You do not know the day or the hour

 Read Matthew 25:1-13

Let’s go to the end of the parable.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Much of professional sports involves clock management: knowing when to stay in bounds and run the clock down and when to go for the last shot of the half or the game.

Some sports don’t have a clock. Baseball is an example. It’s not over ‘til it’s over.

I took Heather to an Iowa Cubs game in the late 1980s. The visiting team was putting a whooping on the Cubs. About the seventh inning, Heather asked, can we go now?

Dad, being Dad, said, “It’s not over, ‘til it’s over.” The actual Yogi Berra quote was, “It ain’t over, ‘til it’s over.”

I remember that game. The Cubs came back and tied the game. That took awhile. Then there were the extra innings, probably five or six of them. Just before midnight, the Cubs came back and won it. The two Spences and seven other people celebrated the win.

Dad was tired, but it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Other sports, like soccer, have a clock, but you don’t always know when the game ends. I didn’t grow up with soccer, so the concept seems strange, but it is probably the most comparable to our lives of the sports examples that I can muster.

We have calendars and clocks, but we do not know the day or the hour of the Lord's return. We can see the season but not the divine appointment.

So, we can reasonably say we are in the season, so how do we keep watch? What is it that we should be watching for?

Deception, that’s what. As the end grows near, deception will reach new levels.

Only by being vigilant can we endure what is to come. The casual Christianity of this time won’t cut it. We are vulnerable. Life is so easy that our nature will be to trade the truth for the illusion of security.

We have all become accustomed to an easy life. Even with our trials, life is too easy for our own good. Will deception leverage our comfort? Absolutely!

Our desire for comfort makes us vulnerable to deception.

Yes, we deal with situations at work, situations at school, loss of jobs, illness, cancer, death of friends and family, but as far as living for Christ, we have not yet been tested.

We have been pampered. Life is easy in our time. That ease is a luxury that can make us vulnerable to temptation and deceit. Be ready, keep watch, and stay awake.

Do not be deceived.

We don’t know when our Master will return so we must always be ready. In our daily readiness, we increase our resistance and reduce our vulnerability to deceit and deception.

In our daily readiness, we increase our resistance and reduce our vulnerability to deceit and deception.

Keep watch! We don’t know the day or the hour.

What if we did? Would we change something?

We did the One Month to Live challenge several years ago. It asked us what would we do if we knew we only had one month to live.  What would we do? More accurately, what would we do differently?

I hope that we can say we wouldn’t do anything differently. It seems unlikely, but that is how we should live.

The day and the hour of the Lord’s return should not impact how we live this day. We must always live for him.

The day and the hour of the Lord’s return should not impact how we live this day.

That’s through joy and sorrow, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health… I hope somebody brought the rings and booked the fellowship hall for a reception.

We are the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. Take those as metaphors, not allegories. Some try to separate Christians as the body of Christ from Jews as the bride of Christ. Allegory is a stretch here.

The biblical witness we know tells us we will be one in Christ. The question before us is, would we do anything differently if we knew we would die tomorrow or in two weeks?

I hope not!

But we probably would do something or some things differently. Why? Maybe, we are not ready for the Lord’s return. We cry out Maranatha but are we sure that we are ready?

Is there someone we need to forgive? Why wait for a deadline?

Is there someone with whom we should have shared the gospel? What are we waiting for?

Does that kid across the street need a coat for this winter? Who among us would say that that kid can wait another year unless Jesus is coming before Christmas?

We should live daily as if we only have one or two days left.  That is the nature and disposition of the believer. We do what we know to do, and we do it today.

We are always ready and always vigilant. How do we get and stay that way?

Do we need a checklist? No, but having one can’t hurt.  Every day, we should:

·       Pray..

·       Read our Bibles.

·       Find at least one person to share the love of God that we know in Christ and share the story of salvation that is waiting for them.

·       Help someone less fortunate than ourselves—the least of these our brothers and sisters.

·       Bring up our children in the way they should go.

·       Give thanks to God.

·       Put what God has given us to work now.

