October 11 Worship Service

Our October 11 Sunday worship service is available on video through Facebook. You may view it without being a member of Facebook. Our social spacing seating arrangement assures minimal risk when you come in person.

Click on picture to view video

The October 18 worship services will be held in our church sanctuary at 8 and 10:30 am with members and friends in attendance. It is scheduled to be streamed live on the DeSoto Redeemer Facebook page. We will post a direct link to the recording here as soon as it is possible after the service.

We are glad to share our worship with you. Click on “Contact Us” above to find out more about our faith family and what we believe.

Sermon, October 11, 2020
Isaiah 25:1-9 | Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9 | Matthew 22:1-14

The Gospel lesson today is the third in a series of parables. We heard the first two the last two Sundays. Jesus is speaking to the same group, in the Temple; the Chief priests, the Pharisees/elders of the people and the crowds. He has been talking in parables about the kingdom of heaven, and with each passing parable, the tension has been increasing between Jesus and the priests, elders, and the occasional Pharisee. The Chief priests and elders have noticed that the parables are about them, and that the parables aren’t too flattering about them. Indeed, Jesus has been telling them repeatedly that they are being rejected by God for failing to fulfill their vocations, what they are called to do and be.

Now, the tone of this parable changes a bit. There seems to be a greater sense of urgency. Jesus stops talking about vineyards and moves to the image of a wedding feast. If the last parable was a sort of a passion prediction, and it was, this one is more eschatological, sounds more like the end of the Book of Revelation, and the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, the completion at the end of the age. And marriage is one of the most common themes in Scripture as pertaining to God’s relationship with us. It is a very pointed tale.

And this parable is the strangest of the three. It is nothing short of being weird. But, it is about a wedding. And, having now performed about over 400 weddings, many weddings are weird. I take that back. Most weddings are weird. It seems to be the nature of the beast. They often start planning the event about a year and a half before it happens. They invite the significant people in the couple’s lives. And then, they get nervous, sweat profusely (August weddings, outdoors, can be lots of fun), cry a lot (especially flower girls, sometimes the bride and groom), forget things (like the rings or the license). People find that they can’t repeat the vows after me. Sometimes, alcohol gets passed around the wedding party as a “bracer” before the ceremony (and they think that I don’t notice). And sometimes, people even pass out. I’ve had that happen a couple of times. I warn them not to lock their knees, but they don’t listen. People prepare for months, often spending thousands of dollars, for a ritual which lasts about 45 minutes (which you are then supposed to live with for the rest of your life – or less). Emotions are at high gear. My job, try to maintain sanity, and often a sense of decorum, and sacredness to the whole event. That isn’t always easy. When the end of the age in the Bible is compared to a Wedding, sometimes I worry.

Now, what happens if you go through all of this work, and those who you invited don’t come, none of them? They may have prior commitments. All of them!! The king’s invitations should take precedence; but one goes to his business, another to his farm. The servants are mistreated (like the other parables). In retribution, they are destroyed by the king, and others are invited, namely those who had before been considered unworthy. Now, the “unworthy” are invited and in the king’s presence, in the KINGDOM! In fact, they can’t turn it down like the first ones, they are compelled to go, must.

What is going on? The ones to whom the invitation was originally given, refused it: the Chief priests, the Pharisees, and the elders of the people. They now have the invitation taken away, revoked. Indeed, they are refused entry. They are destroyed, we are told (which does happen 40 years after Jesus tells this parable, at the hands of the Romans, and what is left of them again in 135AD).

The invitation is now given to all others. The Kingdom/Gospel is given to all to whom the message bearers come in contact, which is the mission of the Church. The invitation is now to those who were first thought to be unworthy: Gentiles, sinners (us). God tells us, “Come to the wedding feast of the Son.” All who hear the message, and receive the invitation are welcome.

But, then there is the man without the wedding robe (probably me, I like to dress for comfort, not to impress people – and I hate anything around my neck, too many of my ancestors died that way). This is the strangest part of the parable! He is compelled to be there. But he is not dressed properly. Maybe he didn’t have the proper clothing, or couldn’t afford it. He is given the bum’s rush out. What is the proper attire? How are we to be clothed aright? It seems that there are in fact certain expectations upon those who attend this wedding. How clothed rightly? In the blood of Christ, in faith, and living life in faith in Christ and God’s grace, that is what makes us worthy to be at God’s wedding banquet. And, as an afterthought, those good deeds which we have done to the praise of God, would they be wedding gifts, to show God our thankfulness?

That is what makes us welcome at the feast, in the kingdom, in the Church. Welcome at the Lord’s Supper, which is a foretaste of the feast to come. Welcome at the great wedding feast at the end of the age. You are invited, compelled, and dressed in faith. You are welcome.

Pastor Rose

October 4 Worship Service

Our October 4 Sunday worship service is available on video through Facebook. You may view it without being a member of Facebook. Our social spacing seating arrangement assures minimal risk when you come in person. 21 quilts made by church members were blessed during the service to be sent to mission fields by Lutheran World Relief.

Click on picture to view video

The October 11 worship services will be held in our church sanctuary at 8 and 10:30 am with members and friends in attendance. It is scheduled to be streamed live on the DeSoto Redeemer Facebook page. We will post a direct link to the recording here as soon as it is possible after the service.

We are glad to share our worship with you. Click on “Contact Us” above to find out more about our faith family and what we believe.

Sermon October 4
Isaiah 5:1-7 | Psalm 80:7-14
Philippians 3:4b-14 | Matthew 21:33-46

Well, if the Chief Priests and the Pharisees didn’t catch a clue that Jesus was talking about them in his parables last week, they finally picked up upon it this week. It says that they wanted to arrest him on the spot, but since they were afraid of the crowds (who considered Jesus a prophet), they decided not yet. And, ironically, this particular parable, comes true, thus making it a prophecy and a Passion Prediction, precisely because the Chief Priests and the Pharisees act in ways in which they are described in the parable – you would have thought that they would act differently so as to prove Jesus wrong! That is something odd to come in the lessons at this time of year.

The parable itself is pretty cut and dry: God owns the vineyard, the vineyard is the world/kingdom, the servants/slaves are the prophets, the renters/leasers/tenants (or we may prefer the term Share croppers, which is what they appear to be) are the Chief Priests and Pharisees, and the son is of course, Jesus. That part is easy to figure out.

What I’ve always found bizarre is the thinking of the tenants in this story: They abuse and kill the slaves. That certainly isn’t going to make any brownie points with the owner. And then, when he sends his son thinking, “They will respect my son.” They don’t respect him at all, but say, and here is the weird part, “Here is the heir, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.” Talk about strange!! True, by Jewish (and other Middle Eastern cultures) if a man died without an heir, the inheritance went to the eldest male slave born in his house. That was Abraham’s situation until Sarah gave birth to Isaac by the way. But, these tenants haven’t even got that to stand on. The law isn’t on their side at all. Or is that one of the main points of this story, “THE LAW IS NOT ON THEIR SIDE (NOR OURS).” Indeed, for their acts (and ours), the law is against them.

The chief priest and those who are supposed to be the stewards of the house, are acting like the owners. They may even think that they are the owners, the old “possession is 9 tenths of the law” routine. My favorite singer, Jimmy Buffett has a song, “Gypsies in the Palace,” about a similar situation (I wonder if there is a factual basis to it), about people who are supposed to be housesitting for him while he is gone on tour, and as soon as he leaves and can’t see what they are doing, they turn his home into a giant party palace. They are doing the very thing that they are supposed to be avoiding – taking care of, not tearing up the place. The priests are doing the same thing. They aren’t acting as stewards of the Temple, acting on God’s behalf and rendering to God His due. No, they are acting like they own the place. The threat behind this parable is simple, they are about to lose their positions – forever. By the way, Judaism no longer has any Priest – Chief or otherwise, scribes, nor are there any Pharisees left. The Romans eliminate the priests about 40 years after Jesus tells this story. And the Pharisees slowly but surely are replaced by the rabbis.

Reversals: that is what the lesson is about. The Chief Priests and Pharisees are going to lose their supposed inheritance, precisely because the Son’s claim is far greater than theirs. To quote the saying, “The stone that is rejected, is now the cornerstone.” The cornerstone was (and often still is) the single most important stone of a structure. From it, all other stones were measured and aligned. The Priests and Pharisees, having rejected Christ, are now themselves rejected and disenfranchised, or as Christ says, “Broken to pieces and crushed.” Through Christ, all things are changed, “the old has passed away.”

The Temple is gone. The Chief Priests and Pharisees are no more. The tenants in the vineyard have been evicted. The Son of God himself has come to claim us as his own, death could not hold him. At this point in time, we make up part of the harvest of the vineyard. And being claimed by Christ, we now share in his inheritance, through him, we are made children of God, with him. All that there is to say is, “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.”

Pastor Rose