Warsaw International Church Mobile +48 601 331 032 Worship every Sunday at ul. Miodowa 21 (near Old Town) at 11:00 AM Entrance from Schillera Street Email: pastor@wic.org.pl Website: http://www.wic.org.pl WIC WEEKLY 17 June 2018 Our news Last Sunday s service saw the baptism of Priyanka Raja. Priyanka also gave a wonderful testimony about how she became a Christian. Our church will be holding its annual picnic on 24 June. The venue is the Methodist Conference Centre in Klarysew (part of Konstancin-Jeziorna) at ul. Słoneczna 12B (turn right into Słoneczna from the main road from Wilanów, then go to the very end of Słoneczna and, on the right, at the top, turn sharp right). PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED MAP. Some transport will be available, while other worshippers will get there by metro and bus and can therefore take those who don t know the way along with them. We will first have the morning service in our church as usual, then go to the picnic afterwards. A sign-up sheet is available in church, so please sign it or otherwise let me know if you would like to come. It s a wonderful opportunity to enjoy fellowship together for a whole afternoon.
Prayer requests Your prayers are requested for Stan Cichocki, a former worshipper at our church who now lives in a residential care home and is virtually confined to his room because of a long-term ailment. Please also pray for our many students taking exams right now. Sister Magda has requested prayer as she starts a new job. Please also continue to pray for a Brother to find additional work. At least two Sisters would like prayer for their fathers to know the Lord. Last Sunday s sermon Bible readings: Isaiah 55, 1-5; 1 Corinthians 1, 18-25; Luke 14, 15-24 What a wonderful feeling of excitement there is in today s readings! People are being invited to various things and that can only mean good news! Think about it you don t get invited to a funeral; your attendance may be welcomed, but it s wrong to use the word invitation, because that s reserved for good news. You don t get invited to a law court. You don t get invited to the tax office. You don t get invited to prison. But in today s hymns and readings, we do get invited. Our introductory song invites us to come to church, because we ll be blessed because we came. In our verse for this week, Jesus invites us to come to Him and find rest. In our gospel song, the narrator is so excited about going down to the river to pray that he encourages others to come on down as well. In the Old Testament reading, the Lord shouts to His people: Come to Me, and you will have life! Isn t that great news? And in the story of the great feast, the man is organizing a banquet, and he excitedly wants his invited guests to come and enjoy it. But they make excuses, because they don t care to come. How would the man who issued the invitations feel? Disappointed; rejected; angry a whole range of negative emotions. The story that Jesus tells about the great feast is actually a feast story within another feast story. A Pharisee has invited other Pharisees to his house for a social gathering and Jesus gets an invitation too. However, in this case the invitation to Jesus might not have been so sincere or warm, because the Pharisees (the Jewish religious leaders) wanted to catch him out by asking tricky questions like: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Anyway, Jesus goes along He mixed with everybody, Pharisees as well as the poor and underprivileged. And at that party, one man gets enthusiastic about what he calls the future feast in the Kingdom of God so Jesus tells him this story we ve been reading. But one of the things He shows that man is that the Kingdom of God isn t a long time away at all because the master is urgently inviting people to the meal. So the Kingdom of God is already here even though we can t yet physically see it. And what s one of the characteristics of the Kingdom of God? the fact that, as the master says, everything is already ready. The feast is already prepared. Now, in many religions we see the same kind of promises made: if you follow the teachings and practices of that religion, then you ll be saved in some future life. In a sense, Christianity is regarded in the same way: follow Christian teachings and practices, and you ll be safe with God in heaven. In particular, try to be good and kind to everyone, and hopefully God will have mercy on you and save you. But actually that way of thinking is a bit of an insult to God. Why? Because it suggests He hasn t done anything yet, and so we have to keep twisting His arm, catching His attention, and trying to please Him. But in actual fact, Christianity is pretty unique: it s the only religion that suggests that God has already saved you in the past, even before you were born, rather than in the future. It s the only religion that claims that you can t possibly do anything for God because He s already done everything for you! All you have to do is stop carrying your heavy burden, and rest. It s so easy! But no, we prefer our heavy burden of trying to achieve salvation, when in fact it s already given. The feast is already ready.
