Sermon for July 13th

It is election season. Now that the Republican and Democratic primaries are over, we are in the midst of the presidential election. No decision will finally be made until November, but as Americans it is not too difficult to eat, drink and breathe election talk day and night. Between CNN on television, the ticker on CNN.com, MSNBC, Fox news and radio talk shows, you can hear every side, every viewpoint, every criticism and every pundit day and night. Who will be chosen to be the next president of the United States? It is an election year and everybody wants to know who will be chosen.

It is also election season in the church. Did you know that? No? Well, it’s true. It is election season. Election season in every church in every denomination, or non-denomination, in every country in every language and wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is being spoken whether in a building or not. And everybody wants to know who will be chosen.

But as you’ve probably guessed, there are differences between these two elections. While we have political elections once a year, every two years or every four years, as is the election season in the church is much different . . . it can happen anytime. It happens all the time. But the most important difference between political elections and the election season in the church, concerns who does the choosing and how.

As you well know, America prides itself on being a democracy. Every vote counts and only counts once. That’s the ideal anyway. We strive, as a democracy, to give everyone a voice so that the will of the majority will be enacted. As long as 50.0000001% of people agree, we can all go along with the decision believing that democracy is pretty much alive and well. We know that there are problems, of course, but we are always are striving for the ideal

This is not a natural way of running a system, it must be worked at to get to work properly. For instance, I’ve been to the Dineen’s house out there on Popple Swamp and seen their chicken coup. There are many hens, but only two roosters, Hank and Rufus, but let me tell you, no matter how much of a majority the hens have there, Hank and Rufus will always get what they want—it is not a democracy.

Or think about a field of crops, this might even make sense in your garden if it is big enough. My uncle Gary is a farmer in Nebraska. He goes out every year and evenly plants corn, beans and milo seeds in the dirt. He prepares the fields, he tills the soil, he plants the seeds, he sprays for bugs and often he has to irrigate. He tries to do all this in a very equal way so that his fields of crops all do equally well. However, when it comes time to harvest, no field is alike. In fact, the end of a row might look very different than its beginning. Sometimes water will have sat and drowned out some plants. Sometimes, there will be a whole dead patch of dry dirt where plants should have grown. Sometimes, despite the majority of corn plants and equal distribution of pesticides, a big ol’ weed will crop up and hassle some plants out of the way. A field of crops is not a democracy.

We can learn a lot about the church’s election season from watching the roosters, Hank and Rufus in their coup, or from the corn harvest corn in Nebraska. It is not a democracy. Your salvation is not decided by majority vote. In fact, none of us get a vote, not even one. Salvation is not going to look “fair” to you if you judge it by the standards of democracy. Salvation is not going to look “right” to you if you are striving for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is a divine election where God alone gets one vote and it is the only vote that counts.

God has made his choice and his choice is you. He elects you as his beloved. He doesn’t ask you for your opinion in the matter. Why not? Because he knows you just as he knows all people. You would never vote for him. You would never choose him. There is no one who is righteous, not even one. There is no one who has understanding, there is no one who seeks God. So, God seeks you out and elects you as his chosen one. He finds the biggest sinner that he knows of and seeks you out to tell you that it is election day and he has made his choice. You. You are God’s choice.

But that isn’t fair, you might cry out. Well, no it’s not. You have sinned against God in thought, word and deed by what you have done and by what you have left undone. God has no reason to forgive you for that. It’s not fair. God sent Jesus, his only son, to announce the forgiveness of your sins and he was killed for it. Is it fair for God to have to forgive us for that sin? No! We shouldn’t act the way we do. We shouldn’t lie the way we do. We shouldn’t be so selfish. We shouldn’t be so arrogant. But we are and so he does . . . what? Well, he does the only thing that is left to do when you and I are held captive to sin and death, he holds an election. He elects. God chooses you and says, “You, yes you, the one who doesn’t deserve it. I elect you. It is election day and I win . . . you.”

I remember waiting up until about two o’clock in the morning on November 3rd, of the year 2000, wondering about the results of the presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. I finally went to bed because I had to work in the morning, but I still didn’t know who had won. Then all week long I remember updating my CNN.com screen to see how many votes had come in from Dade county Florida until I finally just got sick of waiting to hear the news. How do you find out the election results each year? You must be told.

Do you know how people find out the election results of God’s divine election? Well, they also must be told. Sometimes they are very happy about it. Sometimes they are not. But, believe it or not, a lot of people still don’t know. Or, they think the results have changed based on something they did. They’ve been waiting for a long time wondering if anyone loves them. Maybe, they’ve heard that God judges them guilty, which is true. Maybe, they’ve heard that God isn’t happy with them for the choices they are making, this is also true. But they’ve never been told the election results. They’ve only heard the bad news and never heard the good news. God has chosen to forgive sinners and now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Madeleine L’Engle writes, “We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe. By telling them how wrong they are and how right we are. But by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”

If you see or know someone with a broken down heart, or a broken down relationship, or a broken down life, do you have to tell them about your faith. No. You don’t have to. You also don’t have to tell them about God’s election. You don’t have to tell them that God has chosen them as his very own. You don’t have to tell them that God loves them more than they love their sins. You don’t have to tell them that God forgives their sins and you don’t have to encourage them to repent of their bad choices to God. You don’t have to do any of this. It’s not mandatory. You won’t get in trouble. So if you don’t want to, then don’t, alright? Alright.

But if you ever find yourself wondering, imagining, wishing you could tell someone you know about God’s election, here are a few things to keep in mind. God’s words of forgiveness, come from God mouth and goes out of your mouth. You don’t have to argue with someone, or convince them or force them to believe. God promises that his words, the words from his mouth, his election, shall not return empty, but will accomplish their purpose. God will accomplish faith, not you or I or them.

But you might ask yourself, why me? Why do I know about God’s election while there are people in the world who haven’t? Is that fair? No, it’s not fair as I’ve said before. Not only did you not deserve to hear it, but they still may not have heard about it. That’s not fair at all. So the next time you consider how unfair it is that God has not elected a particular person, it may be the time to get their address and give them the good news of God’s election yourself—in person. The less you think someone deserves God’s election, the more sure you can be that they deserve to be told of the results. Repeat after me, “Jesus loves you.”

What if you aren’t seeing any progress? What if they’ve never gone to church? What if you keep inviting them and they still don’t come? Tell them again. That’s something interesting about my uncle Gary. No matter how many times the corn has been flooded or blown over or not produced well, he keeps planting year after year. Tell them again and again and again. Tell them about God’s love for you and God’s love for them. Invite them to hear God’s election results here at church. Remember, in the church, it is always election season.

But most importantly, today is election day for you. I need to let you know again the results of God’s divine election. Jesus says, “I choose you. Yes. You. The one who doesn’t deserve it. You are precious in my sight. It is election day and I won . . . you. I win you.” Amen.