Title: The table of the Lord is yours!
Text: Luke 13:22-30
Facebook live: The table of the Lord is yours!
29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
When I was leaving my long-time job prior to my ordination my assistant manager and I went over some things to help in the transition. We discussed what being a good manager entailed and decided on two words: good decisions.
As we continued to talk about the importance of good decisions in our work and where they came from, we decided on one word: Experience. So how do you get experience we thought? Two words: Bad decisions!
Today In The Word, November, 1989, p.23. Adapted
When you think of the good or bad decisions you’ve made in your life it is comforting to know that our good works don’t get us in and our bad decisions don’t keep us out because Christ has made us alive by his Spirit and:
The table of the Lord is yours!
22 [Jesus] went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.
As we’ve discussed over the last few months, Jesus was resolute on His way towards Jerusalem. He was not running there but was diligently going on about His business to get there.
Along the way He did what He loved to do … teach!
As was the case with Jesus and His teaching and what happens often when teaching through the Bible, questions come to mind. Such was the case here. As Jesus went about His business someone in the crowd of followers who had been accompanying him says:
23 … “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”
Seems like a reasonable question.
Who will be saved and how will it be determined?
Again, as has been the case before, Jesus uses this question to answer and teach. The question might have been asked differently though, not so much, “will those saved be few”?
But, will I be among them?
This is how Jesus answers this important question.
And he said to them,
24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
To those who see salvation as a cooperative act, it might seem to them that this work of striving is the work they do to enter in through this narrow door.
Christ is the door of entrance and we can know this from the epistle of St. John the 10th chapter, where Jesus says in verse 9:
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
Those who enter in do so by faith in Christ. Those who cannot enter have been trying to make their own way and the key they’ve been trying to use to unlock the door will not open it because the key is faith in God’s only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.
So Jesus gives this example in illustration:
25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
What a harsh reality. The door will not open. No pleading, no solution, a bad decision that has no happy ending - though the experience learned is written in the bible for our learning - at the time of judgment some will be excluded for lack of making use of it. The truth is that the Word of God and the working of the Holy Spirit have been active … but rejected.
Some who call Peace their church home reject God’s gift too. They make little attempt to hear God’s word or receive his gift of faith in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. How sad to think that they too might hear, “I do not know where you come from”
To all who reject the gift of faith might not the cry be:
26 … ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you; I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
The riches of temporal blessing and success, or mere apathy blind the way to the cross for many.
The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success its standard.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Don’t you see that whatever you do as a means to find the measure of your worth in the eyes of God - through work, acts of love and caring, success in life, charity – amounts to nothing that can open the door to eternal life.
Some years ago while I was visiting with Duane and Eleanor brown in their home. Their son Steve was there and he told of a funeral he recently attended. The gentleman who had passed Steve had great respect for. He was a mentor to Steve in his younger days when he had attended the Center for Creative studies, helped him with his art and was active with helping in the community. Steve saw him as a role model and person to emulate. As we visited, he turned to me and said, “Pastor I had no idea he was an atheist!”
Steve was heartbroken. The fact of an eternity separated from his friend brought sadness and tears to his eyes.
28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
Those who hear Jesus hear the words of eternal life. Faith is created and the Kingdom is theirs and they have a seat at the table.
Those who in their sinfulness look to other means to open the door to salvation, or good works apart from God’s means by faith, will find the door locked and they themselves cast out.
It’s sobering to think about?
Some come to church … but only go through the motions failing to trust the promises of God.
Some have even stopped coming at all, thinking life too short or their lives too busy for making time on Saturday or Sunday to be in worship.
Especially, in the summer when the weather is so nice, I too was even tempted to take a weekend off. But Monica and I went to Christ Lutheran in Milford for their 7:00 Pm service on Monday night to hear and receive God’s word of forgiveness.
All churches just like here at Peace seem to experience a drop off in attendance during the summer months. Some go to the cottage, some attend elsewhere if out of town, it’s part of summer in Michigan. But some get drawn away into other joys or just lose interest and don’t come at all.
Sad but true, and some, who’ve been given the gift of faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, will find no faith at all in that day, because it has died to the ways of the world.
But Christ still comforts:
29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
The truth is that some will not enter because of a lack of faith. Jesus tells the people that the door is opened by faith in Christ alone and Jesus is that door. Trust in him is the key and it is the gift of faith which you cannot earn but is freely by God’s Spirit so that you and I and all who believe can enter in.
Luther says that all of us come to church as poor, miserable sinners with an empty sack. We have nothing to give God. We confess our sins and receive forgiveness – in the blessed absolution, a gift from God, which we put in our sack. Over and over in the service we receive gifts: grace, mercy, love, the Word of God … A multitude of blessings! All of these gifts go in our sacks. We leave the service with a sack over-flowing with good gifts from God. We take our gifts home, and we share all the goodies we received with our neighbor!
God gives His gifts to you. He forgives you. He blesses you and you receive his gifts from his word and through His sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This he freely gives … to you. And He calls you to come, as you are to His house because you are his child and he wishes to bless … you.
God’s grace is nothing you deserve; it is nothing you can earn; and it is only received by faith in the finished work of Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit. And you have been given that gift of faith in Christ and you receive his forgiveness in Christ and you are his Child in Christ and you will enter through the door that is Christ Jesus … because of his call and work in you.
The table of the Lord is yours!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment