Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ, our Lord:

Think back about your favorite meal.  Now you maybe are thinking about your favorite food, what your favorite food is to eat, and maybe that brings back some good ideas, just your favorite restaurant, but I want to think a little bit bigger.  Not just about the food, but the biggest event of a meal.  

For some of you, that might be your wedding day, where you had such great food, but more than the food were all the people that were there, your loved ones and what you were celebrating.  The joy of having one there is such a memory engrained in you and the food and everything was great and it meant so much.  

For some of you, that was maybe a longer time ago, so maybe you can think about an anniversary party.  You're celebrating 30, 40, 50 years of being married and now all of your kids, your grandkids and those people you care about are there celebrating and it's just so awesome to have everyone together.  

For others, maybe it’s something further back, a great trip, but it's not always just the food.  It's also the people that are there and the occasion that you're celebrating that makes a great meal.  Think about all those memories, all those emotions, all those feelings that come about, and you can almost just take yourself back to there, and it probably fills you with joy thinking just about that day. 

Today we're hearing about a feast, one that has a lot of pictures that you might be reading in the book of Revelation, about a heavenly banquet, this feast of salvation that God is preparing, that he's letting us know that this feast is ready.  And as much as we think about all those awesome blessings that God has given in all those meals and all those times in this world, God is telling us this feast is even better.  As we heard in our Psalm, one day in his courts is greater than a thousand elsewhere.  So we focus on these words, and we see that the feast of salvation is ready.  We're going to focus on when you have a party with a meal.  There are usually different people involved.  There's a host and there are guests.  We are going to focus first on the host and then the guests.  

As we read from Isaiah 25, he says this:  On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.  He repeats it twice of how awesome the meal is going to be, but did you notice what he does?  He says he's going to invite all people.  The host invites all.  

As we heard in that Children's Sermon, at a party we wish we could invite more, but we're limited, aren't we?  At your wedding, I'm sure you had a limit of how many people you could invite, or even that anniversary party, or whatever celebration you have, there's just not enough room for everyone.  There's just not enough that we have that we could invite all the people.  We're limited, but God is not, and he's telling us this invitation, this gift of grace, the Gospel, this is what it's really about, that it's for everyone.  No one is excluded.  He wants everyone to come to the knowledge of salvation and to be saved.  God invites all.  

But as he invites all, notice what happens in this banquet.  It says:  The Lord Almighty will prepare this feast.  On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever.  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.  Later we hear:  “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.  This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”  If you were to look and took some time to study this section of Scripture on your own, doing your morning devotion, you'd see that there are a lot of actions taking place, but who's the one doing all the action?  

Again, think about a banquet, when people invite, there has to be someone who does all the work.  If there is a big wedding feast, people have hosted wedding parties at their house and they bring all their friends to help and prepare that party.  This feast, the guests don't have to do anything.  It's the host that does all the work.  Notice the things that he does.  These are just a few.  He prepares and he works and he saves.  He prepares everything for us.  He’s got a great plan, but then that works.  There's more that I want to say in that because what is he talking about when he works?  Notice it says he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all people.  He will swallow up death forever and he will wipe away the tears from all faces.  This work that he's talking about, it's not a work that you and I can do.  

Notice what it says.  …he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations…  What is that?  What is something that every person will face?  We have so many different people in this room, so many different people in the world.  We all have different experiences.  But what is one thing that is inevitable?  It's clear.  It's death.  And some people might struggle and say, “Well I don't like the idea that people are sinful” or “Well, aren't we born good?  All the kids are innocent, aren't they?”  Well, if you’ve raised kids, if you have siblings, you know that little sibling isn't always good, and you yourself don't always do the right thing.  And so what do we all face but death?  So he says he will destroy death.  

He uses this word that's kind of interesting, swallow up death.  Usually when you think about death, in pictures sometimes it talks about how death swallows up.  If you've experienced loss and death, you can understand what that feels like, how death swallows you up.  It feels like there's no escape.  There's that sadness.  But what does God do?  As he shows this picture of a banquet where we're coming to eat and dying, he is the one who swallows up death.  How does that happen?  By sending Jesus; Jesus the one who, at the tomb of Lazarus, he himself wept because of the power of death, would then go to the cross himself and die for you and me.  But death did not swallow him up.  Instead, the grave opened up and he walked out to show that he had destroyed death.  And the tears are gone because Jesus has defeated sin, death, the devil, all those great enemies so that power is no more.  That means we're safe.  

