Who Will You Invite to Meet Him?

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

 Sunday, December 9, 2007

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, ‘tis the season, is it not? We’re making our list and checking it twice. No, no, no, no, I’m not talking about our list of presents we still have to buy or the presents we want to receive. I’m talking about the guest list, the guest list for all of the parties that are going to be happening. Maybe this is an annual event for you, you always have a Christmas party. Maybe this year is your first year into the foray of holiday celebrations or if you’re not having one yourself, certainly probably you’ve been invited to maybe one, two or a half a dozen of them. It seems to be this is the time of the year we have all kinds of parties and celebrations.

Well, even if you’re not giving a party this time of year, I’m imagining at some point in time that you have. And in planning a party, there is one crucial step that sometimes we don’t like but we have to deal with and that is, before we even write out the invitation list, we have to determine how many people can we invite. I mean, your home, if you’re going to have it there, only has a certain amount of square footage. There is only a certain amount of people who will be able to fit into the gathering areas of your house so you first have to determine how many people can we realistically invite to our party.

Once you’ve settled on that number, then comes on the fun part. Because then you sit down and you start calculating who are we going to invite? So you start writing down all the names. And a really great moment is after you’ve kind of exhausted all the ones you can think of off the top of your head, so you count them up and you look at that and you go, “We still have more room.” It’s a great feeling. “We can still invite another five couples. We still have more room for about 15 people we can invite here.” It’s always a good feeling when you get down to this and say, “We still have more room.”

This morning we want to look at the fact that our Father in heaven is making up a guest list. It’s a guest list for a heavenly banquet. It’s a guest list of all those who are going to join him in eternity and the good news from this morning that we hear from the gospel lesson is there is still more room. There is still more room for more guests at the banquet table. We’re marching towards Christmas. We’re marching towards the celebration of Jesus’ first arrival but as we celebrate the first arrival, we also have to think ahead about His second arrival because Jesus said He was coming back again and when He came back, He was going to gather all those who believed in Him, all those who put their faith and trust in Him and in the words of the gospel today, they would be invited to a great banquet. They would be invited to join Him for an eternity in heaven.

Our challenge this morning is who is going to join us at the banquet table? Who do we want there with us? Who will we take the opportunity to invite to join us in the celebration of His first arrival so God can work on their heart and they will be with us at His second arrival.

Scripture is very clear on the fact that God had sent His Son for all people. And that’s really the message of the parable that Jesus told in the gospel lesson for today. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. This morning, I want us to really dig into this parable and understand the heavenly meaning. The heavenly meaning is Jesus has come for all people. But to really get it, we need to understand the context in which it was told but also the social context of the story so we can understand it. Now the context is this: At the beginning of Chapter 14, Jesus has been invited over to a Pharisee’s house and we’re told there are also experts of the law there. So, if you will, this is kind of the upper echelon of society. We have the religious, political, even social leaders of the day gathered around for a party, if you will, or a banquet for a meal. In the midst of that meal, the conversation talks about parties, banquets, dinners and Jesus points out the fact, He says, “When you’re at something like this, you always want to sit sort of at the back of the table, not at the front.” He says, “If you sit at the most prestigious spot from the table, your host may be embarrassed to say, ‘I’m sorry, I need you to move to the back.’ And then you’re embarrassed.” He says, “Better, sit at the least honorable spot so your host has the honor of moving you to a more honorable spot.” It’s in the context of this conversation that we pick up on today. And it says, “When one of those at the table heard Him say this, he said to Jesus, ‘Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.’” What does that mean? Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God. He’s talking about heaven. More than likely, it was one of the religious leaders of the time. And they had this idea of the Messianic age. And just like the Old Testament reading we had from Isaiah talking about this great banquet that is going to be prepared for all people so he is saying, in effect, wouldn’t it be neat and won’t it be great, when the Messiah finally comes, we can sit down and share a meal with the Messiah? Do you spot any irony in that statement? He’s telling Jesus at supper, “Won’t it be great if we could share a meal with the Messiah?” Completely oblivious to the fact that he’s sitting next to the Messiah. There is also a small tone of arrogance in his statement because you almost pick up on the fact that he is assuming he will be there. After all, he’s part of the in-crowd. He’s part of the religious elite so he is assuming he is going to be at that banquet and won’t we be blessed when we’re sitting there with the Messiah?

