The Second Sunday after Trinity - June 13, 2010

The Church Season of Pentecost
The Second Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (June 13, 2010)

“The Banquet Feast”

Readings:   
    Psalm 34 verses 12 - 22
    Proverbs 9:1-10
    1 John 3:13-18
    Luke 14:15-24

Sermon Form    Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 16th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 14:15-24 (NIV)

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”

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

It’s nice but also very nerve racking when you sit down to dinner with people of affluence, muckety mucks, highfalutin, movers and shakers or whatever else you want to call them.  And so it is in our Gospel lesson a person speaks to Jesus seems like he must be on that elusive inside track.  The reading begins by reflecting the conversation, “When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”(v. 15)  Now the person sitting next to Jesus is not named, but you can almost imagine the thrill that would engross such a person.  First of all, the person makes a statement about who will be blessed, and Jesus does not correct the person, nor does He make revisions to what he said.  Can you imagine the surprise on that persons face?  And then to top it off, Jesus uses that statement to lead into the telling of a parable, regarding...

“The Banquet Feast”

So what was going on at this dinner?  Well, evidently from the words of the parable, Jesus' host customarily must have only invited his relatives, neighbors, or his wealthy friends to dinner. Again, remember these are the muckety mucks, the movers and shakers, the people who could return an invitation with another invitation, a favor for a favor, kind of like a lobbyist, you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.  But, this dinner is also a mark of polite socialization, you invite me to your party and I’ll invite you to mine.  But then comes a sticky challenge.

For Jesus challenges this host to not only invite the rich, but also to invite the poor, the maimed, and the blind. These kind of people, would never be able to repay the host. The host would be scratching their back with no expectation of a back scratch in return.  And we know this because, Jesus then says, "You will be blessed because they cannot repay you. And what's more you will be repaid when the just rise from the dead."(v. 14) Now this is a tricky thought because we know that God does reward the deeds of His children. Of course, deeds do not save, they do not offer eternal salvation, but God does reward them. Evidently this hearer thought that Jesus was limiting the word "blessed" to the life to come. So Jesus now corrects him, don’t just invite those people who you like or who are like you, invite everyone, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”(Mt. 28:1)  And this all nations doesn’t just mean keeping all that you have to yourself, or only giving to the people you know.

Last week members of Our Savior attended what we might call, “a great banquet and many invited guests.”(v. 16)  It was a meeting here in town and the topic was our Blind and Low Vision outreach group.  Quite frankly I don’t know what the status is or social level was of any of those invited guests to that dinner.  I don’t know if they are rich or if they are poor, and I’m not sure if anyone else knows any of that either. What I do know is that there were many people there and they enjoyed a great speaker talking about a great cause sponsored by this church.   Jesus once said, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” (Luke 6:38) 

There was a great response to this dinner speech about outreach to a lost and isolated group of people who live in this community.  Joyfully this group reaches out beyond our doors was the correct response to Christ’s request.  Remember Christ’s words in today’s parable, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”(v. 26) 

Pretty politically incorrect those words of Jesus, eh?  But, the point of Jesus’ words was that the master had invited only the influential people he knew, yet all his invitations met with excuses.  One said he bought a field and had to go look at it.  Another bought five yoke of oxen and had to try them out.  Another said he just gotten married and couldn’t come to the dinner. 

But the parable was not really about any dinner, it was about a heavenly banquet feast.  God sends out His messengers, that would be you and me, again and again into all places seeking all kinds of people, no matter how poor or how useless they may appear, whether they are sighted or blind, whether they are healthy or lame. 

And Jesus also warns us in this text to repent. We are told that God is very angry with people who give Him empty excuses like the sinful men of this world who very foolishly often reject God's invitations to the dinner feast of the Gospel. But even then God urgently keeps on inviting them.  If these people continue to reject God’s Word they will not taste the dinner either in this life nor in the life to come.

 In the hearing of God’s Word people are brought to faith.  In the gift of faith and by God grace He shows His desire to have His house full.  In sending His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the cross he pens our heavenly banquet invitation with Christ’s body and blood.  In the water combined with His Word in our baptism with are assured that we will have a seat at that feast.  In Holy communion we eat Christ’s body and drink His blood which is the Holy Supper of our Lord, a foretaste of the feast to come.  And if we, by human hands, can prepare a small banquet feast here and now for a few of God’s people.  Imagine the Heavenly banquet feast which Christ has prepared for us with His nail stained hands, for He says to you, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”  Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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