MAKE ROOM | LUKE 14:15-24 | Pastor Ryan Gerlach | 10.4.26

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Gerlock and Pastor John Anderson.

Welcome to the Resurrection Church Podcast.

Each week we bring you Sunday's message from Resurrection Church right here in Racine, Wisconsin.

So whether you're listening on a warm up, driving to work, or just folding some laundry, or avoiding folding laundry, we hope this encourages your faith, challenges your perspective, and reminds you that resurrection isn't just something that happened.

It's something God is still doing.

Enjoy this week's message.

My name is Parker, and today's reading will be coming from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14, verses 15 through 24.

Luke 14:15–24

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Then Jesus said to him, Someone gave a great dinner and invited many.

At the time for the dinner, he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is ready now.

But they all alike began to make excuses.

The first said to him, I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it.

Please accept my regrets.

Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out.

Please accept my regrets.

Another said, I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.

So the slave returned and reported this to his master.

Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.

And the slave said, Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.

Then the master said to the slave, Go out into the roads and lanes and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.

The Gospel of Our Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Well, good morning, dear church.

My name is Ryan.

I'm one of the pastors here.

Uh, we've been doing a sermon series called The Way of Jesus, just talking about what it looks like to be practicing practicing our faith uh in real life.

Uh, and today we're talking about making room.

And you may be wondering, what specifically does that mean?

And guess what?

We're gonna talk about it.

Um, I had a great idea for an opening video, and I got kind of turned down by um people that have common sense.

I thought it would be cool if if we had like a video of someone that no one knows about from the church, like it's just a new person coming in, and then wherever you're sitting, them asking, Hey, can I sit there?

And just a candid camera, just video youing like your reaction to that.

And like, for example, the people that get here two hours early to get their seats, I'm wondering what would happen if someone came up to you and said, Can can I sit there?

Can you make room?

Can I sit exactly where you're sitting?

And I'm like, that's a terrible idea because we're Lutherans and you always sit in the same front.

And also, I don't want any fist fights before service starts.

So, but that'd be anyone think that would be kind of funny?

Where's my people?

Okay, one, two, okay, go ahead.

Maybe next, maybe the next time around.

Uh, but Candy Camera was like my favorite show as a kid growing up.

Anyway, let's let's jump into prayer real quick and start off the right way.

Good and gracious God, we thank you so much for humor and that you can be a silly God sometimes, and we appreciate that.

But we also know you're a God that meets us exactly where we are.

And we pray that we can make room for that.

Uh, whatever that looks like, God, may we make room for you and neighbor.

We pray this in your holy name, as all God's people say.

Amen.

Amen.

Uh Parker did a phenomenal job reading that, but it started off kind of in the middle of something.

It started off with guys saying, and hearing that, and then went off to the races.

And we're probably, you're if you're reading it, you're supposed to be asking, hearing what?

What did he hear?

Uh so I'm gonna jump back a little bit.

We're still in Luke.

We're the context is Jesus got invited to supper with some religious leaders.

And these are the like kind of the the cool kids in in the religious leader sect.

They're very uh like the the upper ups, the upper echelon of religious leaders.

And we we find out on Luke 14th, one Sabbath day, Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees.

And here's the trick: they were watching him closely, like binoculars they had all over all over because they wanted to see what this guy was all about.

Was he gonna break the rules?

Is this someone uh they should go after?

Is this someone that's gonna ruin uh everything they they know about the religious way of of Judaism that they they know?

And there was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen, and Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath or not?

Some commentators would say that these religious leaders purposely planted this person just to see what Jesus would do.

Because if he heals them on the Sabbath, that's against the religious law.

And when they refused to respond to his question, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him out sent him away.

And and then he turned to them and said, Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath?

If your son or if your cow falls into a pit, don't you just rush and get him out?

And I I'd like to think that they would, but still it's breaking the religious law.

So they had something, they trapped him.

But then he goes on to say, as as the the tension, the culture, the environment got a little bit tumultuous and heated, he goes on to talk about what it means to be sitting at a table of of people of honor, and you should not put the person in the coolest chair that is of the highest honor.

You should put the people that that can't pay you back.

The last should be first.

He said, the people that are that you bring in from the streets, put them in the place of honor.

Because then you're not tempted to say, Hey, give me something in return, because there's nothing they can do to repay you.

You do it out of the kindness of your heart.

