Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

The invitations have gone out, and the great celebration is not on some date far in the future. The date is now, here, today, right at this very hour, unaffected by generation, season, or even daylight savings time. The invitation is for the never-ending feast, the everlasting eucharist, the great celebration of our salvation that was instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ on the night when He was betrayed, and goes on and on and on, even when He comes again and forever into eternity.

 

The parable in today’s Gospel Lesson is not about a future day when we are all called into the wedding celebration of the Son of God with His bride the Church. The parable is about the Church even now, and the celebration is for the union of the eternal, divine, Son of God, to the human nature of mankind, begun at His incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary for the purpose of our salvation, so that He might be the sacrifice for the sins of all mankind and rescue us all from sin, death, and the devil.

 

The feast of this supper of the Lord’s body and blood is a thankful and joyous celebration of the love of God in Christ Jesus to be the Saviour of the world, of all people from every land, nation, and language. The festive celebration in remembrance of Jesus is a participation in this universal redemption. It is a celebration not of what is happening for someone else, but of what is happening for us. We are not merely rejoicing for a happy couple on their special day, we are rejoicing because of what we ourselves are being given, for the love that is being showered upon us, for the life and blessing that we are invited to receive.

 

It is all too obvious to us that many of those who have received an invitation have not come to this celebration. It is painful to note that not all of our family members are joining in the festive banquet that is this reception of forgiveness, life, and salvation through the Word and Sacraments of our loving Saviour Jesus Christ. On a larger scale we also realize that most of the citizens of our nation have ignored the invitation to be festive members of the holy Christian Church, and sometimes we focus on that statistic in order to overshadow the pain of absent loved ones who are not joining us in this celebratory life of faith.

 

Even though many are not here, it is by no means due to a lack of will by our host, the God of all grace and mercy, the King of kings and Lord of lords. His Word has gone out to the ends of the earth, declaring His great love for all in the gift of His own Son to be the Saviour of all. From the prophets to the apostles, from pastors and parents, God’s great invitation has gone out to all of every generation, every time and every place.

 

You can be sure, then, that it is a real “invitation” to be a guest, and in no way a summons to report for duty. The call from the King through the servants of the church does not come as a “thou shalt,” with a list of commands. Rather, God the King of kings and Lord of lords, addresses us as those to whom He wishes to give. He longs to be our host. He invites us as a royal benefactor, the giver of every good gift and joy. We are not invited so that we might make a donation from ourselves, or to reciprocate with a favour of equal value. This is an invitation to rejoice and celebrate and live in the love of the gracious King. All of the effort and expense have fallen upon Him.

 

So why are not all people saved? It is the same question as why are not all people here. When we ask why not all people are saved, why “many are called but few chosen” (Matthew 22:14), we want to place the fault upon the one who has sent out the invitations, who has prepared everything for the feast, who has fully accomplished our salvation from sin, death, and devil entirely at His own expense. But the answer becomes more clear when we ask why not all have accepted the repeated invitation and constant call of the King.

 

You know that there are many who just give no consideration to this sort of thing. They are focused entirely on the immediate state of their affairs, good or bad, and cannot see beyond a short range of sight around their own person. So they go about their business at home, school, work, and leisure not thinking about their eternal destiny or the consequences of sin in the world or in their own life.

 

So neither do they give any consideration to the great honour of the invitation sent from the God of heaven, the Creator of all things, the eternal Lord, the Almighty. They give no consideration to His great love extended to them in person, and to the world in grandeur. They give no consideration to the weight of their sin, the wickedness of the world, the power of the devil and his intent to hold them in captivity. They give no consideration to the great cost of their salvation in the divine and holy life of God’s own Son, taking on their very human nature in order to rescue and redeem them completely.

 

There is not much that can be done for such inconsiderate and unthoughtful people, other than to keep repeating the invitation and pointing out the great mercy and grace of the One who calls them. And that is exactly what the Lord continues to do through His servants, the prophets and apostles who continue to speak in His Word, and through the pastors and parents whom the Lord has called to speak to them personally and directly. And the Lord who so desires them to accept His invitation will keep calling to them until it is too late for them to come.

