The Grace of Giving: The Invitation

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Fall Stewardship Series – Week 2

October 15, 2023

Matthew 22:1-14

“The Grace of Giving: The Invitation”

“In a famous experiment the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking [1942-2018] once held a dinner party where no one showed up. Unlike most parties where the invitations are sent before the party happens, Hawking sent his invitations after the event. Fitting, since he was targeting a more select audience of time travelers from the future” (Sundays and Seasons. Minneapolis: Augsburg-Fortress, 2022; p. 267). Invitations are not what they used to be. It’s very common today for invitations to all kinds of events – even weddings – to receive no response from at least some of those who have been invited. Increasingly, the inviter has to chase down invitees to find out if they’re coming or not. This is what social etiquette guide, Emily Post, wrote about this some years ago: “Anyone who receives an invitation has an important obligation to reply as soon as possible. And yet so many don’t. Some forget; others procrastinate and then feel guilty, so they delay even longer. To many a host on the non-receiving end of an RSVP, it seems as if an invitee is simply waiting for something ‘better’ to possibly come along. One of the sad parts about the demise of the RSVP is that relationships often suffer due to hosts’ resultant hurt feelings and frustration” (What to Do When Guests Don't RSVP — Emily Post). Invitations are before us today in the Gospel lesson as Jesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet. Our 4-week Fall Stewardship series, “The Grace of Giving,” continues today as we focus on “The Invitation.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

By way of review, our key Scripture verse for this stewardship series comes from Paul the apostle. I invite you to read this verse together: “But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7). Last week, we considered Jesus’ parable of the tenants in the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46), affirming the truth that Christian stewardship doesn’t begin with us, but with God. God is the Maker and Owner of heaven and earth. We are just the caretakers and tenants of what belongs to God. God sent his own beloved Son into the vineyard to suffer and die for us and for our salvation. Over the next two weeks, we will continue this theme until it concludes on Reformation Sunday, October 29, when our commitments for ministry in 2024 will be dedicated to the Lord.

Looking at Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel lesson, it appears that non-responses to invitations are nothing new. But we have to remember that Jesus’ parables were originally understood as being so far-fetched that they bordered on the outrageous. Those who heard the parable were thus drawn into the telling as well as the meaning of it. It would have been absolutely unheard of in Jesus’ day for people to respond to a wedding invitation – in this case, a royal wedding invitation – with such lame excuses. The true colors of those non-responders were then revealed: total indifference and apathy that was so disrespectful and offensive as not to be believed. As we read: “But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized [the king’s] servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them” (Matthew 22:5-6). Unreal! But the king is undeterred in his plans to make sure the wedding hall was filled with people. Others were invited, as we’re told “both good and bad” (Matthew 22:10).

This is the grace of giving: that we, too, have received an invitation to the King’s banquet. We hear about this banquet in today’s Old Testament lesson (Isaiah 25:6-9): a feast with rich food and well-aged wine. It is Easter dinner for the Lord God himself has swallowed up death forever! In Jesus’ victory over death and the grave, as we sing in the Easter season, “This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia!” Now, how will we respond to that invitation? Will we make up excuses because our busy and distracted lives don’t allow time for this? You don’t get in wearing old, tattered clothes to a royal wedding banquet. The one man in Jesus’ parable tried and it didn’t go well for him. The King’s gracious invitation stands before us, but we need to be properly attired. We need to have the right clothes. Flipflops, sweatpants and an old T-shirt won’t cut it! The grace of giving moves from receiving an invitation to receiving the right clothes. The King himself provides us with what is needed – clothing that is not our own, as the Word of God tells us: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10a). The grace of giving means that we wear these clothes only by the grace of God and only because they have first been dipped in the cleansing blood of Jesus. The garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness come to us through faith in all that God in Christ has done for us. We first receive this in the cleansing waters of holy Baptism, where we die to sin and rise to new life in Christ Jesus. We are blessed to receive a foretaste of that heavenly wedding banquet here in the Lord’s Supper to strengthen and sustain us in our journey of faith. And being thus strengthened and sustained through the Body and Blood of Christ, we go forth that we may “not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

As we think about all of this – being clothed with Christ’s own righteousness and the invitation we have received to the banquet of the King and the grace of giving behind it – what is our response? How do we express our thankfulness to our King for his grace of giving toward us? Led by the Holy Spirit, we respond with grace-filled giving that will both honor the Lord and bless our neighbor. Moved by the love of Jesus, we freely and joyfully give of our selves, our time, and our possessions. This will look different in each of our lives with the means and the opportunities that the Lord provides. In all of this, the grace of giving is most assuredly sacrificial giving, as Jesus showed us with his life-giving death upon the cross. It follows, then, that our own giving should also be sacrificial – not the cast-offs or leftovers of our lives after everything else has been taken care of. Sacrificial and grace-filled giving trusts that the Lord will provide, even as Paul tells us at the close of today’s Epistle lesson: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11b-13).

May the Lord’s grace of giving in each of our lives abound for much good in our lives so that the kingdom of God may indeed come among us and that the good and gracious will of God may truly be done on earth as it is in heaven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen