SERMON for the 22nd SUNDAY after PENTECOST: October 12, 2008
"Called, Chosen, and Clothed"
In der Liebe Christi,
Rev. Kurt (Aqualung) Hering, Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church
Layton, Utah
http://imabaldyii.blogspot.com/
Good morning dear baptized, dearly beloved and blessed children of God,
A few years ago, in fact the last time this text showed up as our Gospel
lesson for the day, there was one of those silly news stories that sticks
with someone like me. Especially now that I have been volunteering as a
chaplain with the Layton City Police Department, I can't help but remember
and get a chuckle out of it whenever I come across our Lord's Parable of the
Wedding Banquet. The story according to the police report says that a man
was arrested on a Friday night for shopping at the 7-11 here in Clearfield.
Well, he wasn't really arrested for shopping. He was arrested for shopping
without wearing shoes or a shirt - or anything else. Yes, he was naked.
Funny word, naked. I see many of you giggling at the word even now - or
maybe you are giggling at the picture of someone sauntering in to the local
convenience store in the all-together. What a picture. It is reminiscent of
the story we all read as little kids, "The Emperors New Clothes."
While such an adventure, a grown man purposely parading around in public as
naked as a jaybird is rather silly sounding, it is also sad - and plain
wrong. There really is no place one can go without being properly [however
we define properly these days] clothed without being arrested, is there?
While being properly clothed has become rather passe these days, if you were
to pop over to the Golden Corral in your birthday suit, you too would find
yourself handcuffed in the back seat of a police vehicle - maybe even
wearing one of those lovely white coats with the formal sleeves that tie
behind the back.
In today's Gospel lesson Jesus tells a parable about someone just as daft as
the 7-11 streaker.
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not
have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in
here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless.
Now the guest may not have been naked, but he might as well have been. At
best he was like someone wearing a Halloween costume or sweaty, torn and
dirty work clothes, because "Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him
hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will
be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
This man, and all who present themselves as friends of the Lord based upon
who they are or what they have done rather than upon who He is and what He
has done for them, are those of whom Jesus also said, "And then I will
declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!' (Matt 7:23, NKJ)
And this was no new teaching for the Jewish religious leaders even though
they still didn't seem to get it, because the prophet Isaiah, whom they
revered and whose words they studied and taught, spoke the same message as
the parable: But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Isa 64:6 NKJ
The parable they heard is again an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
This particular parable is at the same time about the history of God calling
His people Israel and the continuing story of His church today. The heavenly
banquet is closed to those without the wedding clothes of faith, which are
none other than the robes of Christ's righteousness we receive in Holy
Baptism. Pretenders, those come to celebrate themselves rather than the
groom are not welcome. These are the ones without the wedding garments. This
by the way, is why we require our pastors in the Lutheran Church to make
sure that everyone who comes to the Lord's table is taught and examined lest
they end up like the man without clothes - snatched away in the middle of
the feast as a pretender and cast away with the unbelievers.
Of course there are many in this world today, just as in the days of Jesus
and before who don't care to be at the banquet at all - these are they who
declined the invitation, some to play in the fields and others to tend to
business and still others even going so far as to persecute those who bear
the invitation. This sinful attitude, sadly also shared by many who have
even been given the precious wedding clothes of Baptism, is what our Lord is
speaking of when He gives us the Third Commandment.
Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does
this mean? We should fear and love so that we do not despise preaching and
His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
If we are saved by grace through faith and not by our own works, are we not
now free from this commandment and at liberty to do as we please on any
given Lord's day? This is the same question and problem the church faced in
Luther's time, to which responded in the Preface of the Small Catechism:
"Since [works righteousness among us] has been abolished, people are no
longer willing to go to the Sacrament, and thus they despise it. here again
encouragement is necessary, yet with understanding: We are to force no one
to believe or to receive the Sacrament. Nor should we set up any law, time,
or place for it. Instead, preach in such a way that by their own will,
without our law, they will urge themselves and, as it were, compel us
pastors to administer the Sacrament. This is done by telling them, "When
someone does not seek or desire the Sacrament at least four times a year, it
is to be feared that he despises the Sacrament and is not a Christian, just
as a person is not a Christian who does not believe or hear the Gospel," for
Christ did not say, "Leave this out, or despise this," but, "Do this often
as you drink it" (1 Corinthians 11:25), and other such words. Truly, He
wants it done, and not entirely neglected and despised. "Do this," He says."
