READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 55:1-9
Ephesians 5:15-21
St. Matthew 22:1-14
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 1)
Who speaks you this morning saying,
“See, I have
prepared my supper, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and
everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”
Especially when speaking about the Liturgy, you may think
you have today’s sermon all figured out. For, God has set the table, no pun
intended, quite nicely in our Lectionary readings heard today. We have His
gracious invitation in Isaiah, His encouragement to singing and giving thanks
in Ephesians, and of course the Wedding Feast described in St. Matthew. All
parts of our Divine Service which we commune in today!
God always speaks this way to you in His Word, in order that
you place your communion today in and with their actions of the past. This is
one of the functions of our Divine Liturgy: that it connects us with thousands
of years of Christians in history, which includes the entire Bible.
Another important service the Divine Service provides is
that of demarcation. However, it is not a border like we think of borders;
armed and requiring papers. It is a border to determine whether or not faith is
present. This is the lesson of the “friend” that is found not wearing a wedding
garment in today’s Gospel.
Thinking about this distinction that our Liturgy gives us,
what should reverberate in our noggins today are the words from the Epistle,
make the best use of the time, because the days are evil (5:16). When coupled
with verse 2 from Isaiah, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not
bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy”, we get a pretty
grim picture of life in this realm.
First is that Jesus tells us that the days are evil. But,
you say, Jesus things aren’t that bad. Regardless, the Lord’s words do not
change no matter how many proofs we hold up to Him. So we must regard the evil
as something that is not readily apparent or, even worse, something that we
have grown accustom to.
And that is exactly what sin and the devil have done to us.
For in the second place, we do spend our money on that which is not bread and
that which does not satisfy. But this is not just referring to what we put in
our pantries or with what we entertain ourselves. They refer to such things
that the world produces with which we replace God.
The devil, the world, and our own sinful nature have so
saturated us with a disgust for all and any thing related to God, that we are
simply blind to it. Not only are we blind, but our aversion to it has become
such that “doing church” has become a chore and a bore, so that now instead of
spending wisely, we spend foolishly.
Repent. The motions and actions that God takes in this world
are hidden, but only to those of no faith. Note those whom the Lord invited to
His wedding feast. They would not come. They paid no attention, they
prioritized their own business, some even went so far as murder. No act was
beneath them so long as they did not have to go to where the Lord is.
Go back to our Old Testament reading and you tend to read it
backwards, in sin. In this blindness, we start off with verses 9 and 8, when we
attempt to understand. And with that statement of God being far away from us in
thought, word, and deed we simply jump off the train. We close our minds to Him
and completely miss the rest of His divine action.
In sin we understand and read God’s Word backwards every
time. We only hear His condemnations and “the best use of our time in these
evil days” become ignoring God because of them. He becomes a God of such
meticulous scruples, that we even dare to attempt a work-around of His Law and
turn out just as the “friend” without a wedding garment did.
Dear Christians, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid that
God’s thoughts are not your thoughts and that His ways are not your ways. Do
not be afraid, because He places His thoughts and His ways inside of man. The
God-man Jesus Christ.
Yes in the coming of God in the flesh, so also come all His
thoughts and all His ways. Jesus, in His body, draws out the lines of God’s
saving actions and they form a Church. For He is the Body, the Temple that
comes down from heaven (Rev. 21:22) and the Light (v. 23). By the light of this
Church, the nations will walk (v. 24) and “there shall by no means enter it
anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who
are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (v. 27).
And Jesus has brought this purity with Him as He communes
with you today. In order to turn frontwards what sin has turned backwards, the
Word was made flesh, the God-man, came to do the work. You’d think we would be
forced to repair what we destroyed. Any other god would demand such
penance.
But the one true God works backwards and He starts with an
invitation. The very first verse our Lord speaks says, “Come”, from
Isaiah 55. The King, at the Wedding for His Son, says, “Come” (Mt 22:4).
“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!”
And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life
freely” (Rev. 22:17).
The Lord is not slow to act out His immutable and
unfathomable will through His only begotten Son, such that His thoughts and His
ways can now be encountered and communed with in His Divine Service. Each time
we utter His Word and each time we encounter and remember His Sacraments, God’s
Will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
This makes His Church stand out, just as Jesus makes His own
Body distinctive. There can be no mistake about who He is, as the Apostles show
us on Easter. There Jesus displays the proof imprinted on His Body. He
demarcates Himself from every other false Jesus, false messiah, and false lord
by continuing to bear the marks of His crucifixion in His Body.
Thus it becomes His Body, the Church, to also be
distinctive. Not distinguished through worldly honors and fame, and not a part
of this world that hands out deals with strings attached. Instead, the holy,
Christian Church is distinguished in that she suffers in this age, all the
while handing out peace and joy for free.
This demarcation is the 7th mark, in a list of seven marks
of the Church, taught by Dr. Luther. It is the plain and simple fact that
people who have faith suffer rejection from the world, and therefore, like
Jesus, bear the cross. It is the free handouts that stand in utter contrast
with the world of corrosion and coercion.
Free peace in the Gospel. Free water of life in Baptism.
Free heavenly nourishment in the Lord’s Supper. All of this adds up to where
your Divine Service came from and all of it came from the holy Scriptures, as
you all guessed in the beginning.
Thus, at a Word from Jesus, we are the ones invited. And it
is at this feast that we find food and drink without cost. Though we buy the
materials, the blessings they contain through faith are priceless. It is also
in this Feast that we finally spend our money on true, heavenly bread and our
labor on eternal satisfaction.
It is in this Ceremony and Celebration that we make best use
of our time. And though we are given many godly things to do in this life, the
one thing needful is the Lord’s Treasure, offered to us by His Spirit, in the
form of His Body and Blood in and with the bread and wine.
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