SERMON FOR THE 2nd SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

JUNE 05, 2005

ST. MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH, ORANGE, CALIFORNIA

Rev. Fr. Richard L. Stapp

    As always, the central figure in Jesus' parables identified as the "King", or the "Owner" or, as in this case, "A Certain Man", is the stand-in for God. From the Gospel: “A Certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that they were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.”

    We all know that in the ancient world an invitation to dinner was rarely for a time certain. But that there were usually two invitations. The first was a sort of early alert days in advance; and gave the invitee a chance to decline. The second invitation saying that things were now ready and that the invitees should come over was given to all those who had not hithertofore declined the invitation.

    Now, this parable is transparent as glass. Luke has told us in the first few paragraphs of this Chapter of his gospel, that Jesus is actually at dinner on the Jewish Sabbath in the house of one of the chief pharisees when he to use dinners and dinner invitations as a vehicle for his teaching.

    So, Jesus' fellow diners are immediately in the story both in a figurative sense as well as the in the physical act of being guests and having dinner.  Then our Lord tells them that those who were previously invited and had not declined the first invitation, now begin to make silly excuses. Jesus has them make flimsy excuses to make his point.

    The first one says he has bought a piece of ground, meaning a farm, and has to go have a look at it. There are very few of us who would ever buy investment property without having first had a look at it and all of the available records that concern that property. This excuse is pretty close to being insulting.

    The second one says he has got to test drive not one but five yoke of oxen that he has apparently purchased sight unseen and without any foreknowledge of their abilities or training. Another excuse that is transparently ridiculous.

    The third one is a bit more inventive. He is newly married and says that he wants to get to know his wife. But, wives are usually around for quite a while and taking a break for dinner is unlikely to upset the marriage.

    We should note that all of these alibis ring with a certa biblical validity. In Deuteronomy, men slated for military service could be excused on all of the grounds that Jesus gives in his parable.

    Our Lord has told us in Matthew's gospel, chapter 15, when petitioned by the Canaanite woman whose daughter was under the spell of a demon, that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Her faith was rewarded, nevertheless and her daughter freed of the devil. But, those lost sheep in our Lord's parable of the great supper are too caught up in the affairs of the world to grasp the meaning of the invitation to salvation.

    The host in the parable is now both confounded and highly annoyed. This dinner was a benefit conferred upon the invitees out of grace not obligation and the invitation was contemptuously spurned. Thereupon, the host sent his servant to invite the poor and other unfortunates; representing those condemned as sinners by the pharisees and the lawyers. There was still room left over and the servant was sent out again to gather those who would be compelled by the gospel to be saved and those are the guests found in the hedges and highways.
    
    In our world twenty centuries later, just outside the doors of St. Mary Magdalene Church, there are scores of thousands who have been invited to the feast of salvation. But, there are at least as many distractions now as there were when Jesus spoke the parable of the great supper in that pharisee's house so long ago.

    Nevertheless, there is a distinction between us and those who were at dinner with our Lord. We have the benefit of the risen Christ and the gospels. Not too much different, in a teaching sense than having Moses and the prophets, as was pointed out by Abraham to the rich man who suggested that his family would reform if one were sent from the dead to warn them.

    Parables are intended to spiritually instruct and enlighten by familiar example representing ideas that resonate in the experience of life. Parables are good but they are not theology.

    What is it that is worthwhile about life? Why are we Christians? Why are we in Church this Sunday morning hearing scripture and examining ourselves and our h s in the light of the Word of God?

    Well, there is no complex answer. There is a very simple answer which is that we are defined and our lives given rational and divinely ordained purpose in the service of God and his Kingdom. There is nothing more than that and yet that is a wonderful everything that will ever matter for us for all of eternity. The glory and reward of our relationship with God will transport us into realms of unimaginable fulfillment.

    The excuses given by the invitees in Jesus' parable of the great supper have a superficial genuiness that might, with some alteration for modem circumstances, suffice for a dinner host of our own time. But excuses grounded in a human effort to satis material wants or other comforts of the flesh, which things are to pass away, do not impress God.

    The Church now has the responsibility to extend the invitation to the great supper to all of humanity on behalf of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The Apostolic Church must articulate how much more important it is to save one's soul first and worry about the distractions of life second.

    That is not to say that having a roof over your head and the means with which to earn your daily bread are not important and do not make demands upon your time and attention. Marriage and sex are important to life and happiness. Nevertheless, God comes first and all right purpose in the universe is purpose that. serves God's will.

    The idea of what comes first in our lives calls to mind the story of Cain and Abel. St. John uses Cain in the paragraph that precedes our Epistle Lesson for this Sunday as an example of what sort of priority is wicked. Abel offered his best and first fruits to God. Cain simply made an offering. Cain's unrighteousness led to his hatred of his brother and that hatred resulted in murder.
Accordingly, St. John says that anyone who hates his brother is wicked and the world hates Christians. Therefore the world is wicked and Cain's hatred for his brother epitomizes that hatred.

    St. John then articulates a theology that illustrates God's love for his creation that is mirrored in Christians who love one another. This is not an emotional love; rather a love that has a practical expression wherein we see to the needs of our fellow Christians as well as others. It is a love that is not centered upon self but is derived from our obedience to the commands of God. A Christian conscience that reminds us of error is one of the hallmarks of a Christian.

    It is demonstrably true that every person who looks to himself as the center of existence has probably passed from being sane to insane. As one commentary on this scripture has framed it, the problem for every human being born into the world is to pass from death. into life. That cannot be done using the self as a map.

    The historian Arnold J. Toynbee offers us examples of humanity's effort to pass from death into life by immortalizing either themselves or their cultures with saviors. Saviors who would save the culture from decay with the sword or the scientist savior with the time machine; or, in our contemporary world, the celebrated medical scientist with stem cells from human embryos that will extend life as the body wears out or succumbs to disease.

    The use of human embryos for experimentation with the goal of extending human life or even treating human disease, is an abomination. This is radically different from the donation of a kidney or other human tissue from the cadaver of a dead person. This is the deliberate creation and sacrifice of God's gift of life for the futile end of extending life for the sake of life.

    There is no savior of humanity except Jesus, the Son of God. There is nothing that approximates the divine sacrifice upon the cross or comes anywhere near the love that God has for his creation. The profession of a morality that claims compassion the name of the destruction of human embryos or abortion for the sake of the fetus represents the madness that is at the heart of self love.

    There is no morality in fallen mankind. Without God at the center of our universe we are the source of chaos, lawlessness and incoherence.

    The purpose of human life is to serve God; not humankind. It is undoubtedly true that God may make use of political heroes and even medical saints that experiment on the unborn. In our Prayer Book Psalms and Lessons for Evening Prayer this first week in Trinity our attention is turned to the Persian Emperors who encouraged and financed the re-building of the First Temple in Jerusalem after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar in 540 BC.

    God had no interest in the Persian Empire which followed the fate of all empires; but he used it for his own pu pose. Likewise, God had no interest in the well being of the Ronan Empire. But he did use the Roman Empire as a vehicle for the spread of the gospel.

    God has little interest in the pretensions of mankind and particularly those which distract us from. our divine purpose making us worshipers of ourselves and our own inventions. Our Lord gave the dinner guests at the chief Pharisee's house a warning that applies to us as well. Refusing the invitation to dinner is a ticket to nowhere; or worse.

    As the psalmist says: "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth. 0 shut not up my soul with the sinners, nor my life with the bloodthirsty; In whose hands is wickedness, and their right hand is full of gifts.