This is part of the worship series,
"A Classic TULIP Bouquet”
Series Introduction
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3
Week 4 | Week 5
Week Two—Unconditional election
Opening of Worship
“Great opening hymn choice today!” said a member as I walked into the sanctuary. “We used to call that the TULIP hymn.” Indeed, “How Vast the Benefits Divine” Toplady hits all the high points of Reformed theology, and is especially clear on election, which is why we chose it for this Sunday. The words of the opening prayer were based on the New Testament lesson for the day, and the song following the prayer, Psalm 136, “Love Is Never Ending” focuses on God’s election of Israel, a theme highlighted in the Old Testament lesson. (We suggest singing all the stanzas, since the song moves quickly.)
Opening Sentences Based on Ephesians 1:3–14
“How Vast the Benefits Divine” Toplady
| Leader: | Grace and peace to you this day from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. |
| People: | Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. |
| Leader: | Before the world was made, God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless before him in love. |
| People: | According to God’s great pleasure, we are adopted as God’s children, redeemed according to God’s good pleasure. |
| Leader: | In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. |
| All: | For this reason we bow before the Father. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. —Ephesians 1:3–14 NIV, adapted |
“Love Is Never Ending (Psalm 136)” Haugen
We Are Reconciled to God
[Election is fundamentally about the love of God for his children, and so our confession section used spoken and sung words to point out God’s love for us.]
Call to Confession
The proof of God’s amazing love is this: While we were sinners Christ died for us. Because we have faith in him, we dare to approach God with confidence. In faith and penitence, let us confess our sin before God and one another.
Prayer of Confession
Righteous God, your mercy awaits us when we return to you in meekness and repentance. Cleanse us from selfishness and falseness, which separate us from your fellowship. Through your atoning love, heal the brokenness in our lives and in our world. With wholeness restored, help us live for the coming of your Son, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.
—adapted from Arlene M. Mark, Mennonite Publishing House Bulletin, Scottsdale, Pennsylvania.
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news!
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might be dead to sin, and alive to all that is good.
—1 Timothy 1:15
I declare to you in the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Amen.
Sung Response
“What Wondrous Love” Anon.
The Word
Scripture Lessons
Deuteronomy 10:12–22; Ephesians 1:3–14
Sermon Notes
In this sermon I did what I rarely do: I used three points and a poem.
- Election is biblical. Pointing to the biblical evidence for election (Matthew 22; John 6, 15; Acts 13:48; Romans 8, 9, 11; 1 Thessalonians 1; 1 and 2 Peter) and even to the work of theologians such as Augustine and Aquinas helps listeners avoid the common misperception that unconditional election was Calvin’s own idea!
- Election is baffling. An obvious point to make, but one that’s very important pastorally. People may think that if they don’t understand election, they are less pious, less trusting, less orthodox. Acknowledging that election is baffling frees people to speak of their hesitation to accept it.
I attempted to make it a little less so by talking about the power of God’s spoken Word (an insight gleaned from Gordon Spykman’s Reformed Dogmatics). God creates by speaking (Gen. 1). God’s Word creates. And when God places Adam and Eve in the garden, he speaks a warning: if you eat of this tree, you shall surely die. When they fall into sin, God speaks a word of hope: the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. Both the word of death and the word of life are bound to be fulfilled. From this comes the doctrine of election, in which some are chosen for life and some are chosen for death.
Because we do not always do what we say, we are baffled by a God so bound by his word that he will do whatever it takes to fulfill it. Some, like Arminius, reject this doctrine. He proposed instead that God knew who was going to choose him, but that it was up to us to make the choice. But as we learned last week, we are unable to choose God because of our depravity.
Election is also baffling because it puts God at the center, as Paul makes clear in Romans 9. And our fallen natures resent that. Poet Chad Walsh gets at our bafflement in his poem “Two Gray Cats” (see below).
How should we deal with this? Neither Paul nor Walsh nor Calvin, for that matter, ever really answers the question. Each gets to a certain point and then simply leaves it with God. - Election is balm. Our heads may be willing to leave it at that, but our hearts yearn to go a step further. Calvin saw election as a doctrine that provides deep comfort and assurance, and that is how the Canons of Dort presents it as well. For those who have accepted Jesus, there are no worries for eternity. Unconditional election is biblical, and it is baffling; but above all it is balm because it shows God’s amazing love for his children. It shows us a God who does what he says he will do. It. It shows us a God who keeps promises, whose ways are not our ways, whose thoughts are not our thoughts. Unconditional election is about God. Blessed be God’s name.
Hymn of Response
“My Lord, I Did Not Choose You” (We paired this with the familiar tune AURELIA.)Conder
Closing Hymn
“Father, Long Before Creation” Jones
Revised Common Lectionary
Year B: Season after Pentecost—Proper 10 (15)
