Lectionary: Luke 14:16-24
This Nativity Fast, we find more and more ways in which the Church invites us to participate, so that we might better cultivate our Faith. There’s fasting of course, and there are also increased expectations for prayer and for almsgiving. And simply put: there’s more church, an influx of services that we are all encouraged to attend.
And this can be very exciting, and it can also be very difficult. For just because all these different things are offered to us, does not necessarily mean that there is now magically more time to do them. Our earthly responsibilities do not subside simply because it says December on the calendar. In fact, it’s common for our earthly responsibilities to actually increase during this time.
Buying presents, visiting family. Working longer and harder hours in order to afford all those things. All of this takes time, and effort, and all these concerns are placed on top of an already busy schedule, on top of all the work, and chores, and responsibilities that God has already given us. And so, in a schedule packed with so many earthly cares, it is no surprise which things are the first to go.
Prayer. Fasting. Almsgiving. These pillars of spirituality are good, sure. I can objectively acknowledge that they are nice things to do, nice things to have. But, when God offers me these things, I find myself respectfully declining the invitation. There is simply far too much to do, and I do not have the space to incorporate these gifts into my life. And yet, brothers and sisters, in the cruelest of ironies, by declining these gifts that God offers me, I actually leave myself completely unequipped to now face those earthly challenges that I have preoccupied myself with.
For truly, these earthly cares do not go away. But now, by ignoring the tools that God gives me to face them, these earthly cares truly are impossible to manage. As life continues to be hard, I have no way to climb out of this insurmountable pile of challenges. Bills, and expenses, and family tensions, and arguments with coworkers, troubling and uncertain illnesses. I am left exhausted by all of this, and I have no clear path out.
So then, what is there to do? How are we to be delivered from these hardships, from the crushing and debilitating fatigue that comes with simply living one’s life?
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Today, in the story that Christ tells to us, we encounter folks who are very much concerned with their earthly cares, looking for excuses and reasons that they might get out of an invitation to a banquet. They have been invited to an elegant feast, a chance to have communion with this man, this master of the house. It is a fervent invitation to participate in the gifts that this master, this Lord, has to offer.
And this Lord, who is immeasurable not just in wealth, but also in generosity, seeks only to share his wealth with others. To celebrate with them, to invite them into his home. And so he sends his Servant out, he sends him to these people in order to bring them to him, so that they might be with him, so that they might lay aside their earthly cares and feast.
And so, this servant goes, and he’s given not reciprocation, not thanks, but only excuses. For those who are invited are far too concerned with earthly things. Things that are actually quite silly in the face of an invitation as wonderful as this. For who purchases oxen without looking at them, right? Who buys land without even setting eyes on it? Why can’t the wife come to the banquet too, is she not an assumed plus-one? These excuses are silly, and they are meant to be taken as such. But to those making the excuses, these reasons are still enough to deny the invitation. They are enough, in the eyes of these people, to deny this Lord.
And when, in my own life, I use the excuses of earthly cares in order to decline the invitations that God gives me, whether or not my reasons are good or bad, I still sever myself from participation in his banquet.
How fortunate then are we that the Servant that God sends us is far more persistent than we are. For when mankind severed itself from its creator, God sent his Son in order to invite us back. And upon hearing our rejection, by seeing us continue to choose sin, Christ was not left defeated in his ministry. Instead, Christ lowers himself, he gets down to our level and meets us where we are at. He goes out into the highways, the low places, the places of filth and sinfulness and suffering, where we are, and then he lives as an example, so that we might follow him. He is an image that we cling to in order to show us the Truth: that these gifts that God gives us are precisely the ways that we overcome the insurmountable struggles and earthly cares of this life.
He does all these things not because it is necessary for him, but because it is necessary and fruitful for us. So Christ prays, not for his sake, but for ours. To show us that prayer delivers us through hardship. That we can find tangible comfort in prayer, in cultivating an intimate dialogue with our God. Christ heals the sick and serves the poor, not for his benefit, but for ours. To show us that serving others does not simply improve the physical, but also the spiritual. That healing the body heals the soul. Christ suffers on the Cross, to show us that suffering is something that is to be overcome. To be walked through. To be defeated. For our suffering does not end on a cross, but rather with an empty tomb, with an ascension into Heaven.
And so in all of this, Christ shows us that it is these higher things, these heavenly things, these invitations to his banquet, where we find the strength to overcome suffering itself. Death itself. All the earthly cares in this world.
Through prayer, our hearts are softened. Our patience is expanded. Our love for our fellow man is increased. By serving those around us, we eliminate the stranger, not by hating him, but knowing him. By learning about others, by loving others, they are no longer strangers to us, but rather brothers and sisters in Christ. By fasting this Nativity season, we work precisely to reject the hold that earthly things have over us. By eating simply, we seek to eliminate our own preoccupation with food, to decrease gluttony, to improve the health of our bodies and the health of our spirits.
And so then we see that the things that we toss aside first, are actually the things that help us accomplish everything else. By holding onto prayer, to fasting, to Almsgiving, we cultivate the muscle that is required to withstand everything else. And so, when God invites us into communion with him, today, he does so precisely so that we may transcend the earthly cares of this world, to assist us in our responsibilities, and to alleviate our anxieties.
Brothers and sisters, as the Nativity fast ramps up, we have before us this opportunity to further and more deeply participate in these gifts that God gives us. Not obligations: gifts. These are tools to help us overcome our problems. Practically, and pragmatically. We cry out to God for help, and he then gives us the path to solve our sufferings. To find comfort. To find peace.
And so we thank the Lord our God for showing us in this way, for sending us His only begotten Son, who did it all first, for us. Who made all of this possible, by his Grace. For in this path before us, Christ is truly both the architect and the blueprint for our salvation. He created the path to salvation, and then he walked it first, to show us how to do it with him.
And he’s calling to us. The invitation is here. An invitation that can be redeemed in this very moment, a Heavenly banquet that is available right now.
What a beautiful thing, what a gracious gift God has given us today.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
