Lectionary blog for Aug, 26, 2012
13th Sunday after Pentecost
Texts: Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
As best I remember, we received two weekly and two monthly periodicals in my childhood home. Weekly we got Life magazine and the Grit newspaper; monthly The Progressive Farmer and Decision.
Decision was the newsletter of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; the title referred to the need for everyone to “make a decision for Christ.” We attended an evangelical church where every service, even funerals, included an “altar call” — an invitation to “accept Jesus as your personal savior.”
Many of us are pretty uncomfortable with this sort of “decision theology.” I suspect that’s partly out of theological conviction and partly out of a bit of class consciousness.
One of my friends in North Carolina says that “Lutherans would rather be sinful than tacky. God will forgive your sins; your neighbors will never forgive your tackiness.” What is true of Lutherans is, I suspect, equally true of other mainline Christians.
But in both Joshua and John’s Gospel we are confronted with issues of decision, of choice, of invitations to accept or reject God’s call on your life.
In Joshua we find the Hebrew people in the promised land, but many are beginning to have second thoughts, they have discovered that although God has given them this land, there is still much work to be done. There are obstacles to be overcome, there are already people living here. What are we to do?
Joshua lays out for the people a history of God’s saving acts beginning with the calling of Abram and Sarai and moving through their liberation from Egypt, their wandering in the wilderness, etc.
Joshua reminds the people of their sacred history, of how God has seen them through, God has provided, God has made a way. Then he says,
24:15 — “Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Choose this day. Decide. As Bob Dylan said in the song, “You gotta serve somebody.” Who’s it going to be?
In our Gospel lesson Jesus’ ministry has come to a turning point. For the last month we have been reading and preaching about the sixth chapter of John. In this chapter we have seen Jesus preaching to large crowds, feeding the 5,000, being followed about by crowds of people from here to there. His moment has arrived. The people are at his beck and call; he has them in the palm of his hand, and then —
Jesus would have flunked Church Growth, Mega-church Ministries 101. Instead of soft-pedaling and making it easy and telling them that if they follow him their spouses will love them, their children will become docile and obedient and all their business plans will work out, Jesus does a stupid thing — he tells them the truth.
He tells them “I am not just another rabbi, a faith-healing miracle man. I am the Son of God. I am the Bread of Life, I am the Christ.”
And the people say, “Whoa, this is heavy. This is, this is weird. This is hard. This is leading somewhere I’m not sure I want to go.”
It has become clear to the people who have been following Jesus around — listening to him talk, watching him heal people, and eating at his overflowing table — that to follow Jesus from here on out would be to go against their own culture. It would make them religious and social outcasts.
They are being asked to “choose this day,” and they do. They choose to go away, in droves. This is too hard, too difficult for them.
Jesus turns to his closest companions, the chosen ones and gives them the choice as well, “Do you also wish to go away?” And Peter, as usual, speaks the words of faith, “Lord to whom can we go, you have the words of eternal life.”
In both Joshua and John, we have situations in which people are asked to choose, but they are not invited to choose blindly, like picking a door on “The Price is Right.” They are invited to put their personal future into the hands of the one who has been there for them in the past.
“Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the LORD.”
“LORD, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
“O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (“Evangelical Lutheran Worship,” p. 317)
Talkback:
- When have you simply chosen to walk away?
- Can you name a time that you chose the more difficult path?
Delmer Chilton is an assistant to the bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, with responsibility for eastern and central Tennessee, northern Alabama and northern Georgia. Ordained in 1977, he has served parishes in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
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You bash decision theology, and then promote it!? It's softer than an altar call, but still decision theology, still the idea that we are choosing God, and not God choosing us. We all too quickly forget that our free will is not actually free: it's locked into the bondage of sin.
Nor do the texts do not support decision theology. Note Joshua 24:19: "You are not able to serve the Lord." and 24:27: "This stone will be a witness against us." Joshua is telling the people of Israel that even if they think they are not making a blind choice, they're trying to make a choice that they cannot make.
