God's Gracious Election Extends Into Eternity and Encourages Us Now

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17  

13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord,     
because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

God’s Gracious Election Extends Into Eternity and Encourages Us Even Now

There’s a trend going around social media right now. It goes something like this:

“Here is what the world has said to millennials:
Welcome to your teenage years! Here’s a traumatic terrorism event to define your adolescence!
Congratulations on graduating! Here’s a great recession!
Welcome to adulthood! Here’s a global pandemic!”

Millennials’ formative years have been filled with a lot challenges that many people have called “once in a lifetime” kind of events. But when multiple “once in a lifetime” kind of events happen in the span of 30 years, are they really once in a lifetime?

And let’s not pretend that millennials are alone in this. We could do this same exercise with other generations too:

“Here is what the world has said to boomers:
Welcome to your teenage years! Here’s a desk to hide under in case nuclear war breaks out!
Congratulations on graduating! Here’s a foreign war and your draft form!
Welcome to adulthood! Here are the most violent and prolonged racial tensions since the 1800s!”

Or,

“Here is what the world has said to the greatest generation:
Welcome to your teenage years! Here’s a world war!
Congratulations on graduating! Here’s a Great Depression!
Welcome to adulthood! Here’s another world war!”

It doesn’t matter to which generation you belong, life in this world is hard, and every new year brings with it new challenges. We’d love to say they’re “once in a lifetime,” but if that’s true, then we’ve all lived through several lifetimes’ worth of trouble. It’s easy to get depressed about it or jaded; it’s easy to develop a “Chicken Little” complex and feel that the sky is falling, or to assume an attitude that says, “Nobody loves me; everybody hates me; guess I’ll go eat worms.”

It’s easy to feel alone, like nobody understands or cares. But God does. And that’s the beauty of our First Lesson for today. In his second letter to the Christians living in Thessalonica, Paul says, “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”[1]

The Thessalonians were no strangers to trouble. From the first time that Paul visited them, their lives got harder. The Jews grew jealous of Paul’s success in their city, so they formed a mob and started a riot in town. When they couldn’t find Paul, they dragged an innocent Christian named Jason out of his home simply because they knew that he knew Paul. Paul had to flee for his life that very night under cover of darkness, and Jason had to pay his way to freedom.

And it didn’t stop after Paul left. The persecution persisted. In his letter, Paul talks about all the trials they were enduring (1:4). He acknowledges that they were “suffering for the kingdom of God” (1:5), and being troubled by the people of their city because of their faith in God (1:6). There were even people who infiltrated their church and were sharing “fake news.” They said Christ had already come and had taken everyone that was worthwhile back to heaven with him, which meant that if you were still here, then God had abandoned you, i.e. that God didn’t love you, and that you were wasting your time (2:2).

Can you even imagine? Can you imagine being dragged out of your home because one of your neighbours knows that you’re a Christian? Can you imagine being forced to pay fines and fees for your faith? Can you imagine having people inside your own congregation actively contradicting God’s Word and trying to rob you of hope? Give me a global pandemic and a great recession over those things any day!

And yet Paul still says to them: But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.[2]

What Paul is talking about here is the sometimes-confusing Christian doctrine called election. At its most basic, it simply means that God chose you, because he loves you. That’s what Paul says: “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord…”[3]

You may feel hostility in this world, i.e. that people are against you. It may be for your opinions, your lifestyle, your faith. You may feel under attack and marginalized, but Paul says that even if the sky is falling, even if nobody loves you and everybody hates you, you are still loved by the Lord.

And the Lord’s love for you isn’t just a feeling he harbours for you in his heart. The Lord’s love for you has inspired him to take action for you. Paul goes on. He says, “…because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved.”[4] You know, I think the older translation of this verse might be even better: …because from the beginning God chose you to be saved.

Before you were born, God had you in his heart. Before he created the world, he conceived of you in his mind. God always had a desire for you. And that desire caused him to choose you for salvation, to reserve a place for you in heaven with your name on it by his side where you will share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.[5]

And so, when we talk about the doctrine of election, we know that that gracious act of God choosing you is eternal. It goes back before time began and it extends into an eternal, unending future.

When we look at our lives right now, we’re just at one small segment right in the middle. The pain and frustration and hardship that we are feeling right now – as difficult as it truly is – is but the blink of an eye on an eternal landscape. In the doctrine of election, we know that before any of our troubles got started, God’s love for us began. And that love for us carries us through our light and momentary troubles and into a future that God calls glorious, in heaven with Jesus.

Because of God’s gracious act of choosing you, there is light at the end of the tunnel. It doesn’t matter when the vaccine comes or the pandemic ends. It doesn’t matter when your personal problems are a thing of the past. No matter where you are in life or what you’re experiencing, you have something to look forward to. There is relief on the way. And it’s not a false hope or a pipe dream. It’s not a delusion of grandeur or an opiate for the masses. As Paul says to the Thessalonians, God chose you to be saved… through belief in the truth.[6]

Doctrines like election, concepts like eternity, can make our heads spin, but the truth is that God’s love for you is real and tangible. God’s love for you walked this earth in flesh and blood. God’s love for you died on a cross of wood. God’s love for you was wrapped in cloths and buried in a tomb. God’s love for you rose from the dead and was held on to by the women. Thomas put his hands in the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and in the spear wound in Jesus’ side.

