Opening Prayer
Lord, give us grace to follow Your heavenly call. Amen.
Text: Luke 14:16–24
Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ‘For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'”
Devotion
“All things are now ready,” we only have to come. Everything is ready for our salvation. We are only to receive it and thank God. The Savior has come, the sacrifice is offered, the blood is carried in, sin atoned, and eternal righteousness brought about. And all this is decreed and offered in God’s Word and Sacraments. The Lord Himself is there with His death and His life, His righteousness and love. The Spirit has come and has entered God’s house with the gifts of life, keeps the house supplied with heavenly good things and invites all with the urgent call of grace. Whoever accepts the invitation receives righteousness, peace, and joy unmerited. Here is just what we need, just what our heart hungers and thirsts for. Here is fellowship with the one true God, here is holiness and love and freedom, here is comfort and joy and refreshment, here is the power of life, here is the source of salvation. Our paradise must not be lost forever! Somewhere a haven for the restless human soul must be found! Here, in Christ’s Church, here in the great Supper, is the home of the soul. Here is a cure for sin and death, here is life and salvation. “Come, for all things are now ready.”
But those who were first invited reject it. The Jewish people did not want to believe in Christ. They wanted to have an earthly Savior, and so they rejected Jesus with the gifts of the Spirit and eternal life. Then God sent the call of grace to us Gentiles; but many of us did the same: sought after earthly things and rejected the heavenly, sought their success in creatures, in fields and cattle or in commerce and money, in luxury and sensual enjoyments, or in science and art. But whoever chooses these and rejects the riches of heaven loses both. Let us then learn wisdom from God’s Spirit and choose the good part, which shall not be taken away from us! Follow God’s call, give Him your heart, repent and believe in Jesus, receive His grace and let the Holy Spirit pour out God’s love in your soul. So let the heart be freed from the world, and no longer offer it to idols, for you are no longer a servant of corruption. For whoever finds the treasure of heaven sells all to get it. Whoever knows Jesus loves Him from his inmost heart and becomes His own with life and soul and goods and all gifts. But then he gets everything back again, both family and land, renewed and made dear by the hand of his heavenly Father, and now as a child of God he owns both body and soul, both earthly and heavenly things. Your secular dealings do not have to hinder you from the kingdom of heaven. Quite the opposite! It is the devil who changes everything. When you don’t have time to repent because of earthly busyness, then it’s just as foolish and unfounded as if a poor person doesn’t have time to receive a rich inheritance, because he must beg and live with drunkards.
All things are ready. God invites us earnestly and gives us power to follow the call. No one who stays away and is lost has any excuse. – The Lord’s house shall also be full. If you don’t want to take your place, then He will find another to fill it, but then there is no more room for you.
Closing Prayer
O draw us to You, Lord, and give us a portion in the kingdom of heaven. O Lord, You know what power earthly things have to hinder us, and You know how easily we let ourselves be deceived. Have mercy and help us! Help us to follow the call, and do not abandon us. Convert us, so that we are converted. Save us and we are saved. Amen.
Hymn
What good do pleasures yield us,
That quickly come and quickly go?
Can riches ever shield us
When death has stretched his mighty bow?
My Jesus’ throne of glory
Has treasures passing all;
All else is transitory
But heav’n with joy is full;
Compared to this, earth’s riches
Are worthless as the sand;
My heart, let Jesus teach us
Joys of the promised land.
I praise my God for sending
The joy that lasts both night and day.
A kingdom without ending
He has prepared from that great day.
The world is busy getting
What soon will pass away;
My crown in heav’n is waiting,
Prepared and laid away;
With God I reign forever
In heaven’s glory grand;
No trouble harms me ever
When this I understand.
Beck: Hvi skulde nogen være L 462:2-3 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Nun lob, mein Seel (ELH 456); alternate hymn: Come to Calvary’s holy mountain ELH 412:1-2