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RSVP to God—Now

            “Are you ready?  Let’s go!  Let’s go!  The wedding reception starts at six o’clock.”  Substitute any event you want.  Switch it from a wedding reception to a play or a ball game or a movie.  You’ve been in that situation.  You want to get going to wherever it is you are going, and you are wondering if the person you are going with will ever be ready.

            Today I want you to shift places.  I don’t mean you have to get up from where you are sitting and move to a different pew (preferably closer to the front).  I mean that I would like you to use your imagination and shift from being the one impatiently tapping the foot and put yourself in the place of two different people.  First, put yourself in the shoes of the one who has arranged the reception banquet or is performing in the play or playing in the ball game or running the movie theater.  Second, put yourself in the shoes of the one who is trying to get his or her shoes on.  I’m asking you to do that because I believe it will enhance your worship today and your understanding of one important aspect of your life every day before Judgment Day, namely, responding to God’s invitation.

            Most of us don’t speak French, but we see it on invitations – the abbreviation RSVP.  It stands for respondez, s’il vous plait, “Respond, if you please.”  God sends us an invitation today through this parable recorded in Matthew chapter twenty-two in which Jesus urges us to RSVP to God – Now.

The banquet is ready

            Jesus does not offer a lot of details about the preparation of this wedding banquet or the items on the menu.  He simply begins his story by saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.”  It is not important for the main point of the story to know the details.  It is enough for us to picture this banquet as elaborate, elegant, and exquisite, grand, great, and glorious, matchless, magnificent, and marvelous, superb, sublime, and sumptuous.  Other than that, we don’t have any details.

            The one point of the story we do know is what the banquet stands for.  It is a picture of what it means to be in the sphere of God’s love.  And the most important factor for us to know is that it’s a done deal.  When the king sent out the invitations, he did not send his servants with the message, “The king would like you to come to his banquet hall for a delicious banquet which you will enjoy right after you scrub the floors and wash the windows.”  The servants did not say, “The king is inviting you to a banquet, but it’s b.y.o.s. – bring your own steak.”  Nor did the servants say, “The king would like you to join him at a banquet.  Tickets are on sale at TicketMaster for just $29.99 per person or $39.99 if you want soup, salad, and dessert.”  No!  In the story the king made it abundantly clear, especially in the second wave of invitations, “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready.” The meal is ready.  It’s done.  It is finished.

            God is holy and unchanging.  His standards are set in stone.  He says, “If you want to connect with me and be truly happy now and forever, then you have to match up to my standards.  Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).  We say, “Lord, that’s impossible.”  He responds, “That’s right.  It is impossible for you.”  But instead of continuing by saying, “Tough luck!  Greet the devil for me when you see him,” God says, “What you cannot do, I am sending my Son to do.”  Jesus did it.  He lived up to the full measure of God’s expectations.  He matched every detail of God’s demands.  “It is finished,” he cried from the cross.  There is no more to do, and nothing anyone could do.  Now here’s the good part.  God counts what Jesus did as though we did it.  That’s the banquet of God’s love.  That’s what’s on the menu.

            God is holy and just.  He demands that anyone who violates his holy standards has to make up for it, has to pay for his or her mistakes and misdeeds.  What is the price?  What is the payment?  It is not a string of prayers.  It is not a whole month’s worth of being civil to your in-laws.  It is not trying to tell the truth.  It is hell.  It is making a payment that involves being pushed away by God and slapped down by his anger.  We say, “Lord, we don’t want to do that.”  He responds, “I know.  What you do not want to do, I am sending my Son to do.”  Jesus did it.  He paid the full price for our sins to satisfy God’s justice.  “It is finished,” he cried from the cross.  There is no more payment to make, and nothing anyone has to pay.  Now here’s the good part.  God counts what Jesus paid as though we paid it.  That’s the banquet of God’s love.  That’s what’s on the menu.

            You’ve probably heard this before, but I’ll tell it anyway because it fits.  Dad decided to take his little five-year-old daughter to the ball game.  It happened to be “Glove Night.”  As they walked through the turnstiles, a ballpark employee handed a glove to the little girl, but when Dad looked down, he saw tears streaming down her cheeks.  “What’s the matter, Honey?” he asked.  Choking back the tears, the little girl replied, “Daddy, I really wanted to come to the game, but I didn’t want to have to play.”  She thought she had to do something to make the game happen.

            Imagine if God appeared to you on your way out the door today and said, “If you want forgiveness, you are going to have to play the game of human life, and you’ll have to play by all of my rules all of the time.  Otherwise, no forgiveness of sins for you!”  Thank God, he simply invites, “Come to the ... banquet.”  The very fact that way too often we blow it and do not play by his rules is why we stick our noses back in the Bible, why we unload our fears with a Christian friend who is willing to listen and then ready to speak, “You’re forgiven,” why we come to worship every week, why walk down this aisle to his meal every other week.  We say, “Lord, we have sinned,” and he responds, “I know.  But Jesus didn’t.  The blessings of the banquet of my love are yours anyway.  He earned them, and he gives them to you.  The meal is ready.  It is done.  Come to the ... banquet.”  My friends, RSVP to God – now!

