Deuteronomy 7:6-12

6th Sunday after Trinity

Pastorin Kornelia Schauf

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.

Deuteronomy 7:6-12

6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 

8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. 

10 But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

12 If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors.

Dear congregation,"The chosen one," —these are old words for bride and groom. Whoever marries has chosen someone.It is a beautiful word that speaks of great love and testifies to the firm intention of being together for a lifetime.It is an old word from a time when marriages were meant to last a lifetime. And yes, sometimes, when the chosen ones celebrated their wedding, there was one or two who might have liked to be in their place.But "chosen" means letting someone into your life with great love and promising each other to be faithful in good times and bad.

Being chosen does not mean that you have chosen the best man or the perfect woman in the world. The chosen one and the chosen ones have nothing extraordinary to offer by the world's standards. They are not convincing winners in an objective comparison, but what distinguishes them is that they are especially loved.

Conversely, this also means that all those not chosen are inferior.Having recognized this, let's look at the election of Israel. There are similarities. Yet, again and again, I hear the objection: "Israel is no better than any other nation!" No, Israel is not better.

Right now, Israel is doing everything to convince even the most skeptical person of this. It's terrible what atrocities Israel is capable of.Israel is not better. Israel is chosen. God has chosen a people. And, as the story goes, God sought out the smallest nation. God chose a group of runaway and freed slaves, homeless and without hope.

God chooses a people who are still without a ruler. God selects a group of people whose leader, Moses, will soon die.The election of Israel is a declaration of love from a God who does not rely on power and violence, but who values ​​freedom and mercy.Yes, I would object at this point: Those who are chosen and so loved sometimes have the impression that the whole world must see how special they are.
On their wedding day, the bride and groom are often so adorned that they are hardly recognizable. They look like young nobles, like children of luxury. Today more than ever: adorned and glamoured up. They project an image that they are not. They give the impression: We are the most beautiful, the richest, and the best.And this desire has always existed in Israel: We do not want to be a small nation, we want to become great: countless. We want to become strong, as strong as our neighboring nations. Yes, that has happened and still happens. Even Jesus was besieged by such desires: Make him the new, the most powerful king of all time. Judas was absolutely convinced of it.It helps if we look at today's passage a little more closely to understand: That's precisely what isn't meant. Election doesn't come with an authorization to become the strongest and best. Election comes with a task: the relationship between God and Israel is meant to reveal what kind of God God is.Israel isn't chosen so that it becomes the greatest nation. Israel is chosen so that the world can recognize God.And in this sense, we as Christians came later. We Christians aren't the best religion or the most exemplary people. Above all, we aren't better people.But in us Christians, as in Israel, God lets the world recognize what love is—because that is what God is."Because God loved you, he chose you."The election of some does not mean the rejection of others!Election is the promise of an eternal covenant in which love is and remains stronger than anything that happens in that relationship.This will become increasingly difficult to understand for people in societies where partnerships have less and less to do with a one-time election and more and more with a comfortable, phase-of-life society.God's love is connected with faithfulness and loyalty, with a flexibility in time, with boundless devotion—that is divine love. It is the love that does not keep score and does not boast. That is the love that Paul praises and extols in 1 Corinthians. This is not human love, which fails and reaches its limits and in which separation is possible. That is unthinkable in God's love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Neither Israel nor us.And yes, one might think that people who are especially loved are also especially joyful and peaceful. One thinks that loved ones should be especially polite and contented. One wishes that loved ones would pass on and radiate this love.All of this happens—and then the opposite also happens—as if we no longer have love.People forget how loved they are.

People forget how faithful God is.

People are so preoccupied with themselves, so caught up in the world, that they forget their God and no longer perceive his love.

God does not repay this forgetfulness with hatred. God is being unfairly blamed for something that reveals more about his people. Where we forget those who had been elected, and  how much God loves us – there space is created for everything so-called human that is actually inhuman. Where God's love is ignored and no importance is attached to it, where God's love is reduced to a comfortable, feel-good feeling on Sunday, there space is created for everything that contradicts this love: fear and hatred and violence and atrocities.
Therefore, we celebrate this 6th Sunday in the liturgical year and connect the thought of love, the eternal and timeless love of God, with baptism.Once and for all, we are received into the Christian family: chosen to bear witness to God's love, his faithfulness, and mercy in the world.We, the smallest and weakest, have a great task: through us, love is to become tangible.

We are God's witnesses in the world.Yet again and again, we become too preoccupied with ourselves, with our doubts, our worries, our relationships, our worldly responsibilities. We live as if all these areas were separate from what we are: the chosen ones. We live as if we have forgotten that we have a calling."Keep the commandments. Guide yourselves by the word of God. Let love work powerfully in you and among you!"So simple and so difficult!"God's chosen ones" are people who adopt a loving attitude. Always and everywhere.

Wonderful and full of promise: This covenant remains in effect on God's side. We still belong to Him. Not as slaves who have become someone's property, but as free men and women who are invited to give their lives to God and to return His love with love.Oh, how foolish we often  are, doubting God's love. What foolish judgments we make when we Christians take everything that goes wrong and everything Israel owes the world as grounds to question God's election.I read today's passage from Deuteronomy much more as an invitation to a life of love: "Let everything you do be done in love, in God."Let us celebrate this not in a polished and ostentatious way, as if we were the most beautiful and best and greatest, but modestly and humblely, and grateful for the love of God that He shows us every day, as God's chosen ones.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.Amen.