Sermon and Video of Divine Service for Wednesday of the Third Sunday after the Pentecost
Video of Divine Service, St. Luke, Rensselaer
July 2, 2025 - Wednesday of Pentecost 3
Collect of the Day: O Lord, since You never fail to help and govern those whom You nurture in Your steadfast fear and love, work in us a perpetual fear and love of Your holy name; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
The Epistle is from First John, the third chapter. 1 John 3:13-18
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. This is the Word of the Lord.
The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the fourteenth chapter. Luke 14:15-24
15 When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. 17 And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant[a] to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you,[b] none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” The Holy Gospel of the Lord.
Homily: O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.
What do we do when the people who are supposed to be here – are not? Does the host sulk and enter a depressive state over money lost and the creeping suspicion that his friends don’t value him as much as he values them? Does he grow angry at the insult of lame excuses?
This parable, like all of Jesus’ stories, does not come out of nowhere. Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet in the home of a leader of the Pharisees. No name is attached, but I am certain that beside the inviter, there are many other prominent Pharisees there too. In the course of their visiting, this is the third “bomb” that Jesus drops on the host and crowd. The first is that he heals a man with dropsy. On the sabbath, no less. The second bomb is the Parable of the Wedding Feast which conveys the main point that they should be, ahem, humble and not presume a particular place at the banquet table. Jesus intends this Parable to be not only about social dynamics, He also casts a spiritual vision. God will arrange the seating at the wedding feast, not the mortals. God will use His Kingdom priorities, not priorities of prideful men. Then, there is this, the third installment. The Parable of the Great Banquet is far more than a social faux pas of friends dismissing the value and place of a friend.
Jesus is keenly aware that he, the Son of God, the second person of the mysterious Trinity, God incarnate, is in the process of being rejected by those who have every right and privilege to be at God’s Great Banquet. They are in the process of discerning that they will reject Jesus as God’s Son. They will reject the vision of God’s kingdom and His eternal banquet that Jesus presents to them. To reject the Son is to reject the Father. So, what is the heavenly Father, the host to do?
Does God sulk, become despondent or angry? No. What he does is makes sure that the Banquet Hall is filled. The invitation to follow Jesus, the invitation to partake deeply in the presence of God through the Word and Sacraments, will be extended to the most unlikely of characters. The poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. In other words, the forgotten and the unseen. When that does not fill the place, then the Gentiles are invited in.
Those who receive the invitation of the Father through the Son are welcome into his church and the promises of banqueting with the Lord: mercy, forgiveness, healing, fulfilling food and drink, and eternal life. Out of the rejection, comes a new community. A community centered around the cross of Jesus Christ.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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