"Inviting, Bringing, Urging" Second Sunday after Trinity Commemoration of Peter and Paul, Apostles June 29, 2014 Luke 14:16–21
Our God doesn’t do things halfway. He goes all out. When He invites you to share in His Feast it is beyond what you could ever imagine. It is all glory, it is all grace, and it is all given. His invitation that goes out is to come to the Feast, because everything is now ready. There’s nothing more that needs to be done. There’s nothing that you need to do. He does everything and He gives everything. Our God is always inviting. The invitation is always going out. Many rejoice in the invitation. Everything is ready. All I have to do is show up. When I come there will be more than I could ever imagine receiving. Those who partake of the Feast of God receive exactly what God promises to give: eternal salvation and eternal glory. Coming to the Feast is enjoying eternal blessings that one knows he has never deserved but is enjoying simply because God loves Him and wants to give to him everything. But just as many accept the invitation, many reject it. Many people wake up Sunday morning with no thought at all that here in God’s House is where they would receive blessings that they could never receive anywhere else. The full and free Gospel of God proclaimed. The full and free forgiving of all of their sins. The full and free partaking of Jesus in His Holy Feast, His Holy Supper. Now, there are a good number of people who think it’s just a crock. Whether they are atheists or in other religions, to them Christianity is an idle tale. Salvation in Christ means absolutely nothing to them. Their rejection of God is outright. For those people, what do we do? We pray for them. We befriend them. We love them. We share the Gospel with them in a winsome manner, in a humble manner, in a manner that reflects our very real concern and love for them. Planting the seed is given us to do and our prayer is attached to that, that God Himself would convert them and change their hearts. We all know of people whose rejection is outright. But in the parable Jesus tells in the Gospel reading He hits closer to home. Since you and I already rejoice in the invitation of God, we believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we don’t need to be converted. Unlike them, we recognize that we are sinful and need the grace God gives in saving us. By God’s grace we have not outright rejected Him as so many do. And while the Bible speaks to those who do, here Jesus speaks to us. We believe, but have we become complacent? Have we become secure? Have we taken God’s grace for granted? The invitation in Jesus’ parable went out and it was met with excuses. I can’t come because I have this important thing going on right now. I can’t come because I have to take care of some important things. I can’t come because there’s something more pressing at the moment. The people who reject the invitation rejected because they were caught up in the ordinary things of life. They didn’t say, “I don’t want to have anything to do with you. I don’t believe in you, I reject you, and I can do without you.” Rather, they were exchanging the mundane with the amazing glory and grace of God. It’s easy to compare ourselves with those who outright reject God. But how often do we place other things in our lives before our God? How often do we make excuses for not being here in God’s House faithfully to hear His Word and receive His gifts? How often do we busy ourselves with the ordinary things of our lives, leaving no room for being in God’s Word and prayer? God is always inviting. Are we often making feeble excuses? In the parable these excuses are met with anger. Everything is ready, all you need to do is show up. I have provided everything for you. The God who is always inviting turns to those who aren’t so blessed that they are consumed by the ordinary things of this world. “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” These are the ones who can’t even respond to the invitation by coming. They must be brought. This is reminiscent of poor Lazarus who we heard about last Sunday. He had been brought to the gate of the rich man every day, longing for even the crumbs from the rich man’s table. Well these poor and crippled and blind and lame people were going to get more than crumbs. They were going to get a Feast. The servants were to go out and bring them. God is always inviting and He is always bringing. Those of us who feast at the Lord’s Banquet, who receive all of His good gifts—His forgiveness, His grace, His salvation—soon realize that we don’t deserve it. We realize that all of it has already been prepared and is simply given to us. We realize that in order to come to the Feast we must be brought. We are undeserving and spiritually blind and crippled and poor and lame. The Holy Spirit brings us to the blessings of God through Baptism and the Gospel that is proclaimed. This is the heart of the Gospel and shows us the heart of God. He invites and He brings. Everything is ready, He does it. When God sends His own Son to become a man, that should tell us something. It tells us that He is doing what is needed to save us. When God’s own Son lives by the very Word of God, keeping God’s will and Law perfectly and willingly, that should tell us something. It tells us that what we could not do, He has done. When God’s own Son willingly suffers at the hands of sinners and willingly suffers at the hands of the holy God in His judgment against sinners, that should tell us something. It tells us that everything is now ready. It has already been accomplished. Salvation is full and free. Jesus has done it all. When God’s own Son has been raised from the grave, that should tell us something. It tells us that we have a God who is indeed all-powerful and has indeed accepted the sacrifice of His own Son for the sin of the world and that because of joining with Him in that resurrection in Baptism we are the recipients of eternal salvation. This is the heart of God and that shows us why after inviting and bringing our God is always urging. After the servants had done what their master commanded in bringing in the poor and crippled, he was told, “Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.” The master said, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.” You can never force people to accept an invitation. Not even God forces people into heaven. If ultimately they will reject Him then He will leave them in their rejection and their eternal separation from Him. But compelling people can take the form of making a compelling case. It can be done with great urging. And this is who our God is. He is always inviting and bringing and urging. When we are complacent He will continue to invite. When we are too weak He will bring us. When we are lost He will urge. He will continue to come to us because He knows that we are caught up in our sinful flesh and the things of this world and in the lies of the devil. He will continue to make known to us that He is the God who has prepared everything. It is all ready. It is done. It is all for us and for our salvation. Many times in the Bible meals and feasts and great banquets are used to show us who God is and how He is the God who wants us to feast with Him. For now and forever. Here on earth in His Holy Supper and there in heaven face to face. In body and in soul. Both here in our weakness and there in eternal glory. Everything is ready. If you are struggling in temptation and weighed down by guilt; if you are weak and weary; if you simply have become complacent, come to the Feast. Come to the place where you find rest, and healing, and strength. Come to the place where you are forgiven and set free. Come to the place where you hear and see that your God is the God who is always inviting, always bringing, always urging. You know this because you know that the Son He has given on the cross is the Son He gives you in your Baptism and here at his Table in His Holy Feast. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
