Must Read Homily

From my friend, Pr. Gernander. I was so blessed to read this today:

Sermon #1,555: St. Luke 14:15-24 (Historic Gospel)

6-26-22, Trinity 2, Hope-Leander TX

“INVITED BY THE GOSPEL”

Sermon Text, St. Luke 14:15-24 (v. 16-17). 16 [Jesus] said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ ”

Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. By Your Word of truth, lead us on the way of truth to be eager to sit at Your feast of salvation, Make us eager to invite others, and bring them too. Amen!

Dear people loved by God in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This week the big news was that the Supreme Court decision was announced, overturning Roe v. Wade. It cancelled the so-called constitutional legality of abortion. But there was a reaction that was heartbreaking to see: people threatening violence and shouting in favor of keeping the “right” to kill the weakest and littlest. A deafening chorus of angry people, effectively saying to children in the womb: “We don’t want you.”

How opposite of that is what we see from Jesus in this parable. The words Jesus puts in the mouth of the master, who represents God, are about how He wants everyone. Not just the ones who have it all together, but the downtrodden and the ones who are nothing but trouble, “the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” He wants them too. He wants everyone.

That’s what it means to be invited: to be wanted. All through this parable the master is inviting.

Jesus says he “invited many.” The word for invited here is actually “called.” The first thing we learn about the Holy Spirit in the catechism is that “He has called me by the gospel.” When God calls you, He’s just inviting you. It means He wants you. The Gospel is the way you know that He wants you. So He makes sure you hear this loud and clear, that you are wanted,

Invited, By the Gospel

I. His invitation can be rejected. Jesus’ parable starts out as an answer to this man at the table who says, rather smugly: “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” He seems to be expecting a pat on the back from Jesus. Instead Jesus tells this parable which is a warning. A warning not to reject the invitation and lose the kingdom.

Jesus seems to be implying that this man is in danger of rejecting the invitation. Which seems odd because he’s there at the table with Jesus. But if you think that “accepting” the invitation is something you get credit for, then it isn’t grace, which means it isn’t true saving faith. That would be rejecting God’s gift. Jesus isn’t being hard on the man. He tells this parable because He cares about him. He cares about you too.

So, the invitation. Jesus says: “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many.” Actually He says the man “made” this great supper, prepared it, and tells his servant to tell the “many” who are invited that “everything is now ready.” This is Jesus’ first point, the preparing. It’s about the salvation God’s prepared. The Father so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Christ came down from heaven and did all the work to save us. Then the Holy Spirit does His part: to call (invite) people by the Gospel, by Word and Sacrament. The standard ELS invitation to the Lord’s Supper is for the pastor to say this verse from Jesus’ parable: “Come, for all things are ready.”

So this is all beautiful, the careful preparing of our salvation, but then in Jesus’ story we see a sad result. All we hear are excuses. One doesn’t come for this reason, one doesn’t come for that reason. Now, we get exasperated with these people, but the truth is it’s exactly how we are, how we are by nature.

If you find this hard to believe, if you love to come to church, you love Jesus and His Word, you think it’s just natural. But it isn’t. The fact that you feel this way is a sign that the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding you, that He has success in changing and melting your stubborn heart. But if you get bored with God’s Word, if you find other things to do, if you get embarrassed by the Bible’s teaching, if you lose patience with people, make excuses – that’s how we naturally are!

We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus or come to Him. All we are able to do is reject the invitation. What we’re good at is excuse-making! Now, this frustrates us about ourselves and it frustrates us when we see it in others.

Because this frustrates us, we’re tempted to use the Law to overcome it. God’s way of invitation seems weak. So for some people even a religion like Islam or Mormonism looks attractive at this point, at least some elements of it. Because these religions use threat and guilt and force to produce godliness. Their results look better. But it’s only outward righteousness. It doesn’t produce confidence before God, or give peace.

But we’re tired of the excuses people make, we’re tired of the excuses we make, we’re tired of shoddy Christianity. So we turn to the Law. We guilt others, we guilt ourselves, into better behavior. We look to what we do. Where we are lacking, we depend on our determination to do better. See how the devil gets you to force your way into God’s kingdom, not to be content with God’s inviting. He makes a new god for you: your own obedience. But in the end, we’re fooling ourselves. Your works of the Law aren’t the way in; they would leave you outside. But now for the truth that does comfort:

II. His invitation is His declaration that He wants you. This is the Gospel. It’s the only way He brings people in, keeps us in.

The part of Jesus’ story where this comes out is when the master sends His servant to “bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” These are people who can’t bring themselves. They’re helpless. That’s how we are, Jesus is saying. It’s consistent with the rest of Scripture that teaches that you are totally unable by your own ability, reason, or strength to come to faith in Jesus or even to keep and hold onto this faith.

Now for the big finish: We hear the master say: “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in.”

Now this sounds wrong. Dragging them in, it sounds like forcing, exactly what God doesn’t do! But it isn’t an outward forcing, like dragging someone to church. It isn’t the work of the Law that does this. Jesus is here describing the power of the Gospel. That’s what the invitation is: only gospel. The message of the Law, of obedience to the commandments, can never bring someone into the kingdom. It can only prepare you to hear the Gospel. Only the Gospel can convert someone, and it isn’t a message of anger but purely a message of God’s love.

But the Gospel is not just magic, as if you just speak it and all this will happen. The Gospel has power, but it is the power of God to bring salvation. God is involved. The Holy Spirit is a hard worker. So this “compelling” is the hard work of speaking the Word to a heart that doesn’t want to hear it.

It’s the work of “forcing the sins into the conscience” (Luther: Church Postil), so that you’re forced to acknowledge your sins, and your conscience is weighed down and burdened and finding no peace, and all this is so that you are ready to hear that there is a Savior for you, Christ who has done it all, paid it all, to free you from your sin, to lift your load, to forgive it all!

You never would believe it. You never could believe it. But Christ looks at you in your sins and through His called servant He says He wants you. You! He invites you to be with Him. His invitation is something that He brings you to accept. It’s grace!

The Gospel that you hear is Jesus inviting you. All the time. That’s what life in His kingdom is: always being invited. There is no time when He’s not inviting you. In Your baptism He invited you,so each time we begin “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the baptism words, it’s a sign that He’s inviting you, He wants you, you’re His child.

When you hear His Word, hear what He your Savior did, He did it for you! He’s inviting you as you read or hear His Word.

In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ words “This is My body …” etc., certainly do something to the elements; through the words the bread is now also His body and the wine is His blood. But His words of institution also do something to you, and I love how speaking the words behind this altar, facing the congregation, it’s obvious that as you hear “this is My body given for you … this is My blood shed for you for the remission of sins,” Jesus, who is speaking in the Lord’s Supper, is inviting you.

He’s always inviting you. So this is how to think of yourself: you are “the invited one.” You are one who is wanted, by God! This is really how heaven sees you. This parable is showing us a preview of heaven, which Scripture pictures as a great supper, where we’ll see all the people He’s invited and brought in.

This teaches us to see everyone else as “an invited one.” Not as people who are better or worse than you. Not as people who irritate you or who are irritated by you. That’s all gone, see, if we all are invited, wanted, by Him!

He calls you to see the other person as one invited by Him, one to whom He speaks the Gospel, which removes sin. His invitation is not for you alone, to remove your sin. It also removes everything that stands between you and others. His invitation calls you to not give up on anyone, but emblazoned on them you are to see: “Invited!” Which is emblazoned on you. You are the same. We are united. By His invitation. All, together, wanted by Him. Amen!