When God invites us to Church, He is inviting to come and spend time with Him in heaven. Every Sunday we have the chance to accept God’s invitation to be with God in heaven. We don’t have to wait until we die to be with God in heaven. We can be with Him today in the Church during Divine Liturgy.
My brothers and sisters, this morning’s gospel is a difficult one to hear.
And on the surface, you’re going to think I am condemning all of us today, but I am not condemning any of us.
Instead, I am inviting us to accept the invitation of Christ.
In this story of the great banquet, (Luke 14.16-24) it says, “When the time was ready, the master sent out his servant to everyone who had been invited to tell them that the banquet was ready, and we immediately hear the excuses.”
Some of them might sound familiar to you.
“Father, I have a hard job and Sunday is the only day I get to relax. Father, there are just too many things for me to do.”
These are the excuses that we use, but they’re the same as the excuses in the gospel.
But there are some people who accept the invitation. This morning, you have accepted the invitation and you are inside the church. You are here for the banquet, and you will be blessed for it.
But today is only one chance to accept Christ’s invitation. Every Sunday is an opportunity for us to accept His invitation.
You see, my brothers and sisters, the banquet is about heaven. And one of the mistakes we make is that we think heaven is only something that happens after we die.
Heaven, my brothers and sisters, is not something we have to wait for. Heaven is right here in the church during divine liturgy, most especially, because being in heaven is being in the presence of God and loving every minute of it.
So you see, my brothers and sisters, the banquet is the divine liturgy. The banquet is the kingdom of heaven, and the two have been merged into one in the church.
So we have to stop thinking that we have to wait for heaven. Heaven is something that we are able to embrace today, right here, right now, and every Sunday.
And every time we make the excuse, “Father, I have company. I have to take care of this. Father, this, Father, that.” Each and every one of those excuses…
Now, this is where it’s a little hard for us to hear, but the truth sometimes is difficult. Every time we offer an excuse to come to church, that’s something we have declared is more important than God in our life.
If we say that we have too many things to do in the house, then our household chores are more important than God in that moment. There’s plenty of time to take care of the chores.
I have known many very successful business people who never miss a Sunday. So I don’t accept the excuse when someone says, “Sunday is the only day that I get to rest.”
As if Sunday comes and at 9:00 in the morning, you’re sitting in your office writing all of the invoices. I know that’s not true. We do rest. We rest in front of the TV watching maybe a little football on a Sunday. And in that moment, that has become more important than God in our life.
Now, here is the difficult part to hear. This is Christ’s response. He says, “Then the master of the house being angry said to the servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind so that my house may be filled.'”
Look around you. The house is not filled, my brothers and sisters. So not only are we those who have been invited, but we are the servants of God. And we have been sent by God to go tell those who have been invited to come.
And if they choose not to come, then go to our neighbors and those who are sick and lame and blind and bring them to God so His house is filled. That is the commandment of God.
And my brothers and sisters, it is one of the difficult ones for us to hear because you see, we don’t like to be thought of as being outside the church. We don’t like someone to say, “Well, you’re outside.”
No, we want to be inside. Well, the only way to be inside is to come into the church.
Now, I know that we livestream every Sunday for those who are sick and unable to come to the church. That is a beautiful thing. But I have people telling me, “Father, it’s just easier to turn the computer on.”
And so I’m looking at you directly today if you’re watching me on the internet. Come to church in person, accept the invitation of Christ because if we don’t, we are going to be found on the outside.
And as His servants, if we disobey Him and don’t bring people into His church, then we are disobedient servants.
You see, my brothers and sisters, either way, God is going to fill His church. Either way, God is going to fill the kingdom of heaven.
And I don’t know about you, but I want to be on the inside. The gospel says they’ll come and they’ll knock on the door, and the master will say, “I don’t know you. Where did you come from? But I was with you. I don’t know who you are.”
This is the risk, my brothers and sisters, to understand that God has invited us and that we’ve chosen something else as more important than Him.
So thank you for coming to church today. But I want to thank you also next Sunday and the Sunday after and the Sunday after.
If you’re genuinely sick, I understand. But if you just had a couple of oxen or a field, or if you just got married, then there’s no excuses anymore, because how do we know today is not the day that Christ will return?
How do we know that Christ is not going to return before the end of the divine liturgy?
This is why our tradition is to face east, because Christ is going to return from the east. And how beautiful if we have the opportunity in the middle of the liturgy for Christ to return, and here we are in His church.
It’ll be too late if we’re watching on the internet or if we’re sitting home.
So my brothers and sisters, I invite you, I encourage you. Stop putting other things ahead of God in our lives. Make God the most important thing that we ever think about.
And then the time will come when the bells ring and we’re coming to church, and instead of saying, “Hmm, maybe I’ll go to church today,” we’ll already find ourselves here because this is where we want to be with God.
It’s not about checking off a box. It’s about being with God in heaven, and we don’t have to wait until we die.
Heaven is right here in His church and in the awesome opportunity of the divine liturgy, when we get to receive holy communion as Orthodox Christians to be physically united with God.
In that moment when you approach the chalice, you are in heaven, and I can’t imagine anything being greater than that than to be with God in heaven.
Glory to God for all things.
