Trading Eternity for a Moment

Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Nunciation

Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an

old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles

and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,

let's listen to this week's homily.

I'm going to tell you a story this morning, story

of an old farmer. And this old farmer had been

blessed this year with an extraordinary harvest, and he wanted

to share his good fortune with his neighbor, who was

a younger man who had endured several years of poor production.

So the farmer packed a wagon full of the bounty

and more and covered it since the weather was a

little bit off. But as he went to sinch up

the canvas and cover the wagon, he realized he didn't

have any rope. Undeterred, he went to that neighbor's house

and he said, friend, I'd like you to come and

help me in my barn tomorrow. I have something important

I need your help with. If you could just bring

a little rope with you, I really appreciate it. And

the neighbor replied and said, I'm so sorry. I'd love

to help you, but tomorrow, I've got to use my

rope and tie up all my milk and the puzzle.

And the farmer puzzled and looked him and said, but

you can't tie up milk with a rope, And the

neighbor responded, I know, but when a man doesn't want

to do something, one excuse is just as good as

the other. And the farmer walked away sadly, because what

the neighbor didn't know was that not only had the

farmer planned to give him half of his entire hard

there's enough grain produced provisions to sustain his family for

a year. The farmer had even prepared documents to give

him half of his land because he was older and

he was going to ease himself into retirement. The neighbor

spent the rest of his days struggling with meager, heartless,

and never knowing the blessing that he had refused. He'd

been too busy protecting what little he had his time

to receive the abundance that was offered to him. And

as sad as that neighbor's plight was, brothers and sisters,

it pales in comparison to the lass suffered by those

who in today's gospel offered their own odd excuses when

invited to the banquet of the householder. In today's gospel,

the Lord of the household, who we understand to represent God,

makes a great supper, and he invites many, And when

the time is right and the banquet is ready, he

sends his servant, who we understand to be Christ, to

assume the form of a servant and took on our flesh.

And he sends his servant to the who he is invited.

And the first one declines the invitation, saying, I've bought

a piece of ground. I must needs go see it.

I pray THEE have me excused. And the second says,

I've bought five yoke of oxen and I have to

go and test them. I pray THEE have me excused.

And then third one says, I've married a wife and

therefore I cannot come now. Before we go further, let's

ponder on these excuses, which are as flimsy as needing

to tie up milk with a rope. First, on their face,

they're about the same level of log if the first

one claims he's bought land, but yet he's never seen it.

Who does that? And the second, one buys a team

of oxen without having first tested them to see if

they're capable of the work that might be worsened by

the land unseen. Regardless, these are things that are plainly

and simply excuses. They could be done tomorrow, even if

they needed to be done. They just don't want to

go today. They provide a convenient excuse for those who

wish to avoid the invitation of the Lord of the house,

as if marrying means you can't go to an invitation

for supper anymore now bless if the Awfhlack tells us

that these three excuses represent three distinct types of people who,

given the opportunity to accept the call and the invitation

of God, choose instead to turn away. The man who

bought the ground is one who remains grounded in the

things of this world. He cannot accept the mystery of faith,

of the incarnation of the Virgin birth, or of the

mystery of the Holy Eucharist. He can only accept what

his eyes behold and his mind can comprehend. And when

called to something greater, something higher than the heavens, even

he turns away, and he keeps his gaze fixed to

the ground. Not unlike the dumb beasts in the field.

The man who brought the oxen represents those who are

fixated on wealth and possessions, like the rich young ruler

who cannot conceive of an invitation to give up those

things and follow Christ. And the man whose excuses that

he's married a wife represents those who have fallen to

the indulgence of the bodily pleasures. When invited to put

away the passions of the flesh and to be sanctified

by a life in Christ, they cling to that which satisfies,

that which satisfies them in the moment, rather than that

which offers them life eternal in the Kingdom. And of course,

those who were bidden at the first represent as a whole,

not all the people, the Jews, but particularly of the leaders,

the teachers, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, those who, despite all

that they'd been given, all their knowledge, all their religiosity,

who despite all that, choose their own pleasures, their own wealth,

their own power over their long awaited Messiah, who, at

this the appointed time, when the feast was ready, has

appeared before them and bade them to enter into the kingdom.

Come for all, Come for now all things are ready,

and they all began to make excuse. And so what

happens then The Lord sens his servant out into the

streets and the lanes of the city to gather up

the poor, the name, the lame, the blind. The people,

we are told represent not the leaders of the Jews,

but those common Jews who followed Christ, who knew Him

in their heart and love him, and who became because

of this the first Christians in the city of Jerusalem.

But the banquet was still not full, and so crisis

sent outside of the city, along the roads and the countryside,

to bring those in who are not of the Jews,

those gentiles, those Pagans who were foreign to the covenants

of the Jews, pagan sinners, who, when they heard the

word were converted by its very power. God himself, in

the form of a man, comes to them and bids

them now to the supper. The Lord said that his

house will be filled. There are no limits on who

he calls. As Saint John Christensen said, his invitation is

one of kindness. His goodness is beyond description. Come to

me all, not only rulers but also their subjects, not

only the rich, but also the poor. Not only only

the free, but also the slaves, not only men but women,

not only young but also the old. And not only

those of sound body, but those who are maimed and

those who are mutilated. All of you, he says, come,

for such are the Master's gifts. He knows no distinction

of slave and free, nor rich or poor, but all

such equality, inequalities casticide. Come, he says, all who labor

and are burdened. There's no discipleship without answering the summons

to come. So the question then simply is who who

will accept the invitation? And what is the invitation? How

do we understand it? It's nothing less than an invitation

to the Kingdom of Heaven, to life eternal with the Father.

So this parable is understood with little imagination, even to

represent God's calling first of the Jews and then of

all mankind into his kingdom. The supper represents the divine

economy of our salvation. It is great because it is

blessed the all flag holds. Great is the mystery of

our salvation. But as we see time and again in scripture,

the call of God may be heard by all, but

it is not accepted by all. God desired the presence

of all, but many turned away. And this understanding of

the parable is important because the same invitation is given

to each of us in these days. Each of us

are invited. In each of us we either accept or

we will make excuse. And how will we know? In

the parable, the Lord of the household says, go out

in the highways and the hedges, and compel them to

come in that my house may be filled. Look around,

brothers and sisters, what is our holy Orthodox temple other

than the House of the Lord. It's in this house

of the faithful. Accept the invitation the Lord to his supper,

to his mystical supper, and think of that each divine liturgy,

where Heaven and Earth meet, we are invited to the

Lord's supper. But is the house filled? Is there still

room at the table? Have all who have been bidden

entered into the feast? Or have many made excuse those

who are like the man who bought the ground, who

cannot accept the mysteries of the faith. Look around, how

many call themselves followers of Christ but reject the ever

virginity of Mary, reject the eu Chris as the true

body and blood, or the visible Church as the body

of Christ coming. They're like the man with the oxen,

who prize their possessions over their salvation, who see work

and toil as preferable to attending the services and receiving

the mysteries, who take God only on their own terms

and only at their own convenience. It's easy to worship

something that always tells you what you want to hear.

It's quite another to leave your oxen to attend the

supper and to put off your work to another day.

And likewise the man who has married a wife. How

many people today turn away from the church because it

calls them to continence and sobriety. They can't put away

serial relationships outside of marriage. They can't give up the

club to enter the kingdom. They can't turn away from

the mirror to examine their own sins. But since few

people can honestly confront what their refusal is grounded in,

what do we hear? Excuses? Excuses? And we must guard ourselves,

brothers and sisters, from that same temptation to make excuse.

For Christ him self says in the Gospel of Matthew,

that he that shall endure to the end, the same

shall be saved if you were to like in our

acceptance of the invitation to receiving the mystery of holy baptism,

we could all agree that there is much to do

between accepting the invitation and showing up at the supper.

You have to dress yourself, and one who thinks they

do not have suitable attire they may not show up

for the supper, even if they initially accepted the invitation.

You have to arrange for anything necessary that needs to

be done that day to be done while you're away,

and those who delay in making their arrangements are unable

to They might stay home and attend to their own

immediate needs rather than the invitation they had accepted. And

then you must travel from where you are all the

way to the feast. And I think this is truly

where most get lost. They might make a wrong turn,

they might be stuck in traffic, they might run out gas.

It might just turn around and go home. Not all

who accept the invitation will necessary barely turn up at

the banquet, because in each moment of busyness, of doubt,

of personal struggle, of fense or weariness, there is that

opportunity to make excuse to turn back to your home home,

and the fathers warn us, because of the burgeoning of

iniquity stemming from the deceit of Antichrist, men will become

so savage that not even towards those closest to them

will they preserve the milk of human kindness. But they

will betray each other. But he that endures patiently until

the end, steadfastly with standing, not giving into the assaults

upon him, he it is who will be saved as

the proven and tested soldier of Christ. My brothers and sisters,

we live in a time of hurriedness and temptation. So

as we depart today, let us commit ourselves to be

like those pagans in the highways in the countryside, who,

hearing the power of the Word, put away their idolatrous

inheritance and became, along with the poor, the name, the

halt and the blind, became those proven and tested soldiers

of Christ, not making excuse even to the giving of

their own lives, but enduring all the way from their

humble abodes to the banquet room of the Lord. Because

what is left unsaid in the parable is that which

is otherwise revealed in the scriptures, that those who made excuse,

who turned away. For whatever reason, lost more than they

could have ever imagined that day, for the sake of

a team of oxen. They lost the kingdom for a

moment viewing the new land. They missed seeing the face

of their Messiah for a few moments with their new wife.

They lost eternity. May God grant each of us to

endure without excuse until that day were permitted to taste

of His sonn in the Kingdom the name of the

Father and Son the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Amen, Thanks for listening to Hill Country homilies. For more information,

visit Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church at www dot Denunciation, TX

dot com and please join us again next week.