Pious Lutheran

The Great Banquet, Brunswick Monogrammist, between 1525-1545 Come, for everything is now ready Jesus is present now We fear the Lord now His gifts are ready now There are a plethora of disasters which could strike in our lives and cause us much fear. However, most healthy individuals don’t live in a constant state of fear of all of the bad things which could potentially happen. Rather, we usually just fear those dangers which are present and imminent. For example, we don’t run and hide in the basement every time a cloud passes overhead, but we do run in fear to the basement when there is a known tornado coming our way. With that in mind, what are the things that you fear? Hopefully, you are wise and on the top of your list is God. “ For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. ” Because the Lord is present now, and we would be wise to live with that mindset. The foolishness which many fall into is to believe that Jesus is not present now. It’s that foolishness which Jesus resp...

The Poor, the Lame, and the Blind called into the Supper,  The Story Bible from Genesis to Revelation, 1873 Evangelism Evangelism is inviting people to God’s feast. The invitation goes out to all, but some reject it. Regardless, God’s Kingdom will be full. How did you become a Christian? How is it that you’re sitting in these pews right now? Different people have different stories. Maybe you were baptized as a baby and never knew anything different. Or maybe sometime later in life you had some experience that ultimately brought you to faith in Jesus. Whatever it is that brought you here it all boils down to the same thing: somebody evangelized you and you heard the invitation to God’s feast. That’s what today’s Gospel reading focuses on: evangelism. “ A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. ” Often when we think of evangelism we think exclusively of telling the Gospel to someone who has never heard it before. That’s certainly evangelism, but evangelism is more than that. ...

Invitation to the Feast , Eugene Burnand, 1899 Looking back on our attendance records since the 1980’s we observe a consistent decline in baptisms, confirmations, and attendance on Sunday mornings. The fact that we have fewer people in our pews today than we did 20 years ago is not only our problem but it’s the problem Christianity faces throughout our nation. Compared to some churches, like holiness churches such as the Apostolics locally or the Amish or Hutterites nationally whose numbers have generally increased in the past century, we’ve done worse. But compared to the liberal mainline protestant denominations we’ve done much better. Regardless, we are significantly smaller than we were 40 years ago. Pastor Heath Curtis, the coordinator for LCMS Stewardship who has studied statistics and demographics throughout the LCMS recently said in a presentation to Iowa District West that just as the past decade has been hard, the next decade will likely be much harder. According to demograph...

Parable of the Great Banquet ,  the Brunswick Monogrammist , 1525 Wedding receptions are pretty big deals these days. A great deal of work goes into planning these receptions, which means you want to know who is all going to show up. Invitations get sent out months in advance in order to determine how many tables, chairs, and plates to prepare. The hosts do not want to run out of food or space for all the guests, because that would leave the guests disappointed and the hosts embarrassed.  For this reason, party crashers can be somewhat frustrating. People show up who you weren’t planning on, and they eat food and take space meant for someone else, and then you risk running out. In Jesus’ parable today, the issue is the opposite of party crashers, it’s people not showing up. “ A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to...

 I like to eat. I like banquets and feasts and dinner parties. I suspect I’m not alone in my proclivities towards supper. It’s something of a human characteristic to take great joy in food and having suppers. Whenever we have big parties, be it a holiday gathering, a wedding, a birthday, or a reunion, the central event is a meal of some sort.  A meal, the large Sabbath day supper, is the context for today’s Gospel. “One Sabbath, Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees...When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” ” From this earthly banquet, which the man is enjoying with Jesus, they turn to the heavenly banquet which takes place in the kingdom of God. Indeed, the scriptures themselves are filled with suppers, but not suppers which fill only our bellies, rather, the scriptures point us to the greater suppers beyond this life.  So for a few minutes t...

“ Come, for everything is now ready. ” What more joyous words have ever been spoken than that simple invitation to the banquet feast? Christ declares today that His heavenly banquet feast is ready! A banquet has been planned, the tables professionally arranged, the food delicately and magnificently prepared, the seats have been set, the musicians have arrived and warmed up, and now everything is ready. You hear the servant’s call; it’s time to go and feast at the banquet.  The man was right who sat near Jesus and said, “ blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God! ” Trully, blessed is everyone who dines at the Lord’s table in His kingdom. What does this feast consist of? Well we read in Proverbs, “ Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight. ” The bread and wine that Proverbs describes is instruction in the Word of the Lord. “ Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wis...