Choose To Be Chosen
Sermon
Fringe, Front and Center
Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third)
What a relief to be chosen! Remember? When the captains began to choose up sides for a softball game? That terrible feeling that you might be the last one chosen or not be chosen at all? "The rest of you can just go out in the outfield somewhere"...or "The rest of you can sit on the sidelines and we'll substitute you later on".... But when you were chosen, perhaps even sixth or seventh, then it was over. You were in! What a relief!
"God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." That's the good news in today's Second Lesson. What a relief to know that! The twelve chosen apostles help us comprehend the greatness of that blessing in today's gospel. You did not, you could not, do that choosing. That is God's doing. But now -- once chosen -- we can choose to be chosen. We can choose to live as the chosen. That is a way of saying we can exercise our election. We can get into the game. We can score. We can choose to be chosen.
But back to that feeling of "will I be chosen?" In honesty, many of us must admit that the reason we were so haunted by the fear we might not be chosen was that we really were not very good. Of course, that wasn't so for some of you. Some of you were always good at games, all the games. And so some of you might not be on this wave length at all about how good it is to be chosen, even if only for right field. Of course, what we're talking about here is more serious than softball. The subject is about players on God's field and the question is "Who can be on God's side?" May I risk again speaking directly to those of you who have been content to sit on the sidelines of the Church, who have not yet agreed to try for the team? It is not enough to think you are good enough to play if you simply decide to do so. For one thing, God does the choosing. For another God sets the criteria. Remember John the Baptist's words to his countrymen who thought they were the best? "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7). Let him who thinketh he can bat 300 take heed lest he striketh out. The rules are by God. And by God and only by God are we rated. So this matter of being chosen is of eternal concern to every man, woman, and child. Think seriously then about what a blessing it is to be chosen by this God with whom we have to do.
Consider the twelve, the chosen twelve, fisherfolk, a tax man, no one exceptional. What made them special was that they were chosen by the Son of God. Don't you suppose they had known discouragement before? And surely they must have felt discouraged afterwards. Here Jesus sent them out two by two into the villages to proclaim that all should repent. But our Lord allowed for discouragement -- "If any will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." Certainly a help -- permission to vent one's spleen. But what is back of that is the reminder, "You are chosen. I chose you. Who are these people who reject those whom I have chosen? Are you going to take their reaction to you above my choosing you?" Are you? You can now choose to be chosen because God has chosen you. If God be for us, what difference does it make who is against us? So what if you are but "a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees" as was Amos, the prophet in today's First Lesson? The Lord took you! The things that discourage us are not worthy to be compared to the wonder of our being chosen. Choose to live as the chosen!
Or think about those times when you think you are not good enough for God to keep on liking you. Perhaps you have even allowed yourself to be persuaded that all the trouble you've been seeing is evidence that God is punishing you. Probably you're not even a child of God, you may say to yourself. Don't doubt. It's official! "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ!" our lesson assures us. Adopted children can find a place among siblings with the confidence that they were chosen. They were not merely born "of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man," as scripture says of us (John 1:13). They -- we -- were chosen, born of God. How ridiculous for any of us then to strive for a kind of parthenogenesis, for an "I did it my way" status, as if we had given birth to ourselves. "You did not choose me," says our God. "You couldn't. But I have chosen you!" Relax and rejoice that we are among the chosen. Choose to be chosen!
That was at the heart of the message which the twelve were sent to proclaim to "the chosen people." They were confused in different ways about their chosen-ness. These were Old Testament believers in Jahweh. What good news for Jews could those apostles relate? "Repent," said the duo of apostles. "At whose supreme command?" asked the villagers. "Jesus of Nazareth" would have been the answer. And thus the message of the apostles became the same as that which the Lord himself had been proclaiming in Galilee. "Repent and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). The best of the good news is Jesus. Jesus is the proof of our chosen-ness.
Jesus was not yet telling his disciples everything. This was still early on in their training. And early on in our Lord's redeeming work. He had scarce begun to do the proclaiming that he had come from the Father as the promised Messiah, had scarce begun his dying role, had the tomb and three days in death before his resurrection to life again. These disciples could not relate all that we know about God's plan for salvation. Now everything has been revealed to us. Think of what any one of us could have added to what these disciples said had we been one of a pair who entered a villager's house. To whatever the apostle said we would be able to say, "And what's more..." and we could use all that today's Second Lesson has spelled out as our text.
