Trinity 2 Sermon

 

Trinity 2 – June 11^th and 12^th, 2021 – Luke 14:15-28

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Oh goodie! Did you hear that Gospel lesson? Did you hear how Jesus talked about how important it is to come to church – oh, it is time for Pastor Brown to just rip into the people who aren't here today, all those people with their stupid excuses. Whew, he'll put a boot up their backside and how! I hope, my friends, that that wasn't the sermon you were expecting today. I mean, it is true that this text does tell the story of people who give incredibly foolish reasons not to come to a wedding feast – and the wedding feast is the emblem, the image of the Church, God's Kingdom, the altar and the Supper and the eternal feast of life everlasting. And it is good on occasion to think of what excuses we might make for not attending church, but this text is a bit more cutting and ironic than that. It hits a little bit closer to home, it hits a bit closer to the pews and the folks sitting in them (or at the picnic as the case may be) than just a harsh finger wagging at those people who aren't here today.

Now, are you sure Pastor – because those three jerks in the parable don't show up. “Please have me excused, Please have me excused, I cannot come.” Seems to be about skipping church – naughty naughty naughty. Yes, I know, but we really need to back up and start at the beginning of our lesson. Too often we want to rush and run to the punchline – slow, back up. The very first verse of our Gospel – listen again. When one of those who reclined at table with [Jesus] heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” We actually jump in mid-story here. This happens when Jesus has been invited to a feast by some Pharisees, and He shows up, but there's the man with dropsy – is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, Jesus heals the guy, rescue your Ox if it falls in a well, and don't sit up front in front of the King, sit in the lowest place. We will get that text later on this summer. But a lot has gone on at this meal... and what is people's reaction?

So there's this guy there at the meal – he is reclining with Jesus – eating with Jesus. That's what reclining at table means, it means that you are in the middle of dinner with someone. And this guy has seen Jesus heal, he's heard Jesus preach – he's heard the things Jesus has said. And yet, what is his response? Oh, yes, someday it will be great to be in the Kingdom of God and at that feast. Yeah, it would sure be cool someday to be at that feast... not like this strange and awkward feast where Jesus keeps escaping from the traps we set for Him and then lecturing us. What this man says is supposed to be a conversation shifter away from something that is controversial and upsetting (like Jesus healing and Jesus preaching) onto something safe and dull where everyone can agree: “Bread in heaven, oh, bully bully – quite right, quite right.” It's the Pharisee's equivalent of “Boy, we've had some strange weather lately, haven't we?” But the problem is that Jesus is right there – the Kingdom of God is literally at hand, for there is Christ Jesus the King. And you are literally eating bread with Him, and the King is speaking. Yes, the weather has been strange because I calmed a storm, now let's get back to business here. Quit dodging and deflecting and ignoring My Word.

And that's why Jesus tells the parable. You see, in the story, the folks who refuse the invitation to the feast aren't “bad people” who skip service and the like. The people in the story who make excuses to ignore the feast, to not be there are in fact the ones who are there with Jesus as He speaks. You're here with Me at this feast – but you wish you weren't. You're hearing My word, but in your head you wish you were somewhere else. I've preached to you, but you've got some excuse for why it doesn't apply to you. And so, my friends, while there are plenty of texts that focus directly upon those who blow off coming to Church, this parable, it's context, when it was preached – it was directly at the people who were there with Jesus. It was preached directly at us.

Ewwww. That's not any fun. It's much more fun to be the good guy, the nice, upstanding members of society who do all the right things. Yeah, that sort of plays in too. Listen and hear the excuses again. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.” This is an utterly polite and proper way to decline an invitation. There's nothing rude about it at all, and it's plausible, we all know business must go on. Same with the oxen. And as for the third – And another said, “I have married a wife, therefore I cannot come.” Jewish custom excused all newly weds from all social obligations for a year – if you were newly married the king couldn't even draft you for war. All quite polite and proper. All doing the right thing, looking good and well off and like nice members of society. Of course, the reality is that they were hiding behind the veneer of their primness and properness to simply ignore the man and his banquet. The politeness is just a shield to fend off that silly banquet.

The danger for us, my dear friends, especially in a day and age when the world is getting crazier and more openly wicked, is that we will hide behind our primness and properness, that we will hide behind the fact that we are good little Christian boys and girls. Unlike... them. And then we can become smug and arrogant and proud in ourselves. There's only one problem with that. Jesus, His feast, His story and His salvation – it's for sinners. Real sinners. People who know that they need Jesus, not people who think that Jesus ought to consider Himself honored that they bothered to show up. And no, we wouldn't be that crass about it, because again, prim and proper – but this is the temptation that eats away at Christian faith. The temptation towards self-righteousness. The temptation towards aggrandizing the self, to thinking that compared to all those “bad” people you really are all that an a bag of chips.

Jesus is a forgiver. He is determined to be a forgiver. The way that Jesus insists on relating to people is by being their Savior. Jesus is God Himself become man to die upon the Cross to win forgiveness for His people, who has risen to bring life and immortality to light, who is the Lamb who was slain and has begun His reign. That is what His Kingdom looks like. And when we know our lack, that we are in need, that we are not worthy of this feast, that Christ's goodness is so far beyond us – well, then we let Jesus remain a forgiver and things go well. We hear His preaching that points out our sin, and our reaction is “Ugh, God be merciful to me, the sinner.” And then He is merciful, then He does forgive without fail. Take and Eat, take and drink – shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins, and there is nothing left for us but to say Amen and sing His praise. And that's actually being at the feast, being in the kingdom of God.

But your flesh will fight against that – because sinners would rather talk about other peoples' sins than their own. And the world will fight against that – the world tries to paint the church as either a moral club for “the good people” or a gathering of blithering idiots. Both miss the point – the Church, Christ's feast, is where sinners receive forgiveness. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives my sins and the sins of all believers. That's the point of the Church. But if you start to think that you don't really need forgiveness – well, you'll excuse yourself. Maybe it will be spectacularly where you stomp out of the doors of the Church all in a huff, or maybe it will be hypocritically where you go through the motions each week but couldn't care less – after all, one must keep up appearances. Here but not here – that's how plenty of people have handled coming to Church – it's what the Pharisees were doing in our Gospel text, and there are tons of other examples of it throughout the Scriptures.

So, what now? Well, once again Wisdom has built her house, and the call for the feast goes out. Forgiveness in Christ Jesus is proclaimed. Forgiveness for you, because God remains merciful, and Jesus deigns to eat with sinners – whether they are open sinners that everyone knows are bad or whether they are sinners fighting off hidden sins like hypocrisy and arrogance and disdain. Doesn't matter the sin, forgiving it is Jesus' specialty, and He is precisely where He has promised to be – in His Word wherever two or three are gathered in His Name, in His Church, in His Supper. And He is here for you, for your good, and for your salvation. He who has ears to hear, let Him hear. Let him hear the forgiveness of Christ Jesus. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +