21^st Sunday after Pentecost at Epiphany on October 5, 2008

Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ² "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. ³ He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. ⁴ "Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.' ⁵ "But they paid no attention and went off-- one to his field, another to his business. ⁶ The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. ⁷ The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. ⁸ "Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. ¹¹ "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² 'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. ¹³ "Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' ¹⁴ "For many are invited, but few are chosen."

An important party

A workaholic father worked long hours and sometimes seven days a week. Because of his hard work, the family had done quite well – in terms of money. However, after investing most of his time in climbing the corporate ladder and making money over the years, his marriage and his family life with his children was in trouble. The family finally begged the dad to attend a counseling session with the whole family.

During one of the sessions, the daughter, who was now in college, decided to confront her dad about some of the things that had caused her a great deal of pain while she was growing up. She turned to her father and said, “Couldn’t you have come to at least one of my softball games when I was in elementary school? And when I was got a part in the school play, do you know how much I wanted you to come and see the performance? Even though you told me you couldn’t come, that you had to work, I still kept looking for you that night, I still hoped you might be there. And then when you weren’t there to see me on prom night, I guess that was it. I guess that’s when I stopped counting on you to be there.”

The father listened, becoming angrier as these charges were leveled against him. Finally he said, “Okay, I messed up, all right?! You say I hurt you. I believe you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you, okay? Forgive me all right? I apologize.”

The daughter replied, “I’ve already forgiven you, Daddy. I had to do that to get on with my life. And I’ve learned to deal with the pain and disappointment. That’s not the worst part. The worst part is what happened to you. You missed out on getting to know me, and you missed out on enjoying me. The saddest part is you missed out on me.”

I’m sad to say that if your heavenly Father were speaking to you this morning, He’d say the same thing. He is saddened that you missed out on the opportunity for you to be with Him, to get to know Him better. The bad news is, those years can never be recovered. The good news is, the invitation still stands.

In Jesus’ story, the king is God the Father who prepared the wedding banquet for His Son, Jesus. God had first invited the Jews, His chosen people to this wedding feast. Sadly, shamefully, these invited guests of Israel weren’t interested in attending. The scribes and Pharisees weren’t interested in the kingdom of God Jesus was bringing into the world. They made excuses! They asked by what authority Jesus healed and preached. They asked how the son of a carpenter could possibly be the Son of God.

They made lame excuses why they couldn’t make it. They were indifferent and carried on with business as usual. Some of them became downright violent with the messengers, killing prophets and apostles. They showed contempt for the king by committing a flagrant act of rebellion. So the King was furious! He sent His army to destroy those rebellious people and burned their precious hometown (Jerusalem in 70 A.D.). Then he extended His gracious invitation to everyone else – even to us!

God’s invitation is extended to people who have lived moral, upright lives, as well as the dregs of society – the murderers, rapists, and prostitutes of this world. Everyone is invited, “both bad and good.” That is what is known as grace. It is one of the things that distinguishes the kingdom of our Lord. By grace, God invites all kinds of people to the party.

You have been invited to an important party. Now you have to decide between this important invitation and the urgent invitations you receive every day. As a parent, you may see most of your duties as urgent. When the washer is done, it is urgent to get the clothes in the dryer or out on the clothesline before they sit too long and begin to mold or your teenager begins crying that she has nothing to wear. As soon as work is over, it is urgent for you to rush home to get your child to the next appointed practice.

Sometimes you may get the urgent and the important confused. Your children are important, not the clothes in the washer. Your spouse is important, not posting to your blog. Your worship of the Lord is important, not catching up on your sleep.

The urgent may be overtime pay. It may be you’re child’s athletic event. It may be a family vacation. It may be grocery shopping or golfing or getting away for some family time. It may be preparing a big feast for family that is coming over for a party.

The important is the King’s delicious, nourishing banquet. It is the sumptuous feast that has been prepared especially for you – God’s guest of honor. The heavenly Host declares: “Everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”

Too often we put the urgent ahead of the important. The urgent can wait. They really can. What is the worst that will happen if you read with your little girl and don’t clean up the kitchen right after dinner? You might have to scrub that pan a little harder. But the reward is that you have filled up your daughter’s love tank by stopping the urgent and doing the important.

Sadly, shamefully, we too often put the urgent invitation of life ahead of God’s important invitation of eternal life. Work is important, but working instead of worshiping is a lame excuse before your holy God. Preparing a family feast instead of partaking of the feast of victory will only incur your King’s anger. Getting away up north to rest instead of resting in God’s house of worship may make you happy, but it doesn’t make God happy.

