Chosen, In Christ

Continuing in a series of sermons on chapter one of the Letter to the Ephesians, which we began last week, today we will consider the divine action of election. Now don’t go running for the exits just yet. Theologian and pastor, Karl Barth, called the doctrine of election “the sum of the gospel.” It must be surprisingly good news to earn such a moniker.

In chapter one, the author of the letter to the Ephesians refers to God’s electing activity in the terms ‘chose,’ ‘destined,’ and the like. Listen to these phrases: “God… chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be wholly and blameless before God in love” (verse 4). “God destined us for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ (verse 5). “In Christ we [have been] destined according to the purpose of God …[to] live for the praise of God’s glory.” We have been elected to be freed of sin and its effects to enjoy our adoption into God’s family and to live our entire lives in praise of God’s glory. I don’t know about you, but just those three benefits sound pretty amazing to me. Let’s take a closer look.

At the outset, we have to admit that some pretty awful beliefs and practices about divine election or predestination, as it is also called, have arisen in the church over the millennia. So, let’s begin with some critical background and correctives. First, many Christians today commonly believe, and I think erroneously, that predestination is this: before the earth was created, God divided all the people who would exist into two camps; those who would believe in Jesus Christ and so go to heaven when they died and those who wouldn’t believe in Jesus Christ and then would be sent to hell. There are just so many problems with this view in my reading of scripture that it’s hard to know where to begin to refute them all.

These ideas, codified by Augustine in the first 100 years of the early church age, were reinforced by Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages and even John Calvin in the Reformation period, to name just a few. Karl Barth thankfully points us in a different direction.

To understand what the opening chapter of Ephesians refers to as ‘the mystery of God’s plan of salvation as it was determined before the foundation of the world and accruing great blessings to us and to all of creation,’ we first have to consider the truth presented in the Bible through the lens of God’s most self-revealing action, Jesus Christ. After all, we cannot climb up to know God by tearing apart the heavens and saying to God, “Hey, I’ve arrived; now tell me everything about your plans for us.” The truth is, we cannot know God unless God comes to us and shares with us who God is and what God is about in the world. We trust that God will, in fact, do this; and that God wants us to know God.

It’s like getting to know a new friend. You trust that the person wants you to get to know them and will share with you who they really are. One of the realities of relationship is discovering if they are trustworthy, or not, depending on whether their words and actions align. Do they do what they say? Do they walk the talk?
Obviously, getting to know God is much more difficult in the sense that we are in a relationship with a mysterious God who cannot be confined to this world or by our actions or our norms. Even so, this God has chosen to be revealed most fully in the divine word-made-flesh, human flesh, God’s “word-in-act,” so to speak, Jesus Christ. Now we have access to God in a brand-new human way. Amazing!
You and I benefit from living in the church age, after Jesus came to live among us; who died, was raised, ascended into heaven, then sent his spirit to lead us into all truth. All this to say, Jesus Christ is the Son through whom we know the divine Parent, the Person through whom we experience God’s redemption; he is the criteria through whom we read scriptures as rightly as possible.

Given this grounding, how do we understand God as an electing God, the God we know in Christ, who died for the sin of the whole world? Is this a God who makes the beloved Son’s sacrifice effective only for a handful of lucky folks? Does that sound like grace? I don’t think so! As we saw last week, God’s people, Israel, was created, chosen and blessed in order to be to be a blessing to all the families of the earth. That particular purpose of electing or setting apart a group of people who can know God intimately is so they may live as beloved children. Then they can talk about and share God’s love with others. This purpose of election has not changed. In Christ, the group has simply been expanded to include not just Israel but non-Jews, as well. This is what the passage read from the second chapter of Ephesians describes: two peoples becoming one, in Christ, to bless the whole world.
Election is always about the whole; about blessing the entire world through the few who are set apart for this particular purpose. All of this blesses God. Like the Session of this congregation, you vote to approve a slate of nominees to be the spiritual leaders and overseers of all the ministries of your church. Elders are set apart for this specific purpose; not for status or to hoard any power. They are to make the most effective, timely, faithful, Spirit-led decisions possible. This, in turn, enables all of us to follow Christ into the world, as we fulfill our mission together. The elected few work for the benefit of and to bless all.

The same is true of both Israel and the Church: neither exists for their own sake, only to bless all of creation. We are able to do this because, in the community known as the body of Christ, we get to know God in a unique way that others certainly can but often don’t. Unless we know God and God’s ways, we won’t have an identity or a mission under the name of God. That is how we are first blessed: knowing God who tells us the divine plans. Again, these divine plans are most fully revealed in the Eternal Son, Jesus Christ. Only then can we pass those blessings on to others.

