Sermon: Trinity 2 – 2023

18 June 2023

Text: Luke 14:15-24

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Economics is the study of human choices.  We have to make choices because things are scarce, and we can’t have everything.  We have to pick and choose.  Time is also scarce.  We can’t be in two places at once.  Every time you choose one thing, you are rejecting everything else.  When you are invited to a party, you have to decide if you are going or not.  Will this be the highest priority at that time, or will something else be more important?

This is life in our fallen world.  We would like to play all day, but we have to work.  We can’t be in two places at once.  And sometimes an invitation to a party is very important – such as when your boss invites you to a banquet.  Do you decide to go, or not?  There may be many ways to look at it. 

On the one hand, maybe you are getting an invitation to the company Christmas party, but it is the same day as your kidney transplant.  Do you cancel your surgery?  Or maybe you would just rather stay home and watch TV.  What choice would you make?  What if you knew – or even suspected – that those who come to the company parties are given bonuses and promotions at work?  What if you believed that a famous person that you always wanted to meet would be there?  What if the boss’s party included a meal that you could never afford on your own?

What if the host of the party was your friend?  Your best friend.  What if it were your own father?  What if your father were the king, and this banquet was part of your job as a royal?  What if the host of the banquet was an eccentric billionaire, and those who attended the banquet – even random people off the street, even the waiters and waitresses and the dishwashers – were each given a million dollars as a free gift?  Would that affect your sense of priority about going?  Would what you believe about this event play into your decision to attend?

Jesus came into our world bringing good news.  The best news, really.  Jesus has the cure to death.  Jesus has victory over sin and the devil.  Jesus has the words of eternal life.  Or more accurately, Jesus is the cure to death, is victory over sin and the devil, and is the living Word that is our very life.  But those who were invited, those closest to Him, those whom His Father personally invited to the banquet of eternity could not be bothered.  They were happy with the way things were – especially the leaders of the people.  They had convinced themselves that this fallen world wasn’t so bad, and they didn’t want Jesus disrupting it.  They liked being on the top of the hill – even if the hill was a fly-covered dung-heap.

They rejected Jesus.  They made the economic decision that having a few more baubles than their neighbors, having their neighbors think highly of them, and pretending to be righteous based on works was a better deal than admitted their need, and being saved by grace by humbly submitting to this Jesus. 

And so, those who reject the kingdom will be replaced.

There is a good reason Jesus uses the illustration of a banquet, dear friends.  For a banquet is a celebration of some kind of Good News.  It is a feast, a sacred meal.  And a feast must have guests.  There is nothing more humiliating than to invite guests to an event, but they don’t come.  It says, “You are not important.”  It says, “I have better things to do.” 

Jesus describes Himself as the Bread of Life.  Jesus invites us to a feast in which Jesus is both the host and the guest.  Jesus is both the master of the feast and the meal itself.  Jesus is the both the priest and the sacrifice, and we are all invited to eat the flesh of the Lamb of the eternal Passover.  We are invited to participate in His blood – the blood that saves us.  We are invited to the banquet, dear friends, and so here we are!

But how many empty pews there are.  How many of those who were invited are not here.  Maybe you are one of those who are usually not here.  Maybe some of your family members and friends have things that they perceive are more important than to be here. 

It’s all about choices, dear friends.  It’s all about what you believe happens here at this weekly banquet.

Do you believe the Word of God?  Do you believe that Jesus has the words of eternal life, and promises to give you this greatest gift of all by hearing the Word preached?  Do you believe the Bible?  Do you believe St. Paul when he says that faith comes by hearing?  Do you believe Jesus when He says: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”?

Do you believe that attending this banquet actually does something?  Do you believe that you will receive gifts from the Master of the feast?  Or do you think He is lying?  Do you think He is a stupid old man who makes claims but doesn’t deliver?  Do you think that you’re just fine and don’t need Jesus?  Are you one of the Pharisees who reject Him?

What is a good excuse to blow off the eternal Sunday banquet in which Jesus comes to you by means of a miracle and gives you the gift of eternal life?  “I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it.  Please have me excused.”  Is this a good excuse?  “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them.  Please have me excused.”  Is this a good excuse?  “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”  Is this a good excuse?  Is one hour a week to much of a burden?

Sunday is the only day I get to sleep in.  I work all day Wednesday and I just want to relax.  I was up late partying.  I have a new video game.  I want to binge-watch a show.  I don’t feel like getting dressed.  The weather is good.  The weather is bad.  There’s a game on today.  I’m going to another banquet, another party, some other event with a better meal and better people.  Hypocrites go to church.  The pastor didn’t shake my hand.  The pastor didn’t read my mind and visit me in the hospital.  The organ is too loud.  The organ is too soft.  I don’t like standing and sitting.  I want fun music instead of hymns.

“Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’  And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room.’  And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

It all boils down to belief, dear friends.  Do you believe Jesus – both the bad news that those who refuse the invitation will “never taste [God’s] eternal banquet” – and the good news that you are invited, regardless of your reputation or works or past or how much money you have or whether you think you deserve to be here?  Do you believe this Good News that Jesus is offering you His Word, His body, His blood, His salvation, His righteousness before the Father, and His invitation to a feast that will never end – all by grace, all for free, all by His kindness?

If you don’t believe it, then you won’t come.  If you do believe it, then you will.  If you need a ride, we will make sure you get here.  If you truly cannot leave your house, I will bring the banquet to you.  If you believe that taking a medicine will keep you alive, you will take the medicine.  You won’t piously protest that it’s too much trouble for the doctor and you don’t want to be a bother to the pharmacist.  No, you will take them up on their offer so that you might live. 

What do you believe about Jesus?  What do you believe about His Word?  What do you believe about the feast of Holy Communion?  What do you believe about sin and forgiveness, life and death, heaven and hell?  What do you believe about the Good News that Jesus brings? 

You cannot be in two places at once, dear friends.  You must economize.  What is your highest priority?  Do you want forgiveness, life, and salvation?  Do you want Jesus?  Or is a stupid TV show or a few minutes of sleep more important than the invitation to the King’s eternal banquet?  The good news is that Jesus is here for you right now, no matter what decisions you have made in the past.  They don’t matter now.  You have been invited, and He has come to the highways and hedges and has compelled you to be here right now. 

Here is the banquet!  Here is the medicine!  Here is the Good News!  Here is Jesus!

“Come, for everything is now ready.”

Amen.

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