Richard Davenport
July 30, 2023 – Proper 12
Deuteronomy 7:6-9
I’m sure it’s the case with many children, but ever since Paul has been a little baby he’s had stuffed animals. Some he’s had ever since he was born and he’s accrued a few more over the years. He’s got a bin of some that are a little nicer than the rest and that should be kept out of rougher play, but most of the rest end up in a corner on his bed. At night, when we tuck him in, he picks some of his stuffed animals to cuddle up with. Sometimes it’s just one. Sometimes it’s three or four. Sometimes it’s a bigger one, like his lion. Sometimes a smaller one, like his little puppy. Whatever the choice is, that’s usually the last thing he does before we tuck him in and turn out the light.
Still, they’re his stuffed animals and so it’s his choice. Whether that means one that maybe has some sentimental value, like the little blue octopus Laurie made for him, or one he got more recently, like the panther he got from First Lutheran, they are all meaningful to him in their own ways.
The Deuteronomy reading for today is all about choice as well. All of chapter 7 describes how God had chosen the Israelites. He could have chosen anyone for any reason. He had created them all and so, in that sense, they were all his and he could do with them all as he wished. With that understanding, God still chooses to take one of these groups of people to have a special privilege and responsibility. He brings these people close. They have a special relationship to him.
Unlike little boys and girls who may trade out their stuffed animals with different ones each night, God intends this relationship to be lasting. Pretty much everything from the book of Exodus onward through the end of Deuteronomy is all about how God establishes this special relationship. What does God promise to do? What do the people promise to do? What are the parameters of this relationship? God spells out all of the laws and regulations they are to live by. He also spells out all of the things he will give them for as long as they hold up their end of the covenant.
He’s said it before, but he reiterates it here. Why these people? Why the Israelites? Are they stronger than everyone else? Are they more industrious than all of their neighbors? Are they better looking? More compassionate? No, it’s none of those things. God chooses them because they are the least. They are the least mighty. They are the least capable of helping themselves. God chooses people who have no way of saving themselves and who could never give the impression that they had saved themselves. These are the ones God calls his people. These are the ones he considers his treasured possession.
Switching gears for a moment, we have three brief parables given by Jesus in our Gospel reading: a man buying a field, a man buying a pearl, and a net full of fish. Though these bite sized parables don’t have the length of some of his others, such as the Good Samaritan, they are nonetheless filled to the brim with good stuff.
A man finding treasure. A man buying a pearl. Somehow these are meant to tell us about God’s kingdom. They shed a little insight into what God’s kingdom is all about. What does God’s kingdom even mean? A man finds treasure in a field and sells everything he has to buy it. A man finds a pearl that is more valuable than all of his other belongings. In each case, the man gives up everything to get something of true worth.
That’s perfectly understandable as Christians. Knowing what God gives us, knowing what he offers us, knowing how great grace and forgiveness are, who wouldn’t give up everything to have this? Any other worldly goods you might have pale in comparison to what God gives. If your possessions, your reputation, your job, or anything else in this world are distracting you from what God has done for you, then it needs to go away. Nothing else will save you. Only the forgiveness won by Christ brings salvation. Choose Christ! Choose salvation! Choose God’s kingdom! Without it, you have nothing.
Or, at least that’s how those parables are often read. The choice is yours. Either take all of your stuff, whatever you consider that to be, or take the one thing that’s worth more than all of it. But really though, choosing anything but the treasure of the Gospel, the priceless pearl of God’s grace, means ending up with nothing at all. No one who discovers the treasure could ever make such a poor choice. That’s how important the treasure is.
Knowing there is a choice and how important that choice is is helpful. It’s nice to have that information now, while you can still use it. If you hold off too long, sometimes the choice will be made for you. Paul finds this out every so often when indecision strikes. Eventually mom and dad determine it’s bedtime and he gets something, or nothing, and that’s the end of it. It’s not really any different here. Failing to choose is a choice too.
In that regard, these parables are informative. They’re a reminder of what our priority should be and they can help us share that priority with others. There’s that old evangelism technique where you engage someone in conversation and ask them, “If you died today, where would you end up?” A choice is put to you and there’s really only one right answer. So what’s it going to be?
Where is Jesus? That’s always the first question to ask when you’re looking at a parable. Where is God acting? That’s what I want to know. Nothing else is going to save me. So is Jesus the treasure or the pearl, passively waiting there until someone comes along and discovers him? Maybe, though that doesn’t really square with the third parable. Jesus certainly isn’t the fish. He’s definitely the one sorting.
That tells us that Jesus isn’t the one being found. He’s the one finding. Jesus isn’t the one being chosen. Jesus is choosing. Choosing what, exactly? Lutheran artist Ed Riojas asked himself that same question. A man finds a treasure in a field and he goes and sells all he has to buy that field. What sort of field and what sort of treasure could that be? Ed considered this and realized that Scripture makes very clear that what God cherishes above all else is you. Why would Jesus have to dig you out of a field? Because you’re dead. The field Ed paints is a cemetery and the treasure Jesus pulls out of the ground with his nail-scarred hands is a coffin, the treasure Jesus considers more valuable than his own life.
It’s in this light that our understanding of who is doing the choosing makes all the difference. We like to think ourselves intelligent and capable. We like the sense that we did the right thing by choosing Jesus. That’s why so many of our brothers and sisters here in the Bible Belt talk about deciding for Christ and make such a big deal out of it. We don’t go for that decision theology stuff, but we end up doing a lot of the same kinds of things behind the scenes. We talk about how holy and righteous we are because we’re willing to give up everything for Jesus, everything for the cause of the Gospel. It’s more valuable to us than anything else, because without the Gospel we have nothing. Let nothing get in the way of the Gospel! Don’t let worldly wealth distract you! Don’t get seduced by the lure of self-righteous good works! Cling to the Gospel of God’s grace above all else!
While those things are true, they overlook the fact that before you chose the Gospel, before you even had a choice at all, you had to first be chosen. You weren’t a treasured possession before God decided you were. We like to elevate ourselves. We like to think we have some intrinsic value that everyone should respect and appreciate. Being the one chosen means we are powerless. It means our sin is something we can overcome on our own. It means God should be honored we chose him. We didn’t have to, but we did and he should respond appropriately, and so should everyone else. “Look what a great Christian I am! I am willing to give up everything to have Jesus!”
Who chooses? The stuffed animal or the boy getting ready for bed? Who chooses? The corpse in the coffin or the man walking around alive and well? Who chooses? The one who sins or the one who is perfectly righteous? Who chooses? The creature or the Creator?
God has chosen you, because you couldn’t choose him, even if you wanted to. God does all that he does because he chooses to. Why does he do everything Scripture describes? Because he has chosen you. He has brought people into your life to instruct you in the faith. He has given you his gifts through Absolution, through Baptism, and through Communion. He has brought you into his house. He has even gone so far as to give his own Son over to death. He has given away all of this, just to have you, his treasured possession, the thing he values above all else. Whether you are rich or poor, young or old, male or female, he has chosen you.
Rather than trying to puff ourselves up and act like it’s all about us, we should instead revel in the fact that, despite our self-importance and insistence in our own superiority, God has chosen us. God chose us, not because we were powerful and mighty, not because we were golden and shiny, but specifically because we were weak, powerless, dead. We are not gorgeous super models and dashingly handsome movie stars. We aren’t mighty warriors or noble rulers, generous billionaires or compassionate humanitarians. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are corpses in a field. We have no value. We have nothing desirable about us at all. And yet, our Lord finds us out there and pays the full price to buy us. He digs us out of our hole and carries us into the light.
Why? Because he chooses to. Because he loves us. He forgives you. He redeems you, all because he loves you, and he loves you because he chooses to. Rejoice that, rather than choosing, you have been chosen. Rejoice that, even though God sees you as you truly are, he has chosen you anyway. Rejoice that God has done all of this because he loves you enough to give everything to buy you out of your sin, out of the coffin and tomb that enclosed you in death. Rejoice that he rescues you, just so he can be with you.