PASTOR’S CORNER, Rev. Jason Toombs, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Liberal
There are many times in our lives that we come together with others and celebrate. Thinking back to a few days ago, there were many people who gathered for T-Ball, Baseball, and Softball at the various ball fields as they watched their kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, nieces, nephews, cousins, and their friends, play ball.
Our ballparks are small, especially compared with Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City or Coors Field in Denver, but they are much loved because of the people inside.
It is the same way with church. We might not be able to boast of hundreds of thousands gathered each week, we are knit-together in the love of Christ our Lord as the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies our gathering each week. We are brought together in the love of God as we gather around His Altar as we come at His invitation to His Table.
We should never forget that it is at the invitation of our Lord that we come to His banqueting table. He is the Master of the Feast as He presides over His Supper which is given and shed for you. It is not you who invites Him, for He has sent out His invitation as you have confessed His name as you are brought into His family.
Hear as Jesus says, “21 So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled” from Luke 14.
It seems that the Master of the House has heard enough from those who had been invited to His feast, but they did not pay attention to when the day and hour of the feast was going to be and decided that they were too busy doing mundane things to attend such a lavish feast as their thoughts are elsewhere.
While our thoughts can be fickle, often changing when the next song comes on the radio, or the next commercial interrupts whatever we are watching, even YouTube Kids, “We’ll be right back after a quick word from our sponsors”, Christ’s thoughts are ever the same: for your salvation.
Christ Jesus hands Himself into death to win your salvation. This is why He came to earth: to die upon the cross for you. His death is in the place of every guilty sinner. His death works salvation for you. He steps into your shoes, going more than a mile in those shoes, and He does something far grander than anything we can do: He takes your place in death.
Saint Paul reminds us, “The wages of sin is death.” Death is the due penalty for your sins. Or, to bring in our Epistle Lesson, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility … And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”
Jesus Christ comes to make the payment for your sins, and not just for your sins, Jesus also dies for the sin of the whole world. You who are near to the Altar, and those who are far off, are brought together in Christ Jesus your Lord.
It is to those who are outside of our congregations, to the Christians found in the Church throughout the world, that Christ comes and makes Himself known as King of kings and Lord of lords. It is in heaven when we will see the multitude coming from the east and the west, this being cardinal directions and not the Eastern and Western churches, that is those who claim ancestry to the Orthodox and the Catholic churches. While there are separations on earth, our individual congregations, we will be one body, the Church, in heaven with our dear Lord.
To those who infrequently come to church, and to those who infrequently come to the Lord’s Supper, how often do you eat at home? Does hearing “I love you” from a loved one make it less special when it is heard multiple times a week? Certainly not.
There is no such thing as too much love, maybe too many cuddles when you want space, but never too much love. If love is what you are missing, especially true love, grace yourself with the presence of Christ as He comes nearer to you in the Lord’s Supper than any other place on earth. Yes, Christ is everywhere, but He has promised to be in certain places where the forgiveness of sins is declared.
Your sins are forgiven in the waters of Baptism. Your sins are also forgiven in the word of Absolution. And your sins are forgiven in the meal which Christ instituted for us Christians to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins in His Father’s house.
