Freeville/Homer Ave. UMC's - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost - 10/12/14 Sermon - “Many people are invited, but few people are chosen"

Sunday 10/12/14 Freeville/Homer Ave UMC’s

Sermon Title: “Many people are invited, but few people are chosen”

Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

                                            

New Testament Scripture Lesson: Philippians 4:1-9

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 22:1-14

          Friends, brothers and sisters, welcome once again on this Eighteenth Sunday after the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost, was that day so long ago that the Holy Spirit moved through the early church, filling them, causing them to speak in tongues, and it was day that the early church was born.

          In moving forward in our church calendar to All Saint’s Day, and All Saint’s Sunday, we have been given many good parables or stories that Jesus told. Jesus told various parables in the gospels, speaking to the disciples, other followers of his, to crowds, to high priests, to Pharisees, and sometimes to anyone who would listen.

          A parable can be defined as, “a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson,” and these parables or stories, were told by Jesus to communicate certain truths, ideas, and elements of faith. In this way, the idea of a parable, at least in ancient Israel, was something that was not meant to be a fairy tale or mythology. Rather, it housed truths within its context.

          In fact, telling stories was very common place in many ancient cultures, and storytelling in general, is something that is common in many cultures and places on the earth, even today.

          In Jesus coming to earth, in Jesus being a first century Jewish man, Jesus, it would seem from the gospel accounts, knew well the customs, beliefs, and the ways of communication of his day. In this way, Jesus knew that parables were a tradition in ancient Jewish culture that went back to the days of the Old Testaments writings.

          So in this way, Jesus was trying to communicate to his audience in a way that they could understand. Yet today, we are quite a different audience, culturally, perhaps ethnically, and perhaps we are different as far as many other factors are concerned as well. So we then seek to understand the parables of Jesus Christ and the scriptures, through our own lenses of understanding.

          So when Jesus Christ said for example, in the gospel according to John 13:34-35, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” I think that Jesus meant this, and I take it to mean that we are to love all people, without exception. Even Buffalo Bills fans. Jesus said, by our love people will know that we are one of his followers. Our love for each other and for everyone, is how many will come to know us and to know our faith.

          In the parable or the story that Jesus tells us this morning, Jesus talks about a wedding party, or what we would commonly call today a wedding reception. How many of you like to go to wedding receptions? I know that I love to go to wedding receptions, and aside the call from God to serve as a pastor, and to preach the gospel, I like to officiate weddings.

          In fact, I remember one of the first weddings I officiated. I didn’t know the couple before meeting them to plan for the wedding, but they said, “We would really like you to come to the wedding reception afterwards.” I then said, “Are you sure?” They then replied, “we insist.” Well the actual wedding ceremony took about 10-15-minutes, then the wedding party had various pictures that were taken of the wedding party and the family. There were also people greeting the newlyweds and the rest of the wedding party, and many people congratulated them. After this, I got ready quickly, I then went to this very impressive reception hall.

          When I got to the reception hall, I made sure that I had freshened up a little bit, that my tie was on straight, and that I looked decent for the party or wedding reception. Then after more and more people arrived, the groom’s father said, “Pastor Paul would you bless this meal for us?” I then said, “sure I will,” and I proceeded to offer a prayer of thanksgiving over this young newly married couple, their families’, and the food that we were about to partake of. You see I was invited by the Father and the Son, but they still had expectations of me once I arrived at the wedding feast.

          After this, the groom’s father insisted that I go to the front of the line, right behind the newly married couple. I then said, “No, no, I can wait.” The groom’s father then said, “I insist.” Well, what an amazing dinner! Perhaps even magical! I might have seen the face of the very face of Jesus Christ at this dinner! Then as I was eating, I thought, “This is amazing! I wonder if I can officiate a wedding every weekend!”

          With this said, let us consider this morning, the question of why would a person deny an invitation to such a blessed and a great event as I was invited to? Why would someone not come and be so honored as I was, to such a great wedding reception?

          When looking at the reading from this morning from Psalm 106, the Psalm starts with 106:1 saying, “Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” Now in the parable that Jesus tells this morning, a king invited many people to come to a wedding reception or party, out of the great love that he had for his people. Do we accept God’s “steadfast love,” which “endures forever?”

Psalm 106:4 goes on to say, “Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them;” yet the people whom the king chose and invited to this party or wedding feast in the parable that Jesus tells this morning will refuse his invitation. Despite the favor and the love of the king, the invitees, or those “chosen” by the king, will refuse his generous and loving initiation.

          In the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or letter to the church in Philippi or the Philippians from this morning, Paul tells the church members in Philippi, “stand firm in the Lord.”

          The Apostle Paul then says, “The Lord is near. Don’t be anxious about anything,” to ask God to give us peace “that exceeds all understanding.” The Apostle Paul then encourages the church to focus things that are excellent, admirable, true, holy, just, and pure. If calls us, invites us, do we answer that call? Or do we ignore it altogether?

