“…just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.”The word that really bothered a segment of our class population was the word “chose.” I can understand the shifting the seat with this word. God chose. God chose before the creation of the universe. On one hand it seems to brush up with fatalism; if God chose and I really have no say so in the matter, then I am a mindless robot with no will or decision-making power on my own. On the other hand it seems to suggest an exclusivity that makes many uncomfortable. “If God chose me, does that mean he did not choose others?” The question was: what does it mean that God chose?
My first flippant comment is, this is why we have Presbyterians and Episcopalians. That is not a fair statement, but the point is – this has been and continues to be a divisive issue. Google “Calvin tulip” and read the 5 points of Calvinism and you’ll find the U.L. and I. are ‘unconditional election,’ ‘limited atonement,’ and ‘irresistible grace,’ all of which speak to God choosing certain people (and on the flip side, not choosing others). But what about John 3:16, with God so loving the world that everyone who believes will enjoy the eternal presence of God?
There is a wonderful parable in Matthew’s gospel (chapter 22) of a great wedding banquet that a king prepared for his son. Invitations were sent out to everyone. But lo and behold nobody decided to come. The feast was ready, the table was set, but there were no guests to enjoy the feast. So the king told his servants to go out and find anybody and everybody they could to fill the banquet hall. The servants went high and low and looked behind the trashcans and under rocks and brought everyone they could to the feast. When the place was filled, the king walked around and viewed his guests. There was a man in attendance that was not wearing the proper wedding attire. The king was outraged and had the man thrown out to where weeping and gnashing of teeth were found in the darkness.
Why would the king throw the man out just because he was wearing the wrong outfit? One would think that if he were so hard up for guests, he would take them in no matter what they were wearing. John Wesley had an interesting thought on this. The wedding garment was a sign of righteousness. It’s not just that person believes there is a God, but lives as if there is a God. At the end of the day, God invites everyone, but not everyone accepts the invitation. I would imagine that when the king looked out over the wedding banquet, he could rightly and properly say, “These are my chosen guests.” Those that arrived were chosen by virtue of their invitation and their acceptance of that invitation. Everyone was chosen because everyone was invited. But not everyone accepted the invitation. And not everyone lived in light of the invitation (the wedding garment). As the parable ends, “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The fact that God chooses is not saying that God is saying “you’re in and you’re out.” If anything, the fact that God has chosen us, (me…even me!) is cause for doxology. God chose the people Israel to be a vehicle for his grace and revelation. That vehicle prepared the world for the greatest revelation of his love and grace – Christ. God has chosen Jew and Gentile, sinner and wretch to be his children. He has chosen us! He doesn’t have to take us, he doesn’t have to love us – but he chooses to!
Will we accept? Will we say 'yes!'? Will we live as if God has elected to save us? With his help, let us say, Amen.
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