The Person You Haven't Met Yet

Welcome to this weekly sermon from Trinity Episcopal Church on Vampir in Arkansas.

Thank you for joining us.

Now let's listen to today's message.

Good morning, beloved.

We attend to your joyful and are rejoicing to have with us this morning as our subject and war and finish.

And so we are so glad that you're with us this morning.

The words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength, and we deem her.

Please be seated.

It's great to be back here in Bad Europe with you.

Had a great day yesterday with several members of the congregation at Vestry, as we did some looking ahead, planning for the future.

If you have a great future before you, I think you have a great sticker and James Cruz.

And I know we're all pleased to have him here.

This morning, well, first I'd want to say hi to Annette and Cameron and Eileen and Kenny and other people who are watching who follow me around for me.

You know, anytime you have a gospel that's sometimes with darkness and gnashing your teeth, it's always a bit of a challenge.

I mentioned to someone that this is the gospel for today, and that person said, Well, we look at that.

But all parables teach us something that is important for us to know as followers of Christ, about the nature of God, and about our responsibilities as Christians if we are to truly say we are disciples of Jesus.

So I'm going to try to go down this road, and I hope we're not down the rabbit hole, to try to bring something out that we can walk away with today, and maybe a few questions we can ponder as we go away.

First of all, I love that image in Isaiah 25.

You know, on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food.

A feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, well-aged wine strain clear.

This image of a heavenly banquet.

God is gracious, and God is lavish in what God provides in terms of love and grace to all people.

And prepares a table.

We heard that also in Psalm 23.

Tables prepared before us, right?

And then we have this gospel reading today, this parable.

And we hear that the message went out to invite people.

But they didn't come.

They didn't come.

They made light, it says in verse 5.

They made light of the invitation and went away.

One to his farm and another to his business, and so on.

And then the message went out again, and they refused to come, and they actually mistreated and even killed some of the messengers.

Finally, of course, the king is said, Well, go out and bring anyone in, good and bad.

The invitation is not just for a select group, and it's not about perfection or earning the invitation.

All were invited.

And that's the wonderful thing about God's love and grace.

All are invited.

All are welcome.

All are welcome to come to the banquet we share on Sunday mornings.

Where we break bread, we share the cup.

God feeds us with a love that surpasses all our understanding, right?

We hear those words also in scriptures and in the prayers.

But let's take a look at this parable.

But first, you know what it's like when you're growing up?

Like I grew up at a time where we were allowed to just go out and play, take our bikes, go wherever we wanted to, as long as we came back in time for supper.

Or if it was getting dark and the lights turned on, setting street lights, it was time to come back.

And maybe you'd hear the voice of your mother, you know, yelling at the supper.

Or perhaps you have the bell.

Actually, we have a cottage and it has a bell, you can ring the bell.

And when you hear that, when you hear the call, or you hear the bell, what are you supposed to do?

Supposed to stop what you're doing?

Supposed to come, come, you get to the house, you wash up, you prepare, and you sit at the table.

And then when the moment's right, everyone dives in and eats food.

God calls each of us to be present to this banquet, this community, this church.

And we have to decide how we're going to respond.

See, the issue here was people made light of the invitation, verse 5 says.

But they chose not to come.

They chose even to mistreat those who sent the message.

And again, it says, Can the parable kill some of them?

But remember, parable is not meant to be taken literally.

There's the hidden truths that peeling back the idea, you know, layer by layer by layer.

What's deeper in there?

The wedding is ready, in verse 8 it says, but those who might have not worthy.

Those who might were not worthy.

Now, just before this was another parable and comments from Jesus in chapter 21, at verse 43, he said, The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, he says to the religious leaders, and given to a people that produces the fruit of the kingdom.

Then he launches into this parable we have today.

How do you respond to God's call?

How do you shape your life to walk as a disciple of Christ, as a light bearer, as a Christian?

How do you present yourself in your workplace?

To your family, to your community?

Do you honor God with your presence and your words?

Or do we just take the promises of Christ and his teachings just lightly and kind of go on our own way?

There are many who fall into that.

Jesus says in the last parable today, for many are called, but few are chosen.

Take it the other way.

Many are called, but few accept.

You know that image of the wedding robe?

Does that confuse you?

You know, friend, how did you get here?

You don't have the wedding robe on?

Well, the wedding robe is an image of righteousness.

Those who came and were not in the right relationship with God, they were the ones who were also making light of that invitation.

The robe is just an image for us to be prepared.

How do we put our life?

How do we make ourselves right with God for righteous?

That doesn't mean perfection.

You know, somehow we got this image of righteousness means perfection.

No way.

Think of some of the saints in history.

They weren't perfect.

Think of other people in the Bible that God pointed to, like David, King David.

Well, he was not perfect, but his heart burned for God.

So what can we look at and take away today?

First of all, God is the one who invites.

God is a host.

God provides an abundance, a richness that we can't even imagine.

The second is we must not ignore the invitation.

We must not ignore the invitation.

But you know what?

Life can get busy.

Anyone here ever get busy?

Anyone here ever have situations happen in your life?

Suddenly you're struck with a health issue.

You lose a job, a weather disaster, things happen.

We get in the way.

And sometimes we just get very tired.

We get tired.

And it's easily, especially in a church that you know is still short of some hands.

We can get exhausted.

We can feel discouraged and kind.

And we may not always allow our ears and heart to hear that call from God.

But you know what God says?

God says you don't have to do a whole bunch of things.

Just do what you do well.

Honor me in what you do.

It's not about quantity.

It's not about the numbers.

It's about the heart.

Yesterday, you had the launch of your new food program.

It was about 92 families, I heard, about maybe 200 people if you count everybody.

Amazing.

Trinity Van Dura.

Look what you did.

And think about what you can do.

Just do what you do with all when you do it.

Grace is freely given by God.

And that's the wonderful gift of Ed.

It's one of the takeaways from this parable.

But how do we respond?

We need to wash up, we need to be ready.

We need to pray.

We need to participate in worship, be part of community, come and be fed when possible.

God welcomes us as we are, the good and the bad, it says right in the parable.

Isn't that great too?

I'm not perfect.

I am so glad that God allows for a lot of leeway.

But once you respond, we know we have the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 14, I will not leave you orphaned, but I will send the advocate, the comforter, to take care of you and guide you, to remind you and teach you.

Once we take those first steps of commitment to Christ, we're not alone.

Not only do we have other faithful people who walk a journey with us, but we have Christ Himself with the Holy Spirit to guide us, to teach us, maybe even carry us, like in that wonderful image of footprints in the sand.

You know that image?

Footprints?

You know, the man who had that dream and sees the two pairs of footprints in the sand through his whole life, you know, walking with God, but that's worse time for the worst, worst time in his life.

He only sees that one set of footprints.

And he sort of in agony, you know, says to God, Well, where were you when I needed you?

What's the reply?

Through those difficult times.

God's love and grace, knows no mounds.

And we're called to have a change of heart.

That's part of the preparation.

Ezekiel 36, verse 26, a new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

Preparing ourselves for the banquet, putting on the wedding robe means getting our lives right with God.

Not that we're perfect, that we're going to stumble, but God's love and promises remains with us to the end of the age.

You know, Jesus says in Matthew 28, I will be with you even to the end of the age.

So today, what can we take away from this parable?

Again, God invites us, we're called to respond.

And when we come, we need to be ready.

We need to be ready not only to worship, but we need to be ready to be the heart and the hands and the eyes, the ears of Christ and the world and our community respond to the needs of whatever's around us.

To have so many people show up for food yesterday means that's only a fraction of the need.

Hospitality.

Hospitality.

Every person matters.

Relationships with God.

We honor God.

So a couple of takeaways.

In what ways do we sometimes get so busy that we don't respond to the invitation?

So that's one thing to think about.

In what ways are we too busy to accept the invitation?

And then the second question is: who needs to be invited?

When you have the wonderful gift of a church community like Trinity, who needs to be invited?

Who is not here?

They don't mean members of the parish who aren't here.

Who in the community is not here?

Think about that.

For every empty spot in the pews, that's not empty.

That's the person you haven't met yet.

For every empty spot, it's that mom of little kids who finds it hard to get out in the morning to even get to a church.

It's the person rejected because of their sexuality or of their color.

Or just because they're busy in life.

Whoever it is, they are the friends and members you have not yet met.

But their spots right there.

So when God says the king invites, what are you to do?

You are to invite.

You are to bring.

You know someone whose life can be changed by the good news of Christ in the Bible.

In the Bible.

I'm only in the church today because someone invited me to their church nearly 50 years ago.

That's the only reason I'm in church.

Never know.

Take nothing for granted.

There are hurting people.

There are grieving people.

There are anxious people.

And in today's world, it's one that who can be sitting next to you if you just go and invite.

The love and grace of God.

They need to be invited to that banquet.

And God calls all of us to partner with him, to reach out and bring hope to people all around us.

That's just how we're answering.

Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting us to a table.

Help us not to be too busy to hear your call.

Give us thankful hearts and willing spirits and love for all who's saying.

Thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Trinity Episcopal Church.

We invite you to join us each and every Sunday and to follow the podcast so that you can stay connected with future messages.

Until next time.