The Chosen

 Jesu Juva

St. John 15:9-17                                                   

May 5, 2024

Easter 6B                              

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        We’ve got a tailor-made text for Confirmation Sunday.  We’ve got words of life and love from Jesus for every disciple.  Love is the fruit of faith.  Love is the fruit that every Christian bears.  But this love is no ordinary love.

        This love flows from the Father to the Son to you.  As the Father loves the Son, so the Son of God loves you.  And He says to you:  Abide in my love.  Stay there.  Rest there.  Dwell there.  Live there.  Notice where this love begins—not in us, not in our hearts, not by any decision or choice that we have made.  True love—real love—begins in the heart of God the Father, from where it flows to the Son.  And, finally, it flows from Jesus, the Son, to you by way of the cross, the baptismal font, the altar, and the Word of God.  To abide in the love of Jesus is to cling to His gifts—to trust His Word and believe His promises in Holy Baptism and in Holy Communion.

        Jesus gave this teaching about love on the night when He was betrayed, gathered in the upper room with His disciples.  Jesus had only hours before His arrest and execution.  Jesus knew full well that His disciples would deny Him, betray Him, and abandon Him.  But He loves them anyway.  He loves us too, despite our denials and our betrayals. 

        Jesus predicted what was about to unfold that night:  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.  Greater love has no one than Jesus, who laid down His life for us.  For every loveless, selfish sinner, Jesus died.  He takes the pain and the punishment.  He wears the thorns and bears the nails.  But in those wounds you have healing and forgiveness.  Greater love than this no one has ever known.  But you know it.  Because Jesus did it all for you.

        And then, just to put an exclamation point on how much you matter and how much you are loved, Jesus calls you His “friend.”  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.  That sounds great.  And we’re quick to call almost anybody a “friend” these days.  But Jesus had something very specific in mind when He called you His “friend.”

        Back in the day, when kings and queens ruled the world, the person who was closest to the king—his personal confidant and advisor—was called the friend of the king.  Friends of the king didn’t toil away in some cubicle in a windowless office.  No, the friends of the king always worked with the king.  They had a role in every decision and discussion.  They had a say in what was decided.  They knew their master’s business.  Friends of the king could even speak on behalf of the king, and act on his behalf.  Friends of the king didn’t only work for the king; but they shared in his royal reign.

        Is it not a wonder that Jesus says You are my friends.  You’re not merely a servant, but a friend of Jesus who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He’s the vine and you are His royal branches.  As a friend of Jesus, you have a voice—a voice to pray, praise, and give thanks—a voice to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord—a voice to witness to the whole world that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, never to die again.  Don’t keep quiet!  You’re a friend of the King!  Love one another.  Let your light shine that others may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  Speak for the king.  Live in His love.

        Confirmation Sunday is a great day not only to remember that we are friends of Jesus—but also to recall how we became friends of Jesus.  That’s what Jesus explained with clarity to the disciples gathered in the upper room:  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.  You didn’t choose Jesus to be your friend; Jesus chose you to be His friend.  Big difference!

        When it comes to your Savior, you didn’t choose Him.  You couldn’t!  By nature we are enemies of God, not friends.  Guilty sinners can’t choose their own Savior.  No, we must be chosen.  He chooses us.  Many of you, like me, were baptized as little babies and have no memory of a time in life when we didn’t believe in Jesus.  In fact, infant baptism perfectly illustrates what Jesus is getting at when He says, “You didn’t choose me.  I chose you.”  The little baby brought to the font is not choosing Jesus; Jesus is choosing that little one.  And even those of you who came to faith as adults, you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and any choices you made came well after God chose you in Christ, His Son.

        This is the heart of God’s love:  He takes the initiative.  He chooses.  He loves.  He chooses to love the loveless.  He chooses to love His enemies.  He chooses to love sinners and call them His friends—and He lays down His life for them, and gives them a seat at this table, and forgives them.  And He withholds nothing from us:  All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You’ve got full access.  You enjoy all the perks and privileges of being a friend of Jesus.  You’ve got love to bear and love to share.

        You are one of the chosen—a friend of the King.  You have a seat at the table, so speak up.  Pray.  Like love, prayer is a fruit of faith.  With faith in Jesus, you can ask the Father with all boldness and confidence, as dear children ask their dear father.  Your prayers, offered in Jesus’ name, are always heard in heaven.

        The Bible is filled with famous prayers.  Abraham prayed to God to spare the righteous residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Moses prayed that the sinful children of Israel would be spared.  Daniel dared to pray three times a day even though those prayers ensured a descent into the lions’ den.  Jonah prayed from inside the belly of a great fish!

        Dear friends of Jesus, chosen of God, you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Abraham and Moses and Daniel and Jonah.  Your prayers matter as much as theirs.  Your petitions rise before God’s throne of grace marked “urgent.”  The outcome of world events—the pathways down which you and your loved ones will be led—these outcomes will be shaped and affected based upon your prayers according to God’s Word, in the name of Jesus.  Oh, things may not turn out exactly as you had hoped.  The good and gracious will of our King is sometimes mysterious.  But when you pray as a friend of Jesus, you may be doing far more to shape the course of human events than anything that may transpire at the United Nations or in the nation’s capital.  Your words carry with them the weight of Jesus, who loved you and gave Himself for you.

        These prayers you offer are a fruit of faith—along with the love you show.  This is how the world out there knows that you are a friend of Jesus—one of the chosen.  This love is what caused the world to sit up and take notice of those first Christians back in the early church.  It wasn’t their impressive church buildings; they didn’t have any.  It wasn’t their body of doctrine; that hadn’t been completely established yet.  What caused the world to sit up and take notice was love—the love that the first Christians had for each other in spite of all their differences—and in spite of how they suffered.  “See how they love one another,” they said.  The world had never seen anything like it before.

        This love is a fruit of faith—along with peace and patience and joy and kindness and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Jesus says that you were chosen and appointed to bear this fruit—and, Jesus adds, your fruit should abide.  The fruit of faith you bear is fruit that abides—fruit that lasts and endures and continues on and on.

        What a strange image that is—fruit that abides and lasts.  For if there’s one thing we know about the fruit offered at Pick N Save or Sendiks it’s this:  It ain’t gonna last.  Bananas turn black.  Apples bruise.  Avocados get mushy.  The freshest fruit always goes bad.  It’s got a short shelf-life because it’s been cut off from its source of life.  But not so with you.  For you are confirmed in Christ—abiding in Jesus—receiving His love and the forgiveness of your sins.  The love you bear is a fruit that will last and abide.  The good you do goes on and on and on.  Your shelf-life is a lot longer than you might think, because you are abiding in Jesus—ever connected to His life-giving Word, to the cleansing splash of baptism, and to the bread that is His body and the wine that is His blood. You are His friend.  He has chosen you.  Happy Confirmation Sunday!

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.