·       Be known as a follower of Jesus by our love.

·       Be teachable and seek the judgment of God’s word in our lives.

·       Have ears to hear the Spirit of God that lives within us

Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

We need a readiness program. Be ready by putting the words of our Master into practice every day. Putting his words into practice is readiness.

Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Be ready today and every day. Jesus is coming…soon.

Amen.

Matthew 22 - Part 1

 

Read Matthew 22

At the end of Chapter 21, the Pharisees, Priests, and other religious hypocrites realized that Jesus had been talking about them as the ones who had rejected God by rejecting his Son.

They were not happy about this and felt helpless at that time because the crowds that gathered thought Jesus to be a prophet.  He taught with authority, not like the religious hypocrites taught, but they began their plans to arrest him and kill him.

While the religious hypocrites planned their next move, Jesus continued teaching with another Parable.

It begins with the kingdom of heaven is like…

While there are instances where we could make this parable allegorical, as the author of the parable chose to use this literary tool to give us insight into the kingdom of heaven, we should seek that insight as well.

A king had prepared a wedding banquet for his Son.  Many had been invited over the past months or maybe even years.  There was no RSVP.  You were just expected to be there, though you didn’t know the exact date or time.  You were invited.

When the time grew near, messengers would let you know that it was time to come to the banquet.

In the parable, the servants took the message to many that it was time to come to the wedding banquet.  Nobody came.  Nobody responded to what was surely the biggest event of that time.  More messengers are sent.  Nobody came.

The invitees had their excuses in order—work, school, soccer practice, Netflix binge, and probably COVID-1.  Business as usual was the choice of those invited to the banquet. 

Perhaps, it went a little farther than just choosing the daily routine over the banquet of a lifetime.  Some of the servant messengers were mistreated and even killed by those who were invited but just didn’t have time to attend.

This was more than just a no thank you.  This was rebellion against the king.

They had time to kill the messengers but not to come to the banquet of a lifetime. 

In the parable of the tenants, we compare the Landowner to God and the servants to the prophets and we could do that again here, but let us instead focus on the reaction of those who had been invited to the banquet.

They had other things to do.

They rejected the invitation.

They went so far as to shoot the messenger.  There were no bullets in the first century, but the metaphor applies.

Normally, you shoot the messenger when he brings bad news.  Here the messengers brought wonderful news—not only are you invited, but it is time to put on your dress blues or dress whites tell you wife to put on her evening gown and go celebrate with elaborate dining and entertainment.

The king was not happy with those who did not respond by coming to his banquet.  In fact, the parable tells us that he sent his army to destroy these rebels.

You might want to think twice before you skip out on that next baby shower.

The king sent out more messengers to invite whomever they came across.  Whosoever will may come!

You think that the movie title The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was original, but that was the second invitation list in this parable.  That filled the wedding hall.

But when the king arrived, one man had not dressed for the occasion.    The king went to him straight away and asked him how he got in wearing those clothes.  The man was speechless.

The king had the man bound hands and feet and thrown out.  The king was serious about this banquet.

The text says the man was thrown out into the darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.  This parable has many coming to bad endings. 

Some are too busy to come.  Some have more important things to do.  Some don’t change out of their work clothes as if they were just stopping in to get something at the deli in Walmart.

And some who most would have thought didn’t belong got to enjoy the banquet given by the king.

Remember that this parable follows closely behind the parable of the two sons where Jesus told the Pharisees and other religious hypocrites that the tax collectors and prostitutes would enter the kingdom of heaven ahead of them.

This parable immediately follows the parable of the tenants where Jesus told these same hypocrites that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce fruit.

Now we see the same thing in this parable with the setting of a banquet.  This section ends with these words.

For many are invited but few are chosen.

Many are called but few are chosen.

God desires none to perish but he lets us make our own decisions.  He chose us but how will we respond?  We have been invited. Usually, our decisions don’t involve a fancy banquet with the king, but they do involve choosing to live for God.  They involve showing mercy to those who could never repay us.

