-It is absolutely maddening to young couples
-Maybe y’all had to deal with it too when you got married
-I’m as guilty as anybody
-What I’m talking about it RSVPs
-Today’s sermon is about RSVPs and the people who refuse to return them
-I’ve always wondered what RSVP stood for. I knew it was an acronym from France
-It stands for “Répondez s’il vous plaît” which literally means, “Respond if you please”
-When Linda and I were getting ready to get married, I had to make a bunch of calls to family and friends to find out if they were going to make our wedding and reception
-I didn’t realize what an undertaking putting together a celebration with 300 guests was
-It would have been fine if that was our full-time job but we were trying to take care of details in addition to our jobs
-What would it be like if we had to go see everyone one of those people in person or have to get together a group of friends and have them go visit all of the delinquent RSVPers and get a reply, if you please?
-How time consuming! How labor intensive! How insulting to us to have to hunt down peoples’ responses!
-But we cared about these people enough to hunt down their responses. They are our friends and family and we wanted them to be a part of our celebration. {PAUSE}
-Do you remember the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981? I was only twelve at the time but I remember all the horses and carriages. All the gold and precious jewels. All the fancy clothes and all the guests.
-Do you think anyone of them didn’t get their RSVP in on time? You know, as hard as it is to imagine, there probably was a handful of people too flighty to get their dang RSVP back in a timely fashion.
-That’s what Jesus is saying to the chief priests and elders, the religious leaders of the Israelis of His day
-Jesus was saying that His kingdom is like a wedding celebration given by a king for his son.
-The king was pulling out all the stops to make sure that his son’s wedding was a special occasion. That’s what we do. Even more so in the Middle East. {PAUSE}
-Do you remember it?
-Do you remember what Jesus’ first miracle was?
-You remember don’t you?
-What was it?
-That’s right, Jesus turned water into wine.
-What’s the significance of that?
-Wedding celebrations in Israel were big events
-It began with the betrothal which was as binding as being married itself
-There was a pledge of faithfulness to one another that began the engagement
-Some time later the bride would be transferred to the bridegroom’s home
-Following that would be a seven day wedding feast
-Imagine feeding and housing your extended family and friends for a week
-It must have been some kind of party though {PAUSE}
-One of the things that I like to watch when they’re on is Blooper Videos
-I love watching all the wedding bloopers
-It is such a big event with some many moving parts and so many people traveling from different parts of the country and everyone is dressed up so nicely, something is bound to go wrong
-Obviously, I can feel the pain of the pastor’s who mess up
-It’s really easy to do
-I can also feel the pain of the attendants
-I was best man a couple times and so didn’t want to lose the wedding bands
-However, I also feel the pain of the couples
-Our wedding was a glorious event
-However, it was one of the hottest days on record in the end of July.
-It was over 100 degrees. The AC in the church was not cooling adequately for the size of the wedding.
-The AC in our limo broke the day of our wedding
-I was sweating like crazy because of the heat.
-The reception location was nice and cool but we found out the one thing a bride never wants to hear. You are out of cake.
-We had provided more than enough cake to feed all of our guests but the wait staff did not use the template for cutting and some of our guests were without dessert.
-Imagine our embarrassment that we didn’t take proper care of our guests
-Likewise, imagine the embarrassment of the hosts of the wedding at Cana who ran out of wine for there feast
-But Jesus takes care of the situation and provides more than enough wine and the good stuff at that {PAUSE}
-Who doesn’t like a party?
-Who turns down invitations to enjoy good food, good company and enjoy the festivities that a wedding has to offer?
-People will actually crash weddings to enjoy the evening’s festivities, assuming that there will be some guests that were invited that never show
-Imagine the scene that Jesus talks about in His parable that the King throws a wedding for his son and people actually ignore his invitations
-They do not RSVP so the king sends his servants to personally invite the special guests. Most ignored the personal request but some actually beat or killed the servants. Who would be so foolish?
-Obviously, the king wasn’t happy and took out his revenge on their thoughtlessness
-He ordered his army to kill those ungrateful people and burn their city {PAUSE}
-Jesus was clearly warning the religious leaders and any other person of his time that took God’s graciousness lightly to be careful lest their seat at the table be taken from them. They needed to RSVP.
-And so do we, the same warning is true for all of us that fail to RSVP and show up at the party
-You see, there is a party every week. It is called chapel service. It starts here at Whiteman at 0800 or 1100 every week. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and He expects you to show up. We get to celebrate as we assemble around his Word in Bible Study and Sunday School. He expects you to RSVP. We enjoy a celebration of His presence as we serve people in our community, here on base and surrounding towns. He expects you to respond.
-Do you? I don’t always and neither do you. Do you come to chapel regularly? How about Sunday School? Have you plugged into serving our first term airmen at the Spirit Café? What are you doing to serve the downtrodden in our community? {PAUSE}
-You see, none of us were the first guests invited to the party. Did you realize that? We were the last ones invited. We have a place at the king’s table because the Jewish people rejected His invitation.
-For we were the last group of people that the King sent his servants out to get.
-We were the people that were hanging out at the street corners and standing around not knowing what was going on.
-We were the uninvited guests who became the honored friends.
-Now we are members of the kingdom, special guests
-He even gives to us special clothes to wear
-That’s what the host did
-If someone was not able to afford special clothes to dress up for the event, the host would provide the clothes for him/her.
-So not only has God invited you to his party but given you special clothes to wear because of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross and rising again
-In fact, he has done even more for us. He has adopted us and made us part of his own family. In our baptism, He has given us a new name, His name – Christian.
-However, this parable is a stern warning to us as well.
-Just like the Jews of Jesus’ time had their seats taken from them, so too our seat at the table might be taken from us
-Be careful that your seat is not be taken from you and given to someone else
-Jesus told the parable of the two sons previously to the parable of the tenants that we looked at last week
-It is helpful to know what God expects of us in order to do His bidding
Jesus said, “ What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ’Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ’I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. "Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ’I will, sir,’ but he did not go. "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
-God wants people who will work in His kingdom. If you will not your place will be taken away.
-That is what we do as citizens in the kingdom
-That is what we do when we are servants of the King
-We RSVP. We Respect and Serve Various People
