For many are called, but few are chosen.

What's the difference between being called and being chosen?

For the past 20 centuries theologians have drawn countless lines in the sand over the distance separating being called from being elected. The more evangelical among us maintain that believing the right ideas and doing the right things are what qualify the sinner for divine acceptance. This view might be characterized as "getting it right." The cultured despisers of religion are convinced, though, that election is nothing more than an intimidating myth invented by the early church to frighten the gullible into joining. And the hell-fire and brimstone fundamentalists believe that God is angry, jealous, and so hates sin and the sinner, that the righteous are chosen for an eternity in paradise while the unrepentant are cast into a fiery lake where they languish forever. These folks like their God surly, reactionary and punitive.

So what does it mean that many are called, but few are chosen? Does it mean that God shows favoritism? This could not be because Jesus makes it clear that his new covenant of grace is intended for all. Does it mean that God is capricious in that he calls many but then tricks us by randomly choosing only a few? This theory won't hold water because God is love, and love, by nature, is never capricious. Or does it mean that if we live right, God will choose us and, thereby, save us from eternal torment? There is biblical evidence that supports this view, yet there is also biblical evidence that rejects it.

So what does this declaration mean? As I've observed this world, and the church, for close to 56 years, I've come to this conclusion: All of us are called, and the choosing is entirely up to us. More specifically, we are all called to experience the personal transformation from the "pseudo-self" to a new and authentic self who is God's original creation. The pseudo-self is invested in personal defense and promotion and the trinkets of status, success and influence. But once we choose authenticity, we become devoted only to the expression of love and, as a consequence, radical compassion eclipses all previous interest in personal gain.

Being chosen has very little to do with "getting it right" and everything to do with "getting it wrong." For it is only by getting it wrong, and suffering the painful consequences of a life of self-absorption, that we can ever hope to be chosen. And we are chosen when we finally pray to God to make us whole. Folks in recovery have experienced this gift for the past 70 years while many churchgoers have put off for a lifetime being chosen with their preoccupation with being right, doing right and trembling before an angry God.

Some years ago I visited an inmate in a maximum-security prison. After interviewing her, I learned that she had robbed others to feed her voracious appetite for heroin. She posed to me a question that will forever remain written on my heart. She asked, "Do you know why I'm here?" I confessed that I did not. She answered, "Because I tried to do this life without God. But now God lives at the center." As I departed, I was certain of one thing -- she "got it" because for years she "didn't get it." And this is what it means to be chosen.

Bob Lively is teacher and counselor in residence at Riverbend Church, Austin. His column appears in the Austin American-Statesman on alternate Saturdays.

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