Grace, mercy and peace be to you from
God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text:
(Luke 14:15-24)
A
man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet
he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, “Come, for everything
is now ready.”
Prayer:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in
your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In
the last few weeks, our Gospel readings have unfolded different things to do with
the mystery of the Holy Spirit. Today, many churches are often told that they
need to develop a “mission culture”. But before anyone can even begin to think
about missionary work in any country in the world, let alone our own
country, we need to consider the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Who is
the Holy Spirit? What does he do? How does he work?
Three
weeks ago, we celebrated Pentecost. And in our reading for that Sunday,
Jesus taught us these words: The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Listen to these
words: the Holy Spirit will teach the church, and he will bring to
our remembrance the words of Jesus. It’s not pastors who teach the
church – pastors preach the word of God. But then the Holy Spirit takes that
word and applies it to us in our individual situations. Different people will be
comforted differently. Different people will be awakened to their sin,
and their need to repent. Different people will be awakened to different
sins. All this happens as the Holy Spirit himself teaches us in the
church, and brings to our remembrance the words of Jesus.
This
is such an encouraging passage, especially in our time where there are so many false
prophets. Many of us will know people and have friends and neighbours who
are members of sects and cults. Many of us may have grieved the loss of good
Christian friends who once walked with us in the truth, who now hold crazy and
eccentric views.
How
do we know the difference between the Holy Spirit and other spirits?
Jesus says: The Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all that I have
said to you. If a spirit brings to our remembrance something that is not
the words of Jesus, but is a human opinion, then it is a different
spirit at work, a false prophecy. The Holy Spirit speaks nothing different to
us than what Jesus speaks. So when we listen to the Gospel in church and stand
up, we are listening not just to the words of Jesus, but the Holy Spirit is also
reminding us of those words that Jesus spoke at a particular time in history.
We
say the Nicene Creed each week, we confess that the Holy Spirit…spoke by the
prophets. The whole bible is inspired by God, and was written by holy men
as the Holy Spirit carried them along. And so when we read and remind you
of these words of the Holy Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who comes and reminds
you of these very words himself! What a wonderful gift the Holy Spirit is! What
a wonderful mystery this is which we experience and join in with week after
week and day after day!
+++
On
the following Sunday after Pentecost, two weeks ago, we celebrated Holy Trinity
Sunday. On this week, we read about where Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, and
Jesus spoke to him about being born again by water and the Spirit. On this occasion,
Jesus said to Nicodemus: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its
sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with
everyone who is born of the Spirit.
This
is also an encouraging passage, especially in our time when so many people are not
coming to church, and we often ask the question why. Why is it that people
just don’t seem to be interested in Christianity? Why does it seem like such a
struggle to share our faith? Why do we fear being attacked so much for what we
say? When will this drought end? Why does it feel as if I’m the only Christian (or
Lutheran) I know?
Well,
the Holy Spirit refuses to be manipulated, and he blows where he wishes.
Even when we do speak the word of God, the Holy Spirit may not blow how we want
him to blow and people’s hearts may be hardened instead of softened. We know
from 1 Timothy 2 that God desires all people to be saved and come to a
knowledge of the truth. For this reason, St Paul says that we should pray
for all people, and ask the Holy Spirit that it may please him to blow
graciously throughout our country, and bring many more people to faith in
Jesus.
We
hear the sound of the Holy Spirit, when we listen to his voice in the Holy
Scriptures. But we do not know how the Spirit works in the heart of each
person.
Also,
Jesus says: So is everyone who is born of the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy
Spirit works in each of us when and where he pleases, so also he moves and
directs us through life as he wills. Many of us were not raised in these
congregations that we find ourselves in now. Many of us were born in different
countries, or different parts of the country, or different parts of Victoria.
How did we all end up here? Well, the Spirit blowed us where he wished, and he
created our congregations, and he built the communities we now find ourselves
in. It wasn’t us who built these congregations, but it was the Holy Spirit
himself who moved us and blowed us around as he chooses, for all kinds of
reasons that are known only to him.
What
a wonderful mystery the Holy Spirit is! What a wonderful comfort it is for us
to know that there is a gracious method in what we might feel sometimes
is the Holy Spirit’s madness! The wind blows where it wishes, and you
hear its sound.
+++
Last
Sunday, we read the Gospel reading about the rich man and Lazarus. Here we see
that the Holy Spirit blows in the opposite way than we may expect. In the world
we have a certain idea about who is respectable, who is a successful person.
