Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“’A certain man made a great supper and bade many.’”
Our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ tells this parable of the Kingdom of God – though He doesn’t introduce it as such as He does on other occasions – He nevertheless tells it in response to a statement made by another at a meal noted in the verse previous to our parable. The unidentified soul, for reasons unknown, almost suddenly blurts out, “’Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God’” (Lk. 14:15). Whatever was behind this observation, this much is so: those invited to dine at the Master’s Table in His Kingdom are indeed blessed. “’Blessed are they that are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb’” (Rv. 19:9). In the Gospels, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is oftentimes situated in the context of a grand banquet. In St. Matthew, it is “’a certain king, who [makes] a marriage for his son.’” There in that parable, our Lord concludes, “’For many are called, but few are chosen’” – a sad reality confirmed as well in today’s parable in even starker, more chilling, words, “’For I say unto you that none of those men who were bidden shall taste of my supper’” (Mt. 22:1-14).
To cut to the chase, these parables about the Kingdom of God are parables about the Church, the steward of the great and heavenly Mysteries, the Body of the Son of God, the Bride of Christ God, the King’s Son, which, at the center, is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. From the moment the Priest intones, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” the trajectory of our worship in the Kingdom moves towards the consummation of our salvation and sanctification in the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of Jesus Himself. In that very act of eating the Flesh of our Lord and drinking His Blood we are united with His divinity and He with our humanity, thus making us partakers of His divine nature and recipients of His Holy Spirit (2 Pe. 1:4). So crucial is this, so critical, so absolutely indispensable for our salvation and sanctification, St. John Chrysostom admonishes his congregation in a sermon not to insult the great King and Master at His Table. “I beg you,” the saint implores,
not to put off coming to Holy Communion, but to render yourself worthy, both of being present in the church and of approaching the Altar. God has invited us to Heaven, to the Table of the great and wonderful King, and yet we shrink and hesitate, instead of hurrying and running to be there! What then is the hope of our salvation (What the Church Fathers Say About……)?
If the worship of God is, in fact, the eternal font of our salvation and sanctification – of our deification – then why do we not hurry to be here? Why do we allow other things to impede our salvation and union with God? What could be more important than the services of God’s house? Sure, we could make the excuse that we’re saved and sanctified in other ways, but is that thinking like an Orthodox Christian? Is that the mindset of the Church, the mind of Christ? As Orthodox we understand that God needs to be incarnated “for us men and for our salvation” (Nicene Creed). An old 19th century hymn – albeit a tad shmaltzy – reminds us, “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine, love was born at Christmas: star and angels gave the sign” (The Hymnal 1982).
Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ once told us in His Sermon on the Mount, “’But seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you’” (Mt. 6:33). This divine counsel and promise still stands 2,000 years later. Nothing has changed. God says to us His Kingdom takes priority. His Kingdom is first and it is that which governs and regulates our lives, gives us form and shape and substance. It is the waters of the Kingdom that give us birth as Christians and its divine Food nurtures us. It is for the Kingdom of God we have been created and called into existence, just as were our forefathers of ancient Israel. And, it is that which will receive us at our death so long as we remain faithful and obedient servants of the Master and Lord of the heavenly Manor.
Recall with me the opening words of the 10 Commandments which Sacred Scriptures says were spoken by God and recorded for His Prophet, Moses. “’I AM the Lord thy God . . . Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’” From this fountain flows all the other Commandments, specifically the remembrance or keeping of the Sabbath day as holy (Ex. 20:1-17; Dt. 5:6-21). Nothing has changed, except that the Church keeps the Lord’s Day, the Day of His Resurrection, as our holy day, along with maintaining a Sabbath Vigil. This remembrance is first among all other things that may or may not be classified as good, for which we may offer excuses to the Master. None of those things that impeded the guests invited in our parable were necessarily evil. If the devil tempted us with pure evil, it would be too easy to spot. What he does is he sets several good things before us from which we are to choose, thus driving the wedge. But, if we are focused, that is, if we have set our face like flint upon the New Jerusalem just like our Lord, we will see that which is necessary – the absolute good – is the Kingdom of God in the worship of His Church. And, if we offer unto God that which is rightfully due Him, “’all these other things’” will find their place according to His will, and our lives will be properly ordered around God and His Church.
