21 June 2020
Text: Luke 14:15-24 (Proverbs
9:1-10, 1 John 3:13-18
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
The
Russian writer and defender of human rights, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, suffered
under communism. He spent eight years in
prison camps. After coming to America,
he explained the monstrosity of the Soviet Union: “Men have forgotten God. That’s why this happened.”
As
our culture crumbles into violence, and indeed pushes us toward communism, we
see an increase in hatred against men and God. Churches are increasingly in the crosshairs –
especially churches that don’t compromise God’s Word.
The
apostle “whom Jesus loved,” St. John, wrote: “Do not be surprised, brothers,
that the world hates you. We know that
we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.”
Of
course, we are to love everyone, including our enemies. But the apostle is not speaking about that
here. He is referring to the Church as
the brotherhood. We Christians need to
take care of each other. We are brothers
and sisters, and there is a special obligation that we have within the
household of faith. And in fact, the apostle
John recorded our Lord’s words: “By this all people will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
It’s
easy to compartmentalize our lives so that Church is just the thing we do on Sunday
or Wednesday. Indeed, we have all sorts
of relationships: people who believe politically like we do, people who share
hobbies, those with whom we work, and so on.
It’s easy to see the people sitting in the pews here as just like those
relationships, no more or no less. But
our Lord Himself says that Christians are His “brother and sister and mother.” Your Christian brothers and sisters are a
more important bond than your friends or coworkers. And as the world’s noose tightens around the Church’s
neck, we will need to depend on one another all the more.
We
are indeed surrounded by scoffers. And
these days, they don’t merely mock us. Today’s
scoffers try to destroy the lives of the people they hate. They will scour the internet to see if there
is something you have written that they can justify attacking you by. They will find out where you live or work and
harass you. They will try to get you
fired. They will surround you with
protestors with signs and bullhorns. They
may restrict your movement. They may
pound on your house. They may even break
windows and set fires. Such is the hatred
and the lack of restraint we see among today’s scoffers – some of whom even wear
clerical collars and harass their brother pastors.
The
Holy Spirit instructs us: “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and
he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.”
Indeed, if you correct someone, you are inviting injury. And yet, that is part of the Church’s job: to
be the prophetic voice in the world, to proclaim the Word of God, both Law and Gospel,
to call sinners to repent, and forgive them when they do. But those who are wedded to their sins, who
refer to breaking God’s law as “pride,” to those who justify violence, to those
who practice racial hatred, to those who destroy public property, to those who
burn and loot and pillage – any criticism is an invitation to more injury. How true is the Scripture: “Do not reprove a
scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.” A Christian responds to the Law with confession. Those who follow a different god respond to
the Law with rage. “Give instruction to
a wise man,” says the author of Proverbs, “and he will be still wiser; teach a
righteous man, and he will increase in learning.” And indeed, “The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
So
how do we learn to fear the Lord? Where
do we gain this knowledge of the Holy One?
Our
Lord Jesus Christ commissioned us to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them” and “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end
of the age.”
The
Church baptizes, and she teaches. She
teaches Christians about their Lord. And
she teaches those in the world who are wise, those who are not scoffers. And sometimes she is abused for teaching that
which the scoffers find repugnant. You,
dear Christian, can never learn enough about our Lord. You, dear brother, dear sister, can never have
too much Scripture. The Scripture is the Word. The Scripture is Jesus. It is the source of
your wisdom, indeed, it is your very life, even in death.
How
easy it is to fall into the way of the world, to see worship as something we
have to force ourselves to do, rather than a privilege. How easy it is to become the excuse-making
villains in our Lord’s parable, being invited to the eternal banquet with the Bridegroom
and with all the saints, to recline at table with Jesus, but to become bored. How easy it is to choose other things to do rather
than hear the Word and partake of the Sacrament: “I have bought a field… I have
bought five yoke of oxen… I have married a wife… Please have me excused.”
Of
course, there are times when we have no choice but to be absent from the Divine
Service, but this should be grievous to us. Our heart should ache. It should be unthinkable that we would enjoy
being absent from our Lord, from Him who said, “I am with you always, to the
end of the age.” Imagine responding to Jesus
by saying, “That’s nice. I’ll see you
when it’s convenient for me, when I’m not doing something more fun.”
Our
Lord told this parable to those who ultimately rejected Him, to those who put
their trust in their ethnicity and the religious tradition whose motions they
went through without really having faith. For in the story, those who were invited were
dis-invited. Those who took the master’s
grace for granted lost the master’s grace – and others were called instead. The Church would suffer rejection from most of
the Jews (who took pride in their ethnicity), and the Lord brought in Gentiles
to be seated at the banquet instead. “Go
out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and
crippled and blind and lame,” says the Lord to the Church. And, “Go out to the highways and hedges and
compel people to come in that My house may be filled.”
This
is a warning, dear friends. Don’t take
our Lord’s grace for granted. Don’t
gradually become a scoffer. But rather
embrace wisdom, submit to the reproof of the Law, and rejoice in the
proclamation of the Gospel. You are able
to do this by being here: in the Divine Service. It is here that we confess our sins and
receive forgiveness. It is here that we
become wise by fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things. It is here that we “increase in learning” by
attentively listening to the Scriptures. It is here that the hymns and preaching imbed
the love of God into our hearts and minds. It is here that we find love and acceptance
from brothers and sisters who do not scoff at our faith, but rather share it
and strengthen it. It is here that the Lord
keeps His promise to be with us in His true body and blood, miraculously given
to you to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins, even unto eternity.
And
the Good News, dear friends, is in this Divine Service, you are invited to the
banquet, to recline at table with the living God, to be surrounded by your
loved ones who are no longer with us in this fallen world, protected by myriads
of unseen angels, and in the very presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And
so let the world rage. Let scoffers
hate. Let those governed by the
supremacy of the color of their skin, of whatever ethnicity, those who put
their trust in their works or in their manmade religion – let them all fuss and
fume. But let us not forget God. Let us love the brothers. Let us revel in the banquet. Let us “pray, praise, and give thanks,” now,
and even unto eternity. Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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