October 15, 2023 

Prelude
Lighting the Christ Candle

 

Welcome and Announcements 

 

Called to Worship: 

The Lord has called us to the banquet.
Humility needs to be our attitude; humility and gratitude.
Help us, O Lord, be grateful for the many ways in which you love us.
Help us return that love by the way in which we care for others.
Be with us, O Lord, this day.
Open our hearts to hear your words of hope and encouragement. AMEN.
 

Hymn:  671  I heard the voice of Jesus say

 

 

Prayer of Adoration 

Lord God, our Father, you keep speaking your Word to us through your Son Jesus Christ.  Help us to that word and welcome it with all that is in us.
Let that word change our mentality and our ways, that it may direct our life
to make it a lived message of Good News for all to see, to be inspired by, and to follow.  Let it be the living power that leads all to give you praise and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. But our desire does not always match our actions, so we humbly ask you to hear our confession as we say together:   

Prayer of Confession: 

God of infinite forgiveness, we implore you this day to forgive those many times in which we have neglected your invitation to feast with you and to share your mercy with the world. We let ourselves get distracted by schedules and activities which drain us of energy and enthusiasm. Light a fire under us, O God, that we may again feel the exciting challenge of being your people. Heal our wounds; bring us together in harmony and joy to serve you and your creation with peace, justice, and hope. It is in the name of your Son Jesus Christ, that we offer this prayer. AMEN. 

 

Assurance of Pardon 

You are God’s Beloved; with you, God is well pleased. 

In him you are renewed and restored;  forgiven and loved. 

You are a new creation in Christ, everything old has passed away; 

see, everything is becoming new.  Receive, Believe and share the good news of God’s love. Amen. 

 

The Peace 
Passing the Peace 

Hymn:  691 My shepherd is the King of love

 

Scripture:

Psalm 106: 1-6 p 944
 

Matthew 22:  1-14 p 1534
 

Sermon:  Save the date 

 This is a parable about a wedding banquet, and like all parables it has a depth of meaning that is not readily apparent.   

The King had already sent the save the date announcement, and now that the date had arrived, he sends out the servants to tell the people it is time to come. 

No one comes.   

Imagine that!   

All that money on the venue, and food and entertainment, and no one comes. 

So he sends the servants out again.   

They start to come back with the excuses.  I have to attend to my household or my business.   

Or even worse the servants come back beaten by the invitee, or not at all because they have been killed.   

Next the king sends the servants out to invite anyone they see.  The good, the bad, the poor, the homeless, the stranger and the foreigner.  It is about as inclusive a list of people as you can imagine.     

They all arrive and they all are welcomed.   

But then the king notices someone who does not have the proper clothing and that person is kicked out of the banquet. 

What are the questions that you have regarding this story? 

Why is the king so persistent with inviting that first group again and again? 

Why did he invite the good, the bad, the outcast at the end? 

Why did he penalize a person for being too poor to have the proper clothes? 

 

In reality this story is simply a retelling of the history of God and Israel in a very simplified way.   

Those 3 questions are very important in understanding this parable.   

Why the repeated invitations? 

The history of the people has always been invitation and disobedience.  Time after time God sends the prophets out to remind the people to turn back to God. 

Time after time, the people rejected the prophets, beat the prophets and even killed the prophets.   

And yet Israel are God’s people.  He has been in covenant with them since the days of Abraham. 

God’s love for them compels him to call them back again and again.  His holiness compels him to send them into exile.  This cycle keeps repeating itself.   

 

Prophet after prophet reminds them the Messiah is coming and to watch for the signs.   

There are even those prophets who point out that if the people will not be ready for the Messiah that there will be others called to the Table.   

Daniel talks about God gathering a new people and Zechariah tells them that God will be the King of all people on earth.   

We see Jesus saying essentially the same thing when he points out to those in leadership that if they do not turn again to God, that God will raise up for himself Children of Abraham from the stones. 

 

But why then give the invitation to the outcasts and the sinners? 