Those decisions involve being rich towards God.  Those decisions involve making Christ Jesus the cornerstone of our lives.

When God invites to live to the full, we dress up and live it up.  Remember this is a parable that gives us insight into the kingdom of heaven. We should first make analogy to the kingdom which is available to us now.

Living it up might involve helping others but we respond to God’s invitations.  We become known as disciples of Christ Jesus by our love.  Our banquet clothes consist of love, mercy, generosity, and faithfulness to the One who made us and redeemed us. 

When its time for the banquet in the age to come and the roll is called up yonder, we will be there, and dressed in our best.

Amen.

John 2 - Part 1

Read John 2

John’s gospel doesn’t take us from the Jordan to 40 days in the wilderness.  Instead, Jesus and his disciples are in Cana for a wedding.  His mother is also there.  Then the unthinkable happens.  The host runs out of wine.

The people have surely been drinking freely, that is they probably already had more than they would at a meal in their own household, but hey, it’s a wedding.  Except for the fact that the wine is about to stop flowing.

The bride and the groom are probably not worried about the wine.  Their day has come and wine is probably the least of their thoughts and concerns.  In fact, the groom probably remembers the story of Jacob and wants to make sure that he doesn’t drink too much.  But for the guests, it’s a big deal.

So, Mary comes to her son who also happens to be the Son of God, but most don’t know that part yet.  She explains the situation, but Jesus replies, what’s that got to do with me?

Jesus was not the family logistics specialist.  He was on a mission and performing a miracle did not seem to be on his Plan of the Day.  He noted that his hour has not yet come.

His mother does not argue with him.  He is a grown man and that would not be appropriate even if he were not the Son of God.  She simply tells the servants to do what he says.

Moms, you’ve got to love ‘em. 

Jesus commands the servants to fill six very large stone jars used for water.  We think that they would collectively hold 120-180 gallons of water. 

After they had done this, Jesus told them to draw out a little of the water and take it to the master of the banquet, who we can only speculate was a little stressed at the moment.  They did.

The master of the banquet was amazed.  He noted that most people bring out the good wine followed by the cheap stuff.  It makes sense.  After a few glasses, folks are not apt to notice that the quality has gone down a little.

But here the wine presented is the best of the day.  Jesus turned water into wine and it was the best ever.

I have told people that I know if they ever find a bottle of wine that can be authenticated from Cana, AD thirty-something to buy it.  I’m good for it.

This was not so much about wine as it was about Jesus doing more than any person could do.  He had begun his ministry calling disciples and now they knew they were following no ordinary Rabbi.  At least one had already professed him to be the Son of God.

It did not seem that Jesus wanted to reveal this much about himself at this time, but surely, his schedule had been accelerated.  With this miracle, his ministry jumped into full gear.  There was no mobilization or ramp-up period. 

It was Game On!

The ministry of our Savior and our Lord had begun.

Amen.

Parable: The Wedding Banquet

Read Matthew 22:1-14

For many are called but few are chosen.  It sounds more like a recruiting poster for the Marines or the SEAL teams than the biblical witness that proclaims whosover will may come.  As we look at his parable, let this verse resonate in your mind.

For many are called but few are chosen.

Now to the parable.  Once again, we have Pharisees and religious leaders trapped in the crowd of people who think that Jesus is a prophet or maybe even the Messiah.  The religious hierarchy wants Jesus out of the way but for the moment, they are stuck with him as he launches into his third parable in a row that seems to put these self-righteous leaders squarely in his sights.

There could be some allegory at play here but the message comes through with or without it.  If you want to go with the allegory, the king is God the Father.  The son is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Those originally invited are the Hebrew people.  Those invited later are the Gentiles.  Servants once again would be the prophets.  Some variations apply.

This is also a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven.  How do we know this?  Jesus said it was.

It differs somewhat from the previous parable in that the Landowner expected something from the tenants.  They should have given him what was due him.  In this parable from Matthew’s twenty-second chapter, the King—God if we go with the allegory—is being generous. He is extending grace.  He has a wonderful invitation.