Our Lord once told St. Photini by the well in Samaria that the Father seeks those who will worship Him (Jn. 4:19-24). From the opening chapter of Genesis to the concluding chapter of Revelation, worship is the reason for Adam’s creation and for our re-creation in Jesus Christ Who is the New Adam. In the Exodus, God summons His people to leave the darkness of Egypt behind and to come forth out of their enslavement in order to worship Him. This is what God tells Pharaoh, “’Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness’” (Ex. 5:1). Israel, as is the Church, is built around the worship of God. It gives Israel and the New Israel our identity. God makes His people “’a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’” for the express purpose of worship that will enlighten the nations (Ex. 19:6; 1 Pe. 2:9; Rv. 1:6). So important is the worship of God – the right worship (which is what Orthodox means along with right Faith) – that God finds it critical to give His people a blueprint for worship based on that which is in Heaven (Ex. 25:40; Hb. 8:5). This is also one of the reasons why God prohibited inter-marriage with the surrounding cultures because He understood the great allure of misguided worship which Israel eventually would fall to and away from God by being absorbed by those cultures.
Beloved, like God – though I am not God – I share a certain jealousy with Him regarding the souls and the salvation of His people. Sacred Scripture tells us that our God is a jealous God. Indeed, even as Moses says, God’s Name is Jealous (Ex. 20:5; 34:14; Na. 1:2). Thus, I want your souls for the King and His Kingdom and am obliged to the Master to speak His Word to His Church and her little baptized ones, even if it means some of us get upset. This is the perennial danger of preaching every preacher must be willing to shoulder and risk. Even the great “golden tongued” Archbishop of Constantinople, St. John Chrysostom, would prep his hearers, “Now what I am about to say will be disagreeable to you, but I must speak it nonetheless.”
Beloved, in these days of the Nativity Fast, let us take stock of how we treat God and approach Him. Like those poor souls in the parable who found themselves disinvited from the feast and disinherited, do we make our excuses to miss church or to arrive well beyond the opening blessing of grace, “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”? Is it because we treat the worship of God lightly, thinking it has no eternal consequences or bearing on our souls? Is this the mind of Christ? It is true that the Orthodox Church prays and worships a lot! But, that is as it should be because that is what the Church and her baptized do. That’s what’s been delivered to us from the Apostles. Our lives are centered around the worship of God. If a researcher were to do a study of our lives, would they conclude that the Church orients us or would they conclude that the world does?
In these days of Advent, let us re-orient ourselves to the Orient from on high. Yes, we may have purchased a new property, some livestock, or maybe even gotten married or had children, thank God! But, let these things as good as they are be oriented to the Kingdom of God which comes first. Let it be said of us at our funerals that we were devout and pious souls who loved to worship and pray. The essence of worship is the love of God and the love of neighbor. This is the priestly call of God rooted in the greatest of priestly acts – self-offering. “’For God so loved the world that He gave . . . .’” (Jn. 3:16). God the Father did not spare even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (Rm. 8:32). The Son of God so loved me, says the Apostle, that He gave Himself for me (Ga. 2:20). All of this is an offering up of worship which is to be like God! Worship provides us clarity, insight, refuge, hope, and joy, just as the Psalms assure us (Ps. 72 [73]:17). It allows us to be angry with God and to wait upon Him, to confess, “’Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!’” It is in the worship of God Who created us that we re-discover who we are and find our salvation. It is the proper response of all repentant souls (Jl. 2:15-17).
Worship is more than an act, however, though it certainly is that. It is who we are in the image of God and according to His likeness. It is our attitude toward life and our approach to living. It is rooted, unsurprsingly, in the Eucharist, that is, in the giving of thanks unto God, the sacrifice of praise, the very offering up of ourselves to God. In the words of our Blessed Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, “’Lord, let it be to me according to Thy word’” (Lk. 1:38). What greater gift is there than our salvation or the salvation of our children? What greater gift can we give our children in these days so full of gift-giving than to show them how much we love God by assembling with His Church, even if there is something else we could be doing?
Will we find ourselves among those blessed ones sitting at the Table of the great God in His Kingdom or will we find ourselves outside looking in like the five foolish virgins of another parable (Mt. 25:1-13)?
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
PROPERS:
Co. 3:4-11
Lk. 14:16-24