I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
Our readings this morning bring to mind how wonderful it is to be invited and prepared to join in on the great banquet. The provisions the Lord gives to his people are incomparably greater than what man can find on his own. The contrast between the two helps us to appreciate more and more how precious is the invitation the Lord gives.
Have you ever not received an invitation? Have you ever come to a realization that something could be going on in your life and it is not. You learn about a gathering some of your friends have held, and you were not invited this time, or perhaps some other times as well. Have you ever thought you knew someone fairly well and you wonder why you were not invited to their wedding? Have you ever spent a holiday alone wondering how it came to pass that nobody else made the effort to reach out to you?
Some people experience the lack of an invitation in the form of a dating relationship that does not work out, you never received the invitation to keep getting together, or the invitation to make further commitment in the relationship. Some people even get “left at the altar” on a wedding day. In our fallen world the odds of feeling left out and alone are pretty good.
Yet looking back on all of the times you may have felt left out in life, as we are gathered here in church, as you see the jeweled cross above the altar signifying Christ’s victory over death and everlasting reign, as you see on the altar the elements for the Lord’s Supper, as you hear this morning words from Your Savior together with the body of Christ here in this congregation, it sinks in doesn’t it, that all other forms of belonging pale in comparison to the belonging we have in Christ.
As the church sign out front now says, “Visitors welcome, everyone needs a place to belong.” The invitation stands to whoever will receive it, as the parable we heard in the gospel lesson specified, the good and the bad are all welcome.
Our congregation has a gift of hospitality and we follow a Savior who has invited us to join him with the richest of feasts. The hospitality comes, not just because we want to be welcoming to people who may not know Jesus, but above all because we love because he has first loved us. Because of the faith that the Holy Spirit brings to us. We all belong here because of the gracious invitation our Savior has sent out to all. An invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb and the bride.
Psalm 23, we hear it so much we lose track of how profound its message, not just about comfort and relief from fear, but today we can hear these words especially in terms of invitation to a wedding feast.
“The LORD is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul.” These are images of fulfillment and plenty because Jesus is beside us at every step. We have been invited to this fulfilment and relationship with Jesus, we were not forgotten or left behind or seen as lacking.
Instead we have been blessed beyond our imagination with a rich feast: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
As the psalm ends there is a future direction: “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Who is in this house? Jesus. Weddings have lasting authority for as long as we live. The church is the bride of Christ, this is an enduring reality forever.
We tend to focus on the metaphor of the Lord caring for us as a shepherd. But the Psalm focuses on provision beyond what a shepherd provides for sheep. The psalm provides image after image of provision of waters and food. The LORD is providing us everything we need freely and with abundance.
This is the focus of the parable Jesus tells about the wedding banquet. Come to the feast, the feast is ready, and what a feast it is. We can’t help but ask, who would not want to come to this feast and this banquet? What would be more important for those who decline the invitation?
In the gospel lesson we hear of those who paid no attention to the invitation, some to work on their farms or businesses and still others who reacted to the invitation with violence. Have you ever received a wedding invitation in the mail and wanted to kill the mailman who delivered the invitation? What could be threatening about an invitation to a feast?
This is the age old opposition to God’s kingdom, people oppose Christianity, they don’t just decline the invitation but they seek to persecute Christians. They refuse the idea that a King could love his servants enough to give such a lavish feast. To them the promises of God made since creation have been drowned out by the sounds of men’s independence and pride. They do not seek to belong to the Lord.
A hymn writer from the LCMS, Martin Franzmann wrote a hymn about this parable. One of the stanzas begins: “O lavish love that didst prepare A table bounteous as thy heart, that men might leave their puny care and taste and see how good thou art.”
People sometimes chose to stay with their puny care instead of tasting and seeing how good God is.
And just as in the last parable we heard last week of the wicked tenants, it is not just anyone they are rejecting in rejecting the invitation to come to the banquet, they are rejecting the king. This is no case of a last minute pity wedding invitation where you get the announcement weeks before the event and you probably would not be able to come at the last minute very easily.
This is an invitation that has been extended since the beginning: This is the invitation that God made in Isaiah chapter 25 the feast of all feasts on the mountain of Zion, a feast of celebration with the finest of meats and wines with the main event of this feast where on this very mountain the covering of death over all of the land is swallowed up in victory! This is the feast of all fests, the wedding of the lamb and the church.
Almost beyond comprehension, people reject the invitation to this feast. They are rejecting the message of Jesus who calls to us from the cross and from the empty tomb, who announces to us: the feast is ready, come to the feast.
As we wait for this feast of all feasts in all its fullness when we shall be with Jesus in eternity, we see already that the LORD provides for us by faith.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians we see an illustration of what the Lord’s abundance looks like on this side of eternity: “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
When things are going very well and we have what we need can be grateful that the Lord has provided for our needs. And when things are difficult, when we face needs and hardships we know Jesus sustains us with his Word and promise- never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.
Jesus is with us and he clothes us with the garments of righteousness. To be without clothes is to be in need and vulnerable. Without clothes we are not protected from the elements, the cold in the winter and the effects of the sun in the summer. If we needed to provide our own spiritual clothing, if we had to dress ourselves up to be worthy before God, how difficult a task that would be. Of course we cannot do this, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
As we look to Jesus in all times of need we are in fact ready for the wedding feast. We see the folly of being too busy to attend because other things are more pressing in our lives.
Attending worship has a great deal of similarities with the feast in the parable Jesus tells. If enough things distract a person in life from attending worship, or of abiding with Jesus, then how ready is a person to receive Jesus. The robe of Christ’s righteousness, when we wear it, other things like sports and the comforts of home are not so important.
We are here for the feast this morning. We have been clothed in the garment of righteousness through Holy Baptism. And we will continue the feast, week by week year by year until we are with the LORD forever Amen.