This past week my friend Rabbi Brian Michelson of Temple Oheb Shalom presented a wonderful program about being Jewish at a time of growing anti-Semitism. He not only spoke of his love for both America and Israel and the many micro and macro-aggressions Jews live with every day, but also about his frustration with the pain and suffering happening in the Middle East. There were a lot of challenging questions presented, and he answered them honestly and well, but there was one statement that really got to me. A woman present said, “Well, you are the chosen people, so Christians have to support Israel.” Brian glibly said that he wished God would pick someone else, to which her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Her words and response reminded me of part of the problem the world is having with religion in general: too many people thinking they, and they alone, are God’s chosen.
As a Christian who takes the Bible seriously, I have struggled with the favoritism too many people think they have. They believe that God loves them more than others, and they live a life of spiritual arrogance and disrespect for others. Most Jews I know are very bothered by the simplistic way some Christians think of what being chosen means. And while I don’t fully understand their understanding, I know that it is far more complicated than I was taught in Sunday school. The Apostle Paul wrote that God does not play favorites, and the writer of James chastised the church for showing favoritism to the rich while ignoring the needs of the poor. Jesus welcomed all people, challenging the false god of prosperity as a gift from God. Jesus and Paul both tried to open the Kingdom of God up to anyone who was willing not only to follow, but to suffer because of their generosity. We are all chosen, but we also have to answer the call.
Too many religious people believe they are privileged, as if they are God’s favorite, but refuse to actually live according to God’s desires. They wear their religious symbols while they steal from the poor. They pray and bow and attend services while stabbing the most vulnerable of God’s chosen in the back. They blindly follow rules that no longer matter, mistreating those with less power as if they were not God’s children too. We are all chosen, but we can all lose that relationship through our ignorant and mean-spirited actions. How we treat those who we think are not chosen defines us far more than how we treat people who are like us; in fact, that may be the test of whether we will be chosen in the end. Being chosen is a gift, not a title.
Prayer – God of all, help us to choose wisely in the way we serve You and others. Amen.
Today’s art is “Compassion” by Mary Southard.