The following was preached at Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw for their morning chapel.
Our God Invites Unworthy Sinners to Participate in His Blessings.
In the name + of Jesus.
With the war that is going on between
Israel and Hamas right now, you can plan on hearing many Christians talk about
our obligation to defend Israel because they are God’s chosen people. Now, there may be political reasons to defend
Israel. But many claim that we have a
divinely ordained duty to support Israel, and to fail to do so is rebellion
against God. Let’s consider the Scriptures
so that we do not put our trust in words that God did not say.
To start with, it is true that Israel was
God’s chosen people in the Old Testament.
But the question needs to be asked: Chosen for what? The Lord answers for us. He told Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless
you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who
dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). The blessing
upon all the earth is fulfilled by the Messiah who came through Abraham and his
offspring. That is what
Abraham was chosen for. That is what
Israel was chosen for. They were God’s
chosen people through whom the Messiah would come into the world. When the Lord acted to crush nations who threatened
Israel or even when God sent nations to oppress Israel, the reason was the
same: To defend and protect the Promise.
Every act of God, no matter how violent, had this motive behind it: Don’t
mess with the Promise!
Now fast forward from Abraham to
Jesus. Jesus is the promised Messiah who
was long foretold. He preached to the people
of Israel so that they would benefit from the Promise and Jesus’ fulfillment of
it. While some believed and rejoiced, many
did not. Jesus had told a parable to
issue a warning to any who rejected him.
He compared the kingdom of heaven to a king who had prepared a wedding
banquet for his son. Many who were
invited spurned the king and his son, even killing those who were sent to
gather them in. Jesus rendered the
verdict: “The king was angry, and he sent his
troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” (Matthew 22:7). The Lord did
this in 70 AD when the Roman army destroyed the temple and burned Jerusalem. The chosen people rejected the Messiah for
whom they were chosen.
So, the Lord turned to the Gentiles.
And it was not long into the New Testament era that the Church become less
Jewish and much more Gentile. All that
leads into St. Paul’s question in our reading.
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a
descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom
he foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2). The
Lord did not banish the Jews from the kingdom of God. They abandoned God’s promises, rejected Jesus
as the Messiah, and forfeited his blessings.
This grieves the Lord; for he does not want anyone to perish but to come
to the knowledge of the truth—or in the case of the Jews, to come back to the
knowledge of the truth.
God invites unworthy sinners to participate
in his blessings. That means you and
me. You are now the chosen people of God—chosen
in Christ who set apart you from sin, death, and the devil, and who set you
apart for good works which honor God and serve your neighbor. You and I were chosen by God’s grace. We did nothing to curry God’s favor. We are not chosen by God because we are
worthy; we are chosen because God is gracious.
By grace, God showed brought you into his kingdom to receive his
benefits. God invites unworthy sinners
to participate in his blessings.
That is how it has always been, and St.
Paul acknowledged that. Paul himself was
proof that God had not rejected the Jews.
Paul was “an
Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:2). But
he was chosen by grace, as all are. Abraham
came from a family of idolaters; still, God chose him. The tribe of Benjamin was almost completely
wiped out for their wickedness; yet God spared some. Paul was a persecutor of the Church; yet God
chose him. God invites unworthy sinners
to participate in his blessings.
Your story is probably not so
dramatic. Odds are, you grew up in a Christian
home and have never known anything different.
If so, God be praised. But it is
still God’s grace. You did not choose
where you were born. You did not choose parents
who believe that a Christian education is worth every cent of tuition, room,
and board they are paying. Yet, God placed
you there for your eternal good. All
this is God’s gracious work for you. By
grace you have been saved.
And now, you are facing a world which does
not care much for the Bible. They mock what
you believe. They are confused that you do
not partake in wicked behavior which is celebrated by others. Some are even appalled that you don’t go along
with them. Right now, you have the
benefit of daily chapel services among Christians who share a common confession. But the day will come—perhaps at college,
perhaps in employment—when you may feel like you are the only one who believes
in Jesus and lives according to his word.
You are not alone in this.
St. Paul wrote, “So too at the present time there is a remnant,
chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). You are Jesus’
chosen people. The Lord always preserves
a remnant who knows that Jesus lived and died for sinners—not because it was
owed, but because it was needed. You
know that Jesus conquered death for you—not because you deserved it, but because
he is merciful. You know that heaven
awaits—not because you are better, but because you are loved by Jesus.
God invites unworthy sinners to participate in his blessings which were secured by Jesus and given by him. It is not a deal that God has made with you; it is a promise that God has given to you. So you are the true Israel, the people who benefit from God’s grace, who have been entrusted with the Promise. You are God’s chosen people. Chosen for what? For the forgiveness of sins, a new, godly life, and salvation. By grace, you have become God’s chosen people. By grace, the Lord will sustain you through word and sacrament. There is no other grace.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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