thePIANIST

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Jesus confronts us in two parables with a grand invitation. He tells of two nobles who planned great feasts.(Matthew 22:1-4, Luke 14:15-24)
The second feast may have been out of the sheer generosity of the rich man's heart. In both cases, these were real bashes with all the stops pulled out. But while it may have been a slight not to be invited, for some of the people it was definitely an inconvenience to go.
Weddings and catered feasts are great occasions. They fill many of our June weekends with fun and excitement. Usually, not to go, would offend the family. In these parables, to refuse an invatation by an oriental noble was a serious insult, but it was done with cavalier flair, indifference, and lame excuses.
Many of us have truely important things that needs to be attended to. Maybe there's a new house or a new job, maybe we are emotionally involved or entangled by worldy things. Perhaps we need to finish school. There always seems to be something. In these parables, things didn't stop with mere excuses. The servants bringing the invatation were met with hostility and anger. Maybe those who were invited realized how treadbare their excuses seemed. When the last sophisticated evation falls flat, violence can result amidst the frustration and embarassment. Certainly such hostility fell to Jesus, who was shockingly despised and rejected by men (Isaiah 53:3). The apostles were hounded from city to city suffering violence and abuse. The early church lived through the shell-shock of a series of persecutions at the hands of Roman Emperors who were either masters of political expendience or utterly demented.
Christians still make strong enemlies. The 20th century has seen more blood spilled for Jesus than any other. Christians suffer slander, political pressure, sanctions, separation, abuse, torture, even death. Our relative ignorance, prayer-lessness, and inactivity in the face of these spiritual attacks does not become us. Paul had also died due to persecutions in rome. (Hebrews 13:3)
So , those who were invited to the feasts rejected the offer. Did the nobles tell the violinists to pack up and send the caterers away? No, they did something amazing. They invited the outcasts, those who would never have been invited anywhere-the poor, lame,blind,crippled, etc. Imagine them lingering in the courtyard in disbelief and awe, afraid of touching anything.
The kingdom of God offers an invatation to those who don't deserve to be invited. When we approach the cross, our sense of unworthy awe is a sign of our spiritual wits about us.
This invitation isn't for somebody else, for someone who "obviously" needs it. Sin is the cancer eating away at us all. Many christians live as if they are almost too decent to need a Savior. Living like that, we lie to ourselves.
The invitation to the kingdom of God isn't grand just because it cleanses sin-cripped people and enables them to leave their sins behind. It calls and spurs people on to become what is humanly impossible to achieve.
God has proved that faith can move the mountains.
Paul wrote, "You have not recieved a spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have recieved a spirit of adoption as sons by which we can cry out, abba father!" (Romans 8:14-16, Galatians 4:6)
Not only does God adopt us into his Family and make us fellow heirs with his son; He commissions us as his ambassadors, his personal envoys, to the world.:"We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us. Be reconciled to God!" (Corinthians 5:20)
Jesus issues the invatations to the kingdom in earnest; they're written in his blood. We're compelled to take his invitation seriously, just as it's dangerous to reject an invatation by an earthly king, how much more a heavenly one?

Dear Father in Heaven,
please acquit me of my sins. There is a sense of an'archy in my life. Please redeem me, and take control. I surrender my soul to your heavenly desires, may you use me to change what i cannot change by myself. Mould me to become the kind of person you want me to be. Eradicate all my sorrows, ease my pain. My pains of overcoming sin, temptations, anger, lack of self-discipline,duplicity. God take the wheel, take control of me, for I have lost track of myself. Abridge the length of closeness I am from you, for I want to know you more and more each day. Help me to pray and discern what I should do. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the day you led me to you, the day my life was adorn with your love. May your love endure forever, in the hearts of many. Lead me in the way life should be lived, and mould me the way i should become. Use me like you have never used me before. I am ready for trails, because i know you are always ready to face them together with me. Thank you for dying on the cross for me once again. In the name of Jesus i pray, Amen

Hey fellow brothers of Central B1, don't forget to pass me your profiling by this saturday kay?
-Serving with love, Isaac-

8:24 PM; The Pianist'

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