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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Pastor Galler is on vacation, but, for our reflection this morning on the Third Reading for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Pastor Galler edited a sermon written by The Rev. David O Stecker, associate pastor of Emanuel Lutheran Church in New Haven, Indiana. Rev. Stecker’s sermon was published in the 2017 volume of Concordia Pulpit Resources (27:4, pp.40-43), to which publication Pilgrim subscribes primarily in order to supply sermons on occasions such as this, when our pastor is away and the congregation has not otherwise supplied the pulpit. The edited sermon reads as follows:
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Most of us have probably heard stories of the magic lamp. When people rub the lamp, it brings forth the genie who invites people to make three wishes. The people take the genie up on its invitation, but, inevitably, the people’s wishes never turn out as they expect. Whether they wish for a billion dollars; a beautiful woman or a handsome man; political power; or even the request of another hundred wishes, the stories usually end tragically. If you look closely at the requests, you find out why. The wishes always seem to be for something that this temporary earthly kingdom offers, with little or no regard for the eternal heavenly Kingdom. Thus, the stories of the magic lamp show that our primary interest and preoccupation are often in this world and not the next. In that regard, Jesus with His “Special Invitation” in today’s Third Reading is quite different from us.
The Third Reading with its so-called “Parable of the Wedding Feast” is told during Holy Week, when Jesus is very preoccupied. The past three Sundays, we have heard Jesus tell parables about the one thing that to Him is all-consuming: the Kingdom of Heaven. Today Jesus continues His preoccupation over the Kingdom of Heaven. Ultimately, that Kingdom of Heaven means our eternal rest, to which, the Apostle Paul says “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing” (Romans 8:18). Yet heaven is a place you and I do not really think about all that much, do we? We really do not want to contemplate a preoccupation outside of this world, and our true preoccupation with this world is connected to our accomplishments, our desires, our motivations, our aspirations—what we may think are most important. We may not find the Kingdom of Heaven all that appealing. We may think that the Kingdom of Heaven will be fine when we end this life. We may think that the Kingdom of Heaven will be fine when we get there. We may think that the Kingdom of Heaven will be a wonderful aftermath, a tasty dessert. No, getting into the Kingdom of Heaven purely by the grace of God for the sake of Jesus Christ may not appeal to us all that much, and that may be why we are saving it for later, because we may think that there is nothing else left to do once we die. The Kingdom of Heaven simply is not our focus. We are preoccupied elsewhere. But, of course, we are not surprised to find that “Jesus’ preoccupation is far better than our own.”
Jesus’s preoccupation, which is far better than our own preoccupation, is evident already at the beginning of the Third Reading: “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to …” And Jesus goes on to tell of a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and repeatedly sent his servants with “A Special Invitation” for guests to come to the feast. But, the guests originally invited would not come: one was more interested in his field, another in his business, and the rest attacked the king’s messengers. And, even of those who were then invited and actually came, one nevertheless still rejects the king’s “Special Invitation” by thinking he can attend the feast on his own terms.
The “Parable of the Wedding Feast” is to be understood as God the Father’s giving a wedding feast for His Son, the God-man Jesus Christ. God repeatedly sends His servants—prophets, apostles, and pastors—with “A Special Invitation” for all people, including you and me, to come to the Feast. But, some reject the free gift of salvation; they do not want it, at least not on God’s terms, and they may not even want the free gift of salvation on their own terms. Others attack the messengers or in some other way are hostile to their message. What about you and me?
Are we not often busy building our own kingdoms, taking care of and nurturing them as if they will last forever? Tell me that you wake up each morning of your life and go about your work with the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, the one into which you have been baptized, in full view! We may say, “Wait a minute! I have things to do! I’m busy down here!” Yes, we are, and that is the point! In effect, we say of the Kingdom of Heaven with, “I will consider it when it comes,” when it has already come by way of the cross and resurrection of Christ. You even get to taste it! But, how long after you leave the Altar Rail do you again leave the eternal to be preoccupied with the temporal? The human preoccupation in this short-lived world shoves the coming forever kingdom aside, because the human heart deems this world more worthy. We may be scared and frightened of things like the coronavirus because ultimately we think the things of this world are more important than the things of the next world to which our deaths would give us greater access. If the things of this world start to be taken away, we may become hostile, for example, asking “Where are you God?” We do not always realize that God is replacing this world with His Kingdom of the next world, the one Jesus is preoccupied with. We are so far from contemplating “dying with Christ,” because we are never finished with our own intentions.
Those for whom the preoccupations of this world are more important than coming to the Feast are rightly judged. They reject the repeated invitations to the feast, and, though the Feast goes on without them, their treasured kingdoms are destroyed, so that they no longer can give them their attention. Likewise, those who try to have the Kingdom on their own terms are cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And, such we, on account of our sinful nature and all of our actual sins, deserve! And, if we continuously refuse God’s enabling “Special Invitation” to repent and believe, such we will receive! Yet, when we repent and believe, then God forgives us our sinful nature and actual sins, for the sake of His Son.
In the broader context of St. Matthew’s Divinely-inspired Gospel account, specifically, the immediately preceding parable that we heard last week, that Son is the One Who was taken, cast out of the vineyard, and killed by its wicked tenants (Matthew 21:33‑46). Now, as it were, that Son is resurrected from the dead, living, and reigning to all eternity (Small Catechism, II:4). God is gracious to us because of Jesus’s death on the cross for the sins of the whole world, including our sins. Out of His love and mercy, God repeatedly extends His “Special Invitation”, even despite our at least initial rejection. God earnestly calls all, even if not all effectively end up coming to Him. When, enabled by and answering that invitation, we turn in sorrow from our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then God forgives our preoccupation with this world and gives us the proper perspective of the world to come.
God changes our perspective and assures us that He wants us to be saved through His Means of Grace. In Holy Baptism, we are clothed and covered with the garment and robe of Christ’s righteousness, won for us by His perfect life of obedience and death on the cross in our place. In Holy Absolution the sins that we know and feel in our hearts, those that particularly trouble us, are forgiven by the servants our God and King sends to us with His authority to forgive sins on earth with the corresponding result in heaven. And, in the Sacrament of the Altar, bread and wine are the Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins, and so also for life and salvation. Here we receive the Highest Good. Here is where our preoccupation should lie.
In some ways it is hard to imagine that the wafer that is the Body of Christ and the sip of wine in whatever concentration that is the Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar are better than the feast of rich food full of marrow and of well-aged wine well refined in today’s First Reading (Isaiah 25:6-9), but they are better! As prophesied in that First Reading, here the covering that is cast over all people, the veil that is spread over all nations, is swallowed up: death itself is swallowed up. On the Last Day, when we partake of this Feast in full, the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. We will say He is our God and Lord, in faith we have waited for Him, that He might save us, and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. And, as the Apostle Paul described in today’s Second Reading (Philippians 4:4-13), even now we can rejoice in the Lord always and not be anxious about anything. The Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies, and with Him as our Shepherd we are not in want for anything (Psalm 23:1-6; antiphon v.5a).
Any exaggerated need here and now for a magic lamp and its genie is replaced by the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, where sins are no more and a relationship with God is established forever. That Kingdom comes through Jesus’s cross and resurrection and through the “Special Invitation” that He extends to us by His servants. And, and that Kingdom alone, not any pursuit in this sin‑corrupted world, brings the true joy of life. God seeks us out. That is how much He loves us. God invites and enables us to come to receive the foretaste of the feast to come, to be forgiven of preoccupations with the temporal, and to leave properly occupied with the eternal!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +