Homily for Septuagesima

The question put by the owner of the vineyard is an important one: "Why do you stand here idle all day?" When put to those outside the vineyard, the answer can indeed be: "Because no one has hired us." But what when it is put to those inside the vineyard? For it would truly be a terrible thing for one to accept the invitation to work in the vineyard, and then to stand around, doing squat!

So in the Vineyard of the Lord there are none who can say: "I'm just here to watch." In the Vineyard of the Lord, all are called upon to work! In the Vineyard of the Lord, there is more work to get done than we can hope to finish, so our Lord says to us: "We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no man can work." (John 9:4)

But what does it mean to work in the Vineyard of the Lord? Does it not mean for each and every baptized person to be at work doing the great task which Christ has laid on His Church and His ministers? "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matt 28:19-20)

That obviously does not mean that you as individual Christians are called to go around baptizing and teaching. Rightly does our Augsburg Confession state that: "No one should teach publicly in the church or administer the sacraments unless properly called." (Article XIV) What it does mean, however, is that the Lord of the Church sends forth every member of the Church with the mission of calling and inviting others to come and receive the life that He died and rose again to bestow upon them. He gives that life through the preaching of His Gospel and the giving out of His sacraments. He gives that life away right here in the assembly of His people. So, the great task that is laid on each and every Christian in helping the Church fulfill her Lord's mandate is to invite, urge, encourage, cajole every person you know that is not connected to the life of Christ to come and share in that life, to come and receive what Christ would give.

So, at the end of Revelation, John heard it this way: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears, say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." (Rev. 22:17) Get the order straight. The first call to come to the waters is from the Spirit and the Bride, and the Bride is the Church, and that is the invitation issued by the Office of the Ministry: Come and take the water of life without price. The Church isn't about what you give to God; the Church is about what God gives to you. And what He gives to you is free - though priceless. His grace, His forgiveness, His life. The ministry calls you to drink of the water yourself. But, then, there are "those who hear." That's you all. Let those who hear, cry out: "Come!" Christ sends each and every one of you from this place to call others to come and take of the water of life freely. And then there are those who take you up on the invitation.

This is Lutheran evangelism. It's not going out trying to convert someone by your own witness. No wonder we never got far with that approach, and no wonder it scared so many people away from the very idea of witnessing. For then you would have to have all the answers for whatever they might throw your way! Frightening indeed. But for us it's different. For us, we know where God promises to work faith, to strengthen faith, to connect people to His own divine life, to give us forgiveness. We know the Holy Spirit works. He works right here in this assembly of sinners who gather to drink from the water of life!

Consider how our Formula of Concord expresses this: "According to His normal arrangement, the Father draws people by the power of the Holy Spirit through the hearing of His divine Word, as with a net, through which the elect are snatched from the jaws of the devil. For this reason each poor sinner should act in such a way as to hear the Word diligently and not doubt that the Father is drawing people to Himself. For the Holy Spirit wills to be present with His power in the Word and to work through it. This is the drawing of the Father." FC SD XI:76

So the great task laid on all the baptized is to call those who live cut off from the only source of forgiveness and divine life, of communion with God, to come to this assembly where the Holy Spirit works to give and strengthen faith. Do you know of someone who needs the forgiveness, the love of God, the life that you taste here weekly in this gathering? Invite them to come with you to Church! Pray that the Holy Spirit moves their heart to accept the invitation!

You say, but I've invited them before and they didn't respond. So what? Invite them again. Pray again for them. Do realize how many years St. Monica prayed for her son, Augustine, and how long she pleaded with him to join her at Church? Finally, God answered her prayers and her constant invitation in a way that boggles the mind. Her son became the greatest father of the Church after the Apostles themselves.

So don't let Satan talk you into keep your mouth shut. If you've been in the Lord's Vineyard for years and never joined in this important task, it's not too late to begin. The Lord graciously gives to all who come to work in His vineyard, even to those who begin working only in the eleventh hour. He is generous indeed, beyond our imagining. But only let none of us be found standing idle in the Vineyard. We've got to work to do while it is still day.

At the Table today He reminds us again what it is all about. For here the Lord of the Vineyard reaches to us the very Body and Blood that give us forgiveness and that unite us to God, so that His life becomes our life, and we then are joined to Him in a communion that never ends. "In Thy One body, let me be, E'en as the branch is the tree, Thy life, my life, supplying." God wants every last person on earth to sit down with Him at that table and to receive from Him the gifts His Son died upon Calvary's tree to win and lives eternally at His Father's right hand to give. And He sends us all out to call others into the joy of this communion. So to each and everyone of us, He says: "You also go and work in my vineyard." What will your answer be?