"Taken" Midweek Reflection (Week 3)

John15:12-17

Romans 8:12-17

In Life of the Beloved Nouwen urges us to receive the proclamation that each of us is God’s Beloved and then he acknowledges that “becoming the beloved” means embodying God’s love in our words and actions,
a task that isn’t accomplished in a day or a week or even a single season of our lives, but is an ongoing process.

Nouwen uses four words to describe the movement of the Spirit among us: taken, blessed, broken and given and we’re going to reflect on one word each week, beginning with “Taken”.

Concerned that “taken” can be heard as “cold and brittle”, Nouwen quickly replaces it with “chosen”, writing,
“As children of God, we are God’s chosen ones.” (51)

We hear this same language in our readings tonight from John’s gospel and from Paul’s letter to the Romans. I often say, “God gets all the verbs.” Tonight, we hear:

God chooses us.
God adopts us, and
God makes us heirs to God’s kingdom.

God does that, FOR US.

Nouwen continues, writing, “From all eternity, long before you were born and became a part of history, you existed in God’s heart.” (53-54)

I remember the first time I heard someone describe Jesus’ prayer in the high priestly prayer in John 17. There Jesus is praying  and he says, “⁹ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.”

Jesus prays for us because he knows how much God loves us, because God has claimed us as God’s own.

Nouwen writes because he wants us to understand that in the gaze of Christ, or as he writes, “the eyes of love”, we are seen as precious. (56)

God has chosen us with an everlasting love. (58)

Chosen. Precious. Beloved.

These are the words God uses for us, even when our world says otherwise. When we hear words that tear down or diminish, or when we experience rejection or humiliation, those words are not of God. For that matter, when we inflict suffering on others with our words, that is not of God either.

Choose whose voice you will heed.

And then celebrate with gratitude to God and to every person who reminds you of your chosen-ness. As Nouwen writes, “When we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant.” (62) That is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

And as we live with gratitude, we also cultivate the desire for others to know that they too are chosen by God and beloved.

Nouwen writes, “It is impossible to compete for God’s love.” (64) My being chosen doesn’t mean someone else is excluded or rejected. Instead, as he says, we call forth “each other’s chosen-ness and a mutual affirmation of being precious in God’s eyes.” (65)

This is how we live as God’s Chosen.