Many are called, but few are chosen

Sermon for Trinity 20

Isaiah 65:1-2  +  Ephesians 5:15-21  +  Matthew 22:1-14

The days are evil, St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians. They sure are! The world is a dark place and growing darker. But you’ve been called out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. Not that you have been brought out of the world yet, but you have been made citizens of God’s nation—not America, but the Holy Christian/Catholic Church. You are now in the world, but not of the world. The darkness that is around you cannot touch you, cannot consume you, because God has called you into the well-lit wedding feast of His Son.

Many are called. But few are chosen. What does that mean? What’s the difference between the called and the chosen? Between the called and the elect? You’ve heard of the doctrine of election. Elect and chosen are the same word in Greek. The doctrine of election is the Biblical teaching that God has chosen beforehand those who will finally spend eternity with Him in His kingdom of light. It’s a doctrine that can be confusing, but not if we stick with the simple explanation that Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel.

This parable of the wedding feast isn’t hard to understand at all. A King arranges a marriage for His Son. God the Father, in eternity, before the world’s foundation is laid, decreed that He would send His Son into the world and shed His blood to redeem fallen mankind from sin, death and the devil, and would unite His Son to a Bride, to the Holy Christian Church. He carried through with that decree, and now Christ, by His holy life and sacrificial death, has earned salvation for all mankind.

But God the Father also decreed how He would bring fallen mankind into that Bride, into the Church. He decided to invite them, to call them by the Gospel-promise of the coming Messiah. Throughout the Old Testament, God invited people to this great wedding. Over time, He narrowed His calling activity to the Jews, the people of Israel, so that they before anyone else would be ready for the coming of the Christ, so that, when He arrived, they could be the first to come and meet Him, to come to the wedding feast and be saved.

Then Christ came. The wedding was ready. And the word went out, from John the Baptist, from the apostles, from Jesus Himself. Word would keep going out after Jesus’ death and resurrection. All things are ready. Come to the feast! Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins! But the Jews (mostly) refused to come, refused to be baptized and come to God through the reconciliation made by Christ. The King sent out other messengers, but still, the people on the whole refused to come. Some were too busy or too uninterested to worry about the Word of Christ, while others got so angry at the messengers that they mistreated them and put them to death.

This is still the reaction most people have to the true Gospel. Either they’re uninterested in it, or they persecute it, because it calls their deeds evil and insists that they repent of their sins, acknowledge the God of the Bible as the only true God, and turn to Christ in humility, for forgiveness. So it does us no good to worry about people rejecting the Gospel. It does us no good to wring our hands when the Gospel of Christ goes out and not many come into the Church. And it certainly does us no good to get angry when Christians are persecuted or killed. That’s the way it is in this dark world. That’s why we were called out of it in the first place to the wedding feast of Christ, that we may not perish with the unbelieving world. Let God get angry about it. He does!, as Jesus says in the parable. The King was furious when the invited guests turned down His invitation and even killed the servants who did the inviting. Let God do something about it, as Jesus says in the parable that the king sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. But those armies are not Christians. They are the angel armies who will gather the wicked on the Last Day and throw them into the fires of hell. As for us, let us continue to simply be messengers of the truth.

Through the Gospel that has gone out into the world, through God’s servants who proclaim it, the King invites many more people. Go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. Come to the feast! Come and dine with the King in His house! Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins! And many have come, including many of the least important people in the world. Weak, sick, poor, sinners from every nation, tribe, language and people, the good and the bad. Whoever hears this Gospel of Christ is being called by the Holy Spirit to come into God’s kingdom. Because the worthiness for attendance at this feast does not come from the invited guests, but from the Bridegroom. He offers His worthiness in the baptismal waters, to cover the guests with it as with a garment, so that they may attend the feast in the house of God. As St. Paul says to the Galatians, You who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

But there is a guest in the house when the king comes who is not dressed with the wedding garment. He has entered the house. He has entered the Church. He has been baptized. He calls himself a Christian. But he isn’t dressed with the garment of faith. He calls himself a Christian, but he remains impenitent and has no trust in Christ alone as the only God and Savior. He may be able to hide that lack of faith from his fellow guests, but he can’t hide it from God, the King. God knows those who are His. And so, when God comes on the Last Day, that Christian-in-name-only is bound and cast outside into outer darkness together with all those who were once invited and refused to come.

Many are called, but few are chosen. The Jews boasted that they had been called. We are Abraham’s children, they cried. God has called us. And to be called by God into His kingdom is, indeed, a very great gift. No one can be saved without being called by the Gospel.

But as we saw in the parable, most of those who are called do not actually want to come, do not actually want to acknowledge their sins and have Christ alone for a Savior. The Holy Spirit is working through the Gospel to bring people to faith in Christ whenever the Gospel is preached, but many of those who hear stubbornly resist the Holy Spirit. Not all who are called are chosen to enter eternal life, but only those who hear the Gospel and believe it and persevere in that faith until the end.

But when does this “choosing,” this “election” take place? We learn from the Scriptures that it took place before the world was made. The chosen, the elect, were chosen in Christ in eternity, chosen by God’s grace; called here in time through the Gospel; justified through faith in Christ; and they persevere until the end wearing the garment of Christ’s righteousness by remaining in true faith in Christ until the arrival of the King on the Last Day. Or, if they fall away from faith for a time, which can certainly happen, they are called again by the Gospel, brought to repentance, and justified by faith.

So what do we learn for our correction and edification from this Gospel?

First, we learn that God’s invitation to come into His Church and His eternal kingdom does not depend at all on the worthiness of the guests, but only on God’s grace and the merits of Christ.

Second, we learn that God’s invitation to come into His Church and His eternal kingdom is always sincere, that His Spirit is always working through the Gospel invitation to create faith. God truly wants all those who are invited to come, to believe in Christ, to receive forgiveness of sins, and to have eternal life.

Third, we learn that it’s all God’s doing when people are saved. From the election of grace, to the sending of the Gospel invitation here in time, to the faith that is given as a gift by the Holy Spirit from the hearing of the Gospel, to the justification by faith, to the preservation of our faith through the Means of Grace, to our final glorification in heaven, it’s all from God. Those who are called but don’t believe have only themselves to blame.

And finally, we learn how urgent it is that we hear and take to heart the Gospel invitation, and that we be diligent in prayer and in the use of the Means of Grace, to make our calling and election sure, as St. Peter says. God doesn’t send us back into eternity to search to see if your name is written in Christ, the Book of Life. He sends you to this ministry of the Word, to Baptism and to the Holy Supper. Listen to His Word that tells you of the goodness of Christ, His atoning sacrifice, His resurrection, and His will that all men should believe in Him to be saved. Those who are not baptized should not put it off any longer. Those who are baptized should use the means God has provided for our salvation. Hear the Word of God. Receive His Sacrament. Be steadfast in prayer, in godly living, in struggling against the flesh, and in bearing the cross patiently. God has provided and will continue to provide all that is necessary for your salvation. Take it as evidence of your election that God has called you through the Gospel into fellowship with His Son, and be assured that your faith and your salvation are no accident. It was planned by God in eternity. Use the means God has given you to remain firm and steadfast in the faith, and neither Satan nor death nor any of the darkness of this world will be able to snatch you out of the Father’s hand. Amen.