COMPLACENT CROWD OR COMMISSIONED CHURCH
#498 COMPLACENT CROWD OR COMMISSIONED CHURCH
Scripture Luke 14:16-24, NIV Orig. 5-26-68
Rewr. 7-18-91
Passage: 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
Purpose: Addressing my people on the need for the followers of Christ to confirm in daily living all things vital in showing ourselves committed followers of Jesus.
Keywords: Christ Lord Commitment Complacency
Timeline/Series: Luke
Introduction
The article stared back at me from the daily paper (Town Talk, 5-24-67). The dateline, San Francisco, should have given it away at once. Weirdness seems to regularly first test its mettle there.
I read on anyway. “A well-proportioned brunette tiptoed through a hushed room decorated with a stuffed rat, two crows, and a skull. She took off her clothes and lay down on a leopard skin covering a mantle. All was ready for the baptism of a child.
“Anton Szandor Lavey,” continued the article, “who calls himself a sorcerer and the high priest of the First Church of Satan, baptized his gum-chewing three year old daughter Tuesday night as a hooded organist played ‘The Hymn to Satan.’”
We read such things with measured disgust, and tense up trying to pat ourselves on the back: “I thank God that I am not as other men.”
Do you suppose there is a difference in the mind of God? Think you that He sees this Satanism ploy any differently than He sees people in a Baptist, Methodist, etc., church, whose only telling influence is that they are gathered around an altar?
Here we are in our Sunday best. Some of us. Seated here in our comfortable, contemporary, even conservative pews. Add to that our disdain for what Lavey and his crowd conjure up. Is that enough to earn for us the favor of God? Or does it take personal response, commitment even, to be a follower of Christ?
I. The Signs of Complacency are Clearly About. V18 “And they all with one consent began to make excuse.” Actually, the three major concerns of life figure into this parable. One addresses his occupation, another his fascination, the last his adoration. So we examine one’s vocational life, the avocational life, the invocational life. See it as job, as fun, as church.
Remember, this is a parable, and therefore, contains teaching meant for our ears, too. Jesus was out touching lives: down-and-outers. He was at a feast in the home of a prominent Pharisee. It all started with a pontification. One of the guests said, V15 “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God.” He was inspired, perhaps convicted. Now he would inspire others. Jesus’ response was to direct his teaching to their complacency. Excuse, job-related: this piece of land has to be put to proper use. Excuse, avocation: pull-off involving five yoke of oxen, a tractor-pull. Excuse, religious devotion: “I have married a wife.”
Deuteronomy 24:5 tells us, “When a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business, but he shall be free at home . . . to cheer up his wife.”
So, in the parable, these guys have been honored by one more honorable than they. It was to be a festive occasion. They wanted, expected, to be invited, and would be insulted not to. The corollary, I would remind you, is our invitation to the faith feast honoring God’s Son. “I want, expect, to be invited,” you say, “but it must be convenient.”
We could spend a lot of time here talking about excuses. We could lose our jobs. We have let pleasure take us where it would; in the tractor/taffy pull, “Go for the gold!” We even use our religion as an excuse.
II. The Expectation Here is Commission. V16 “A certain man made a great supper and bade many.” V21 “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither.” The oriental feast had a special dimension. The invitation was for an appointed day. It was understood that the hour awaited preparation. They were to stay ready. They were to come when called. As they had accepted the invitation, they were to keep themselves available.
The wealth of talent in the contemporary church is extraordinary: People capable of turning the wheels of industry; professionals, teachers, gifted laborers. Imagine, all those talents dedicated.
Hey, I have an idea. Let’s dedicate our avocations to the Lord also. Did you see that delightful piece about Darryl Strawberry? He became a Christian, and he doesn’t play out of anger anymore. But how many athletes, musicians, entertainers, entrepreneurs, have a new mountain to climb? Christ is the Lord of what they are doing.
Very little of what it takes to be a Christian takes place here from 11 to 1. Does it bring you back at 7pm? What is your prayer life like? The worst excuse of all is blaming the pulpit.
Friendliness is an avocation: earnestness, enthusiasm. When you are out of your place, you have left a void that cannot be filled.
Leave some room for commitment invocationally, also. The chairs at the feast are going to be filled, not by the most worthy citizen, but by the most enthusiastic, the most responsive.
III. Finally, Do Not Overlook Intent. V24 “None of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.” Make no mistake, we are dealing with the purview of God here. The invitation went out clear to all in nature. Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, . . . so that they are without excuse." Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
But God’s invitation came yet again. Romans 8:1 “There is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ.” Here the meaning came clearly. The second invitation came, the clearest of directives. The feast is prepared, you must decide. Romans 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things, if God be for us, who can be against us?”
To ignore the summons, to be complacent about the invitation is to court disaster. V24 as above—“none that were bidden shall taste of my supper.” Romans 10:1f “My heart’s desire . . . for Israel is, that they might be saved. . . For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness. . . , and going about to establish their own righteousness. . . , have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
The message then of the parable is fourfold. It tells of the provision of the feast. It tells us of the people invited to the feast who think themselves worthy, who know themselves unworthy. It tells us of the prospect of complacency. It tells us of punishment awaiting negligence. So it is a promise of provision through faith.
Conclusion
A young man is said to have approached a holy man of India standing by the Ganges River. “How may I find God?” he speculated. The holy man seized him and thrust him violently under the water. “Why did you do that?” he sputtered. “When you long for God as you longed for air, you will find.”