Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 12, 2014- Pastor Adam Moline
Isaiah 25:6-9 Philippians 4:4-13 Matthew 22:1-14
Isaiah 25:6-9 Philippians 4:4-13 Matthew 22:1-14
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these
words, “Many are called, but few are elect.”
Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ. How many wedding invitations
have you received this summer? Each one
promising a night of fun and partying, the best of foods that catering can
offer, beer poured into you mug until the tap is dry, and dancing and partying
until early in the morning. In our
Gospel lesson that’s what Jesus says the Kingdom of heaven is like. God has invited you, called you, to attend
the wedding feast of his Son Jesus and his bride the church. The biggest shindig of all. There, is promised the finest of all meats,
the best of wines. The fatted calf has
been slaughtered, the dinner is set!
“Come to the wedding feast!” Everything
is ready! Everything is done! And your name is on the invitation list. Jesus has invited you to the meal. Come to the party! Come, eat, drink and be merry.
No? No you say?
You refuse to come to the party. You
have work to do, farms to tend, businesses to take care of. People to see and places to go. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Saying no to God? Is that what you do? I don’t want to be with you, I don’t care
about you, I don’t want to go to the party.
I have no time for God.
You’re just like
the people in our parable today. At
times too many things that are more important than spending time in God’s
presence – no matter what joy that presence might bring. There’s football games to watch, fish to
catch, malls to visit, friends to talk to, places and times to sleep in. And most importantly, we have jobs and
activities outside of the feast that are more important.
So we throw away
the invitation. We reject it. We count it as foolhardy and worthless. Because of our sin it is easy to disregard
the Lord’s invitation. Truly it is very
easy to disregard the invitation. Don’t
believe me? Look at your own life. How easy is it to find some other activity to
do than bible study? How easy is it to
get bored in church, and to decide to sleep in instead. How easy is it to find another place to spend
your money or to give your time. After
all there are business and farms, football games and naps to take care of.
Dear friends
repent! God will bring people into his
wedding feast, he will bring people in both good and bad whether its you or
not. You have the call. You have the invitation. And you even have the right wedding
outfit. Its there in our text. All the people at the wedding are wearing
their very best wedding clothes. And you
have been given those clothes dear friends.
Where? In the waters of holy baptism. There your sin was washed away. There you were clothed with a righteousness
that is not from you, but instead is from Christ. You’ve been washed white in the blood of the
lamb, even though your sins were as scarlet.
You are dressed and ready for the wedding, because it is Christ that you
wear.
For you see, in
the end, the wedding feast, the invitation, the whole kitten caboodle is really
not about you, your acceptance, your works at all. Its about Jesus. It is his party. It is his wedding. It is the party to celebrate the victory over
sin, death and the power of the grave that Jesus won on the cross for you, and
for me.
God sent his
servants out into all the corners of the globe to bring you in to the
feast. He brought you in with the power
of his Holy Precious Word, proclaimed and heard by your ears. That word is that great invitation proclaimed
by pastors all over the world, and recorded for us in Holy scripture. It calls you, and the call itself makes you a
part of the feast.
And at the feast
there is the best of meat – the very body of Jesus, and the finest of wines,
the very blood of Jesus. Given and shed
for you for the forgiveness of all yours sins of doubt, of avoidance and
boredom in the church. It is that feast
that will sustain you throughout all of eternity, without end. Amen.
Dear friends, the
call has come – Come to the feast – it is ready and waiting for Jesus has died
and risen again. We have victory in his
name. In this feast the vale that
covered all people will be taken away, and we will rejoice with our God, even
forever more. You have been brought in
by God’s working, both in the Word proclaimed, and the Sacraments
administered. You are God’s child,
clothed and ready, only through Jesus.
In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