Here are some of those lines anew. "The God of our fathers" they knew. Now we bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus -- the only Son of the Father, sent by him to accomplish our choosing and our adoption. They depended on the promised blessing to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know the seed promised as the one by whom all nations blessed themselves to be Jesus. God has blessed us in Christ. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. They boasted Abraham as their father -- they were the children of Abraham. We are God's children through Jesus Christ. They knew themselves as the people of the law. We give all power to God's grace for our choosing, our predestining according to the good pleasure of his will. God's glorious grace has been bestowed on us through the Beloved Son. They looked back to the exodus, the wanderings, and the conquest of Canaan as evidence of their chosen-ness. We know of the redemption of the world, planned before time began, accomplished in the fullness of time -- when Jesus Christ shed his blood for our salvation, the forgiveness of our trespasses, lavished on us by divine grace. All of this, once a mystery, God has revealed to us by his good pleasure. He has given us all wisdom and insight into how through Christ we obtain an eternal inheritance. And for right now, when we hear this word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, we who set our hope on Christ are enabled to live for the praise of his glory. We can choose to be chosen. As a guarantee of all this, we have been marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, a pledge of our inheritance as God's own people. We have been baptized and marked with the sign of his cross forever. We are chosen. We can now choose to be chosen.
What now are we to do? Of course, we, too, have been chosen by God to be witnesses to all these things. But what we are to do above all and first of all is exactly what the twelve told the people in the villages to do: "Repent and believe!" Believe that God has indeed chosen you in Christ Jesus to be his child and heir. Accept your being chosen. And repent -- that is far more than saying, "Sorry," far more than "promising to do better." Repenting implies acknowledging that we cannot choose ourselves, accepting the good news that we have been chosen and accepted by God. Humankind's most grievous fault is the arrogance which claims it can play life's game on its own. The hundred percent turnaround which is repentance is confessing that it is only by grace, by God's choosing and enabling, that we can participate in life as God wills it to be lived. Repentance means accepting the good news that we have been chosen and accepted by God, and seeking God's coaching to play life's game as God wants it played.
Believe it! You're on the team. Choose now to be a chosen one. Wear your uniform, the righteousness God gives you through Christ Jesus, gratefully. Get out early for extra practice on the field -- a workout with Word and prayer. Realize the blessing of God's food at the training table. You need never be discouraged, never need to feel you'll be traded if you make errors. Yours is an eternal contract. Choose to live as the chosen one you are!
Anyone who supplied free room and board for messengers who brought this good news surely got a bargain.
Now it is ours, this certainty of being chosen, without money and without price. What a bargain! For us to live in Christ and even to die is a bargain. What a blessed choice, to choose to be chosen!
"God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world." That's the good news in today's Second Lesson. What a relief to know that! The twelve chosen apostles help us comprehend the greatness of that blessing in today's gospel. You did not, you could not, do that choosing. That is God's doing. But now -- once chosen -- we can choose to be chosen. We can choose to live as the chosen. That is a way of saying we can exercise our election. We can get into the game. We can score. We can choose to be chosen.
But back to that feeling of "will I be chosen?" In honesty, many of us must admit that the reason we were so haunted by the fear we might not be chosen was that we really were not very good. Of course, that wasn't so for some of you. Some of you were always good at games, all the games. And so some of you might not be on this wave length at all about how good it is to be chosen, even if only for right field. Of course, what we're talking about here is more serious than softball. The subject is about players on God's field and the question is "Who can be on God's side?" May I risk again speaking directly to those of you who have been content to sit on the sidelines of the Church, who have not yet agreed to try for the team? It is not enough to think you are good enough to play if you simply decide to do so. For one thing, God does the choosing. For another God sets the criteria. Remember John the Baptist's words to his countrymen who thought they were the best? "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Matthew 3:7). Let him who thinketh he can bat 300 take heed lest he striketh out. The rules are by God. And by God and only by God are we rated. So this matter of being chosen is of eternal concern to every man, woman, and child. Think seriously then about what a blessing it is to be chosen by this God with whom we have to do.
Consider the twelve, the chosen twelve, fisherfolk, a tax man, no one exceptional. What made them special was that they were chosen by the Son of God. Don't you suppose they had known discouragement before? And surely they must have felt discouraged afterwards. Here Jesus sent them out two by two into the villages to proclaim that all should repent. But our Lord allowed for discouragement -- "If any will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." Certainly a help -- permission to vent one's spleen. But what is back of that is the reminder, "You are chosen. I chose you. Who are these people who reject those whom I have chosen? Are you going to take their reaction to you above my choosing you?" Are you? You can now choose to be chosen because God has chosen you. If God be for us, what difference does it make who is against us? So what if you are but "a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees" as was Amos, the prophet in today's First Lesson? The Lord took you! The things that discourage us are not worthy to be compared to the wonder of our being chosen. Choose to live as the chosen!
