Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
At the LeTourneau Church Fair yesterday, one of the first questions I often asked the new students was where they were from. The question not only expressed genuine interest in the students, but the question also elicited answers that indicated the wide reach of the university, and the answers also advanced the conversation, sometimes pointing to common ground or a shared experience. For example, when students indicated that they were from the eastern side of the state of Washington or from northern Idaho, I mentioned my having lived in southern British Columbia. When one student said, not expecting me to know the place, that he was from Mystic, Connecticut, I surprised him by saying that I not only knew the community but also had been to the historic Mystic Seaport with my girlfriend when I lived in that state. There was even one student there yesterday who actually knew people whom I knew back where he was originally from.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely-inspired St. Luke uniquely records Jesus’s telling the people shut out of the Kingdom of God that He does not know where they come from, but the origin of the people who are described as reclining at table in the Kingdom of God is known: they are said to come from east and west, and from north and south—the very directions to which God once told Abraham and his grandson Jacob (or, “Israel”) that their offspring would go (Genesis 13:14-15; 281:14), and the very directions from which God promises that His angels will gather the elect on the Last Day (Matthew 24:31; Mark 13:27; confer Psalm 107:3; Isaiah 43:5).
To the extent that the master of the house in today’s Gospel Reading is to be identified with the all-knowing Lord, we may have a hard time imagining His not knowing where anyone is from, but such is what the Lord says, maybe indicating less the people’s location, where they were from geographically, and indicating more their origin, whom they were born of ancestrally. That focus on ancestral origin may especially be the case if the people in the crowds were Jews, who thought that they would be included in the Kingdom of God simply by being physical descendants of Abraham, simply by sharing his genetic material, whether or not they were spiritual descendants of Abraham, sharing his repentance and faith (confer Matthew 8:11-12). To be sure, whatever their ethnic origin, they thought that they had some sort of relationship to the Lord, claiming that they had eaten and drunk in His presence and that He had taught in their streets (compare Matthew 7:22-23), even if they had never welcomed the Lord into their homes or truly shared table fellowship with Him. And so, as Jesus describes it, their opportunity to be saved had come to an end, whether due to their hardening themselves, to their deaths, or to the Lord’s return in glory to judge the living and the dead.
You and I probably can relate to the idea of a period of time’s coming to an end. Maybe we have missed a deadline at school or work. Maybe we have gotten to a store or office after it has closed. Maybe we have tried to buy an item at a sale price after the sale is over. For a reason they say, “Act now”—not so much because quantities are limited but because the items may be available in general or available at that price only for a limited time. (Confer Bernau, CPR 32:3, p.38.) In the time available to us, have we acted in such a way that the Lord would know where we come from? There are no participation trophies when it comes to seeking the Lord. For a reason Jesus says, Strive, like a world-class athlete, to enter through the narrow door, for those who simply seek to enter will not be able, they do not have the power within them. But, unlike what Deion Sanders thinks about the National Football League’s Hall of Fame, some of themselves do not deserve to get in and others to be kept out (FOX News). That God graciously has opened the door to the Kingdom is why anyone can enter—those saved are saved passively, by God—but those who do not strive to enter by God-given repentance and faith are not known to the Lord: He does not know their place of origin, He has nothing in common with them, no ties to them whatsoever (Just, ad loc Luke 13:25, 27, p.548). If anything, He may think they are born from below, born of the devil, as He one time said of the unbelieving Jews (John 8:39-47). The Lord still sees their works of evil (confer Titus 1:16). We might be quick to look at the society around us and see other people’s works of evil, when we should look in the mirror of God’s law and see our own works of evil. Apart from our repenting and believing, God still sees our works of evil, and He will tell us to depart from Him to that place where, especially with our seeing others in the Kingdom and ourselves cast out, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place not of annihilation but of eternal torment.
But, when we are sorry for our sin and trust God to forgive our sin, then God forgives us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ. The Jews of Jesus’s day thought that they knew where Jesus came from and so that He could not be the Savior (John 7:25-29; 9:29-33), but they missed that He was God in human flesh, born in Bethlehem as prophesied long before (Matthew 2:1-6, citing Micah 5:2). In the Gospel Reading, Jesus was journeying to Jerusalem, where everything written about Him by the prophets would be accomplished: He would be delivered over to the Gentiles and be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon and, after being flogged, be killed, but on the third day rise (Luke 18:31-33). Indeed, out of God’s great love for all people, Jesus strove in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44), and Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. And, Jesus rose from the dead, showing that God had accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. Jesus Himself arguably is the narrow door, and, if we enter by Him, we are saved (John 10:7, 9). Our works of evil are washed away in Christ’s blood, and we are clothed in His righteousness. God the Father answers our prayer as in today’s Collect: He guides us both by His Son, the Word made flesh, and by His Holy Spirit, and God the Father leads us now and always into the feast of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Lord knows those who are born from above, born of God, by water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism (John 1:13; 3:3, 5), and they enter into the Kingdom of God. The Lord knows those so baptized who privately confess their sins for the sake of individual Holy Absolution, forgiveness by the authority of the Office of the Keys that He entrusts to pastors today, who on His behalf open what no one can shut (Matthew 16:19; Revelation 3:7, citing Isaiah 22:22). The Lord knows those so baptized and absolved who are admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar, where bread that is the Body of Christ given for us and wine that is the Blood of Christ shed for us thereby also give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Instead of standing outside the Kingdom of God, we essentially recline at table inside the Kingdom of God, whether we kneel or stand at this rail. We do not misperceive our relationship with our Lord, but we find certainty of our salvation in all these objective Means of God’s grace.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus rejects an abstract focus on numbers instead of a personal focus on striving to enter the Kingdom of God by repentance and faith. What those in the larger group or majority believe and do is not right simply because they are in the majority but, in some cases, arguably the opposite! As today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 66:18-23) and Psalm (Psalm 50:1-15; antiphon: v.23) made clear, all are invited to the Kingdom of God, even if only the smaller group or minority struggle against sin, enduring hardship as discipline, as today’s Epistle Reading described (Hebrews 12:4‑29). The true Church of Jesus Christ is found not where there are the most people, or where there are the most people in a specified demographic group, or where there are the most activities for either the most people or for the people of a specified demographic group. But, the true Church of Jesus Christ is found wherever the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered.
Chris and Michelle officially join us today by making this congregation where they come from. They join others coming here from Tatum to the east and Lindale to the west, and from Longview to the north and Elkhart to the south. All are born of the Spirit and related as brothers and sisters in Christ. Baptismal water and Christ’s blood make the strongest of all relationships. With daily repentance and faith we receive the forgiveness of sins from God and in turn share our forgiveness with one another. The Church as we see Her today may indeed be very small, but the Lord adds to Her number day by day those who are being saved (Acts 2:47), and, in the end, perhaps having entered by the heavenly Jerusalem’s gates that face every direction (Revelation 21:13; confer Ezekiel 48:30-34), but certainly gathered from every direction, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, the Church is a great multitude that no one can number, giving glory and thanks to God forever and ever (Revelation 7:9, 12).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +