Mark asked the question on Sunday ‘Why did God choose Joseph?’ All of us have probably asked a similar question at some stage in our lives, usually substituting our own name for Joseph’s. Why did God choose us? Sometimes we ask in astonishment, feeling incredibly privileged to know that we are hand-picked by God. At other times, we ask almost with bewildered resentment, rather like Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring: “‘I am not made for perilous quests,’ cried Frodo. ‘I wish I had never seen the Ring!Why did it come to this? Why was I chosen?'” (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Tolkien goes on to suggest that the question ‘Why was I chosen?’ can never be adequately answered. Gandalf, to whom the question is asked, says ‘You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess, not for power or wisdom at any rate.’ Being chosen can cause differing reactions, but often, it can elicit pride in us. We are chosen… special… hand-picked. Our arrogance can then rise up and assume that being chosen makes us superior and better. Moses warns against this tendency in Deut 6:10-12, reminding the Israelites that the gifts of the Promised Land were just that: gifts. They were given cities they had not built, wells they had not dug, vineyards and olive groves they had not planted simply because of God’s abundant grace. They were reminded that ‘the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were numerous than other people… But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery.’ (Deut 7:7-8) He went on to remind the people ‘it is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land.’ (Deut 9:5) There is no place for smug superiority or arrogance when dealing with mercy and grace. We don’t get grace because we are good enough. We get grace because God is good enough.
The second reaction to being chosen is more like Frodo’s. We feel inadequate to the task. Jeremiah experienced this reaction when called by God to be a prophet. “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.” (Jer 1:6) We gulp at the task God lays out before us, at the dreams He drops into our hearts. Such things are too much for us to take in. Far from filling us with delight, being chosen fills us with trepidation. The responsibilities are too great. We know the weaknesses of our hearts, the frailties of our wills and the inconstancy of our lives too well.
Pleading inadequacy is not a good enough excuse to ignore God’s calling, however. Gandalf goes on to say ‘But you have been chosen and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.’ Eph 1:4 says ‘he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.‘ That calling seems way too much for us, and in our own strength, it is. But inadequacy will not be an adequate excuse before God, because we are not required to live in our own strength or adequacy; we are chosen and called to live by faith and not by sight. We cannot answer the question ‘Why did God choose me?’; we cannot respond either with self-sufficient satisfaction or self-abnegating humiliation. We can only respond with faith: ‘Let it be to me as You have said.’ (Luke 1:38)