We struggle to understand this today.  People get engaged.  They set a wedding date.  Sometimes they even send out hard copy invitations, and people come if they can.  For people that you know well, you want to come and be a part of this wonderful event; but there is work, school, sometimes both, kids, sports, doctor’s visits, dental appointments, the bills need paid, the car needs tags and new tires, online passwords have to be updated, the dishes need washed, and the grass needs cut.  That’s probably the short list for many of you.

If you can make it, you can make it.  If not, well that’s just life.  Sometimes you just have to make sure that you have a quorum—pastor, bride, groom, and a couple of witnesses.  Everyone else is icing on the wedding cake.

But in this parable, the king sends out the invitation.  This is not an ad hoc event.  The wedding banquet is not a shotgun affair.  It is not impromptu or off the cuff.  Those invited have expected this invitation for some time, and now the time has come.  In the allegorical sense, the Hebrew people have expected God to call them as his bride for ages.

This is not a banquet on a budget.  During marriage counseling, I stress the point that the couple needs to budget for the marriage and not put themselves into hock for the wedding ceremony.  I pray that wisdom rules at this early juncture.

But in the parable, this is not a banquet on a budget.  It’s not a reception with ginger ale and finger foods.  There is a feast to follow this wedding. This is a big deal!  You wouldn’t miss it for anything.

Yet, the servants sent out with invitations were ignored, given excuses, and sometimes even abused or killed.  Hold on a minute!  Put yourself behind the phylactery for a moment; the very invitation that you had wanted all of your life arrives and you have something else to do.  Really?

Oh, couldn’t he have picked another week?

If I don’t get my taxes done this week, I don’t know what will happen.

Who does this guy think he is to hold an event on Wednesday night?  I’ve got church!

I wonder if when God sends his Son back to claim his people, if he will have the respect for our schedule.  I mean he surely wouldn’t do this on a Sunday morning or Wednesday evening.  Hopefully it won’t be while I am in the middle of watching NCIS.  I don’t like that much television but I do like my NCIS. Surely, he won’t schedule this during my television time.

Now you know that this parable has value for us, but for now just picture the Pharisees squarely in the  sights of Jesus. 

The king destroys the cities where they killed his servants.  If we get allegorical, this could be God using the Roman Empire—as he has used the Assyrians and Babylonians before—to destroy the temple and much of Jerusalem.  It could be destruction reserved for the end of the age.

It could be that we who live in this modern century, need to understand that God still has wrath—anger—and it will be poured out on the rebellious and the wicked.  We will never receive it but God’s anger still burns against wickedness.

The Pharisees might have been trying hard to figure out this last part, but what came next in the parable was a little more to the point.  The King sent his invitation out to everyone else.  The very banquet at which the Hebrew people—especially their religious leaders—expected to be an exclusive affair just for them was now open to many, some of whom would have been regarded as pagans and heathens, even the Samaritans.

The light should have been coming on once again for the Pharisees.  Remember that in the previous parable, Jesus told these self-righteous yahoos that the Kingdom of God would be taken away from them and given to those who will produce fruit.  In the parable before that Jesus told them that the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of them.

Now they hear that the banquet set for them has been opened up to peoples whom should have no standing there.  It’s a good thing that this was just a three-parable series because the Pharisees couldn’t handle any more.  Matthew’s gospel notes next that the Pharisees went to their club house, licked their wounds, and starting making plans to trap Jesus.

They had not yet reached the point where they—along with the chief priest and others in the Sanhedrin—would just decide to hold a kangaroo court and sentence him to death.  

These religious leaders were so blind to the truth that they still thought their intelligence would be enough.  Read the remainder of chapter 22 and continue into chapter 23 to see the rest of this interaction with the religious hierarchy unfold.

If you continue reading, you will see blind leaders trying to defy the truth.  You will see almost comical attempts to try and trick Jesus.  Hopefully, you won’t see yourself in there anywhere.

