When I began to study the Gospel reading for today, I first said to myself,”hey, this is an easy lesson. Everyone will get this. It’s obvious that heaven is where the banquet is and we have been invited, yet some will refuse.” End of sermon, right?
I always have to laugh when I see how simple God has made things and how complicated humans have turned God’s simple requirements around.
Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge. Simple don’t do it. Eve did it and Adam let her and then joined in.
Things finally get so bad that God floods all of the earth.
During the Exodus, the people only needed to follow Moses who was being led by God and all was provided. Simple, right? Listen and it is given. Did they listen? No they complained and then when God was giving Moses the 10 commandments, the people were in the process of violating all ten in one night. Well maybe not all ten, but I suspect it was pretty darn close.
God asks us to have no other Gods and to love the Lord your God with all your heart. Simple yet we make it so complex.
We are given all that is good. Opportunities are abundant and God’s love is abounding. As Christians, we need to accept the faith in Jesus Christ that is available to all of us. It is in that acceptance that all else can fall into place. The invitation is given. Do we accept the invitation and drop everything? Do we go about our busy life of friends, family and work? How do we treat the agents of God? God sends his servants to us daily. Are they sent away, rejected or worse yet killed? Killing doesn’t have to be a physical thing.It can be mentally or worst yet, spiritually.
God does not give up on us. Although God has no reason to keep after us, except in his boundless love,God continues to…reach…down….to….us. There is a feast waiting for us.All we need to do is accept the invite to the banquet. God knows we are not worthy of the banquet and provides us the robes of justification so we can sit at the banquet in confidence.
I have been reading Martin Luther’s works, Volume 26. This particular volume contains Luther’s views on Galatians. While reading this week, I came across something I felt was profound, so I posted it to my Facebook…….“This is the true meaning of Christianity, that we are justified by faith in Christ,not by the works of the Law.” Now at first, this does not seem to fully mesh with today’s reading. However, the conversation that started ties very nicely in.
The first response was; “I like to think itis also how I live out my faith, put into action, serve Him, etc etc…” My response was a paraphrase from some of myreadings of Luther, “If it is also how you live out your faith, then you are not justified by faith but by the works of the law, and Jesus is the law giverand Moses is the redeemer. Martin Luther said, “Now if justification does not happen through grace but happens through the Law, what did Christ accomplish with His suffering, His preaching, His victory over death and the sending of the Holy Spirit? Either we are justified through Christ, or we are made sinful and guilty through him.”
I also posted; Our works come as a response to our justification by God in Jesus Christ, through our receiving,undeservedly, the Grace of God being showered upon humans in their faith in Jesus Christ. The response I received was; “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” James 2:26 Then the next post was Romans 3:21-31, which says: 21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
My response was, So, Jesus condemns the sinners of the Law and Moses is the redeemer. Those of Moses time had faith and the law and through the law they were saved? Only by Grace are we saved not by works. The Grace we receive in faith. John 3:16-18 says; “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” I continued with, however we could quote bits and pieces of scripture but its the totality of the NT using the OT to understand the NT. I guess this is why there are so many denominations. Love you my sister in Christ. Peace and Grace abounds.
At this point the conversation was only between myself and one other. Then another person chimed in. Their post went as follows;
It isn’t “either/or” it’s “both/and”. There is nothing one can do to earn heaven without the free gift of grace. Catholic teaching is quite clear about that and always has been. However it is quite clear in Apostolic teaching that we have free will and therefore must choose whether to accept that grace, cooperate with it, and allow it to work in and through us in the process of our sanctification; or reject that grace and by doing so reject salvation. Just like Jesus in the garden we don’t always “want” to do the will of God “Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me.” And just like Jesus we are called to choose “not my will but yours be done.” Fortunately for us, no sin- whether as sin of omission or commission is greater than God’s mercy. While we know we fail occasionally, we must nevertheless strive to live in grace not outside of it. Translated, we must seek to do good and avoid evil. And when we fail we must repent and turn back to God rejoicing in His mercy. You are spot on correct that bits and pieces of scripture should not be viewed in isolation. Rather we must look at the totality of scripture and view it through the prism of Apostolic tradition if we are to understand the implications. A person who confesses with his lips that Jesus is Lord and Savior and yet continues to live a life of sin (omissions of good works, commission of evil works) risks being cast out of the heavenly banquet and we do him a great disservice to suggest otherwise. On the other hand, we do a disservice to another if we teach him that his salvation is a matter of doing enough of the right works. You don’t have to be Mother Teresa in this life; you just have to strive to be the best version of yourself. Only Jesus makes it possible for us to attain heaven. Only ourselves make it possible not to attain heaven.”
The original responder chimed in for a another response; “Thanks to both of you for inspiring me to further contemplate, study and reflect on the Word, my faith in Him and my role within the Body of Christ!
I responded with; It is a fine line we walk. We cannot earn our way, but we can prevent our way. If we are not wearing the robes of righteousness that God freely gives us, then we reject the Grace of the robes of righteousness and risk not staying at the banquet. See Matthew 22:1-14, which was the reading for today.
Afinal poster who had been reading the other posts put the final post to this discussion;
I am sitting hear reading all of this and just thanking God that I know and love all of you. How precious it is to have friends who go beyond just having head knowledge of Christ but to go further to serve Him to learn to and help all of us have a better understanding of who we are in Christ. God bless and be with you all.
Now,I do not fully agree in all aspects of what others posted but on the other hand, what was posted was following along with my contention and ended up leading into the message for today. I also know that the others who posted do not fully agree in all aspects of whatI posted either. We are able to look past those areas of contention and look at the totality of the Christian message that we preach either by words or by actions.
As my brother in-law starts his messages, let me end with this today; from Latin:
pax et bonum,which in English means Peace and good.
Amen
Hey Dougy Boy – Thanks for sharing – I hope to read many more of your sermons in the future – and hopefully even get to hear some in person. God bless you kid.