There aren’t any good excuses for missing Bible class or Sunday School. If you send your children to a Lutheran grade school or high school, yet they don’t attend Sunday School or Teen Bible class, you aren’t teaching your children that continuing Christian education is important. They won’t develop the habit of Sunday morning worship and study. Statically, there is no difference between Christian day school children and public school children after confirmation. They become delinquent and inactive at the same rate. The difference comes from if they were active and faithful with their parents in worship, Bible class and Sunday School. 

We are a “busy” society. We are busy accumulating plenty of bills with our taste buds and lifestyles and credit cards. Then we are busy paying for everything we want. In the midst of this “busy-ness,” God offers a banquet – a free banquet of love and forgiveness. We taste it in the Word of God. We enjoy it in worship. We drink it in the Lord’s Supper. We eat of it in Sunday School and Bible class. It tastes good. It’s free. It quenches our thirst for love and holiness. Yet these mini-banquets are often ignored because we’re too busy.

Then we make excuses for our “busy-ness.” “We had company. I was at a party this weekend. I don’t want to miss the kickoff at noon. We had a game to go to.” Doesn’t it strike you as odd that you can manage to get up before dawn to get up to work five days a week, but you can’t get up an hour later to come to Sunday School or Bible class? When the Lord’s servants continually invite and encourage, remind and even scold through emails, letters, and phone calls, do you become upset and defensive?

The danger of refusing God’s invitation is that when you start accepting your own excuses, they will continue in your life until your whole life becomes an excuse. As a result of your guilt, you’ll have to find someone to blame – even God – for why you aren’t doing what you should be doing. “All the church wants is my money, the people there are unfriendly,” the list goes on and on. God isn’t going to buy it.

Jesus said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” That’s another way of saying: Everybody is invited, but very few wind up at the table. Why? It certainly isn’t God’s fault. He’s prepared a feast for everyone, but He’s not going to force anyone to eat and drink. If you miss out on the party and you go hungry, you have only yourself to blame. Everyone has the opportunity to enter the kingdom of God, but few will accept the invitation to enter the kingdom and will be serious enough to be clothed in Christ’s righteousness.

Notice, at the end of the parable, there is no one who is not invited to the son’s wedding feast. When God throws a party, it’s the biggest bash in town, and there’s not a single person left off the invitation list. When Jesus died on the cross and was made sin for us, no one was left out. The only thing that leaves us out of the feast is our own indifference to that death, our own stubborn refusal to accept the invitation, our own excuses of the urgent over the important. Then it’s entirely our own fault.

You are on the invitation list. During the week, but especially on Sunday mornings, you are invited to attend this important party. It is the Feast of Victory for our God. It is a time of rejoicing and singing with the people of God. It is giving praise and thanks and honor and glory to the Lamb who was slain. It is having your heart filled with rest in the presence of the Lord. It is being refreshed through the wondrous food of blessing and the cup that heals our woes. It is letting baptismal waters flow over you, cleansing you of your sin. It is coming within God’s holiest place where you are kindly fed with the treasures of His grace.

Some of you may be thinking, “How could God possibly want me? I have so often refused His gracious invitation. I have taken advantage of our relationship. I have filled my life with excuses.”

Of course God wants you. If you’re human, God wants you. That’s why He sent His Son. That’s why He made you His own in baptism. That’s why He comes to you personally in His Holy Supper. That’s why He has given you His Word to study and share. That’s why He’s already forgiven you for your indifference and excuses.

You don’t have to be anyone special. God makes you special. You don’t have to meet any requirements. Jesus fulfilled the requirements. You don’t have to be wearing any special clothing. Our King and God is so gracious that He even furnishes us with the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness. That is what makes us worthy to enter the banquet hall.

Accepting the invitation by God’s grace, we also extend the invitation to others as long as we live: Come to the banquet!

The beautiful word “Come” fills Scripture. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” (Is 55:1) “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28-29) “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” (Rev 22:17) Come for cleansing. Come for refreshment. Come for rest. Come for the banquet.

Our King invites us to the heavenly banquet. All things are ready. Jesus Christ, King’s Son, the crucified, risen, victorious Lord is going to be there. The cherubim and seraphim will be there. Our sainted loved ones will be there. You and I don’t deserve to be there because of our sin. But the King searches in the streets and alleys: “Everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”

You’ll never regret putting aside the urgent for the important. Don’t miss wonderful conversations with your teens to get out the email. Don’t miss doll tea parties because you have a bathroom to clean. And absolutely don’t miss out on the Feast of Victory for lame excuses. God’s desire is to fill his banquet hall with guests. Don’t miss out on getting to know your God even better. God is throwing a party, and He’s invited the world! He’s invited you! Amen.