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| October 12, 2008-Matthew 22:1-14, Philippians 3:15-4:9, Isaiah 25:1-9, Psalm 23 |
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?Finally beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.? Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
We are an interesting people. I mean, here we are, living at the most prosperous time, in the most prosperous us country, able to go where we want, do what we will, even worship where we will. Never before has life been so easy to live, so easy to be happy and find contentment. But yet, here we are, forever worrying and fretting over the fact that our 401k?s are shrinking, that the economy is faltering, that our favorite football team is only 2-3 on the year. We are forever decrying that servility and civility is on the wane-that we are a ruder and cruder society today. We are even forever patting ourselves on the back if we can average 25% of membership attending worship on any given Sunday (btw-you averaged 25.9 last year).
But all that is nothing but lying in our sleep when we continue to focus on what we see before our eyes and yet ignore the root of all our problems. For we have become shallow people-focusing and worrying about those things that matter the least, while forgetting and ignoring the things that really matter, that are important. One even speculates that we are under the condemnation of God these days-attacking our idolatry by punishing us where it hurts us the most-that we are being accused of placing our faith in the things of this world. And so have started to see these things disappear. For it is such, as Jesus declared in this parable today, that we have been too focused on our lives, our desires, our thoughts, ideas and opinions and so have not merely missed but finally ignored the call from our God to come and dine at the wedding feast of the Son. And this parable is highlighted in the fact that it?s not merely those who had ignored the call that met the king?s wrath, but that one fellow who was thrown out because he had not attired himself with a royal robe. That, in the end, we are much alike the people in the parable-so concerned about our lives that we ignore the call of our God
For the King has indeed prepared a grand wedding banquet for His Son. God the Father prepared and laid all things as the world awaited the coming of the One who would save and redeem all through His death and resurrection. He even was the One who, taking the Father?s wrath, took our place and allowed His hands and feet be bound to a cross and was thrown out into the darkness of death for our own sakes. And when the Father redeemed His life from the grave, His resurrection has thrown wide upon the door to the feast and all we are to do is to come and enter and so feast upon the bread and wine of the Kingdom. That there is nothing we are to or can do to help in this endeavor-it is the grace of the King that has prepared all things.
And that is why there is a great and deep need for each of us to repent this morning. For regardless of who we are-whether you are young or old, rich or poor, lay or clergy-we are each guilty either, and probably all, of neglecting, forgetting and disregarding of the depths of the love and compassion our God has shown to us in Christ Jesus. We do this when we ignore the call of our God to place our hope, faith and love in Him and Him alone, as the wicked people refused to in the parable today, as well as when we do heed this call but yet refuse to put on the wedding robe, to put on Christ Jesus, as Paul describes, to put on His death so that all you are will be done away with in His resurrection. That either way, Jesus says, all will receive the wrath of the Father when you ignore and reject what He is giving through the Son.
For there is no hope, whatsoever, for any of us when we either turn the call of God into a burden to be ignored or a call of opulence. There really is no difference between those who refuse to darken the doors of a church or those who leave the same as they came-we all fall flat into the depth of our graves when we wallow in the sin of atheism or apathy. And that means it time to start placing our hopes and desires and interests in the things and ways of God and not ourselves. It is time that we refuse to be seduced by the pleasures of our lives, for it will lead only to our destruction. So don?t be fooled-a sin is a sin is a sin, whether it is booze, drugs, sex or gossip, or even when we come to the banquet but spend our time worrying about who is here or why they aren?t here or what do they think they are doing here.
Which is why it is time to awake from our sleep and to start living in the light of the day. It is time for us, each and every one of us, to repent, to stop going our own way and turn back to God. It is time that we stop caring about what this world has and offers, which, as Paul says today, is nothing but idolatry to the self and whose end is destruction, and to start holding fast to what we have attained through what Christ Jesus has attained for us. For our God is the God who has upon Him destroyed the shroud that is cast over all us. That Christ entered into our sin, was destroyed by our death, so that in His resurrection, He would create a brand new world in which we could live. That it was in the presence of our enemies-sin, death and the power of the devil-that our Lord set His table and now we have been invited to feast upon the bread and wine of the Supper, upon the body and blood that redeemed our life from the Pit of hell and damnation.
And that can only be done by faith-the radical, uninhibited reliance upon God above and before all things. For the banquet is ours only by the grace of the King-the only thing we can do is to recognize it lying before us today. But that means we must take our eyes off of the world and ourselves and forget all that it allures or accuses us with. It means that we will fight the urge to fall to the darkness and so stand tall in the shadow of the cross. It means that we will no longer look around and criticize each other according to race or family or even conduct, but will confess to our own sinfulness and so strive to know each other according to the righteousness of Christ and see, not people, but brothers and sisters. It means, even, that we will refuse to allow the world dictate what is important, what is necessary, what is proper and will seek out this God while He might be found-in the Word, in the Baptism, in the bread and wine of the Supper, striving to place the True God as foremost in our lives, over against all other things.
For your God has prepared a banquet for the wedding of His Son to His bride-the Church. In this marriage, He clothes His bride in His wedding robe, which is full of love, life, righteousness, holiness. To wear it is to then hand over the filthy rags, with all its sin, death and damnation, that you have over to Him-and that is what He wore while He hung on the cross. That is why this call is so important-for being clothed in any other robe finds you thrown out into the darkest recesses of hell. For Christ Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life-your only hope is to be found on that Way, knowing nothing but this Truth, clinging to solely this Life. For it is in this One that we find our true and only home, a home found only, Luther said, by faith in the Word that has taken hold of you through the power of the Holy Spirit. And it is there that you are to wait for Him to return and finally restore your bodies and redeem your lives, so to forever share in all He won for you on the cross. Amen. |
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