Sermon 11th
October 2020 – 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Text: Matthew
22:1-14 – Accepting God’s invitation
During this
period of Covid restrictions the challenges of invitation has been at the
forefront.
I’ve done a
wedding, a baptism and 7 funerals – and all of them faced challenges of limited
invitations. Funerals limited to 10, weddings 5, although fortunately the
wedding I took were allowed to have 10 as it was still at the early stages of
lockdowns and the first funeral we could have 30. And when we had that small 3
week window between the first and second wave we could have church services
resumed but we were limited to 20 members. So we had to devise a roster system
of inviting people which sounded so exclusive. Church should not be about
restricting by invitation only but should be, as most church signs and
bulletins say – ALL WELCOME.
As we move
forward this is going to be one of the biggest challenges that faces the church
as we continue to face restrictions on how many we can have at worship. And
given the fact that inside worship may not be allowed initially and that we may
be required to worship outside and still with restricted numbers, it’s going to
be a challenge for us. But we’ll work out a way and whatever we are permitted
to do we will do – and we will do it safely.
But this is
where we are going to need our church community and your support. During those
3 weeks that we could have 20 inside our church building there were some
challenges. Cleaning the church before and after services - signing in –
sanitising your hands – having your temperature taken – I know that some felt
this was an infringement on rights and to an extent nuisance value. And I agree
– I didn’t like it. But I love worship more than I disliked the requirements
placed upon us – and so whatever we had to do we did.
And as we
move forward there may be these and more in way of restrictions. We may be
required to wear masks. We may be urged or even required to not allow singing. We
may not be able to use the common cup and need to use individual cups. Again, things
we might rightly say are unfair – are against our human rights. And we may say
– I won’t attend under these circumstances. I wish there was an alternative –
but there won’t be. It’s going to be – you either do these things or you cannot
open up for worship.
We might
not like or agree with the demands of reopening our worship but I am so sad at
what has happened to you that I want to encourage you to look beyond the
demands of what is being asked and help us to regain worship. And if we can
only have 5 for the initial start up period then we will look at ways of having
multiple shorter services each week offering private Holy Communion services.
We could
offer 20 minute private communions with
a brief break in between – that could allow for 10 an hour -5 times a day – one
day at Ringwood and one day at Knox – that’s 100 members we could commune. Is
that a lot of work for me – yes it is – but I am prepared to do whatever it
takes to have you receive the body and blood of Christ. And I hope you are
prepared to look differently at how we gather for worship. It will mean that we
ask for help from our worship community to accept the invitation with the
requirements that are being placed upon us to open.
As we look
at our Gospel reading it is easy to see how we can place our own needs and
priorities over an important invitation. A king gave an invitation to a wedding. A King!
Who would
knock back an invitation from a King? A royal wedding nonetheless – and yet
people find an excuse to not accept the invitation. In fact it was worse than
just rejecting the invitation: They made light of the invitation and went their
ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his
servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. Why would they do that?
It’s easy
to be like them and reject the changes we need to make also and criticise those
who are thinking of ways that we can gather again. It’s hard to say when and if
things will get back to the way things were before the pandemic struck us. And
it’s easy to lose heart and focus on the unfair demands being placed on the
invite rather than looking at what we are being invited to.
We missed
out on our Easter celebrations and it’s looking more and more like or Christmas
may not be the large joyous occasion we have had in the past. It is easy,
because of the situation that is before us, to allow our dismay to miss the
opportunities that we have to worship God in new ways and new opportunities. We
may allow our disappointment, our anger, our rejection to reject God’s
invitation to worship because it’s not the way WE want it – it’s not the way WE
are used to having it. We should not let our disappointment or anger cause us
to miss the joy that God brings to our life.
And so St
Paul says: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your
gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry 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. Whether we’re sitting in
our pews – in our usual way of worshiping or not, the Lord is near. This is
going to challenge us to see worship stripped away from all the things we are
used to in worship and bring it back to what is essential – word and sacrament.
True we haven’t celebrated the sacrament of Holy Communion for 7 months – but
we have been surrounded by the sacrament of our Baptism – as promised by God –
I am with you always – as Paul said – the Lord is near.
There is
the old saying that necessity is the mother of all inventions.
Maybe this
necessity of rethinking – reshaping our worship is that opportunity of looking
at what is essential in our worship. We have seen beginnings of how worship has
reached out to far more places than the 4 walls of our church buildings through
the internet. As church attendances have steadily decreased over the past
decade or so, maybe this is how God is going to reshape his church and send out
more invitations to hear and receive the Gospel message of salvation. For too
long the invitation has been rejected by more and more people.
This is our
opportunity to send the Gospel to the ends of the earth which is the last
prophecy that Jesus spoke of before his return.
Maybe we’re
not as comfortable about some of the changes we need to make to comply with the
demands placed on us as we were with the ways we were used to. But it’s not
about OUR comfort but about the world’s salvation. And Paul today urges us to
look at what is truly important when he says: Finally, beloved, whatever is
true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is
anything worthy of praise, think about THESE things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned
and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Maybe God
is inviting us to learn new ways. But what is central is his Word and
Sacraments and they won’t change. We will always keep them as central to our
worship whether it’s inside our church building or in our carpark or wherever
God allows us to gather and worship. If it’s only 5 for a period of time or 10
or 20, Jesus has assured us that where 2 or 3 gather in my name there I am in
the midst of them.
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