But why do this if we are saved by grace and nothing we do, including going
to church can save us? Very simply because, as our dear Lord Jesus tells us
in our text, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!"
It is not our going to church or what we do there that saves us. Going to
church means that we are going to the place where God is feeding us with the
bread of life - "every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God" for the
forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Six days a week you live in a
world that is doing its best to convince you that God doesn't exist -- or if
He does that He is a God whom we have to fear and figure out a way to
satisfy by doing enough good stuff so that He isn't angry with you anymore.
But on the seventh day, God calls you to a day of rest. And this not a day
simply to rest from our earthly labors and do nothing but what is fun and
entertaining and distracting from your troubles, but a day to rest in the
tender loving care of your Lord and your God. It is a day to rest from the
labor of trying to please Him or hide from Him and to enjoy the good things
that only come from Him through His Word. You see, without hearing the Word
of God for the forgiveness of sins, your rest and recreation is really no
rest at all.
That is why Luther goes on to say in his Preface:
"Now, whoever does not highly value the Sacrament shows that he has no sin,
no flesh, no devil, no world, no death, no danger, no hell. In other words,
he does not believe such things, although he is in them up over his head and
his ears and is doubly the devil's own. On the other hand, he needs no
grace, no life, no paradise, no heaven, no Christ, no God, nor anything
good. For if he believed that he had so much evil around him, and needed so
much that is good, he would not neglect the Sacrament, by which evil is
remedied and so much good is bestowed. Nor would it be necessary top force
him to go to the Sacrament by any law. he would come running and racing of
his own will, would force himself, and beg that you must give him the
Sacrament. Therefore you must not make any law about this.... Only set forth
clearly the benefit and harm, the need and use, the danger and the blessing,
connected with the Sacrament."
That, dearly beloved of God, is what the parable in our Gospel lesson does
for us today - it "sets forth clearly the benefit and harm, the need and
use, the danger and the blessing, connected with the Sacrament. [So that]
then the people will come on their own without you forcing them. But if they
do not come, let them go their way and tell them that such people belong to
the devil who do not regard nor feel their great need and God's gracious
help. But if you do not urge this, or make a law or make it bitter, it is
your fault if they despise the Sacrament."
This week is UEA week. Imagine somehow I was able to offer everyone in
attendance at Trinity Lutheran Church today free Disneyland passes, lodging,
and clothing. We would be packed and there would be a sea of black ears.
Since we are not packed, does that mean we should make our church more like
Disneyland?
Dear people of God, the kingdom of God is what this parable of the wedding
banquet is all about. As Martin Luther teaches us, the kingdom of heaven "is
what we call the Christian church on earth." Or as St. Cyprian, a third
century church father, pastor, and author of "Church Unity' succinctly
states: "He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church
for his mother."
The whole reason that God is so adamant that you Remember the Sabbath Day by
hearing His Word is to invite you to the wedding banquet of Christ to His
church and to clothe you for it. To stay away from the banquet as it is set
before you is to decline the very gift of heaven itself. To come without
wearing the wedding clothes of Christ is to invite punishment. In other
words, to avoid church for whatever reason is to separate yourself from God
and His kingdom.
But, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" clothed in
beautiful wedding garments at the invitation of our heavenly Father.
Dear people of Trinity, the Lord brings this glorious and marvelous message
to you today for your benefit and to save you from great harm. He wants you
to know He is ALWAYS here, even to the end of the age -- to feast with you
as He feeds you with the bread of His life and the blood of His forgiveness.
This means that you are called, chosen, and clothed by God to live in His
heavenly kingdom now and forevermore.
He also tells you this today because you all know someone who is abstaining
from the table of the Lord because they have better things to do. Business
or pleasure, it doesn't matter, neither has the earthly benefit or the
heavenly blessing that is served in the most generous of portions at the
banquet table of our Lord.
"Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!" This heavenly
wedding feast is prepared for you by the Father, for the sake of His Son by
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Welcome to the wedding feast you blessed of the Lord! Enjoy, take comfort
and be strengthened by the very presence of our Lord at the table with us,
clearly revealed in His Word spoken into your ears and mysteriously hidden
under the bread and wine He places between your lips. You are indeed blessed
as you eat bread in the kingdom of God, for you are clothed in the wedding
garment of the Lord that is your Baptism into His Word that forgives you all
of your sins...
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
____________________________________________________________
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