And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’ But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” (St. Matthew 22:1-14)

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is correctly defined as the forgiveness of sins, redemption, escape from the wrath of God, reconciliation and peace with God, etc.  The Gospel is also the invitation to a Feast.

The writer of Hebrews concludes his masterful and beautiful presentation of the wonder of Christ, His being the final Word, with a question, "How show we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3).  For those who reject the wondrous salvation brought to us by Christ, there is of course no escape.  We could also look at it more positively.  Having been shown the limitless and lavish riches that are ours in Jesus Christ, how could we possibly do anything but flee to Him and His mercy?  It seems well related to my weekly Sunday morning practice.  I wake up with sleep in my eyes, contemplate (momentarily) rolling over and going back to sleep, but soon get out of bed knowing that a King has invited me  into His presence today to speak to us, to forgive us where we have failed Him in the past week, and to feed us at His very own Table.  He also commands us to rest today and to enjoy the camaraderie of our fellow warriors.  Where else could we possibly go, what else would we rather do?  Only a fool could neglect an opportunity like that!

Last Autumn I was mowing and raking leaves with my youngest daughter, Jemma, and my son, TJ.  Jemma observed the many colors of the leaves we were raking, so I seized the opportunity to wax poetic.  As we are blessed to enjoy four distinct seasons in this area of the country, we can observe the same stages in a person's life.  He is born in the spring, reaches the height of his strength in the summer, begins to decline in the fall, and dies in the winter.  Even though we begin to see the certainty of death even in autumn, we still see beauty in the multicolored leaves that fall to the ground.  Similarly, I have found that the most beautiful wisdom I have received in my lifetime has come from the lips of those closer to the grave (all things being equal) than I am.  One wise tidbit I received from one of my many Christian mentors some thirty years ago was that "salvation is 103% of God... I add the extra 3%, just in case." 

This will only make sense to those who have seen the excellent remake of the classic film, True Grit.  I wish my pursuit of holiness and God's glory was as single-minded and determined as Mattie Ross's pursuit of her father's killer.

One of the words that I hear way too often, particularly among the young, is "whatever".  This verbal expression of apathy and nonchalance should be of extremely limited usefulness in a Christian's vocabulary.  In a very real sense, "whatever" was the sin of the Laodicean church that was neither hot nor cold and as such would be vomited by the Lord (Revelation 3:16).  Neither the Triune God we serve, nor the Holy Faith we confess, can be described in any sense as "whatever".  Statements of undeniable certitude, such as "We believe", "This is the Word of the Lord", "I declare to you the forgiveness of all of your sins", "Take, eat, this is My Body", etc. leave no room at all for an ambiguous and undefined "whatever".  May we enter the public and corporate worship of God in the confidence, assurance, and certainty of all we confess as Christians, as well as all that our divine and loving King confesses about us.  Worthy is the Lamb!

St. Paul’s use in Ephesians 4 of “the fellowship of the mystery” so eloquently proclaimed to us by our pastor in his “State of the Church” sermon this past January inspired me to pen the following poem.  Though nowhere near the caliber of a John Donne or Robert Frost, I sought to capture a portion of a recurring message that continues to be impressed on me.  May we heed that message and give it legs.

The Fellowship of the Mystery

We have been enlisted in the Fellowship of the Mystery,

United with saints and martyrs in a glorious history.

Our great salvation we are often to review;

Weekly the Covenant to renew.

To love one another we are called;

To give to our Triune God all glory, honor, and laud.

To widows, orphans, and the hopeless we give heed;

To supply to all their deepest Need.

Equipped for the task by Eucharistic wine and bread;

Remembering though now alive, once we were dead.

One Lord, one Faith, one baptism is our creed,

To ultimate victory, our Captain will us lead.

As I was walking/praying the other morning (and it was a beautiful morning too… a full, bright moon and fresh, brisk air), I saw a ball in a yard.  It wasn’t a normal ball, it was a bouncy ball with a handle.  I remembered it from my youth, but I remember it being much larger.  Then I realized that the ball was probably the same size as it always has been, it’s just that I’m bigger now, and the ball only seemed to be smaller.  It may be that the trials we face in life are a lot like this.  The trials don’t get any smaller, but my strength (by God’s grace) to endure them has grown stronger.  There will, of course, come a Day in which trials do not exist at all, but until then, may God supply the grace and strength to endure them as they come, confident that the Lord is using them for our good and His glory.  Oh well, something to ponder.

A couple of days ago, I became curious about Brad Delp, best known as the frontman for the rock group, Boston.  I knew that he had died a few years ago and that I always enjoyed his vocal range.  He had one of the clearest and most recognizable (perhaps even the best) male voices in the rock n roll era.  Two of my favorite songs of his were rock ballads: Amanda (with Boston) and When Your Love Comes Back Around (his later project with RTZ).  What interested me about Mr. Delp was that he was always known as a very kind-hearted, friendly guy by his colleagues in the industry and his adoring fans.  In fact, at his death on March 7th, 2007, Boston's official website proclaimed, "We've just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll".  In spite of his contributions to many charitable causes, his well-deserved praise by his peers, and just being an all-around nice guy, Mr. Delp decided to end it all, dying from self-inflicted carbon monoxide poisoning from two charcoil grills he had lit in his sealed bathroom in his home in New Hampshire six years ago.  He even left a note on the front door of his house warning those who would find his body about the presence of carbon monoxide in the house and the master bathroom, and to make sure his cat "Floppy" was unaffected by the smoke.  He left a note paper clipped to his shirt that read, "Mr. Brad Delp.  I am a lonely soul".

Mr. Delp was certainly enormously wealthy.  He could have had almost anything he wanted, regardless of expense.  He probably had few enemies, based on his reputation as a kind and not vindictive individual.  Though we do not know anything about the fleeting moments of his life, whether or not he cried out for God's mercy, he died a sad, lonely, though gifted, individual.  He is a living (and dying) illustration of St. Augustine's sage words, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."  It is also likely that, on some level, Mr. Delp understood that death was required for his sin.  Unfortunately, his death, or my death, is incapable of satisfying the demands of Justice for sin, both original and actual.  Only the death of One who was and is absolutely perfect can accomplish that.

Each Sunday we enter the most holy place through the shed blood of Him Who is both Priest and Sacrifice, Who alone can take away our sins.  We do so not as lonely, solitary individuals, but rather as a massive company of those living here and those living there, who dare to approach the Throne of Him Who is both Perfect Justice and Perfect Mercy, to receive Word and Sacrament and to go in peace.  Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!