God’s love for you is real and tangible, and it’s here today too. Today, we get to see and touch and taste God’s love in the sacrament of Holy Communion. This is his real body and blood given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Today, we get to hold and hear God’s word of promise and truth, that reminds us of his love for us.

The Spirit is working invisibly behind the scenes, sure, but it’s no great mystery how God makes his love known to us. It’s the means of grace. It’s the gospel in Word and sacrament. It’s this visible, tangible expression of his eternal love and election. And it’s yours.

That’s why Paul encourages you – no matter what is going on in your life, no matter how the sky is falling – to stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you.[7]

There may come times when you’re afraid. Hold on to the truth that God loves you and wants you to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why he chose you from eternity and sent his Son to save you. That’s why he called you to faith by sending people to share His Word with you. God has taken every step to ensure that you can have eternal encouragement and good hope.

There may come times when you’re confused, i.e. when conflicting voices are saying contradictory things. Stand firm in the truth of God’s Word so that you’re not tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by ever wind of teaching.[8] God gives you a firm foundation to stand on in his Word. So stand firm in your faith.  

It’s not always going to be easy. There will be obstacles to overcome, but that’s why Paul ends with a blessing: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.[9]

Soul and body, heart and hands, God loves you inside and out. It starts inside, with the courage and confidence that come from knowing God’s love for us in Jesus. But it works its way outside too, with all our works and words. We can be ambassadors of the gospel, bringers of good news to the world and lights of God’s love to others. We can be God’s hands and the expression of his eternal love and gracious election to the world, but only because God gave us someone to be those things for us, and only because God left us His Word to be passed down from generation to generation.

So, whether you’ve lived through terrorist attacks, global pandemics, recessions, depressions, afflictions of the heart or body, you can have hope, because God’s Word endures forever. And because His Word endures, you will too, by the grace God has shown you, through the sanctifying work of his Spirit and through your belief in the truth.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father… encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.[10] Amen.

[1] 2 Thessalonians 2:13

[2] 2 Thessalonians 2:13,14

[3] 2 Thessalonians 2:13

[4] Ibid

[5] 2 Thessalonians 2:14

[6] Ibid

[7] 2 Thessalonians 2:15

[8] Ephesians 4:14

[9] 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17

[10] Ibid

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Baptism: More than a Bath

Mark 1:4-11

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Baptism: More Than a Bath

If the season of Epiphany is the time to get to know Jesus, then it makes a certain amount of sense to begin with the way that many Christians throughout the world are first introduced to Jesus – through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. We just read about John’s baptizing in Mark 1. From our 21st century perspective, it may look like a weirdo out in the wilderness dunking a bunch of delinquents in a dirty river, but actually this concept of ceremonial washing would have been quite familiar to the people of that time.

Long before John baptized anyone in the Jordan River, there was this practice of ceremonially washing converts to Judaism. So, a scenario: You’re an Egyptian. You grew up in Cairo. You used to worship multiple gods like Ra and Osiris. But one winter you travel to Israel and you learn about the one, true God, the God of the Bible, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Surprising to you, and shocking to your family, you find that you believe in that God, but you have this pagan past. You might even have a tattoo given to you by a priest or priestess as part of a religious ceremony from what you now understand to be a false religion. Your pagan past literally clings to you. So, before you embark on a new life, committed to worshiping the one, true God, you publicly renounce those false gods of your past, and then you go through a ceremonial washing called baptism. You are cleansed of your former idolatry, and now you are a purified child of God.

I don’t know how many of these convert baptisms happened every day, but they were common knowledge. So, baptism itself wasn’t anything new, but John’s baptism was different. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This wasn’t a ceremony exclusively for new believers. It was a practice for everyone because, while we may not all have grown up worshiping the sun as our god, we do all have sin that needs to be confessed and washed away.

John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, those are big and strong words. “Sin” literally just means to do something wrong. To be accused of sin makes you feel like someone’s wagging a finger in your face. No one likes to be called a sinner. It even sounds dirty.

“Repentance” is maybe even more severe. It doesn’t just mean that you’re an imperfect person who sometimes makes mistakes. “Repentance” means that you’re headed the wrong direction. Your whole lifestyle is wrong, and you need to make a change to your habits and maybe even your values.

John would say that we all need to repent because we’re all sinners, but, be honest with me, do you feel spiritually dirty? Do you feel like you’re going the wrong way on the road of life?

Repentance and sin are strong words, and when we first hear them, they often make us bristle and get defensive. But they’re words that we all need to hear. If I never heard God’s expectations of me, I could be steeped in sin without ever realizing it. It doesn’t take long for the little, thoughtless things to accumulate and coat you with a layer of grime and muck and sin.

