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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, alleluia.)
Choosing teams: surely we have all been there and done that, whether in our neighborhoods, on the playgrounds at recess, as part of physical-education classes, or at our workplaces. Maybe you were the star player who was chosen first (or even chosen to be a team captain), or maybe you were the less-athletic person whom no one wanted on the team and was “chosen” last of all, or maybe you were one of those chosen somewhere in between. Being friends or enemies of the teacher or the captain or others already chosen may have factored into the choosing, as much as being tall or short, bulky or thin, fast or slow, or more or less smart. In today’s Gospel Reading, the Lord Jesus Christ tells His disciples that they did not choose Him, but He chose them. This morning we consider today’s Gospel Reading by directing our thoughts to the theme “Jesus chose you”.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last Sunday’s Gospel Reading left off (John 15:1-8). As we heard last Sunday, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, spoke about Himself as the True Vine, His Father as the Vinedresser, and His disciples as the branches, who needed to “abide”, or “remain”, in Him in order to bear more fruit. As we heard today, although the Vine, Vinedresser, and branches are not specifically mentioned, the fruit is still in focus, as Jesus tells His disciples that they did not choose Him, but He chose them and appointed them so that they should go and bear fruit and that their fruit should “abide”, or “remain”.
Some of you may have heard me mention previously an unsolicited email that I receive each week from a preaching website, which email and website offer both sermon illustrations and complete sermons, usually on the upcoming Sunday’s Gospel Reading. As near as I can tell, this particular preaching website is run by Methodists, whose Arminian theology in general holds that people themselves choose whether or not to believe in Jesus. So, I was not too surprised when this week’s email did not offer either a sermon illustration or a complete sermon centered on Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel Reading that His disciples did not choose Him but that He chose them. Normally, disciples chose a “rabbi”, or “teacher”, to whom they wanted to be attached, but not in the case of Jesus and His disciples. Even after some three years of association, each disciple likely could remember Jesus’s calling Him as a disciple, including Andrew and John, who had been disciples of John the Baptizer until he repeatedly pointed them to Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world, and Jesus Himself invited them to “come and see” where He was staying (John 1:29-42). In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus’s words to His disciples are emphatic and clear-cut: not did they themselves chose Him but rather He Himself chose them, and that statement can apply to His choosing them both as His disciples and as believers.
The Arminian theology of not only Methodists but also of some so-called “free will” Baptists is quite pervasive in East Texas. Over and over and over again we hear people talk about their deciding to believe in Jesus, to be baptized, and the like; so much so do we hear such talk that even we might forget that prior to our conversion we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5), and, as I like to say, dead people make no decisions. The Bible speaks ironically about people’s “choosing” to follow false gods, for following false gods is what we all do by nature, and so, apart from repentance and faith, we deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment. The Bible is clear that we do not cooperate with our conversion, but God the Holy Spirit calls and enables us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us—our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be—for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Then, we can choose to continue to follow Him.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus says that as the Father loved Him, so He has loved His disciples, including us. Jesus says there is no greater love than His laying down His life for His friends, and that is what Jesus did for us and for the whole world: He laid down His life and then He took it back up again (confer John 10:17-18). Out of God’s great love for even us fallen sinners, the Son of God in human flesh died on the cross for us, as our substitute, in our place. As we heard in today’s First Reading, Peter and the other apostles in some sense witnessed Jesus’s death and resurrection, and, like the prophets before them, they preached that everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His Name (Acts 10:34-48). As we sang in today’s Psalm, the Lord has made known His salvation; He has remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God (Psalm 98). Holding on to that salvation by grace through faith, we “abide”, or “remain”, in the love that the Son has for us, especially as, in Christ, God chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3).
We do not rely on our subjective feelings about God’s having chosen us, but we have the objective signs of God’s saving will toward us: the signs of His Word read and preached to groups such as this group, and the signs of His Gospel applied to us individually: with water in Holy Baptism, with the pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are Christ’s Body and Blood, given and shed for you and for me, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Today’s First Reading tells how the Gentiles who heard Peter and believed were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Today’s Epistle Reading speaks of the testimony of the Spirit, and the water, and the blood (1 John 5:1-8). And, in today’s Gospel Reading, as Jesus describes His disciples as His friends, we might think of His table fellowship with them throughout His ministry, especially on the night when He was betrayed, and even after He rose from the dead. Truly, God works in all of these ways to awaken and confirm our faith in Christ.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus not only tells His disciples that they did not choose Him, but He chose them, but Jesus also tells His disciples that He appointed them so that they should go and bear fruit and that their fruit should “abide”, or “remain”. As a branch that “abides”, or “remains”, in a vine bears fruit, so do we followers of Jesus who “abide”, or “remain”, in Him bear fruit that “abides”, or “remains”. We might say that a branch cooperates with a vine in bearing fruit, and we can say that we cooperate with God in our doing good works, but, just as a branch is a conduit for the nutrients of the vine, so we might be said to be a conduit of God’s working through us. In keeping with our various callings in life, we do the good works of loving our neighbors, but we never love our neighbors perfectly, and so, with daily contrition and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins. We neither rely on our good works nor despair of God’s mercy, but we draw comfort, peace, and joy from His having chosen us and His having done all that is necessary for our salvation.
Some people may have lost self-esteem and still bear emotional scars from the choosing of teams in our neighborhoods, on the playgrounds at recess, as part of P-E classes, or at our workplaces. Thanks be to God that you can have what has been called “Christ esteem” and emotional healing because “Jesus chose you”—chose you not because of anything in or about you but chose you because of everything in and about God.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed, alleluia.)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +