In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The problem with statement “blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God,” which is what a certain man cried out to Jesus in our Gospel lesson today, wasn’t so much with what he said, but when he said it. The man was literally reclining at table with Jesus. He was sharing a meal with the Incarnate Lord Himself. And yet, instead of basking in that moment, and realizing the great treasure that was right in front of his face, the man talked about how wonderful things would be later on. It was sort of like if a new husband spent his entire wedding night talking to his wife about what they would do for their ten-year anniversary. It’s your wedding night, for goodness’ sake! How about you focus on that, first?

But this interaction from our text reveals to us a very common misconception that a lot of people have about heaven. Lots of times people think about “heaven” purely in terms of something that happens later on. Heaven isn’t a “right now” thing, in their mind, it’s a thing that you get in the future. You live your life here on earth, and if you live it in the right kind of way, then maybe, just maybe, you’ll be good enough to go to heaven when you die. Now, there are a lot of different problems with that line of thinking, but besides the obvious works righteousness, there’s also the error of not realizing that we have access to heaven here and now already through the means of grace.

What even is heaven according to the Bible? Heaven isn’t some location far away in the clouds, it’s fellowship with God and all of His saints. It’s Communion with the Lord and those who belong to Him. One of the most common ways that the Holy Spirit describes heaven for us in the Bible is as banquet, or a great feast, that never comes to end. As Jesus says in Matthew chapter 8, “Many will come from the east and the west to recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” And as Saint John tells us in the book of Revelation, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” But the question is, when does the marriage supper of the Lamb really start? When does heaven truly begin? 

Well, what does Jesus tell us in the parable today from Luke chapter 14? He says, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.” The man in the parable clearly is supposed to represent God. The servant is meant to represent God’s messengers who go into the world to proclaim the Gospel. But the message of the Gospel, that your sins are forgiven, and that you’ve been invited back into fellowship with your Creator, isn’t just for a future date. It’s for right now. 

In fact, it happens every single time that we gather together around God’s Word and Sacraments in Church. It happens there because that’s where God promised to be. What do we sing every Sunday in Church that we use Divine Service setting one? For at least a couple of you, I know it’s your favorite hymn. We sing the canticle, “This is the Feast.” And what feast are we talking about? Are we talking about something that’s going to happen later on? No. We’re singing about something that happening right now. This is the Feast. Church is the Feast. What we are doing in the Divine Service is heaven on earth. We’re participating in fellowship with God and all of His saints. We are dining at table, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When we eat the Lord’s Body and Drink His Blood, we have communion with the One who suffered and died for our sins.

So, what are people really skipping when they skip Church? They aren’t just skipping a speech from some guy in fancy clothes, or a time to say “hi” to their friends. They’re skipping heaven. And the danger with skipping heaven now, is that you might miss out on it later on. The invitation only lasts for so long. Yes, God has invited us to receive forgiveness, life, and salvation, through His Word and Sacraments, but what happens to those who neglect them? What happens to those who put other things in front of them? As Jesus says at the end of our reading, “None of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.” 

This is a stern warning to us from God’s Word about the dangers skipping Church. Don’t do it. And ff you have done it before, then repent of it, and don’t do it again. Because if you keep doing it without remorse, you put yourself at risk of falling away from the faith. People tend not to lose their faith overnight, and they almost never think they’ve lost it when you ask them.  But one skipped service leads to another, which leads to a month, which leads to two months, which leads to a year, and before you know it you forgot how to say the Apostle’s Creed and what to do at the Communion rail. 

There are lots of different reason why people don’t come to Church. Jesus gives us a couple of the most common ones in our text today. First, there are the guys who say that they can’t come because they’re busy. One of them just bought a field and the other one bought a couple of oxen. This represents those who put things like work, or as they might say “making a living,” before regularly coming to God’s house to receive His gifts. They act as if having a job and paying your bills is more important than getting your sins forgiven and being spiritually fed. Sometimes people who skip church for that reason will make the excuse that Sunday is there only day to sleep in. I heard from another pastor this week, though, that he always tells those people to sleep in on Monday. Just call your boss and tell him that you’re tired and you need to take a break. Obviously, the people always get flabbergasted by that because they know they would get fired. But what the pastor was trying to reveal to them was what their hearts truly valued. They couldn’t even image not getting paid. But they could imagine not getting God’s Word and Sacraments. So, which one of those things did they really care about more? What did they actually think was real? 

The other popular excuse that people sometimes make for why they can’t come to church is because they have other obligations and commitments. This is like the man in the parable who said he couldn’t go to the feast because he just got married. First off, how come you and your wife can’t just go the Feast together? Why does something like marriage, or any other good thing in this life, have to be used against God’s Word instead of to support it? That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Either way, what does God’s Word teach us even about our family if we are to be one of Christ’s disciples? Just two verses after our text today, Jesus says this: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters; yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Now, certainly Jesus doesn’t mean that we should wish evil on those people, and hate them in that way, but that we should love Him and His Word so much more than anything else that to the world it looks like hatred.

Is a father loving Jesus and His Word more than his kids when he lets them skip church to go play sports? Is a wife loving Jesus and his Word more than her husband when she makes excuse for why he’s never there on Sunday’s?  Is a congregation loving Jesus and His Word more than its members when they let people to stay on the roles for years and years and years and defend their absence no matter what, even if they have no good reason for not being in the sanctuary? We know the answer to those questions.

Christ never promised us that being his disciple would be easy. But he did say that it would be worth it. It’s worth it because of what God gives us. Even if no one else wants to come to the Feast, we still know what’s there for us at it, and we need to make it clear to other people what they’re missing out on. Jesus is there. And He is there to bless us, forgive us, and strengthen us to eternal life. He’s there to give us a taste of heaven now, so that when the fulness of it arrives, we won’t miss out.

Yes, there are lots of things that can keep someone from wanting to come to church. But when we know what we get in church and who church is for, that ought to change our perspective about it. What did the master of the feast say about those who had been invited to the banquet? He said, “Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” And after that had been done and there was still room, he said, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compelled people to come in, that my house may be filled.” God wants His house to be filled. He wants each and every person in this world to receive the forgiveness of their sins and enter into His eternal Kingdom. He wants everyone to be saved. Even those who have neglected His invitation in the past, He invites them to come back anyway.  And when we see ourselves in those poor, crippled, lame, and blind people from out text, when we recognize the miserable state of our sinful condition, and the great mercy of God who offers us a place with Him regardless, that alone is what compels us to come in. It’s what keeps us coming back to church again and again and again, and never skipping if it’s left up to our choice.

We go to church not just because of God’s command. We go because of His promise. We go because of what we get there. What we get in church is something that we could never have on our own. We get the forgiveness of our sins. We don’t just get a place in heaven. We get heaven itself.  And that’s why we never give it up for anything else. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.