Israel is God’s chosen people. It begins with Abraham, whom God chose to be the father of many nations, and through whom all nations would be blessed. Abraham was chosen and blessed in order to be a blessing to others. That theme continues when Abraham’s descendants are rescued from Egypt, and the blessing continues on into the present day with us. 

Paul tells us that we are the new Israel; we have been chosen to be a blessing in the world, not because we’re better, or more important than others, but because we are in a relationship with God. The church, the disciples that Jesus has called, have been chosen to be a light to the nations. We have been chosen to do God’s work on this earth and that means to care for the poor and the sick, to feed the hungry, to bring hope to the hopeless, to strive for justice and peace, and to do all of this in the name of Jesus. That is what we have been chosen for. God’s chosen people are to be servants in the world. 

We have been chosen in Christ, as Paul puts it, to be holy and blameless before God in love. There’s only one problem with that, and you’ve probably already figured it out. Who among us believes that they are holy and blameless? I’m not holy and blameless, and I’m guessing you’re not, either. As Paul reminds us, none of us is. The nation of Israel wasn’t. The church certainly isn’t. And none of us as individuals is, either.  

And that, of course, is why we need a Savior. We need the one who is holy and blameless. We need Jesus. We don’t always get it right. But Jesus does and we are to place our trust in him. We haven’t just been chosen, Paul reminds us: We have been chosen in Christ. And as the next verses go on to remind us, we have been adopted into God’s chosen family through Jesus.  

We are rarely all that we want to be, and we can get discouraged by that, but Paul reassures us that wherever we are on our journey, we are God’s. God has chosen us. What a powerful truth to rest in, and to build our lives on: that we are God’s. No matter who we are. For we have been chosen in Christ.  

And we have been chosen in Christ for a reason, for a purpose. Paul tells us that God has made known to us the mystery of God’s will. In other words, we know what God’s plan is for the world. We know that God is saving the world through Jesus, and that gives us an important responsibility. We have been chosen for a reason: to share in that work, in the fulfillment of that purpose. 

We have been chosen to live “to the praise of God’s glory.” What does that mean? Well, Paul will spend a good portion of this letter to the Ephesians explaining what that means. This letter is filled with very specific teachings on what it means to live as God’s chosen people in Christ; and how we are to live to the praise of God’s glory. 

But first, Paul wants to make sure that we really understand and believe that God has chosen us in Christ. It is no longer just the Israelites who have been chosen by God. It is all of us who set our hope on Christ. It is you and me. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Every one of us. God’s treasured possession. A light to the nations.   

Blessed be the God who has blessed us in Christ, and chosen us to be a blessing to our world. Amen.  

*The lectionary is the list of Scriptural readings assigned to be read during worship.  

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