And this, you could cut the tension in the air with a knife.

And someone who has probably a personality like me just needed to say something to fill the space, and all of a sudden you hear this is where Parker first started reading Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Just out of nowhere.

You know, just what's he referring to?

It's kind of like uh just to feel the space.

It's kind of when Peter went during the transfiguration just shouted out when he saw Elijah and Moses, it is good that we're here.

I'm gonna set up some tents for no reason at all, right?

And just looked around the room.

Maybe he saw bread and and said, Bread, it's good.

We're gonna eat it in heaven.

And like from Anchorman, remember this scene?

Carpet.

I love desk.

Brick, are you just looking at things in the office and saying that you love them?

I love lamb.

Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?

I love lamb.

I love lamb.

I love lamb.

Anyway, blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Just to break the tension.

And I think he's also saying something along the lines of, wow, wouldn't that be great if everything you said, Jesus, is something we could do.

Meanwhile, a bunch of uh people in the upper echelon were eating while there's people hungry on the streets.

What if we could do that?

And then Jesus probably is just seeing this and he responds with some a story about what we're gonna get into today, this this banquet and this holy invite.

We hear about this invite that goes out, and back in the day they would they would do a you know, save the date type thing, or we'll let you know when the party's ready to go.

You're invited, we're gonna have a feast, we're gonna prepare the food, we're gonna get the party going, and I'll send someone out to let you know when we're ready to kick things off.

So everyone said, Yeah, I'm coming, I'll be there.

But sure enough, when the time came, when the servant came and said, Hey, the party's getting started, come on out.

They came up with excuses.

And I thought these in themselves were pretty funny too.

Like, hey, it's ready, come on out.

And he said, I just bought a piece of land and I gotta go out and see it.

Okay, great excuse, maybe a little bit believable.

Or and someone else said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I'm gonna, I just gotta go try them out.

I can't go to your party, I'm gonna be riding some ox.

I'm sorry.

And then here's another one.

Uh I've married a wife, therefore I cannot come.

And I can, you know, relate to that.

You get married, you just don't go out anymore, you know.

Just kidding, honey.

I love you.

Oh my goodness.

But it's a bunch of excuses.

But here's here's the thing: they're not like terrible excuses, not like I'm gonna go and rob a bank now or I'm gonna go murder someone.

They're they're real things: property, relationship, work.

Probably things that we get swept up in sometimes.

There are things that we say, man, I really can't.

I'm too busy.

I gotta work, or I can't.

My my kids got a soccer game.

I just can't do it.

And we ask ourselves, is or at least we tell we ourselves, we rationalize, this is good, good stuff.

Work is good, family good.

But are we making it more important?

Are we not making room for what needs to be made room for?

Definitely all good things, but are we making room?

I think in this invite, it's really taking a look at what matters in in our lives, what who should be wholly invited to the to the table.

Um, sometimes we think, oh, we gotta invite this person of honor or this person will matter.

But this holy invite is to almost going out of our comfort zone to make that extra step in inviting.

I remember when I was doing some sort of high school uh leadership thing for um just like a summer camp type thing that was up in Minnesota, and they they said, Okay, you gotta share Jesus Christ with at least 15 people.

You got about an hour, and they dropped us off in the Mall of America.

And I remember just being terrified as a teenager to tell people about Jesus, and I just remember thinking, okay, 15 people.

So I'd stand on an escalator and right behind me, hey, excuse me, you tell me about Jesus Christ and Red Saber.

What was that?

Said, I don't know, nothing, nothing, you know, and I was just terrified.

And I don't think it's they're really called this.

Isn't what we're called to do is just make some awkward conversation, go door to door, and then just do something, put a notch on our belt.

I I told about Jesus, my work here is done.

But it's truly about making room, doing the invite and inviting them to a table that actually never gets filled.

Last night I kind of had a a vision of this making room, and it's it's uh it might be disturbing to some, but I think we're all grown-ups here, and I can share it with you.

Um, at three in the morning, I woke up and and my my dog was right next to me.

And I gotta give you a little backstory on that.

My dog just had some really big surgery, big enough where I can't afford to send Ben to college anymore.

And uh, my little puppy, pretty bad.

Hip thing, and I don't know x-rays, but that looks not the same as the other one.

So big surgery.

Um, but yeah, and it was it just breaks my heart because I'm not really like I never called myself a dog person.