          In our Gospel reading from this morning, Jesus tells us about a King who invites many people to a great wedding party, or wedding reception. Jesus begins this parable by saying, as he did in many of his parables, “The kingdom of heaven is like.” Meaning this is how it will be in God’s heaven, or this is how it is in God’s kingdom.

          In this parable for this morning though, Jesus continues on, saying that a king prepared what was likely a great wedding feast for his son who was just married. The king had his servants go out to tell all those whom he had invited to the wedding feast, that the time for the party and the feast had come. Yet none of the chosen invitees wanted to come, as it seemed they just had better things to do. You see they denied the loving invitation of their king.

          So the king then sends his servants out a second time, and tells the servants, “Tell those who have been invited, “Look the meal is all prepared. I’ve butchered the oxen and the fattened cattle. Now everything’s ready.” Yet even with this second call for the chosen invitees to come to this elaborate wedding feast, the Gospel says that they “paid no attention and went away.” The Gospel says further, that some went “to their fields, others to their businesses.” Yet some of the chosen invitees even went one step further, and “grabbed his servants, abused them, and killed them.”

          Well as you can imagine, the king was enraged by this second rejection of his invitation and this killing of his servants. As a result, the king “sent his soldiers to destroy those murderers and set their city on fire.” After this, the king then said to his servants, well we still have all of this food and all of these seats at these tables. The king decided therefore, to tell his servants that since “those who were invited weren’t worthy,” the servants should go and invite everyone then could find on “the roads on the edge of town and invite everyone you find to the wedding party.”

          Well wouldn’t you know it, the new, but not originally chosen or invited people poured into the banquet hall of the king for this wedding reception. In fact, the servants according to the gospel, gathered people whom were “both evil and good,” and they were all together feasting and laughing. You see the king was content to invite all people, regardless of who or what they were to this great wedding reception or party.

Amidst all of this though, the king noticed that a man that wasn’t wearing “wedding clothes,” or clothes that would be suitable for a wedding. The king then asked this newly invited man, “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless, and then the king ordered his servants to tie up the man’s hands and feet and throw him outside “into the farthest darkness.” Then Jesus said, the “People there will be weeping and grinding their teeth.”

          Jesus then concludes this parable by saying, “Many people are invited, but few people are chosen.”   

          Well, I think it is interesting, like the parable of the vineyard owner from last Sunday, that Jesus speaks of a landowner or in this case a King, sending servants to his people. In each instance, the first group of servants are rejected, and then in each instance a second group of servants are rejected.

          Now in this parable the king did not send his son to his people, as his son was the guest of honor with his bride at the wedding feast. In the parable of the landowner however, the landowner did send his son, who was killed.

          So two sets of servants, then a focus on the son, whether as a messenger, or the one to be celebrated like in today’s parable.

          So what does this all mean then? Well the Old Testament of our Christian Bible, or what our Jewish brothers and sister would call the Hebrew Bible, or the Torah and Tanakh, can be broken up into five categories. Here are the categories: The Pentateuch or the Torah, the History, Poetry or Writings, Major Prophets, and Minor Prophets.

          Now we don’t have time this morning to unpack all of the categories of the Old Testament, but I would draw your attention to the two last of the five sections of the Old Testament, which are the “Major Prophets,” and the “Minor Prophets.” You see Old Testament Prophets, people like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and etc. were broken into two categories, “Major Prophets,” and “Minor Prophets.”

          In some of Jesus’s parables he talks about a king or a landowner sending not one group of servants, but two groups of servants. There are two categories or groups of servants or prophets in the Old Testament. In these parables, Jesus then draws attention to the landowner of king’s son, who in the story line, would come after the two groups of servants that had been flatly rejected.

          You see God’s people had largely rejected the “Major Prophets,” then God’s people had largely rejected the second group of “Minor Prophets,” and now many of God’s people are even rejecting God’s very own son. Yet if the people that God has directly invited or called to be in his presence, to be with him and his son, reject the offer, he then will invite all people.

          So if the people of Israel rejected God, and both categories of his prophets, and if then even further, if they then reject his own son, then everyone will be invited. So the son of God has come for all people, not just some.

          So you see, God calls some, but invites many. If we answer that call or that invitation though, God expects us to come as we are, but not stay that way. If God has called us into his grace and into his gracious presence, God expects us to make an effort. God expects us to not necessarily literally change our wedding clothes, but he expects us to be spiritually and mentally changed. That our new clothes will be that of righteousness, of love, of justice, and of mercy. That people will know who we are, by our love and by our actions. That when people come into this church, they will feel love and joy, and feel it in great abundance. For this is why God sent his son.

          So my challenges to all of us this week, is do we do this? Do we really make an effort to love all people, despite ourselves? Do we really make an effort to welcome all people to God’s house, to God’s family, to the banquet feast of God’s son? I challenge us all to be a little nicer and little kinder this week to the people we meet and interact with, not just because it is a nice thing to do, but because Jesus Christ himself told us all, this is how you need to act and treat one another. Jesus instructs us directly to love and care for one another. Do we accept this invitation from God, from Jesus Christ? For “Many people are invited, but few people are chosen.” Amen.