Or think about those times when you think you are not good enough for God to keep on liking you. Perhaps you have even allowed yourself to be persuaded that all the trouble you've been seeing is evidence that God is punishing you. Probably you're not even a child of God, you may say to yourself. Don't doubt. It's official! "He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ!" our lesson assures us. Adopted children can find a place among siblings with the confidence that they were chosen. They were not merely born "of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man," as scripture says of us (John 1:13). They -- we -- were chosen, born of God. How ridiculous for any of us then to strive for a kind of parthenogenesis, for an "I did it my way" status, as if we had given birth to ourselves. "You did not choose me," says our God. "You couldn't. But I have chosen you!" Relax and rejoice that we are among the chosen. Choose to be chosen!
That was at the heart of the message which the twelve were sent to proclaim to "the chosen people." They were confused in different ways about their chosen-ness. These were Old Testament believers in Jahweh. What good news for Jews could those apostles relate? "Repent," said the duo of apostles. "At whose supreme command?" asked the villagers. "Jesus of Nazareth" would have been the answer. And thus the message of the apostles became the same as that which the Lord himself had been proclaiming in Galilee. "Repent and believe in the good news" (Mark 1:15). The best of the good news is Jesus. Jesus is the proof of our chosen-ness.
Jesus was not yet telling his disciples everything. This was still early on in their training. And early on in our Lord's redeeming work. He had scarce begun to do the proclaiming that he had come from the Father as the promised Messiah, had scarce begun his dying role, had the tomb and three days in death before his resurrection to life again. These disciples could not relate all that we know about God's plan for salvation. Now everything has been revealed to us. Think of what any one of us could have added to what these disciples said had we been one of a pair who entered a villager's house. To whatever the apostle said we would be able to say, "And what's more..." and we could use all that today's Second Lesson has spelled out as our text.
Here are some of those lines anew. "The God of our fathers" they knew. Now we bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus -- the only Son of the Father, sent by him to accomplish our choosing and our adoption. They depended on the promised blessing to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know the seed promised as the one by whom all nations blessed themselves to be Jesus. God has blessed us in Christ. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. They boasted Abraham as their father -- they were the children of Abraham. We are God's children through Jesus Christ. They knew themselves as the people of the law. We give all power to God's grace for our choosing, our predestining according to the good pleasure of his will. God's glorious grace has been bestowed on us through the Beloved Son. They looked back to the exodus, the wanderings, and the conquest of Canaan as evidence of their chosen-ness. We know of the redemption of the world, planned before time began, accomplished in the fullness of time -- when Jesus Christ shed his blood for our salvation, the forgiveness of our trespasses, lavished on us by divine grace. All of this, once a mystery, God has revealed to us by his good pleasure. He has given us all wisdom and insight into how through Christ we obtain an eternal inheritance. And for right now, when we hear this word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, we who set our hope on Christ are enabled to live for the praise of his glory. We can choose to be chosen. As a guarantee of all this, we have been marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit, a pledge of our inheritance as God's own people. We have been baptized and marked with the sign of his cross forever. We are chosen. We can now choose to be chosen.
What now are we to do? Of course, we, too, have been chosen by God to be witnesses to all these things. But what we are to do above all and first of all is exactly what the twelve told the people in the villages to do: "Repent and believe!" Believe that God has indeed chosen you in Christ Jesus to be his child and heir. Accept your being chosen. And repent -- that is far more than saying, "Sorry," far more than "promising to do better." Repenting implies acknowledging that we cannot choose ourselves, accepting the good news that we have been chosen and accepted by God. Humankind's most grievous fault is the arrogance which claims it can play life's game on its own. The hundred percent turnaround which is repentance is confessing that it is only by grace, by God's choosing and enabling, that we can participate in life as God wills it to be lived. Repentance means accepting the good news that we have been chosen and accepted by God, and seeking God's coaching to play life's game as God wants it played.
Believe it! You're on the team. Choose now to be a chosen one. Wear your uniform, the righteousness God gives you through Christ Jesus, gratefully. Get out early for extra practice on the field -- a workout with Word and prayer. Realize the blessing of God's food at the training table. You need never be discouraged, never need to feel you'll be traded if you make errors. Yours is an eternal contract. Choose to live as the chosen one you are!
Anyone who supplied free room and board for messengers who brought this good news surely got a bargain.
Now it is ours, this certainty of being chosen, without money and without price. What a bargain! For us to live in Christ and even to die is a bargain. What a blessed choice, to choose to be chosen!
