Telling Secrets

After chewing on the Doctrine of Predestination and the Elect for a week, my mouth is tired and sore. Whoever said masticating rocks was a good source of nourishment? I keep returning to the simple question, “so what?” It’s clear that God acts first to save the Lost, that Jesus’ sacrifice is critical for salvation, and that the Holy Spirit does the work of regenerating a “dead” spirit. Does it really matter if there’s something called the Elect? I don’t believe Paul or Peter or the writer of Hebrews ever refer to themselves as “one of the Elect.” Paul begins all his letters by referring to himself and his audience as being “called” by God, but my understanding is that this calling is to the Lost, which is everyone. Jesus told stories about this: he leaves the 99 sheep to look for and call the 1 lost, he spends countless hours on his hands and knees on a hard packed-dirt floor looking for the 1 lost coin. Referring to ourselves as the Elect sets up an “us versus them” dichotomy that the Bible clearly warns against. We are all of us lost in the darkness, unable to make a fire to warm ourselves and find our way. Some of us have been found by a sweaty someone who has seen our tracks and doggedly pursued us, tapping our shoulder until we finally turn around to face the sunrise. Then we are invited to join the pursuit, changing as we run, fanning out across the land to bless the world as the Israelites were to do, bringing light into darkness. We are the Lost, known from the beginning, and somehow, by no merit of our own, found. This tastes sweet in my mouth and goes down smoothly, yet my stomach turns a little. There are so many like myself who are still stumbling around, trying to make sense of life, doing the best they can with what they have been given. Sometimes they don’t turn to face the light and that is bitter. But the sun still rises – may it shine on all of us.