Are you?

            In his parable, our Lord may not have given us details about the preparations for the banquet, but he did offer descriptions of reactions to the invitation.  The reactions come in two basic categories: those who responded, “You bet!” and those who responded, “Not interested!”  In the “not interested” category were some afflicted with apathy and some filled with enmity.  The king sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.  Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner’ ...  But they paid no attention and went off – one to his field, another to his business.  The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

            In the “You bet!” category were all sorts of others.  “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.”  We hear nothing about what they did to make themselves “ready.”  All we know is that they heard the invitation, responded with a “Yes,” and enjoyed the party.  However, there is one nuance to the story that Jesus does not state outright, but when we read between the lines, we get the full picture.  Apparently, in order to get into the banquet hall, to remain at the banquet table, and to get full enjoyment of the party, those who were invited had to have the proper attire.  And the proper wedding clothes were several clicks above “no shirt, no shoes, no service.”  How did those who were invited get the proper clothes, especially if they came in right off the streets from digging their ditches and sheering their lambs and driving their chariots on the freeway and clicking on their computers and playing with their kids and mowing their lawn?  Obviously, the banquet host handed out gorgeous wedding clothes to those who were invited – free of charge, with no deposit, and no due date to turn them in.  We get that impression from a scene at the end of Jesus’ story revolving around a guest who must have said, “You can hand me whatever outfit you want.  I’m not going to put those wedding clothes on.”  When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  “Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?”  The man was speechless.  Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            Jesus urges us to RSVP to God – now.  We are stunned and grateful for the invitation, but are we ready?  Where are we going to get those wedding clothes so we can stay in the banquet of God’s love because people without the proper attire will be hog-tied and hell-bound.  What do we do to get the right robes?  The answer is – Nothing!  Jesus hands out the robe of his righteousness and clothes you and me.

            So stubborn we can be, refusing wedding clothes, searching, asking wondering, “Am I ready?” driving ourselves nuts by looking to inner resources or abilities, thinking like we would if we got an invitation to a ritzy wedding reception, “What am I going to wear?  Can I afford a tux?  How will I ever pick out a wedding gown that doesn’t make me look too fat and is still somewhat flattering?”  I suppose it’s only natural for us to think that, when God says, “The banquet is ready,” the next question we expect him to ask is, “Are you ready?” in other words, “What are you doing to get yourselves ready?”

            To get the answer and to be at peace with yourself, don’t start looking on-line for a reasonably priced tuxedo to rent.  Don’t clear your calendar for a day or two of shopping at all the evening gown stores.  Just look again at what Jesus has done to clothe you in his righteousness.  Listen to the apostle, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ”(Galatians 3:27).  That is a historic fact that you cannot change or undo, unless you can construct a time machine, zoom back two thousand years, and shove Jesus back in his tomb, or re-nail him to the cross.  So, when your physical health is sagging and ouchies keep nagging, are you ready to RSVP to God?  Yes!  You’re wearing the right clothes.  When your marriage relationship stagnates, and you’re working to figure it out but haven’t got back to where God would want you to be, are you ready to RSVP to God?  Yes!  You’re wearing the right clothes.  When work piles on, when the folks have to go to nursing home, when the baby is coughing and wheezing in the middle of the night, when the demands of the schedule seem to overwhelm you, when you can’t seem to find the right job, when the stock market crashes and your retirement investments seem to be sinking like the Titanic, are you ready to RSVP to God?  Yes!  You’re wearing the right clothes.

            If a famous star or your favorite country singer or comedian or actor or sports star is getting married and sent you an invitation to the reception, how would you respond?  “I can’t believe it!  What will I wear?  I’ll need a tuxedo or a gown.  I can’t afford it.”  But what if you were informed, “Don’t worry!  You will be supplied with superb sartorial splendor at the door.  There will be a private changing room for you upon your arrival,” would you respond, “Oh, my calendar is full.  I’ve got to polish the dog.  I’ve got to do my nails.  I’ve got to pick lint from my shirt pockets.  I’m just so busy” or would you respond by saying, “I don’t think it will be any fun” or “I won’t know anybody there”?  Wouldn’t you RSVP, “Yes!  I’m ready!”

            Every single day when you crack open your eyelids – no matter how gloomy it looks outside, no matter how gloomy you feel inside – every single day is the day of salvation.  Jesus has prepared a banquet just for us.  Jesus has supplied the right clothes.  God says, “Come, for all things are ready.”  My friends, RSVP to God – now!  Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on October 5, 2008

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Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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