We hear the people say …we trusted in him, and he saved us.  …be glad in his salvation.  All of this work is about God saving us, redeeming us, and forgiving us.  We heard it in that First Lesson that righteousness is by faith, not by something I can earn.  Because isn't it true?  What if it was dependent on us?  

Maybe think about a different type of banquet, like an award ceremony.  Maybe you've been honored for something.  Have you ever been honored for something that you kind of say, “I don't really deserve this.”  And maybe you did something, maybe you worked someplace for 25, 30, 35, a long, long time, or you did something and other people helped so you're receiving this honor, but you don't feel that worthy.  Notice the other work that God does is he says that he will remove his people's disgrace.  So what does that mean for us?  We're safe, but us as guests, we're invited to this awesome banquet and we're moved from disgrace to honor.  We are no longer disgraced but honored.  This is so important, as you go through your day and your life, to know that no matter what you face, you are forgiven, so you don't have to feel like a miserable sinner.  We make mistakes.  We sin, and we don't deserve it, but God has honored us.  Jesus has welcomed us and forgiven us, so you are at peace.  You're loved and forgiven.  You're a child of God, so you know that you have this honor, not just now, but it's what awaits you forever in heaven.  

And maybe put this into perspective, why we think about a disgrace and honor.  We struggle with that shame of our sin and God removes it, not just now, but so much that he says “You're welcome with me forever.”  And we might talk about how we want God to work and save us in little things in this life, right?  “Well, what if he just helps me in this financial thing” or “…helps me in this health issue” or “…fixes this other problem?”  Well, those are all temporary things, aren't they?  That's not enough.  And if we only look for Him for those little things, well, what does it matter with death?  But he has solved that.  He swallowed up death and has saved you and honored you to be with him forever.  Not just a temporary feast, but a feast forever. 

So what does that mean for us then as his guest?  Notice so many of the actions are being done by the host.  But what can you do?  What are you asked to do?  It says then:  “This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”  As guests, we go out rejoicing and inviting with urgency.  Think about because he's done this, what do we get to do?  We get to rejoice.  

We know that whatever we face, there might be really hard days.  There might be loss.  There is sadness.  But I know that's not the end.  In all things, we can hold to these promises that God is with me in all things.  He will never leave me or forsake me and he's working out for your eternal good that you will be at that eternal banquet. 

God's purpose isn't in this life for you always to be happy or to have everything you want but to know that you are at peace, and you are invited to this heavenly banquet through Christ.  So we can rejoice.  When I have that rejoicing, I have that peace and thankfulness that goes out to others.  I can invite them.  We heard it in our Gospel Lesson, that urgency to go out and invite others because we have so many other things on our minds.  Jesus talked about people that refuse the invitation, “Well, I'm gonna go do this.  I'm gonna go do that,” but there's an urgency, isn't there?  We don't know the time when that invitation and the date will be.  

Think about invitations that you get.  We get wedding invitations and we put them aside and we wait kind of until the last minute to send it in or even the RSVP date goes by, and we're like, “Oh, let's send it in quick.”  We don't have urgency but we should have urgency in this life, to go out and invite others, but go back to the beginning.  

On Sundays, we've been reading this awesome book called Joining Jesus on His Mission.  What is the work that God calls you to do as you invite people?  Notice that God's the one who prepares the feast.  He's the one who does all the work.  He saves.  So we're just asked to invite.  Can you save other people?  Are you the Savior?  No.  But we get to be involved in that saving work by inviting and just pointing people to Jesus.  I don't have to have all the answers.  I don't have to do all the work, because who has done all the work?  God did.  And all I get to do is I get to look for how he is working in my life and to maybe bring a conversation, just a casual one, into one that invites Jesus in so that I can give the joy that I have and the peace that I have and welcome others to enjoy them.  

We are enjoying that feast in little ways now.  As you come and you hear of that forgiveness, as you share that with your family, as you enjoy knowing you are loved and forgiven every day, but what a joy it is to invite others to know that God has that message for all, and we get to be a part of it.  That feast of salvation is surely ready.  God has sent Jesus to redeem us, to save us, to swallow up death and give us heaven.  He's moved that disgrace and honored us, and we get to the chance to invite others to know that truth. Amen.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Amen.