A Famine Not of Bread

"The Wedding Feast" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon. Our text for today is our Gospel, Matthew 22:1-14. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In Come In, We Are Closed , Tyrel Bramwell tells the following story. The waitress led me to my seat. As I sat down, I noticed the man at the next booth looking at me. We acknowledged each other with a couple of quick nods. After some small talk, he invited me to join him for some coffee. He said his friends call him Shep, a nickname that goes back to his days as a pastor. “I’m glad that I bumped into you, Shep,” I said. “Since you were a pastor, do you mind if I ask you a church question?” “Not at all.” “All right, so, what do you know about churches that don’t let some people take Communion?” “Did you have a bad experience with closed Communion?” he asked. “It that what it’s called?” “It is.” “I wouldn’t call it bad . It’s just not very inviting, you know? I ass...

"The Wedding Banquet" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon.   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” (Matthew 22:1-3). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! If you start out wrong when you read a parable, you’re going to end in the wrong place. And generally, people start out wrong. They focus on what all the sinful people are doing in the parable, trying to find a moral lesson to follow. But when Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of heaven, the focus of the parable is on the King of heaven. Jesus is not seeking to tell you what to do but proclaiming what great things God has done for you. Therefore, as we look at today’s parable, we don’t focus on the wedding guests, even though we’ll get to them. No, this parable is about th...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Or here. “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows. That’s certainly the case here. The Pharisees—ardent nationalists who opposed Roman rule—team up with the Herodians whom they despise because of their cooperation with the Roman government. This would be kind of like the members of the Tea Party actively promoting Hillary Clinton for President in 2016. You know that something fishy is going on here. The Pharisees try to trap Jesus between a political hard place and a religious rock. “Teacher, we know that You are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and You do not care about anyone’s opinion, for You are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what You think.” Obviously, the Pharisees are not afraid of dishing up a bit of flattery to achieve...

Click here to listen to this sermon. Or here. The text for today’s message is the Gospel lesson, Matthew 22:1-14. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When the last empress of China (1835-1908) lived in the historic “Forbidden City,” she held extravagant banquets, sometimes serving as many as 150 different dishes for a single meal! It was an extremely exclusive affair. Only members of the royal family and their chosen guests were allowed to attend. For ordinary citizens there was no room!   God rules in His kingdom in a totally different way. He does not exclude ordinary people. He includes them! He invites everyone in—“the good” and “the bad,” hypocrites and sincere believers. Anyone who will accept His invitation. He has also reserved a place for you at His banquet table! Please listen to Jesus’ parable again and we’ll talk more about this wonderful, gracious invitation. A certain king prepared a marriage-feast for his son. Although i...