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"THE FEAST OF THE KING"
(A Meditation for World Communion Sunday)
GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT: MATTHEW 22:1-14

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 7, 2007

SCRIPTURE LESSON: 1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.' 5"But they paid no attention and went off--one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless. 13"Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14"For many are invited, but few are chosen."

MESSAGE: Today, a truly marvelous thing is happening. All over the world, more than a billion Christians are doing what we're doing today. During this 24-hour period, once a year, most of the differences which divide believers in Christ are forgotten - in a massive act of unity. More than one billion humans will celebrate Holy Communion around the world today. It's a massive, impressive endeavor - almost enough to make us forget that the world is, as yet, slightly less that a third even nominally Christian. Once and only once, each year, a billion followers of Jesus can agree to do this one thing in unity - to celebrate the Lord's Supper together. It's awesome, it's amazing: It's a marvelous testimony to the power of Jesus Christ, even in this fallen world.

As I was pondering this strange and wonderful unity among Christians in the celebration of World Communion Sunday, I began wondering what the real thing will be like. What will God's great banquet in Heaven -- when folks come from east and west and north and south and from times past, present and future - to sit down with God, with Jesus at His right hand: What will that be like? Will it in any way resemble what we're doing today?

And then I remembered this parable: Jesus said that the feast of the King - God's banquet in Heaven - would be similar to one thing, the like of which we've seen on earth. He compared it to the preparations an earthly ruler might make for the wedding feast of his son. A parable is a story, so it's not meant to be an exact, literal description of God's banquet in Heaven, but it does provide some important insights.

Probably the most important idea to note about this parable is that its main emphasis is not on the feast itself, but upon the process of inviting the guests. As is His custom while teaching, Jesus does not focus upon describing how life will be in Heaven - at the banquet - but rather His concern is with how life proceeds before those pearly gates are opened. And that means life on earth, here and now, where the process of inviting the guests is already in progress.

Jesus wasn't naïve about this process of invitation: He knew that many people would turn down the invitation to the King's table. They would be too involved with other pursuits, too busy to pay attention to the things of God. They would be uninterested and, at times, even openly hostile. Many persons in this world reject a purely free offer - God's grace - the invitation to a place at dinner with God and His Son in Heaven. Quite a few who've been invited over and over again aren't here today, at this celebration of the Lord's Supper.

We sometimes get upset and discouraged, as ministers and laypersons who are committed to Christ: Why can't we get more people to come? Why do so many reject the offer of a place among God's people? The answer is simple, but it's understandably hard to believe for those of us who have accepted God's offer - and already know the riches of His grace. They don't come because, with eyes wide open, many simply choose not to.

When human beings turn down God's free offer of salvation, it's not always because we, as a church, have failed to provide the proper opportunities, or to "sweet talk" long enough and hard enough. I, personally, think it's time we quit "beating ourselves up" for failure every time someone says "no" to the gospel. When we, as Christians, present the good news of Jesus Christ to our neighbors directly and forthrightly, then the burden is on them. If they accept the Gospel, praise God! But if they reject it, then, as scripture says, "their blood is on their own heads," and they'll have to stand before God to answer for their bad decision. And others will be invited in their place.

Secondly, and this will have to be my final point since this is only a communion meditation and not a full sermon, the portion of the parable concerning the man without a wedding garment is also quite significant. Some of the king's servants in the story were so eager to fill up the banquet hall and thereby make a big "show" for their master that they didn't check to see if all of the guests were properly prepared to be there.

Does that sound familiar in the church? In our zeal for numbers - to fill the pews or, better still, to fulfill a dream of putting chairs in the aisles, do we fail to set any standards whatever? "Just come - we don't care what you believe - whether or not you're even a marginal believer, or whether you even care to learn what believing in Jesus means. Come anyway; maybe God will let you sneak in the back door to Heaven."

But it's not that way, at least not according to our Lord's parable. The King's banquet is not open to everyone. Oh yes, the servants of the King are told to go out and issue the invitation to all - that's very true. And that invitation is not conditioned in any way upon social status, race, nationality, economic means, or any traditional earthly standard of measure.

It does bear one condition, however. And not all are willing to submit to that condition. Not all are willing to accept God's Son, in whose honor the banquet is being held in the first place. And God is not willing to honor those who reject His Son. That's why the parable ends by saying, "…many are invited, but few are chosen." Only those who have accepted Jesus as Lord will be chosen to sit down and enjoy the feast - the feast of the King.

Today we're part of an amazing unity of a billion-plus people - all sharing together in the celebration of our Lord's Supper upon earth. It's an amazing "dress rehearsal" for the real thing: the Feast of the King, in honor of His Son, in heaven. Amen.

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