I had a dog when I was four.

When my it's not funny now, back then, or it's funny now, but back then it wasn't.

When I was four, my mom died of cancer, and so my family bought me a dog to cheer me up.

But this dog would do nothing but bite me every time I got close.

So to have a dog that actually would love me without ceasing was actually my very first taste of unrelenting grace from from a dog.

And there's a reason why dog backwards is God, because it's similar kind of grace, right?

Whereas cats don't make sense and probably made by the other guy.

Let's be honest, right?

Just kidding.

If you're a cat person, I'm sorry.

Don, I'm saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, cat people.

That was a joke.

That was okay, and Cooper.

Yeah, God created all creatures except mosquitoes and probably cats if we're going there.

But Kiko, uh, he he can't really walk that much, and he has like every time you get close to him and touch him, he whimpers, and it breaks your heart, and you go on like it, like it's it's uh lots of fodder I'll have for my therapist.

Anyway, all that to be said, is at three o'clock in the morning, he comes up on bed, and I didn't want to move him because then he starts start crying.

And then I so I was just literally Lan and I have the biggest bed on the planet.

Every time like we go to bed, there's animals that line up two by two because it's so you know, I just one of those big things.

But this this dog had so much room and he needed to be close to me.

And I was balancing the best I could do before, like, if he even moved a little, I'd fall off.

And then the reason I'm telling you this story, I promise this isn't just my therapy session to you.

This is uh it I had a glimpse of what it means to make room in the biggest way possible, to go out of your way, to go on the edge of your comfort zone, to just make room, no matter how big your house is or small, or even if you I had a twin bed my whole life, and I always wondered where my twin was, you know, where's the other guy?

But for me, like no matter where your background is or where you came from, there's always the ability to invite someone into that space and make room for them.

And I think for us, there's some of us are like, yeah, that person would be great at inviting someone into the kingdom of God or inviting someone to the table, but not me.

I'm not I'm not qualified.

And I want you to take a good look at yourself right now and tell yourself, actually, I am, because there is no way that any invite would fall on deaf ears if it's an authentic invite to this table.

And we don't do that by with a megahorn or or or something like or a megaphone.

We do it with our actions and with our love.

I'll I'll take this picture off now.

That's pretty sad.

I'm gonna start crying up here.

But what does it look like to truly make room?

Uh and I think for us, whether it's clearing our clearing our schedule for God, or maybe not even clearing our schedule, but making that space where God is the number one priority.

Anyone ever do that where you you have these laundry lists of things you have to do, and then if you have time, maybe I'll get to to the God time.

God tends to be last on the list.

But man, what would it look like if we start the day, end the day, and then fill everything in between with this holy invite?

God, I made room, come.

But the also the invite is opposite too.

It's God's invite to those on the outskirts.

I remember my my wonderful uh mother uh would pack the house uh on Thanksgiving.

Like she it started with like a table, and then her kids started having kids, and then they'd have kids, and then there's so many cousins, and the room, like the tables would just connect around the entire house.

And there was somehow there's always still another chair to find that someone could sit on, or another table we could pull up, and it looked like you know, some cracker jackbox thing of tables, but it was holy, it was holy, and there was always, always room available.

And I think that's what it looks like when we invite people into God's kingdom, when we invite them into this relationship, when when we invite them into what this meal actually means.

Uh when we when we explain what it what it's not just holy divine snack time in the middle of service, that it's actually something holy that's weighty, that is not mundane or ritualistic, even.

It's Jesus is there, present, in with and under, moving us to a place of transformation.

And when we say, what does it look like to make room?

It it looks a lot like making room for God looks a lot like making room at our tables.

When we invite in the stranger, the neighbor, and all those that need that extra embrace of grace, we are answering the call to that invite, that invite to love neighbor as Christ loved us.

So may we feast together.

May this never be a mundane thing we do.

Pastor John says so eloquently, this holy invite is for all and in all everyone that comes to that table receives grace in abundance.

And there's always room.

Amen.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Good and gracious God, we know that you're calling us to make room.

May we make that a priority in our lives.

May we clear all else and just say it doesn't matter compared to how great your grace is.

Your love is not a secret.

Let us proclaim it in all we do with all the things you call us to.

We pray this in your holy name, because all God's people say.

Amen.

Amen.

Church, let's worship God together.