Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday After Pentecost
He Has Clothed Me With the Garments of Salvation
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus Christ! Amen. In today's Gospel, Jesus tells you the parable in which
the kingdom of heaven is compared to a wedding feast. Many guests have
gathered at the table, taking the places of those who refused to come to the
feast because they were too busy with their lives or too bored with worship.
One guest stands out among the rest:
The king. saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him,
"Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?" And he was
speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, "Bind him hand and foot
and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth."
Dear Christian friends,
This Gospel makes it very clear that you and I better be pretty
careful about the way we dress for worship. Not everyone would agree that
this Gospel has to do with the way we dress for worship, but that might be
because they think of this "wedding feast for [the king's] son" as referring
only to our Lord's return on the Last Day. But this Gospel is not speaking
only about the great feast of God's Son that we will all enjoy on the Last
Day. This Gospel also speaks about the great feast of eternal life that you
and I enjoy here on earth, here in worship, when we gather together to hear
the living Words of Jesus and to eat the sacrament of our Lord's Body and
Blood on the altar. We will admit that our worship today is only a small
foretaste of the much greater feast to come, but our worship today is itself
a feast nevertheless. This is true because:
· Jesus says, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word
that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4)
· Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. unless you eat the flesh of
the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds
on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on
the last day" (John 6:35, 53-54).
· Jesus also says in today's Gospel, "The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son." Adding to our Lord's
Words, John the Baptist wants you to know that the kingdom of heaven is not
merely some future place. John says, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand"
(Matthew 3:3). That is to say, the kingdom of heaven has come to you and
still comes to you in the person of Jesus Christ, the Ever-Living Son of
God.
That is why I am saying to you that today's Gospel has as much to do with
our worship today as it does with our future life in eternity with God. "The
kingdom of heaven may be compared. to a wedding feast" and "This is the
feast, the victory for our God. Alleluia!" (LSB, p. 155)
That is also why I say this Gospel makes it clear that you and I
better be pretty careful about the way we dress for worship. "The king. saw
a man there who had no wedding garment" and the king was not happy. In the
same way, your heavenly Father is happy with you only when you are dressed
in a very specific way. If should you fail to be dressed in this way, do not
be surprised if your God does to you what this king did in today's Gospel:
"The king said to the attendants, "Bind him hand and foot and cast him into
the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."
So the big question is this: What is the right thing for you and for me to
wear for worship? Asked another way, what shall we wrap around ourselves
that will prevent our God and Father from becoming so angry with us that He
would deny us the benefits of His heavenly feast?
You will not find the answer to this question by looking in your clothes
closet. To be sure, each Christian would do well to think about the way he
or she dresses on a Sunday morning. It is not that you should dress to
impress your fellow worshippers. It is not that you should try to measure up
to some standard of appearance. It is not that you should ever allow your
clothing to prevent you from coming to Church. Each Christian would do well
to think about the way he or she dresses on a Sunday morning-doing the best
he can with what he has-simply because each Christian comes here to be with
Jesus. If we would want to dress a certain way when we go to meet the
president of the United States, how much more should we take to heart our
clothing and our appearance when we go to be with Jesus!
Nevertheless, if you want to know what is right thing for you to wear to
worship-what sort of clothing you can put on in order to avoid your heavenly
Father's anger-you will not find the answer by looking into your wardrobe or
closet. You will find your answer by coming up here to the front of the
Church and by looking into the baptismal font.
· Here at the font is where your heavenly King collects you up from
the highways and byways and calls you to the eternal feast of His salvation
in Christ.
· Here at the font is where your heavenly Father washes away all of
your sins (Acts 22:14) and purifies you in the blood of Jesus, His Son (1
John 1:7).
· Here at the font is where your heavenly Father takes the
forgiveness that Jesus has earned for all people and makes it specifically
yours so that you may know and never doubt that your are a worthy guest at
His banqueting table.
· Here at the font, your God and King gives you your wedding
clothing, "for as many of you who were baptized into Christ have put on
[clothed yourselves with, NIV] Christ" (Galatians 3:27). Here at the font,
your Father in heaven gives you a robe more richly sewn than the festive
robe that Isaac gave to his favorite son Joseph (Genesis 37:3). Here at the
font, God clothes you more richly He clothes the flowers of the field,
giving you a greater splendor than "Solomon in all his glory" (Matthew
6:29). Here at the font, God your Father restores you, His prodigal child,
by giving you a new robe-"the best robe" (Luke 15:22)-to wear to the feast.
Here at the font, Isaiah's words become your words, and on account of your
Baptism you may pray today's Introit with great joy:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God,
for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels (Isaiah 61:10).
When you go outside on a cold and blustery day, it is likely that
you would zipper your jacket and turn up your collar against the wind. Why
wouldn't you? The jacket, pulled securely around you, protects you and
comforts you. Use your Baptism in the same way, dear saints! If you will so
quickly wear a jacket against the cold weather, how much more should you
want to wear your garment of Baptism for protection and comfort from God's
wrath over your sins?
The king. saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him,
"Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?" And he was
speechless.
Not so with you! You are the Baptized of Christ. You are the honored guests
at the wedding banquet of God's Son. It does not matter where you have
previously been; it does not matter what condition you may believe yourself
to be in. What matters is that God has gathered you in and God has given you
your wedding garment. God has given you your place at the table of our Lord's
Body and Blood, and God will one day welcome you into the much greater feast
that is to come. For now: eat, drink, and be merry!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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