Do you ever find yourself making excuses *not* to do something?
Do you ever feel that your relationship with God can come *after* you get your ducks in
a row?
Do you ever the struggle to follow the Lord is just too inconvenient?
Hey everybody this is Steve and attending God's Heavenly Feast is our biggest priority.
In this week's Gospel reading, a man offers a banquet; yet the people he invites say they
have better things to do.
And in this week's Epistle reading, Paul advises us to put earthly things to death; to act
in a heavenly way.
Links to the readings are, as always, down in the doobley-doo.
And don't forget to check out the intro videos we made for both the Gospel and Epistle, to
help you better understand the readings.
This week's Gospel reading is similar to the passage we wrestled with in episode 11.
When Christ healed the blind man there was a clear, and stark, choice between light and
dark.
And this week there's a clear invitation, one that people can either accept or reject.
The great banquet in this parable isn't just any party: it represents the heavenly banquet,
our eternal celebration in God's Kingdom.
You'd think that this would be a pretty compelling invitation; yet three people turn it down.
And it's not like they're going to an even better party; they're just wrapped up with
concerns that are, by comparison, pretty mundane.
One guy bought a field and needs to go see it.
One guy received 5 oxen and needs to go examine them.
One guy got married and is busy doing married person things.
And the thing is, these are all great excuses to avoid going to a party.
If you're a farmer, obviously it makes a lot of sense to see your new field or check on
the health of your new animals.
And, of course, any husband should be happy to spend time with his wife.
In fact, if you flip over to chapter 20 of the Book of Deuteronomy, in the Old Testament,
you'll actually see these three excuses.
They were ways for young men to avoid military service: because family life and putting food
on the table is that important.
(Deut 20:5-8)
So the people hearing the parable of the great banquet would have recognized these excuses;
that they were literally important enough to keep you off the field of battle even in
the midst of a national emergency.
But in this parable these excuses, no matter how important we may think they are, are no
longer good enough.
The feast is *that* important.
It is, after all, the feast of feasts, *the* heavenly feast to which each of us is invited,
and it is the only invitation with eternal implications.
And we accept the invitation to this heavenly feast by engaging in a spiritual struggle.
It is an invitation from which no one is excluded, and it is a struggle from which no one is
excused.
In this week's Epistle reading, Paul uses very violent language as he tells us to "Put
to death, therefore, whatever in [us] is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and greed."
(Colossians 3:5)
We have to fight against the broken, sinful, false version of ourselves: the side of us
that's overcome by passions and desires, that's concerned with selfish gratification rather
than selfless love.
We have to put to death this old nature so that we can put on our new nature, in Christ.
So we can appear with Christ in His glory.
(Col 3:4)
The Epistle reading opens with a truth that we can easily overlook: Christ, who is our
life, is coming again.
And when He returns, where is He going to find us?
In what state is He going to find us?
Will He find us among the sons of disobedience, full of anger and wrath and evil desire, isolated
by our sin?
Or will we appear with Him in glory, breaking bread with Him, seated at His table for His
eternal feast?
A few weeks ago, we saw that there was a pretty clear choice between light and dark.
And here, we're seeing that there's a pretty clear choice between accepting God's invitation
and rejecting it.
Between putting on the armor of God, joining the fight against the darkness of our old
nature, and letting that darkness consume us.
The starkness of this choice can make us really uncomfortable.
I mean, do we really need to choose between our fields and our oxen and our relationships...and
God's invitation?
I mean, if you're watching this, you're probably a Christian.
You probably already know that you're being invited to God's table.
But...you also have homework, or practice, or appointments, or a house to clean, or dinner
to cook, or a host other other important things that also make demands on your time.
Can't we have all that...and the Kingdom?
Back in episode 5, we talked a bit about how, when we finally encounter Christ, everything
else seems like rubbish.
He's just *that* important.
And back in episode 2, we talked about, if we're really going to become the temple of
the living God, then we need to have God at the center of our lives.
Anything else is, to be blunt, idolatry.
This word, "idolatry," appears at the end of the quote from Colossians 3 that we saw
earlier.
When Paul tells us to "Put to death, therefore, whatever in [us] is earthly: fornication,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is *idolatry*)."
(Col 3:5)
And this is the challenge for the people who rejected the invitation to the banquet.
This is the challenge for us, who are probably more like these people than we may want to
admit.
Sure, work and school and even family are incredibly important parts of our lives.
But they don't belong at the center of our lives.
That place is for God and for God alone.
Because we need to put first things first.
When we do that, that actually allows the rest of our lives to be in the proper order.
It allows us to approach the blessings and opportunities in our lives with the proper
spirit, the proper orientation; with a heart grounded in Christ and oriented towards His
Kingdom.
Remember those 3 excuses the man heard when he invited people to the banquet: one had
a field he needed to go see, one had oxen he needed to examine, and one had just gotten
married.
In Matthew 13, Christ tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a field where treasure is
buried.
A treasure so valuable that, when someone discovered the treasure, he sold everything
he had so he could buy the field and claim the treasure.
(Mat 13:44).
God doesn't just want us to have the field we think we want.
He wants us to have the field where this great treasure is buried, a field more incredible
than the one we were seeking.
In Matthew 11, Christ tells us to take his yoke so that our souls will find rest.
Because His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
(Mat 11:29-30)
God doesn't want us to shift our burdens onto other oxen in the hopes that that will make
our lives easier.
He wants us to bear this blessing ourselves, so we don't miss out on this chance to find
true rest with Him, in His Kingdom.
And finally, in Ephesians 5, Paul discusses the blessing of marriage and explains that,
he's not simply describing the relationship between a man and a woman, but rather the
relationship between Christ and His Church.
God doesn't simply want relationships for us in this life.
He wants to lift our lives and all things into eternity, in His Kingdom.
These three people, in other words, turned down the banquet invitation because they were
seeking something.
But they didn't realize that they would find the fullness of what their hearts desired
at that banquet, at that table, seated by the Lord.
But notice that, when they turn down the banquet invitation, the host doesn't get mad at them
or denounce them.
He simply goes on to invite others to his table.
We're left with this contrast: between the hospitality of a host that extends even to
strangers; and the rejection of his friends, the invited guests, who turn away when the
table is set.
These are the kinds of readings that leave me feeling deeply convicted.
Because I can get so wrapped up in my own desires for myself, in my own aspirations
and plans, that I can become lukewarm, more excited about my day-to-day responsibilities
than about entering the household of God.
I can become blind to the way God's love and hospitality far exceeds anything I could imagine
on my own.
We've covered a lot of ground today.
And to help work through what this all means for each us, we'll end as we always do: with
3 questions.
First, what are the "second things" that you're confusing for "first things?"
Maybe it's choosing school work over weekday church services?
Maybe it's catching up on rest on Sunday mornings?
What are your excuses that keep you from the table?
Second, how are you engaging in the spiritual war that Christ is calling us to?
And how are you not engaged?
Are their certain ways that you are taking the invitation seriously?
Are you praying fervently, communing regularly, confessing habitually, taking seriously the
hard work of cutting off the passions?
If not, what's keeping you from doing so?
Third, has there ever been a time in your life when you've wanted something and realized
that maybe God had other plans, plans that were bigger than anything you had in mind?
Even more fundamentally, are you open to being surprised by God's plan?
Or are you too set on your fields and oxen to be in a position to accept His invitation
to something more?
We'll be back with a new episode on Monday.
And my buddy Christian will have a short response video up on Thursday as he wrestles with these
questions.
I hope you'll read the Gospels and Epistle passages we covered today.
And, whether it's with family or friends or a Bible Study group, I hope you'll talk about
what we've covered and wrestle with what God has for you, in your life.
Most importantly, I hope you'll celebrate with us this Sunday and every Sunday, to hear
the beautiful Scripture readings proclaimed during the Divine Liturgy and to learn how
you can Live the Word.
Thanks for watching.
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