Here is a simple model and mantra that I think works well.  For this we venture into the grammatical world momentarily.  You do not want to be the appositive or the direct object in a sentence that Jesus begins, “Woe unto you…”

Let’s get back to events in the parable.  The wedding hall is filled with guests.  They came from all over.  They responded to this fantastic invitation and they surely were all thankful.  Well almost all.

You know how stories go.  Everything was going just great, and then there was this one guy.  One guy that didn’t get the memo.  Get you suit out of the cleaners, throw on a tie, polish your boots, put on clean underwear, and wear matching socks.  How hard can it be?  There is always that one guy who thinks he is in a Garth Brooks song.

For parable purposes—for allegorical purposes—this is the person who hears the call and tries to manipulate the invitation.  This is the person who wants the prize but won’t go via repentance.  This is the person who won’t profess Jesus is Lord because he doesn’t want to give up his gods in this world.  This is the guy who thinks he can work a little Jesus stuff in somewhere to hedge his eternity bet.  Yeah, that’s the ticket, throw in some Jesus for seasoning just in case.

The one who professes Jesus as Lord will be clothed in the clothes of the new person—the new creation.  You can’t sneak into heaven in your old clothes.  You can’t have new clothes unless you are a new creation.  You can’t be a new creation unless you are born again—born of the Spirit.

I am going to give this man who showed up out of uniform a name.  I am going to call him Nicodemus.  The Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night was wearing old clothes.  His mind would not comprehend being born again, this time of God’s Spirit.  He was clothed in his own righteousness and not prepared to hear a message of grace.  He was the epitome of the Pharisee, knowledgeable in the word of the law but totally lacking its spirit, and surely in need of God’s Holy Spirit.

He did not come to see Jesus looking for a message of grace.  But he got one.  I share the version found in The Message.

“No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 

Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

I return to the point where I began.

For many are called but few are chosen.

It might interest you that the words called and chosen have a variety of different meanings throughout the Bible.  

Language is like that.  The word faith is another example where a single word has multiple facets and complexities.  In the context of this month’s memory verse, called according to his purpose is the same as chosen for his purpose. 

When we come across some of these scriptures that seem difficult, and this one seems a little difficult for our group where we believe that whosover will may come, view them in the lens of the gospel.

Understand also that God desires a fantastic relationship with us. He made us in his image. He loves us and will never stop loving us.  He chose us to be the recipients of his love, to be joint heir with his one and only Son, Christ Jesus, and he gave us the will to choose him in response to his love.

He not only gave us this freewill so that we could choose him or reject him, he gave us the measure of faith by which we might choose him.

Never, ever read God’s word in the context of him stacking the deck against us.  That is not the biblical witness that we know.

God chose you before you even knew you were you.  You are his and now because of your belief, he is yours.  The love that binds you in Christ Jesus is inseparable.  God chose you!  Somewhere in all of this there ought to be an amen or hallelujah!

God’s call has gone out to and continues to go out to the world.  His heart is that all will come to know him as we know him.

His invitation is the invitation that we know so well.  Repent and believe the good news.  You are invited to the best wedding banquet ever and to the eternity with God that brought us into being in the first place.

I am thankful that we have accepted this invitation and I am blessed and privileged to carry this invitation with me wherever I go. 

God has chosen many for very special works and ministries.  He has chosen some—a few—to do greater things than he did.  He has called for all to come and know him.

He has commissioned all of us to take his gospel across the street and across the planet.

The parable sounds like bad news for the Hebrew people, but Paul—a Pharisee himself—wrote that the time would come when the number of Gentiles would be complete and this original branch—or in parable context, those who ignored the invitation—would be grafted back in. 

The Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ will one day celebrate a wedding together and for eternity but we have confirmed our invitation now.  We are going to be there.

Remember that this parable aimed squarely at the Pharisees is about the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is a kingdom in which we can live in the here and now.  This is a kingdom in which we live because we have accepted our invitation and are putting on our wedding clothes.

We have been given eyes to see and ears to ear and have taken the measure of faith given to us and responded to this invitation.  We live in God’s Kingdom now and we would not miss this banquet for anything.

Amen!