Reading: Amos 7:12-15; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13
Many of us Catholics tend to think
that, among the many errors of the Protestants,
the doctrine of predestination is perhaps the worst.
We are inclined to think that this error is related
to another one of their errors:
the idea that we are saved by faith alone and not works.
So, we may like to say, whereas Protestants think
that God has already picked out beforehand who will be saved,
and therefore God doesn’t really care
how you go on to live your life,
we Catholics think that you need good works
in order to be saved,
and so God cannot yet determine who will be saved
because he’s still waiting to see
what good works we will do.
Now before we get any further
and people begin tuning out
and thinking about something
more interesting than the homily,
let me make clear
that everything I’ve just said is wrong.
It is wrong about what Protestants believe—
I don’t know a single Protestant who would say
that God doesn’t care how you live your life—
and, more importantly for our purposes here,
it is wrong about what Catholics believe.
We know it is wrong about what Catholics believe
because in our second reading this morning
the holy Apostle Paul tells us
that we were chosen in Jesus Christ,
“before the foundation of the world,”
and were “destined in accord with the purpose
of the One who accomplishes all things
according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.”
The translators of our scriptures
have apparently tried to soften the blow
by using the word “destined” rather than “predestined,”
but I used my minimal Greek skills to check the original
and in fact the word is προορίζω,
which literally means to pre-determine
or to mark out a boundary ahead of time.
So, despite the kindly obfuscations of our translators,
St. Paul is clearly saying
that before the world was created
we were chosen by God,
not because of any good work
that we had done or would do,
but simply because God wanted us to exist
for the praise of God’s glory.
Though it’s beginning to sound
like Catholics believe in predestination,
some of us might still find this disturbing,
not simply because that’s one less thing
that makes us different from Protestants,
but because it sounds as if God
is like someone who puts a contract out for bid,
but has already decided who will get it
before the bids are even in.
It seems both unwise and unfair,
and, perhaps most importantly,
puts the outcome beyond our control.
But think of Jesus in our Gospel reading today.
He calls the twelve to himself
and then sends them out, two by two,
to preach and to heal
and to fight against the powers of evil.
We might think that he would choose those
who are good at preaching and healing
and driving out demons,
those who have been working at developing
the right skill set for those tasks.
But not only does Jesus not bother to make sure
that the disciples are up to the task,
he also sends them without essential tools:
no food,
no sack,
no money in their belts.
Jesus knows that they don’t need such things,
because he knows that they have been chosen by God
from before the foundation of the world
to exist for the praise of God’s glory.
Neither their skills nor their tools nor their works
will bring about God’s Kingdom,
but only the power of the Holy Spirit,
which God has freely given them.
I think we misunderstand what Paul means
when he says that God chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world
if we think of this as God surveying
everyone who will ever live
and making up in advance a list
of those who will get into heaven.
Rather, Paul is saying that before the world began to be
God has chosen to be our saving God in Jesus Christ.
What God has determined first and foremost
is not the kind of people that we will be,
but the kind of God that God will be:
a saving God,
who calls a people to exist
for the praise of the glory of his grace.
This may still be disturbing,
because it means we have a lot less control
than we would like to think we do.
But think of this in terms of a baptism:
when we bring a child to the baptismal font
we believe that this is a manifestation
of the mystery of God’s love for the world.
The child has done nothing to earn that love,
does not have the relevant skill set
for being a disciple,
yet in the sacrament of baptism
he or she is inserted by God
into the great work God is doing
for the world’s salvation
and begins to exist
for the praise of God’s glory,
not because of anything
that he or she is or does,
but because God has determined
from before the world’s foundation
to be a saving God,
to be a loving God.
Every time we gather to worship
we celebrate the mystery
of the love that has chosen us,
has predestined us,
for the task of existing
for the praise of God’s glory,
not because we are good at it,
but because God is good to us.
We celebrate,
because it is truly good news
that it is God,
and not we ourselves,
upon whom our salvation depends.
