Homily for Trinity 20

Homily for Trinity 20 (2005) [Last paragraphs were changed to what now appears before being preached]

It’s a fabulous feast – no two ways about it. And there’s not a human being who is not invited; not a single one who is unwelcome. The good will of the King extends to all his subjects: “Come, celebrate with me!” he calls. He sends His servants out to the ends of the earth summoning “the good and the bad” – “Come to the Feast! Come and be glad! Greatest and least, come to the Feast!”

What is the fate of this invitation? We see three responses to it. First, there are those who say: “You can keep your feast! I’ve got more important things to do.” Our Lord lists some of them out: farming, business. But we could add a few more, and chief would be recreation and relaxation. “We can’t come to your feast, Lord, because we’re too busy relaxing, camping, boating, spending quality family time together, you name it!”

But you know what? Most of those who think like that aren’t here today, I suspect. So let’s talk about the other two responses, because they concern us vitally.

Second, there are those who come to the feast with joy, and they dress up for it. They may not have the best and flashiest duds, but they show by what they wear that they’re glad to be there and wish to honor the kindness of the King. What are those garments they wear? We can understand what they are if we think about the final response to the invitation.

For thirdly, there was the man who showed up and sat down at the feast without wedding clothes. Dr. Luther says we are to picture the blacksmith who comes straight from the smithy, all covered in grime, unwashed and wearing his work clothes, who marches in and sits right down among the other guests. As the King comes in among the gathered guests the fellow sticks out like a sore thumb.

The King walks right up to him and inquires: “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”

Notice that the King does not speak to him in enmity. He calls him friend. There is nothing but kindness in the heart of the King even toward this man. It reminds me very much of when Judas led the soldiers to Jesus, how our Lord greeted him with the words: “Friend, why have you come?” But the loving King whose heart is filled with kindness and mercy toward all, who hates nothing he has made, will not look upon a person “robed in contempt” of him and his Son. It is a dishonor to the King and to the King’s Son to dare to come to the marriage feast wearing your same old work clothes, soiled and tattered.

When the man has no answer for the King, the King orders him bound, hand and foot, and carried into the outer darkness where there is weeping for the heat and gnashing of teeth for the chill. You see, there is no alternative. There is finally only the light and joy of the Feast or the dark empty loneliness. It’s not as though there were another place!

Who is this man, then? Who is this one who is tossed out of the light, the joy, and the celebration into the dark void? He is the one who presumes to come to the Feast with the attitude: “God forgives me! Great!!!! I’ll take His forgiveness, but I don’t want to be freed from my sin. No. I want to continue in it. I have no intention whatsoever of struggling against it. I like the way I am just fine, thank you very much. God accepts me, after all, just the way I am and that’s how I intend to stay, by golly!” Do you see what he is NOT wearing? He is not wearing repentance! For the wedding garment truly is, above all else, a repentant heart.

This is what the Lord looks for in his people! “A broken and contrite heart, these, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51) Having such a heart of repentance there is no sin that can harm you! The Advent of the Lord then will only mean that your heart’s desire has come – that He will free you from all the sin you struggle with in your life, from all the tears over constant falling, from all the agony over remembered transgressions. Anyone who longs to be freed from sin has nothing to fear from that day.

But those who love their sin and have no intention of letting it go, who do not struggle against their anger, their greed, their pride, their unkind and bitter words, their impure thoughts, their indulgence of the flesh, who dare to come to the great wedding unchanged, without renewal, without amendment of life, without repentance and its fruits – for these the arrival of the King will be terrifying indeed. It will reveal that in their heart they did not want HIM, and so they will be given instead their heart’s desire. To exist apart from Him, from His light, love, and mercy.

Today the marriage of the King’s Son is set before you – the Table is laden with what will become the very Body and Blood of the King’s Son, given with joy to BE your life. The Body and Blood that upon the Golgotha’s tree bore every sin, forgiving them all, He offers to you – not so that you can continue in rebellion and disobedience, but precisely so that you can be freed from them. He gives you forgiveness that He might come to you and enter you and give you a share in His own divine life! To accept such a gift from His hand is to live in repentance –to be clothed in the wedding garment indeed.

Three sorts of guests then: those who despise the invitation and turn away from it; those who accept the invitation and rejoice in the forgiveness of Christ precisely so that they can be cleansed from their sins; and those who accept the invitation and presume upon the forgiveness of Christ to continue in their sin.

Which kind of a guest am I today? It matters not what kind of a guest I have been before. What matters is what I am now. I know which kind of a guest Christ wants me and you also to be! One who can join St. Ambrose in praying:

“To the table of thy most sweet feast, O loving Lord Jesus Christ, I, a sinner, presuming nothing upon my own merits, but trusting in Thy mercy and goodness, approach with fear and trembling. For my heart and my body are stained with many and grievous sins, my thoughts and my lips have not been carefully kept. Wherefore, O gracious God, O awful Majesty, I, in my misery, being brought into a strait turn to thee, the Fountain of mercy, to thee I hasten to be healed, and flee unto Thy protection; and thee before whom as my judge I cannot stand, I long to have as my Savior. To thee, O Lord, I show my wounds. To thee, I discover my shame. I know my sins, for which I am afraid are many and great. But my trust is in thy mercies of which there is no end.” Amen.