That word – election – has a theological meaning as well as the political. Today the citizens (and a few non-citizens singed up by ACORN and in Chicago a few dead people) of the US vote for political leaders of all stations – dog catcher to President. The intersection of the two meanings (political and theological) is that those standing for these positions in the end do not control their fate. They have campaigned. Many have won before. They have records and platforms and works to point at, but none of that matters in the final decision. Ask John Murtha in PA. What matters is the collective decision of the citizens. The citizens elect the rulers. In the theological meaning election means God’s sovereign choice. It is a race with an electorate of one. The fact of the matter is if we were standing for election as a saint we would lose. We might try and point at our records (see God, this is what I’ve done), and our platforms (God, I believed all the right things) and our works (I gave alms and helped at the various places). But that is not how elections work. Electorates rarely make logical choices. They choose on some indescribably internal thought/feeling. Thank God that we are not the person standing for election. Instead Jesus was the person standing for the Father’s election. And through his humiliation – in becoming human, in his suffering and on the cross – God elected Jesus to his right hand. That humiliation was a campaign that we could not have run. The humiliated Jesus, the lowest of the low, is now on the throne of Judgement. Jesus was elected by the Father for the highest office on the land. And our election is made sure in Jesus.
Reading Rev 14:14-15:8 we see that final election. The series of seven signs has taken us through history from the birth of Christ to the final judgement. And the one holding the sickle, the instrument of the harvest, is one like a son of man – the Son of Man, Jesus. Jesus harvests His elect, and the angels take care of the rest.
May the Lord keep you safe in his election, and may you see our election day as one of many signs pointing to that final election.
Other Readings for today: Zeph 1:14-18 ands Luke 13:1-9