When we choose each day, each moment, to respond to God’s invitation to get together with God, so to speak, we choose to live in genuine relationship with God. We get to learn things, from the divine perspective. Now, we get to choose a new lifestyle in a new family of God and to live for an eternal purpose.
It is important to note, the invitation is open to all. Like any good parent, God yearns for all children to know God, and so to benefit from that loving relationship. Whether we take God up on the offer or not certainly affects what kind of relationship we will enjoy, if any, with this divine Parent. However, we can never change God’s love for us because it is solely God’s free decision to love us, no matter how we respond. This is God just being God, the loving One who loves eternally.

And that returns us to the notion of divine election. Instead of beginning with humanity in general, God starts with a particular human being, Jesus Christ. So we must follow God’s order in this; first, as something about God, and only then about humanity. God reveals that God is a God who is already, before creation, in God’s own way of being God, turned toward you and me, turned toward humanity. This is, in part, why Jesus is both divine and human. Before a single human being is created on earth, in Christ, God chose to take our human nature into God’s own life. In Christ, God is always the God for and with humanity since it is the way God chooses to be God. One of the cool things about being God is getting to choose how to be yourself, after all.

Before the foundation of the world, God already predestined, elected, chose Jesus Christ to be the supreme and Personal means of divine blessing to the world. Jesus Christ is chosen to bring new possibilities for life into our world, to you and to me. The fact is, we sin; we reject God and try in vain to make our own way in this world apart from the One who, alone, is the life-Giver. Thus, we reap the consequences, which along with division and discord, is death.

Rejecting the fatal destiny we choose for ourselves, however, the humanity-inclined God intervenes for us, in Christ, not just to give life but to save us from ourselves. In Christ, God not only takes humanity into the divine life, but God will also take sinful humanity into God’s own being, along with all its deadly consequences. God does this in order to vanquish sin and death forever. In this way, God elects Jesus Christ to be both the Giver of new, eternal life and the Bearer of the old life that leads to everlasting death. It is not humanity in general that is predestined as either elected for salvation or damned for destruction. It is Jesus Christ, alone. Jesus Christ is the sole human being chosen to be the salvation of the whole world by dying in God-abandonment. He is the one both elected and damned.

Why am I going into all of this difficult, yet awesome, theology? Because the double predestination of Christ means that no other human being will ever have to experience such hell, such deadly God-forsakenness, as a result of our sin! None of us! In fact, what Christ now offers to us is something for which God has predestined us: a new relationship with God as beloved, adopted children; and the joy to live this new life in the praise of God’s glorious grace. Both are undeserved blessings.

Do you see why Barth describes divine election as “the sum of the gospel”? What better news is there; what better way to describe who God is and what the divine plan to redeem the world in Christ means for each of us each human beings and for all of creation? “We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be wholly and blameless before God in love” – in love! All of us are included. God loves us, of course, because that’s who God is; not because we’re all that lovable. Our new heavenly Parent chooses us to live our best life, even as Jesus, the beloved Son lives his life, holy and blameless. In this way, we may also live to bless God. Do you have a better glimpse of just how much God loves you in Jesus Christ? God has chosen you – you! – to experience God’s love personally in Jesus Christ.

Some of you may know that I have two adopted children. I always told them the truth, that they were adopted and that their birth mothers chose, in love, to give them up for adoption. I also always told them that they were chosen, in love, to be our own beloved children. When we accept the offer to be loved, when we learn to love and return love, a new family is created. The truth is, God loves you – no matter how you respond to God’s offer for a new life, a new family, a new purpose in Christ. God cannot love you any more and God cannot love you any less. God is simply waiting for you to receive this perfect love and to choose to love God.
As a child, there was a period when my dad would travel frequently for business. Upon his return, all four kids would clamor around to hug him and tell him how glad we were that he was home. After he unpacked, he would call each of us to him, in turn. He would always bring a little token to each of us from the place he had just visited. When he called my name, often the last, as the youngest child, I would climb excitedly onto his lap, almost beside myself, with anticipation, wondering what gift might he have chosen for me. I would take the present in my little hands and thank him, give him a kiss on his cheek, then hop down from his lap and run off to play with the new toy. It was only after I grew up that I realized the greatest blessing was not the little trinket he brought me, it was simply getting to be in my father’s presence, enjoying his company. I got to hear his stories and thoughts, see the world from his perspective, learn more about what made him tick and how to be more like him. I also got to share with him what was going on in my life. Family time with my dad was always special.

I wonder why we approach our heavenly parent so differently, at times. God simply wants us to come and sit on the divine lap for a while and share life together. Additional blessings, some trinkets, will always be given. Yet nothing compares to just being present with one another. It is for this we are chosen in Christ, in love. How glorious!