Dear Friends, you would have thought that in Jesus parable of the great feast, the guests invited would have loved to attend: free food and wine, social interaction, seeing old friends. But in actual fact something inexplicable happens: they don t want to come. I must look after a field. I must try out my ox. What kind of an excuse is that? Surely even the newly married man might have been able to come with his wife, to just enjoy a pleasant day in good company! And the master is very angry, and tells his servant: Bring anybody you can find, who wants to come. And the people came. But the original guests didn t taste the dinner because they themselves had rejected it. Now, who do you think those original guests represent? The Jews, perhaps, who rejected Jesus, so that the Good News was then extended to include all non-jews? Or maybe people who think of themselves as religious, who think they already have everything, when in actual fact they reject God in their hearts? Or maybe simply ordinary people down the ages? ordinary people today, who find it impossible to believe in a God who came to earth as a man, and sacrificed His life to procure our salvation? That s right. In our New Testament passage, we see that the idea of Christ dying on the cross to usher in our salvation is indeed nonsense to some utter foolishness. They can t understand it. It s not noble enough. It s not clever enough. It s not logical enough. And yet, dear Friends, why shouldn t it be? We say God created our forefathers in His image, but they turned away from Him and tried to be God themselves. And because of that inherited sin, we ourselves have the same tendency to turn away from God. So isn t God being unfair to condemn us from birth to a life of imperfection and then to eternal damnation, when in actual fact it was our forefathers, our ancestors, who originally sinned? Yes He would be unfair! And that s precisely why He has already prepared that great feast! It was already prepared for you before you even came into this world. You see, the Good News is that God has already cancelled all our sins and self-centredness in advance! No more burdens to carry! Theoretically, from the moment we are born, we can follow our new Master Jesus Christ and can entrust our lives to Him. We do not at any stage have to follow the old master who encourages us to be independent of God. If we do follow the old master, it s because we want to. God wants us to come to Him of our own free will He s not going to force us if we don t want to. But then we won t taste the dinner, will we? Dear Brothers and Sisters, each one of us has salvation in their pockets, here and now not in the future, but already here and now. There s a place for you ready now at the great feast in God s Kingdom, with your name on the table. Maybe you re already seated there. Maybe you re on the way there. But maybe you will never come, because your field, or your ox and yes, even your partner is more important to you than the feast. Happily, we have with us today a Sister who has already taken her seat at the Great Master s table, and is announcing this publicly Priyanka, who will be baptized. God s invitation is still open. And there s room for all. May all of us here accept it. Amen. This Sunday s readings 17 June is the third Sunday after Trinity. Verse for the week: [Jesus said:] The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19, 10). Responsive reading: Psalm 103, 1-13. Old Testament reading: Ezekiel 18, 1-4; 21-24. New Testament reading: 1 John 1, 5 2, 6. Gospel reading: Luke 15, 11-32. Food of the Spirit On the Parable of the Great Feast, by Ralph F. Wilson As I meditate on the Parable of the Great Feast I am impressed with a number of themes:
1. Rejection and Insult We feel badly when we are rejected, but what about the Father? Think of his grief and broken heart. Think of his anger and mercy. I recall the verses at the beginning of John's Gospel that express this: "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:11-13) Jesus told us, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me." (John 15:18-21) This parable is a bittersweet reminder of rejection, but also of mercy. 2. Mercy and grace The second theme I see is one of grace and mercy. Those who are not worthy to come to the host's table -- the poor, lame, crippled, blind -- are now invited. That is you and that is me. We are unworthy to eat at our Host's table, but we have been invited and cleansed. How true it is: "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God" (14:15b). As I read the servant's invitation, "Come, for everything is now ready," my mind begins singing the gospel hymn by Charlotte G. Homer and W.A. Ogden: "All things are ready," come to the feast! Come, for the table now is spread; Ye famishing, ye weary, come and thou shalt be richly fed. Hear the invitation, come, "whosoever will" Praise God for full salvation for "whosoever will." This is God's mercy, pure and simple. 3. Evangelism A third, and closely related theme is evangelism. The poor, lame, crippled, and blind are now sought out. They are not just invited, but they are sought out and urged, compelled, to accept the invitation. The poor and oppressed among the Jewish people are in view, but also the Gentiles. We are the servants, and bring a marvelous message of invitation and acceptance and forgiveness. We must take our role seriously and urge the invitation wherever we are. This is not a take-it-or-leave-it task. But a mission, the mission of the Host, and we must fulfill it. 4. Judgment But those who reject the invitation -- for whatever reason -- will not taste of the Master's banquet. We bear good news, but with humility and sadness, realizing that contained within the very message are the seeds of judgment. However, it's not like we are damning people by telling them the Good News. Actually, the Good News is their only hope -- they are already under God's judgment for their sins. It's only that deliberately rejecting the invitation invites greater judgment, and that saddens us. 5. Lame Excuses I am sorry to say that in the lame excuses of the original guests I hear some of my own shallow excuses for not doing God's will. We may be able to convince ourselves that what we are doing is noble, but I am afraid that way too often our excuses are an insult to God. He is the Host and he is the Master of the house. It is God's mercy that we are not consumed! 6. God's Plan The final theme that I see here is one of God's plan. The host has prepared food for a large number of guests, and he won't be satisfied until his house is completely full. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). I get the feeling -- though this is not inherent in the parable before us -- that as soon as the last place is taken at the banquet, the door will be shut and the feast will begin. The Father is lingering, waiting, for each and every seat to be taken, and End will not come until that has occurred. We catch a hint of this in Second Peter: "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat." (2 Peter 3:11-12)
I believe we can "speed" the coming of the Day of the Lord by evangelism. "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). As we do throughout the Bible we see the themes of free will and predestination intertwined - - God's established purpose, our obedience to serve him, and the acceptance of the invitation by those we speak to. How it all fits together God only knows. This parable is shocking socially. It is also sobering and urgent. May God use it to urge you to thankfulness and obedience, too.