The rich man sounds like someone we would like to be a friend of, but he goes
to hell. Jesus gives us a warning here, that our wealth can sometimes take us
away from God. But the Holy Spirit blew upon Lazarus in such a way that he became
a faithful man of God, despite his hardships, despite his sufferings, despite
his failures, despite his weakness. It’s precisely in these times of
profound suffering and hardship that the Holy Spirit does his finest work,
and blows with strength and energy! We know that Jesus’ finest work was when he
was on the cross, dying for the sins of the world, even though that same world
thinks that he was a failure. As Jesus said to St Paul: My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul bows
his head to Jesus’ blessing, to the cross Jesus places on his shoulders and
says: When I am weak, then I am strong.
What
a wonderful mystery of the Holy Spirit this is, that he works and blows even in
the most profound weakness, sickness, hardship and suffering!
In
our Gospel reading today, we read: A man once gave a great banquet and
invited many. And at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those
who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.”
Here
we see why the Holy Spirit is blowing! He wants to call us to God’s heavenly
banquet. The Holy Spirit blows through this powerful Word of God, so that we
can taste and see that the Lord is good! He blows so that we can drink deeply
of the fountain of life, and enjoy the delights and pleasures of God’s kingdom!
And Jesus says: Have no fear, little flock. It is the Father’s pleasure to give
you the kingdom. What a wonderful banquet the kingdom of heaven is! What a
wonderful thing it is when we taste the sweetness of Jesus words, even here
on this earth! How encouraging it is, how comforting, how truly delightful!
As it says in Psalm 119: How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than
honey to my mouth!
I’d
love to know a man like this man in our reading today!: A respectable man,
almost a bit like the rich man who went to hell, but the difference is, he invites
people to his house! He doesn’t leave poor old Lazarus in the cold! Wouldn’t it
be great to be invited to such a rich banquet with all kinds of tasty morsels
and lavish treats! The banquet he throws is not just a great banquet because of
the quality of the food but because of the quantity of people who
attend! Lots of fine food, lots of great people!
The
problem for our flesh, for our sinful nature, is that the pure Gospel of the
sweet, sweet forgiveness of sins, the completely free invitation to have all
your sins covered over with the blood of Christ, is just too good to be true.
People feel like they can’t just come and sponge off God, or bludge at his
expense. They feel like they have to make a contribution and feel like they’re
doing something productive! They feel embarrassed to have been asked to come to
a wonderful banquet, when they’ve got so much to do.
Don’t
you understand what the free forgiveness of sins is? Do you understand how
wonderful the gospel is? Holy Baptism? Absolution? The Lord’s Supper? Heaven?
Salvation? It’s all given to you completely free of charge, with no
contribution from you whatsoever. Listening to the word of God, coming to
church, is not your work. It’s simply being there so that God can work on you!
Luther writes in one of his hymns: Cease from all the work you do, so that
God may work on you! Sponge off God! Bludge at his expense! Enjoy yourself!
Taste and see that the Lord is good!
But
our flesh rejects this free invitation. We think there’s more important things
to do: I’ve bought a farm, I’ve bought some cows, I’ve married a wife. I haven’t
got time for parties! I haven’t got time for celebrating! I want to do something
productive, successful, useful.
Now,
here’s the great mystery of our reading today. When the people reject the
invitation, the Holy Spirit goes out and invites people who don’t seem like normal
guests at all: the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame! They are happy
to have a good feed, and enjoy the banquet! The poor need a good square meal!
They’ll appreciate it. Even more than that the Holy Spirit calls anyone and
everyone to come and fill the banquet hall: Go out to the highways and hedges
and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.
Do
you see? The Gospel’s for everyone, without exception. That means it’s for you.
Forgiveness is for you. Free grace is for you! Salvation and heaven is for you!
Jesus is for you!
And
it’s for you because you feel your need for it! The knowledge that you are
sinner is the envelope in which the invitation to God’s banquet is found. If
you don’t feel and know that you are sinner, then you’ll reject the invitation
and throw it out with the junk mail. It’s precisely poor, blind, crippled, lame
people like you, weary and heavy-laden people like you, who are called to this
banquet. It’s precisely people who carry the cross who need the joy of the resurrection
to encourage them!
Come
to me, says Jesus, all you who are weary and
heavy-laden and I will give you rest! Come, for everything is now ready!
Amen.
Come,
Holy Spirit, and call us with the powerful, mighty word of God to taste and see
the delights of your goodness this day. Encourage us in our weakness and sin,
and may it be your delight and good pleasure to work in and through us, to the sole
glory of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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