That’s the occasion Jesus uses to do a little of His teaching and, as His custom, He does it through a story. Let’s take a look at the story He tells. Jesus replied, “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet, he sent his servants to tell those who had been invited.” We could slip past that, who had been invited. You see, it’s an important part because, much like our custom today, we invited people to a party, right? And we ask them to RSVP. “Will you be attending or not?” But usually in that invitation today, we tell them when to arrive. Not so in Jesus’ day. You would first say, “Yes, I’ll be at your banquet on whatever day it is.” Then you would wait and then the host would send out his servants, his messengers to tell you when everything was ready. So when the meal was all prepared, the table was set, then they would go out and say, “Everything is ready. Come on into the banquet.” But they would only go to those guests who said, “Yes, I will be attending.”

So the servants are going out to those who have already said, committed to the fact, “I’ll be there.” The story continues. But they all alike began to make excuses. Do you notice the hyperbole Jesus uses here? He says, “All of them.” He invited a great many guests but every single one of them began to make excuses. Then He goes to this extreme with the excuses they came up with because they don’t hold any water. The first one says, “Well, I just bought some land and I have to go check it out.” Come on. Buying property back then is the same as today. It’s a long, drawn-out process. It’s not something you do at the drop of a hat. Certainly, he would have looked at the land before or certainly he could look at it some other time. It’s a bogus excuse to say, “I can’t be there,” and be rude and drop out at the last moment. The second one, what does He say? How many? He says he bought five yoke of oxen. Five yoke of oxen? Well, partner, he has a big spread if he has five yoke of oxen. I’m talking he has a lot of land he’s going to plow which means he’s a wealthy individual which would also mean he has people working for him. He, as the owner, does not need to go out and check out the oxen. Another bogus excuse. And even the last one. He says, “I just got married.” Do you mean to tell me that between the time when he got the invitation for the party and the actual party, he all of a sudden decided to get married? What did they do? Jet off to Vegas? It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up. You see, Jesus is going to the extreme with this to prove to the point they’re left without excuse.

And that’s the part of the story that God’s chosen nation, Israel, now known as the Jews at this time, have no excuse for not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. They have the Old Testament scriptures. They have the promises. They have the prophesies. Jesus is fulfilling each and every one of them. They are without excuse, every single one of them, for not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, for not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, for not recognizing they’re in the midst of the Messianic age they were waiting for.

So there are consequences to that. The story goes on then. As you can imagine, the landowner is a bit ticked. He has all this food prepared and no one is coming. So he says to his servant, “Then the owner ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town, bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’” Again, Jesus is using hyperbole here. He’s going to the extreme. Yes, Jesus is concerned about the crippled, the blind and the lame. But more than that, Jesus is making a point. If there is a rich landowner throwing a banquet, it would be unheard of for him to invite the blind, the lame and the poor. He would only invite the top echelon of society. Never, ever would he ever dream of inviting the people just off of the street corners.

And that’s the point, that the banquet table is open for all people, not just the Jews but for all people. You see, by this point in time in the history of the Israelites, now known as the Jews, they had convinced themselves that the Messiah was only coming for them. When God’s chosen one came, He was coming only to have redemption, salvation for the Jews, no one else. Now there is really not a lot of merit to that because the Old Testament speaks to the fact the Messiah is coming for all people. We can go all the way back to Abraham when God said to Abraham, “Out of you, I will make a chosen nation.” And what does He say him in that promise? He says, “Through you, all nations will be blessed.” From the very beginning, all nations will be blessed.

The prophet, Isaiah, they certainly would have relied heavily upon the prophet, Isaiah. What does Isaiah in Chapter 49 say? He’s talking about the Messiah. He says, “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” God is very clear. His chosen one, His Messiah, would be for all people. But they missed it. They missed it. You know, it almost makes you want to scratch your head and say, “These are the so-called experts of the law? These are the religious leaders of the day? They’ve studied the scriptures? They don’t recognize that he’s talking to the Messiah? They don’t recognize the fact that the Messiah is coming for all people? How could they miss it?” Was it arrogance? Was it self righteousness? Was it the fact that they were just too familiar with the scriptures to really take them in?

Before we go wagging our finger too much and pointing at them, maybe we should use it as an opportunity to look at ourselves, an opportunity to see it maybe as a warning for us. After all, we have the scriptures presented before us and we know that we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of God’s Son. And yet sometimes I wonder what have we done to Christmas. Have we lost the focus of what it’s all about? I’m not going to go into a rant about the over commercialization of Christmas and how the true meaning has been lost. That fact is so self-evident, I don’t really need to talk about it. But, instead, I think each of us needs to ask ourselves, “Has Christmas become more of a tradition than a treasure?” Have we become so familiar with the Christmas story and the birth account and the angels and the prophecies that we worry more about the songs we sing, the food we eat, the family we gather with, the gifts we exchange with one another and we don’t really focus on the arrival of God’s Son? And think beyond that to the second arrival of God’s Son?

After all, we’ll invite people to a holiday party, right? But will you invite the same people to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Will you invite the same people to be with you at the second arrival of Jesus? Don’t miss the other point of the parable. There’s still room. There’s still room at the king’s table. There’s still room for you at the king’s table. There’s still room for your family, your friends, your acquaintances. There’s still room for perfect strangers. Jesus really drives home this point and Luke when he writes his gospel really wants to make a point that there’s still room. It begins with this parable and picks up again in Chapter 15. Chapter 15 begins with the parable of the lost sheep. Do you remember that? A shepherd has 100 sheep. One of them wonders off. He leaves the 99 behind and goes after the one because he wants all 100 to be part of his flock. He follows that up by the parable of the lost coin where the woman tears the house apart to find that one coin and Jesus ends that parable by saying this, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” There’s rejoicing in heaven over one person who comes to faith and looks to Jesus as their Savior. He ends that section with the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son, the one who goes off and squanders his fortune and the celebration of when the son returns, comes back to the family. It’s the same message throughout all of that. There’s still room. There’s still room at the Father’s table and it is God’s desire that all people would be saved.

But mark this: You have to know the babe of Bethlehem to know the Christ on the cross to sit at the king’s banquet. You have to know the babe of Bethlehem to know the Christ on the cross to sit at the king’s banquet. They go together. You can’t separate them. Christmas, Easter, eternity. Christmas is the celebration that God sent His Son and he sent him to redeem us, to save all people. And Easter on the cross is when Jesus pays the price. He pays the debt of all of our sins so we can be forgiven. Why? So when He returns, when He comes again, we can spend an eternity with Him. We can be there at the banquet table.

And now the question for us this morning is who is going to be there with us? Who do you want with you at the banquet table? What family, what friends, what acquaintances, what perfect strangers? Because there is still room at the table. And who will we fill up the table with? God’s relying on you. It’s always been God’s plan that the invitation comes from you, the invitation to celebrate His first coming so God can work on their heart and they can be there at the second coming.

I don’t think it’s by accident but I think it’s by God’s design that even with all the commercialization that is happening at Christmas, this time of year, more than any other time of year, people are open to an invitation to church on Christmas Eve. More people will be in church on Christmas Eve. Maybe the only one that beats it out would be Easter morning but it’s a close second. People are open to that invitation.

Can you think of someone this morning, right now, that doesn’t have a church home? They’re probably going to be looking for a place on Christmas Eve. Could they come with you? Can you think of somebody this morning that doesn’t even have a relationship with Christ, someone you can reach out to? Maybe you begin with the Christmas Cantata, a very nonthreatening way to bring them into God’s house and hear the message. Maybe it’s a direct invitation for Christmas Eve. If they have little ones, do you want to invite them to come to the family focus service? Or would the more traditional services really be what would speak to their hearts? Only you know.

But don’t miss this part of the parable because this is interesting. After the servant says, “There’s still more room,” then the landowner says, “Go out to the roads, the country lanes and make them come in.” Make them come in. Now I’m not suggesting that you wrestle somebody in the door. That won’t work. But I think it is saying don’t take no for an answer. Don’t be rude but be persistent. And you’re persistent because we want to celebrate the first coming of Jesus. We’re looking forward to the second coming of Jesus when we get to gather around that great banquet table for an eternity and the great news is there’s still room. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church