 

There are others, of course, who are not just inconsiderate of the invitation and the love of the host, but who quite consciously reject all who relay the call of God to them. They are the ones who scorn, ridicule, and abuse the messengers of God, including those who respond with violence and murder. In our homes they may banish us from their lives. In our conversations they may shout us down. In the community they threaten, and before the eyes of the world they will try to show their right to silence and even kill us.

 

In our country we have to navigate legal laws of hate speech and social manoeuvres to cancel out our pleas. Recently, we have seen the killing of a popular apologist for the church in the United States, Charlie Kirk, whose organization (Turning Point) sought to engage in direct but caring conversations about Christian beliefs and social morality on college campuses. In Nigeria, the Christian bishops are telling us that there is a genocide underway to eliminate all Christian people from the nation as tens of thousands have been killed this yr.

 

Different countries are given headlines at different times so that we rarely consider the ongoing and pervasive persecution of the Christian Gospel happening around the world continually. In order that God’s invitation and call not be interrupted, but that it reach all those whom He desires to be in the great celebration of His grace, God promises to severely punish those who would so attack His servants sent out to invite. He will instead send out His avengers to bring the persecutors into death and hell.

 

Despite such great opposition of so many to the call of God’s grace to come and live in the celebration of His love and mercy in the church, the feast goes on. Here we are, to receive God’s gifts of life and salvation. And considering all of the opposition of the enemies of the Church among men and the schemes of the devil, the great gift of our redemption in Christ Jesus is served to you here today. All remains prepared for you to live this life celebrating God’s Son coming in the flesh to be your Saviour.

 

That is because God did not stop His invitation and call. When the Jews in large part rejected His grace and mercy, He sent His apostles to the other nations of the world. He does not stop reaching out and extending His love but finds ways to extend that gracious love even farther and to more. He is still calling out to the Jews as He is to all cultures and peoples.

 

His invitation came to you. Your name was written in the guest book at your Baptism. You have been granted admittance before there was anything that you might do to secure a place for yourself. And amid all of the distractions of life and the attacks of the devil, you have continued to hear His call to live in the celebratory joy of this feast, a feast that never ends, a feast that even those who have departed this life in the faith continue to celebrate with us, a feast in which we will share together for eternity. This is the Lord’s will for your salvation to eternal life and for your continued blessing and joy in this life.

 

And yet the Gospel for the day ends off with a solemn warning, not for those who have rejected the Lord’s invitation and have not come, but for those of us who are here. The church is filled with people both bad and good. That is part of the graciousness of God. But the King Himself, God Almighty and Omniscient, will be the judge on the final day. And as He even now observes the guests at His feast, He will come and address all of those who like the man in Jesus’ parable was found at the feast among the guests, yet without a wedding garment.

 

These (whom the King Himself will determine) are present among those who celebrate with joy the feast of their salvation, but they have not come to faithfully embrace the joy of God’s mercy for themselves. The King sees them uncovered, lacking the garments that He has supplied for His guests. Like those who obviously refused the invitation, these have come with their lack of consideration for the Lord’s gifts. They have come not to receive the grace of their host, but to retain faith in their own personal accomplishments. They are happy to see all the rest rejoicing that their needs have been met in Christ, but they refuse to consider that they have a similar need themselves. They oppose the grace of God extended to them.

 

Like the chief priests and Pharisees, to whom Jesus addressed this parable in the Gospel reading, these people within Christ’s Church on earth question His authority over them, His authority to offer grace and salvation and eternal life. For this would suggest that they have not achieved these things for themselves. May God through His continuing invitations and calls to us, keep us from likewise being bound in our sins and cast into the eternal sufferings of hell. May His gracious call always bring us in repentance to receive freely and joyously the great blessings of being His guests.