We’re spending more time now in confined spaces with our family members. Do you always treat your father and mother with respect, or your children as a gift from the Lord? Do you see your spouse as heaven-sent, or have you taken to counting how many times they leave their dirty dishes on the counter, or eat the last of your favourite food in the fridge? Have you noticed how the things that used to be small are now setting you off as if they were major offenses? That’s an example of small sins that we hardly even think about, building up into a habit that we can’t even control.

We’re spending more time online and paying attention to the news, and not all of it is good. We live in time when gut reactions are instantaneously shared around the world, and no one has or takes the time to think or process or formulate a coherent or considerate response. Do you find yourself getting angrier and angrier? Have you written strongly worded posts and comments of your own, or written people off or blocked them altogether? Again, this is an example of seemingly small things that we do without thinking that become part of our lifestyle.

At any given moment you may not feel filthy and sinful – you may not feel like you need to stop and turn yourself around 180 degrees and go the other direction – but when God pops in on us and holds the 10 Commandments up to us like a mirror on a Saturday morning, what do we see?

I see someone who doesn’t worship the sun, but who can sometimes treat God’s Son more like a burden of responsibility than a blessing from heaven. I see citizens who may not storm capitol buildings, but who snipe their leaders with disrespectful comments. I see husbands and wives who get frustrated when their spouses don’t meet their expectations, but who don’t put their spouse’s needs ahead of their own. I see time thieves and deceivers. I see anger and discontent.

In short, I see sin, in myself and in you. I see a need for repentance and forgiveness. But thankfully today, after reading Mark 1, I also see the sacrament of baptism.

John was out in the wilderness washing people’s sins away. This wasn’t a bath. It wasn’t the removal of dirt from the body.[1] It was the promise that in God’s eyes, your sins have been taken away. As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed your sins from you.[2] And it’s all because of the one John points to.

As he’s baptizing the droves of people who came out to see him, John redirects their attention to the person who matters, “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”[3] John was preparing the people for the coming of Jesus.

And when Jesus arrives on the scene and is baptized himself by John, God the Father tears heaven open and speaks from the clouds, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”[4]

Jesus didn’t have any sins that needed to be washed away. Jesus didn’t need to repent and be forgiven. He was perfect – the sinless Son of God, who pleased his Father in every way. But by submitting himself to be baptized, Jesus not only sanctified that water but he also identified himself with you.

Imagine that we were all covered in all kinds of grease and grime, but there was a pool where we could all dive in and be clean, but there’s a catch. Once we’re in and under that water our bodies and clothes are clean, but all that grease sits on the surface like a big black oil slick. If we tried to get back out, the grease and grime would stick to us again.

But along comes Jesus and he’s in these perfectly white, sparklingly clean clothes. He doesn’t need a bath – he doesn’t need to be washed – but he jumps into that pool anyway. And, then, when he steps out of it, all the grease and grime from all of us sticks to him and there’s no oil slick left so that we can emerge from that pool pure and clean. That’s what baptism does.

We, who are sinful, have been baptized. We’ve had our sins washed away, but they don’t just disappear. The sinless Son of God was baptized too, and when he emerged from the Jordan River, he was carrying all our cast-off guilt and shame and sin.

That’s why his Father in heaven sent Jesus into this world, so that he could lift the burden of sin from your shoulders and carry it himself to the cross. There God sacrificed his Son to save you, to take your sins away from you forever and to bury them in Jesus’ tomb. That’s why, three days later, Jesus rose to new life, to assure you that you have new life in him; that your sins cannot cling to you anymore, because they’ve been forgiven. And baptism is the way that God makes that promise to you personally.

Here at St. Peter, we have a visible reminder of that every time you walk in the door. You can see that 3,000lb boulder flowing with the water of baptism and all these little stones with your names on them and remember that you have been washed clean in Christ. You might even have the date that that baptism occurred. When you look at your stone, you can remember that your sins have been washed away, and that Jesus’ perfection became yours in baptism.

Of course, you probably don’t have a 3,000lb boulder at home. But that shouldn’t stop you from remembering your baptism every day. I have my baptismal certificate framed and sitting on my desk. You could dig yours out of the file cabinet and do something similar.

But even if you don’t have any of those things – even if you’re not a past or current member of St. Peter with your name on engraved on a stone – do you know what Luther would recommend? He’d tell you to pray in name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and as you do to make the sign of the cross because that’s what your pastor did for you when you were baptized.

I can’t think of a better way to wrap up our focus on baptism than with the words your pastor spoke over you when you were baptized:

Receive the sign of the cross on your head and on your heart to mark you as a redeemed child of Christ.

I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.

The Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – has forgiven all your sins. By your baptism you are born again and made a dear child of your Father in heaven. May God strengthen you to live in your baptismal grace all the days of your life. Peace be with you.

Amen.

[1] 1 Peter 3:21

[2] Psalm 103:12

[3] Mark 1:7,8

[4] Mark 1:11

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