That dichotomy of the people of God who are rejected and the outcasts and strangers that are brought in, continues in the many encounters that Jesus has with Gentiles, sinners and outcasts in his journey. 

 

We recall the story of the Syro-Phonecian woman who finds Jesus resting and hiding from the crowds at a private home in Tyre.  She enters unbidden and seeks him out to request that he remove a demon from her daughter. 

He argues with her, saying that the food is for the children, and not for the dogs.  She responds that even the dogs are entitled to the crumbs under the table.  Then because of her faith, her daughter is healed and she goes home to find her daughter sleeping peacefully in bed. 

We see this again and again.  Jesus is repeatedly accused of sharing God’s gifts with those who are unworthy.   

Sinners.   

Tax-collectors.   

Women caught in adultery.    

Outcasts.   

Foreigners.   

 

The ministry that he has always been doing is expressed in this parable.  None of this should have come as a surprise to the disciples.  God’s repeated invitations are recorded in Scripture.  As are his warnings that the outsider will be blessed in the place of the people of Israel. 

Rahab, the harlot.   

Ruth, the foreigner.   

Namaan, the commander of the Syrian army.   

 

Jesus continues that tradition with the people he encountered, bringing the gifts of grace and healing to those not among the chosen.    

The woman at the well, divorced multiple times and now living with a man she is not married to.   

The Roman Centurion, part of the occupying army .   

Zachaeus, a tax collector and a collaborator with the Romans.   

 

It seems that insiders out and outsiders in, should not have been a surprise, and yet it was—despite what was revealed in Scripture and through the interactions of Jesus. 

That insiders and outsiders tension, continues after the resurrection as the disciples struggle with who is in the church and who is not.   

Although the church grew out of the Temple worship, there were many coming to the faith who were not Jews.  Some argued that people needed to convert to Judaism first.  Others argued that Grace was free for all.   

Paul and Peter each went their own ways because of this argument. 

From our vantage point as the church in the 21st Century we are grateful that the church was truly opened up to the gentiles, the foreigners and the outcasts, for we are counted in that number.   

We are the beneficiaries of grace, and we are called to be the ones who share that grace, not just with the good folk, but with sinners, outcasts, strangers, refugees, and even those who have betrayed God. 

This calling to share the grace can bring us up hard against the final question.  What about the person who is not wearing the right clothes? 

One of the commentators wrote that the words of James speak to this mandate when he says that the followers of Jesus will be known by their deeds.  When we are known by our deeds we are clothed in the righteousness of God.   

 

What are the deeds for which we are known? 

All of us know that the church is not perfect.  The members are made up of imperfect people and we stumble and fall along the way.  Our motives are not always pure.  We are not always obedient.  But we keep coming back to God, repenting, and showing the depths of our hearts, from which we love and serve God. 

 

However, it may surprise some of you to know that not everyone in the church loves Jesus and serves God.   

 

Some are antagonists, who try to pursue their agenda in every way.  Some that I have encountered bully and push their agenda in subtle and not so subtle ways.  They have brought people to tears and yelled at others saying that because they disagreed with said person and cut them off saying they are not welcome.  

It is always disheartening to encounter people who seem to be working against the church.  

The literature on this is varied.  Books like “antagonists in the church”, help you to sort out those who are righteous from those who are self-righteous. 

And speaking of righteousness that is the clothing that we are all meant to wear.  Not of our own making, but that righteousness which is the gift of God.   

We take that knowledge with an important caveat.  

We are warned not to be judge and jury because not all difficult people are antagonists.  More importantly, we are not God and it is not our place to judge.   We don’t know the background of everyone’s story.  Wisdom and Discernment are necessary here, as is Mercy. 

Another book on the subject is called Kingdom Zoology, discerning between the sheep, the wolves and the serpents.  Again are we qualified to judge between those in the zoo who may be sheep or wolves or serpents.   But we do need to develop the tenderness of grace along with the skills to discern the sheep from the others in the kingdom. 

That discernment is important.  Can a wolf have his nature altered with good food from on high?  Perhaps. 

But those serpents absolutely need to be addressed.  Their aim is to destroy the church.  From the days in the Garden with Adam and Eve, their aim is to separate people from God.  They are not wearing the clothing that entitles them to come to the banquet, and for the sake of the church they must be removed. 

What happens when they are not removed? 

The true story of that is told in the book, “The devil in pew 7”.    This person was a leader in the church and the community and seems to have run things with an iron fist.  But he gets things done and is tolerated to a degree.   

He declares that he is not in favour of the new minister and starts a campaign against him.  Eventually he shoots the minister.  It is only then that people realize just how dangerous he is.   

As unloving as that may sound, they need to be removed for the sake of the church. 

But they need not be out forever.  When the day comes that they turn their heart to Jesus and don the clothing of righteousness they will always be welcomed back.   

Everyone is welcomed when there is a change of heart.  The repentant sinner.  The one who has always be considered on the outside.  Even the ones like Judas who betray God.   

Again the invitation is inclusive of everyone, from everywhere.   

So.  The banquet is ready.   

We come to the banquet at God’s invitation and accept from him the righteousness with which to clothe ourselves with joy.  We celebrate and praise God.   

Then we serve and go forth to bring the invitation to others as the banquet continues. 

  Again and again, we are called to invite others to join the banquet.  Regardless of how we are received we continue the mission of God and invited people to come and see, come and feast.  

The banquet is ready.  Bring as many people as you can find to the table.  Amen 

 

Hymn: 672 Jesus calls us o’er the tumult

  

Offering and Offertory
Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer 

Great God of Heaven and Earth, you call us to leave behind our preoccupations and to follow you into the future.  Sometimes we find your call challenging.  We are comfortable, maybe even complacent, in our present. 

At this moment we pause to bring you these gifts.  Our tithes, our offerings, our love and our service.  May this act of giving be a gesture of our willingness to follow where you lead. 

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. 

 

Gathering Prayer Requests 
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer 

Blessed God, we thank you for all the blessings of this life.  We thank you for the gift of life and the gift of Christ, 

We praise you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, for your tender mercy and your saving love.  Let Your love, steadfast and faithful, living and growing within us be a great sign from heaven, may Your peace bend our will to your will, and may our lives in all ways be signs of heaven, signs of hope. 

Hear us now as we pray with hope for this congregation and for your world and its people… 

We bring our joys 

For the congregation.  Time with family.  Rain to put out fires 

 

 

 

WE bring the hurting places of your world. 

The people of Coquitlam after a school was destroyed by fire.
Those who have protested for peace and justice in the Middle East, peace and justice that will leave no more room for terrorist activity. 

 

 

 

WE pray for a world at war 

The Ukraine, defending itself against Russian aggression.
Israel responding to terrorist attacks from Hamas. 

For all the people in the path of bombs and guns and destruction.  

 

 

 

 

We thank you, God,  for calling us to the banquet, where we join together with our neighbor, or a stranger, or a refugee or immigrant.  We all come to seek your mercy with great thanksgiving for the wounds you have bound, and the safety with which you surround us.  Thus we commit to love you with all our heart, soul, and mind, and live together in the grace and mercy of Jesus, in whose name we pray, saying, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

 

 

 

Hymn:  634  Will you come and follow me

 

Charge and Benediction 

Go now, in the freedom of the gospel of Christ.
Encourage one another to lead lives worthy of God
and walk together in service and humility.
Let your words and your lives be one in Christ.

And may the God of lasting love open the way before you;
May Jesus the Messiah be your one instructor;
And may the Holy Spirit lead you on 

    into the promised land of God’s kingdom and glory.

 

Sung Blessing  Go now in Peace.

   

Go now in peace…never be afraid. God will go with you each hour of every day. Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true. Know He will guide you in all you do. Go now in love, and show you believe. Reach out to others so all the world can see. God will be there, watching from above. Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
3 Fold Amen