Invitations. You can get them by the hundreds. Pick them up 25 to a pack for a few dollars at Wal Mart or print them off yourself at home if you are more computer savvy. These days they come printed with all kinds of cartoon characters, movie characters, super heroes, and barbie dolls. You can get gold lettering, silver lettering, fancy paper or just plain card stock. And for those who would really show off their technical expertise, you can forgo the paper all together and send out eVites, (email invitations that don't cost a dime and save the time and the hassle of mailing things out the old fashioned way). Either way, there are lots of different types of invitations.
Now, imagine if you would an invitation that arrives, not in your email inbox, on your blackberry or iPhone, not even in your mailbox by old fashioned "snail mail". Imagine an invitation that arrives on your doorstep by a personal currier. You open it up and find that it is embossed and sealed. The weight of the paper and the quality of the printing lets you know that this invitation wasn't purchased at Wal Mart. This invitation is special, costly and important. The invitation would let you know that the party, the event was special. Important. No expense spared. And for that matter, the guest list will be somewhat exclusive. Not a party for the common man, mind you. Have you ever been to a party like that?
I have.
But before you are too impressed, let me explain. I was a part of the wait staff. I was employed by a catering company while attending seminary. There was an exclusive banquet held at the natural history museum, with all sorts of important people from the city of St Louis. They were all dressed to the 9's, pulled up in their fancy cars, got our wearing their fur coats tuxedos and evening gowns, and I was there to pour the coffee, deliver the entrees, fill the wine glasses, and point people to the rest rooms. I was there, but hardly because of how important I was.
Well, today, our Old Testament text includes an invitation. “Come,” it says, “Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.”
Talk about an invitation to an exclusive party. If princes and kings and celebrities and dignitaries find themselves on exclusive guest lists, consider for a moment an invitation, not just to the governor’s mansion, not even to the white house, imagine an invitation to God's house, to the house of him who is King of kings and Lord of Lords. Now that is an invitation. Now that is a guest list!
But here's the thing, the difference, a profound difference. The King, the host of this party, of this celebration, isn't like a regular host. He isn't like a regular king. This King comes, not in a limousine, not with an entourage or a military escort, not with red carpets and paparazzi. Instead, this King comes to you humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt on the foal of a beast of burden.
And so you are invited. Invited to the house of the Lord. Invited here in fact on this last Sunday in November, this first Sunday in Advent, to meet with this King who comes. And as you are here, he would teach you.
Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. These words and these ways that he would teach you are good words and they are good ways.
If you got an invitation in your mailbox from the governor or from the president to attend some presidential ball, as you were making preparations to attend, somewhere along the way, the question of what to wear would come to your mind. Would you wear blue jeans and a T-shirt? Would your current wardrobe have anything appropriate for an event such as the one you were preparing to attend? Men, would you need to go rent a tux? Women, would you go shopping for some sort or an evening gown? Would you make certain you had the shoes, the jewelry, the hair-do appropriate for the event? To be sure, you wouldn't put on your weak-end-working-around-the-house clothes.
In a similar sort of way, as we are preparing for the Lord's celebration, to which we have received this invitation we are mindful of how we are dressed. And thus our Lord teaches us.
“Cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” says our Epistle text, “Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.”
These are words for our time. Everywhere we look in the world we see these very things. Families are known to feud and fight over silly little things. they will be torn apart by anger and bickering. Church families are split due to infighting and gossip, one member talking about another slandering another without the love appropriate for the family of God.
Likewise with the sexual immorality and sensuality. Everything these days has become about sex. From television programing, to commercial advertising, to even major political issues, right down to the emails in your in-box. These topics of sexuality and sensuality are constantly and continually before our eyes and in our attention.
These things are constant snares for us as a Christian community. They are in the world around us, everywhere we go and a part of everything that we do. We can't get away from them. But like Luther said, "You can't stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair." We can't stop temptations and we can't stop the world from its foolishness and sin but we don't have to take part in it.
Or here's another way to think of it, when you get your 5 year old dressed and ready to go, either to church or to some party, you expect him to keep himself out of the dirt and mud. When he comes back in to the house with mud all over his sunday best you are upset with him for his foolishness. Imagine then how foolish it would be if you got dressed for a black tie event and then went out to join the 5 year olds in the mud puddle. You wouldn't do that.
Yet here we are, we are dressed for eternity, wearing our Lord's garments of holiness and still we are willing to traipse through the gutters and back allies with the idolaters and fornicators. We are willing to submit to the spirit of quarreling and jealousy, of backbiting and gossip, we are willing to take part in all kinds of sin that just is not fitting for the people of God.
And so it would seem that we have gotten our party clothes dirty. We need a bath. A change of clothes. Again...
And so our host, our King comes to us. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, on the foal of a donkey. Jesus comes to us riding a beast of burden. Our king comes to us, again, not the way a king usually comes, no military escort, no banners and emblems, no head held high, no proud and powerful war horse. Instead a humble and lowly donkey. He rides to his throne and his coronation the same way his mother rode to his birth. Humble and on a donkey. On a beast of burden, because he himself would be our beast of burden. He himself came to carry our load of sin of suffering and shame. He came to carry our guilt and punishment.
We are not used to this sort of a ruler, to this sort of a king. Human kings are not humble. Earthly kings are not lowly. They are high and mighty. Distinguished and important. But Jesus is not. Even though He is King of kings and Lord of lords, he does not hold it over our heads. He does not pretend to be better, more righteous, more fit, more worthy, more deserving of honor and praise and glory and worship than we. He simply serves. He simply loves. He simply calls and he simply leads.
Jesus, this High and Mighty, yet humble and lowly King would be your king. He would have you follow him and so he has sent you his invitation. Won't you come, to the house of the Lord, where he would teach you his ways, that you might walk in His path. Won't you come, enjoy the blessings of heaven.
Amen.
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