Family Sunday Sunday,
March 1, 2014
“The Invitation”
Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell
those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, … and everything is ready.
Come to the wedding feast.”’ Matthew 22:4 (ESV)
2 “The kingdom of heaven
may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and
sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they
would not come. Matthew 22:2-3 (ESV
4 Again he sent
other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my
fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding
feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his
business, 6 while the rest
seized his servants, treated them
shamefully, and killed them.7 The king was angry, and he
sent his troops and destroyed
those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said
to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
Matthew 22:4-8 (ESV)
9 Go
therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you
find.’ 10 And those servants went
out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the
wedding hall was filled with guests. Matthew 22:9-10 (ESV)
An
invitation to RELATIONSHIP.
An
invitation to GROW.
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 (ESV)
An
invitation to HELP.
Titanic Illustration
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and was swallowed up
in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Over 1,500 people perished as
"the ship that not even God could sink" sank. Only about a third of
the passengers lived to tell of the nightmare.
Although the death toll was
staggering, the greater tragedy was that many more people could have been
rescued. TheTitanic was certified to offer lifeboat space
to 1,178 people. But of the twenty lifeboats lowered overboard, only a few were
filled to capacity. Several were less than half full. For instance, the first
lifeboat lowered, boat seven, had room for 65 people, yet just 28 boarded. Boat
five left with 24 spaces unfilled. Lifeboat nine left with 26 out of 65 paces
unfilled. Lifeboat one could accommodate 40 people but left the Titanic with only 12 people on board. In all,
only 711 passengers and crew were rescued, while 40 percent of the total
lifeboat spaces remained unfilled. Meanwhile, hundreds of people floated in the
open water wearing life jackets near the twenty unfilled lifeboats. Only one of
the vessels went back in search of other survivors. The rest (with room to
spare) remained at a safe distance observing the horrific scene, comforting one
another, and praising God they'd been spared.
In the ensuing months, as
investigators sought to determine why so many lifeboat seats remained unfilled,
they uncovered some startling misperceptions. First, some of the Titanic crewman mistakenly assumed that
filling the lifeboats to their "sea capacity" would cause the boats
to break in two during the lowering process. As a result of their excessive
caution, many passengers were forced to plummet into the icy waters. Secondly,
some of the passengers were reluctant to board the lifeboats because they
didn't feel that there was an urgent need. After all, the ship was supposedly
"unsinkable."
An
invitation to FIGHT.
Lord of the Rings Illustration
Remember the character of Treebeard, a leader among the race of
Ents, the shepherds of the forest in The
Lord of the Rings? The Ents are described as a "deliberate" people,
extremely slow to decide on a course of action. In reality, they are eager to
avoid committing themselves in the great contest against the Dark Lord. "I
am not altogether on anybody's side," Treebeard explains, "because
nobody is altogether on my side." Up until the eleventh hour, the Ents
hope to maintain a policy of strict neutrality. But their desire to be left
alone—their refusal to choose Goodness—becomes untenable as the dark forces of
Mordor gather against the inhabitants of Middle-earth:
"Of course, it is likely enough, my friends," Treebeard
said slowly, "likely enough that we are going to our doom: the last march
of the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us
anyway, sooner or later. That thought has long been growing in our hearts; and
that is why we are marching now."
Wherever we are in our journey, whatever we believe, our earthly
march will come to an end. Whether we meet Jesus at the moment of our death, or
when he comes again—without disguise—we will face him …. As C. S. Lewis warned,
"That will not be the time for choosing. It will be the time when we
discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it or not."
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