Jesus also explicitly rejects decision theology in John 6:65: "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." Even Peter's "To whom shall we go" suggests a lack of a choice. He's saying 'we're not leaving because there's nowhere else we could go'. Only Jesus can free the bound will.
Peter,
“Granted” does not mean forced; it means allowed. “No one can come to me unless it is granted / enabled / given unto Him / provides the way/ by the Father. We have the power of free will within ourselves to not choose to follow Christ. This means it is a choice. Some have chosen to follow Christ and then turned away like the parable of the seeds:
The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
And just because the choice before Peter seems obvious does not mean that he was not allowed to choose.
We don't have the power of free will to choose to follow Christ, though. Even Peter failed to follow Jesus to crucifixion. He chose to follow safety instead of Christ.
The parable of the sower illustrates this, too. We can't change what kind of soil we are; it's descriptive. It is only through Christ's death and resurrection that God can make a new creation within us, can make us good soil.
Let me get this straight, the apostle Peter “chose” to deny Christ three times and this is not free will? If God alone is responsible for creating the “good soil” found in the believing heart; then why is He so angry with non-believers? Doesn’t God want to save everyone? Does he not give everyone a chance to repent, and be baptized?
But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve... But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
….And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely…..
Peter & Davey --
As I understand, the Church has always taught that man's will is perfectly free, but we are "tainted," that is, we have a tendency to sin because of Original Sin. Luther "chose" to change this teaching. Common sense tells us -- and I think most people believe -- that we have completely free will. The Devil does not make us do it.
Here is a quote from Irenaeus: Man is rational and therefore like God; he is created with free will and is master over his acts.
If your will is "tainted", then it isn't "completely free". If the will is truly free, then choose not to sin for the entirety of your life. End your rebellion against God on your own. Personally, I can't. That's why I need Christ's death and resurrection.
"Anger" at non-believers is wrath, and that's aimed at the believers more often than the non-believers. That wrath is apparent in our daily lives. Pick up a newspaper and you'll see God's wrath all over the pages. Wrath is God's response to sin, to our rebellion against God. It's just because we fully participate in that rebellion. It's far more a matter of being "ridden" or perhaps "directed" into evil than mindcontrolled into it.
God does not give everyone a chance to repent and be baptized this side of the grave. Indiginous tribes in the Americas, Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, etc bear evidence to that. Also, if you're of the opinion that abortion is murdering babies, those babies never had a chance either. Even if you don't believe that, there are lots of infants who are killed prior to baptism as well.
I did not say our free will is "tainted." Human nature is. I meant our human nature is wounded and weakened by Original Sin. It is very important to have correct, accurate theology.
Peter,
Acts13:39 Through him “everyone who believes” is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
John3:15 so that “everyone who believes” in him will have eternal life.
Rmonas1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of “everyone who believes” first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Mark16:16 “Whoever believes” and is baptized will be saved, but “whoever” does not believe will be condemned.
Acts2:38 Be baptized “every one of you” in the name of Jesus Christ; that is, "firmly believe the doctrine of Christ, and submit to his grace and government; and make an ...
2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for “any” to perish but for “all” to come to repentance.
1Timothy2:3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who desires “all” men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Hymn # 225 from Lutheran Worship: “All who believe” and are baptized
Shall see the Lord’s salvation….Through Christ’s redemption they will stand
Among the glorious heavenly band
Of “every tribe and nation”.
I could go verse after verse after verse in God’s word about God’s desire for “all” of us to believe, repent, and be baptized. “God “desires” all men to be saved”. He has only revealed Himself to a select few, and in turn, those few reveal God to others. This will continue to go on until Christ returns. I do not question God’s sovereignty on why He reveals Himself to some and not others. Maybe He has a plan for them; I don’t know, but that would be pure speculation on our part. One thing we can say for sure:
Matt7: 21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.
These are folks who God had revealed Himself to, but they chose to deny Christ instead. I really am taken aback at your presupposition that babies don’t go to heaven. Young Children are not responsible for sin. Neither are the insane. The ones that are responsible are the ones who “have the law written on their hearts” and choose not to obey.