Sermon: WA Board - Camp Okoboji, IA (Matins) - Nov 3, 2020

3 November 2020

Text: Matt 22:1-22

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We are called to the wedding feast, that is, to salvation and eternal life, by grace alone.  We are given our “wedding garment” at Holy Baptism.  We are invited by the King Himself, to celebrate the wedding of the Holy Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, to His Holy Bride, the Church.  There is a place at the table for each one of us, dear friends.  And each week, we are given a little preview, a taste, of the banquet to come.

But in the Lord’s parable, many of those who were invited “paid no attention” as the Lord’s servants came with the joyful message, “Come to the wedding feast,” for “everything is ready.”

They pay no attention for many reasons.  Maybe they take the Lord’s gracious invitation for granted.  Maybe they no longer believe the invitation is good.  Maybe they hold the King in contempt.  Maybe they just believe they have better things to do with their time.

In fact, when the prophets of old came bearing the King’s invitation, the ungrateful invitees sometimes even killed the messengers. 

But the King will not have His Son’s feast spoiled.  And so the servants are ordered to “Go therefore to the main roads and invite… as many as you can find.”  The servants of the Lord call anyone with ears to hear, “both bad and good.”  And because of this reckless grace, dear friends, you and I have the invitation and the wedding garment.  We wait for the Bridegroom to come, and when the feast is placed upon the table, we will have a seat.

But what about those who were not invited, those who were not chosen?  They are “cast… into the outer darkness.”  For it is not our feast, but the Lord’s feast.  It is for the Lord to say who is invited.  It is only up to us to invite those whom the Father draws to the Gospel by means of the Holy Spirit bringing people to the font.  “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

And so, dear friends, let us not take the Lord’s grace for granted.  Let us treasure our invitation and our wedding garment.  Let us savor the foretaste every Sunday, as we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lamb who is also our Bridegroom, also our Savior, also our Lord.  Let us thank, praise, serve, and obey the Father by feasting with the Son.  Let us go into the main roads and invite as many as we can find to join us at the table, bearing the invitation, wearing the wedding garment, and enjoying communion with the Most Holy Trinity, now and forever.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.