Sermon: Trinity 2 - 2020

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.