You
did not choose me but I chose you. 
And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Jn.
15:16,17 
I hear an immediate “yes, but” to Jesus. 
“Yes, but Jesus, you are talking to the holy apostles, to their
  descendants, bishops, priests and deacons. You cannot be referring to the
laity.”  
Ah, ah, ah!  All 4
orders are ministerial orders.  Merriam-Webster gives a one-word
definition of MINISTRY: AGENT!  
  “Agent” acts
on behalf of another.  We do what
Jesus wants us to DO (not
“believe!”)  The
  devils believe, Jesus says, and they
tremble. 
We are all agents of Christ.  Our “action”is this: TO make MORE
ministers of Jesus and his good news: To make them church, which is us, the
house of God and the porch of heaven.  (and not
buildings!) 
I’m here because Jesus chose me as your priestly minister.  The rest of you belong to the chief
ministry, agents called laity, Because you are all lay ministers, let’s talk
about how you are doing as agents of Jesus Christ. 
The first thing we absolutely need to say, and perhaps the only
sentence we need to say is this: “YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME BUT I CHOSE
YOU!” 
Of
course, we could add, “I appointed you to go and to bear
fruit.”
It is obvious from our Sunday gathering that either many of us
are doing this (covering our ears and saying “la, la, la!”) when Jesus chooses
and appoints, or we are listening to heretic preachers who downplay Jesus’
choosing and say instead, that we choose the Lord. and that keeps us in control
of things like Sunday worship, whether to skip or
go. 
For those preachers, there is no salvation in the water of
baptism, no Jesus clothing us in himself. 
 Jesus does not choose to
baptize us and make us his followers. 
Instead, they say Baptism is OUR CHOICE, our public declaration
that we have chosen Jesus.  That’s
why they don’t believe in infant baptism. 
A person should be old enough to choose for him/herself! 
Those folks are full of baloney, and they’re serving it in big helpings
to America on TV and Radio! 
They preach that there’s no Jesus in the Lord’s Supper.  He is not choosing us as guests. It’s
an ordinance Christians must perform once in a while, so they choose a few
Sundays a year and do it.  Who
knows why? 
Scripture says, Jesus came to earth through Mary at Christmass
in 1st century Palestine in the stable, for heaven’s sake (and
earth’s, too!)  How come he can’t
come here through bread and wine? 
Isn’t he God enough to do that? 
Their anti-sacramental teaching is so wrong on so many levels.
 Catholics are sorry and frustrated
that so many Christians protest against the truth of our ancient
faith. 
If we could only make sacred talk with each other and listen to
each other; but that can only happen when they accept our offered invitation.
 What a hurtful, ugly division we
all perpetuate. 
But those folks aren’t here today. 
I need to be preaching to you, the choir.  How come our congregation. lay
ministers aren’t here every time Jesus chooses to be
  here? 
Christ has chosen us. 
We have not chosen him.  Because that is the case, does the laity
need to reconsider this embarrassing refusal to come to the Sunday meeting? 
Christ himself stands in our midst (exactly as I stand in your
midst and speak his words at the Gospel!) 
When Christ Jesus stands here and says, “Come unto me,” who is so full of
themselves that they dare refuse?  
Forgive me for saying these things, but our ministry is at
stake.  Our very congregation,
Trinity, is at stake!  We have more
lay ministers, the absent, who do not believe what you believe. 
They obviously think that they have a choice, and they’ll get here when
  they get good and ready. 
Is Jesus a politician? 
Does he need our vote?  Does
he need to offer a gymnasium, basketball teams, bingos, quasi-liturgies, and
trips to 6-Flags to get us here?   
Does he need to cozen us with false TV preachers dressed in the
latest and the best, false prophets who live in king’s houses? 
No!
Jesus needs none of these.  What he needs is a faithful community,
a community that sings its loud Sunday praise,  
“You chose us, Lord Jesus! 
Here we are to thank you 
for new, eternal life!”  
God does not need us to beg people to re-accept Jesus.  That’s more baloney. 
It’s a good idea to contact our lapsed members who, as Paul says are weak
and ill and even dying for the lack of the sacrament (I Cor. 15.)  
We must carefully, lovingly, humbly remind them that Jesus
himself chose us, and we did not choose him for this wonderful salvation.  
But it might be a work of diminishing returns. 
Then let’s move on.  If they
  repent, we’ll welcome them back with the angels! If not, it’s on
them. 
Perhaps, and I say this with a certain amount of dread, perhaps
we need to repeat Jesus’words for ourselves,  “we must work the works of him who sent
us while it is day, because the night is coming when no one can
work.” 
Listen. St. Paul writes to us this morning, “Brothers and
sisters, the appointed time has grown short.”  If the time had grown short in 60 AD,
how much shorter is the time now to do the works of the Father? 
My next-door neighbor Steve died Thursday morning. 
One moment a wheezing breath, and the next, nothing. 
Earlier I had anointed him and prayed God to forgive him his sins and
keep him into eternal life. 
Steve may have wanted to be more faithful to God’s
choosing.  When I die, I know I
will lament that I had not been more responsive to his choosing, more willing,
more faithful, more of everything. 
But it is precisely this Lord God who chooses only losers, only
sinners, who required him to
come here, point his finger at each one of us and say, “I am choosing
you.” 
Like the apostles in this morning’s Gospel, let’s drop what
we’re doing, and follow him.