The invitation has arrived

Today in worship we rejoiced as five of our sisters and brothers were welcomed by God in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.  Today's gospel reading from Matthew featured Jesus telling a parable about a great wedding banquet.  In baptism, we have assurance that we are indeed invited to the Lord's table.

17^th Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) – Sunday, October 9^th, 2011

Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lancaster, PA

Texts: Isaiah 25:1-9, Matthew 22:1-14

This past April, 2 billion people, a third of the people in the entire world, viewed the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. 5,000 police officers guarded the streets of London as 1 million citizens looked on and 186 horses processed, leaving a mess that 130 street cleaning machines swept up. 21 chefs prepared over 10,000 hors d'oeuvres that only 650 people consumed during the lunchtime reception, which was before the dinner which came a few hours later. The traditional cake, which took 5 weeks to prepare, had 8 tiers and 900 iced flowers, and 1700 chocolate biscuits were used to prepare the second cake. You might say, the oxen and fat calves had been slaughtered. No expense was spared to prepare this feast of rich food filled with marrow and well-aged wines strained clear.

You can imagine who received the beautiful, hand-crafted invitations to this wedding banquet. The guest list included the crème de la crème of society - royals, wealthy businessmen, generals, admirals, archbishops, dukes, duchesses, earls, counts, lords and, of course, the queen herself. Only the “A” list made it to this affair.

Jesus tells us a parable today about another wedding banquet which, by royal wedding standards, must have been nothing but an afternoon snack. I mean, nobody shows up! All the “A” list guests, the king's dukes, counts, high priests and generals stood him up! Maybe there were only 6 tiers on the cake. But Jesus is clear here that he's using the wedding banquet as a symbol to speak of the kingdom of heaven, the new reality of God that he was ushering in on earth. He was speaking of the re-establishment of God's reign on earth through himself, in which all people would have the Father's law written on their hearts and everyone would know God personally. All the people who were invited to take part and even be leaders in this new reality of God just didn't seem to show up to the party. The chief priests, elders and Pharisees didn't seem to see that in Jesus, the God of Israel was doing something new. So in the parable, the king tries something different. All the people on the main streets, both good and bad, Matthew records, were invited in until the hall was filled. This mirrors what Jesus was himself actually doing throughout Galilee and Judea – inviting in all the undesirables who hadn't made the “A” list, that is, foreigners, women, slaves, lepers, sinners – into this emerging kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is pretty surprising. Those who think they're in, are not, and those who think they're left out, get invited in. But no one is entitled. Just when those who had been left out entered the warm banquet hall filled with delicious aromas, and their mouths were beginning to water, the king confronts one of them who apparently was dressed improperly and throws him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. These are hard words to hear. No one is safe, it seems. No one can be prepared for the surprises of the emerging kingdom of heaven. No one can be prepared for the wild ride which comes along with being a follower of Jesus and his Father's kingdom.

We have no credentials, no titles, no achievements or accomplishments, no shining-clean morals or spiritual strength that earns us an invitation to the heavenly banquet of Jesus. Instead, God came down to us in Jesus Christ to give us the gracious gift of an invitation to meet him face to face. On the cross and in the resurrection, Jesus secured for us an invitation to the great banquet of reconciliation and new, eternal life.

Today we will witness God extending invitations to five of his beloved children through the cleansing waters of baptism. Khreem, William, Gina, Dana and Cameron will receive the everlasting promise that no matter what happens, no matter what they do, they belong now and forever to God. Baptism is the great invitation to the kingdom of heaven, to God's new reign in the universe through Jesus Christ. After they are washed in the waters, the little ones will receive a beautiful baptismal garment, which symbolizes the light, the purity and the righteousness which God gives them in baptism. This alb I'm wearing now, and that our choir members and acolyte and crucifer are wearing too, is just the adult version. It's literally nothing more than the garment which the early church gave to newly baptized adults. It's also the only wedding robe we will ever need. Washed in these waters, clothed with Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked forever with the cross, we have the most blessed assurance that we are eternally loved and that forever we have a place at the heavenly banquet.

This great banquet is not yet complete. Our host, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in whom we are baptized, is still busy with preparations. Delectable dishes are still simmering, sizzling and baking, linens are still being pressed and tables are being set. Invitations are still going out. Not all the guests are here yet. Isaiah tells us that on God's mountain the LORD of hosts will make for ALL peoples this feast of rich foods and well-aged wines, and that he will destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples, that he will swallow up death forever and wipe away every tear from every face. In this world, though, tears still fall. Stomachs still grumble. The poor still cry out. The sick, the left out and forgotten still plead. But here, now, in this place, among God's people called the church, through these blessed waters of baptism, in this precious meal that is the body and blood of our Lord, we get a taste. We get a foretaste of that great feast to come, and then God sends us out, marked with the cross, to wrap an arm around the tearful, to feed the hungry and cry out with them about why they're hungry. God sends us to bandage the wounded and heal the sick, to include the left out and call the forgotten by name. God sends us to serve up a taste of his great banquet, until that final day when we all will gather around the great table. On that day, it will be said finally, but today we can feel these waters and taste this food and say with Isaiah, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Amen.