When you hold any formal meal or party, you send out the invitations months or years ahead. “Save the date!” cards come in the mail. There’s no excuse for being absent. There’s plenty of time to prepare. Since God has planned the most delicious meal of all, it was appropriate to invite His guests long in advance. Who would not want forgiveness, life, and salvation? God has been preparing you and even making you anxious for the hour of the supper. “Come, for all things are now ready!” Welcome to the wedding hall!

God’s Word equips us in history, prophecy, poetry, wisdom, Gospel, and exhortation for our every need. With His Word, we are attentive to the things that make for resilient, hopeful, steadfast, and immovable people. 

Colossians 3:1–4 (NKJV): 1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Let’s not be fooled by the illusion of self-sufficiency, my friends. The rich man in the parable trusted in his wealth and status, only to find himself tormented in the flames. Our possessions, accomplishments, and worldly success fade away in the face of Jesus’ grace and mercy. Only the grace of God can sustain and enrich us.   So if we dig deep, digging down to the roots of this topsy-turvy tale, Jesus’ parable reveals that we are all beggars. We are all beggars needing Jesus' forgiveness, a new life, and eternal salvation. There is no exception, no escape from this truth. It is our common condition. It is our shared humanity.

As we witness the union of these two sinners who have decided to plunge into the depths of holy matrimony, let us remember that marriage is not just a piece of paper or a legal contract. It is a sacred bond, a spiritual connection, and an act of God’s divine love that brings us all together. And in this love of God, may you find joy and fulfillment in each other, today and always, in this life and the next.

Just as Christ was laid to rest in His tomb, so today we lay our brother Gary into the earth. But just as the grave could not hold Jesus, the earth will yield forth saints in resurrection. From one seed, Jesus, will all the shoots of His planting spring forth to eternal life on the final day. Yes, we follow Jesus into His death, but we also follow Him even now and forever in His resurrection. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

The world may try to deceive you into thinking that you must succeed on your own and that your worth is measured by your achievements and productivity. But Jesus turns this upside down. He declares, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” This is not a declaration of limitations but of radical freedom. Jesus sets us free from the exhausting cycle of self-reliance and invites us to live confidently, dependent on Him.

11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. 16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Jesus has something better for us. The Spirit gathered people from all over the known world and blessed them with repentance for the forgiveness of sins and new life in Baptism. They were gathered in not by their own design but by God’s doing. They were given a common language and one speech, now the Gospel of Christ Crucified. And receiving this gift, they returned to their homes, speaking to all the wonderful works of God. Gathered in and then sent forth. They then gathered again with Christians in their homes and were sent out into the world with Christ’s grace, mercy, and love.

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

With the giving of the Holy Spirit immediately came the proclamation of the Gospel, baptism, and Holy Communion (Acts 2). And remaining in the Spirit and the means of the Spirit, you are assured that whatever flaming darts the devil’s kingdom fires at Christ Jesus and His Church is in vain. The gates of hell cannot prevail against her. Jesus is with us even in the midst of the cross and suffering, but we cannot succumb to error and attack. The Holy Spirit will sustain us to the end until, at last, God comforts us with eternal joy and blessedness in the life everlasting.

6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Only one has promised to hear our prayers and can answer them by the merit of His suffering and death: Jesus. We cannot have this confidence in praying to anyone else, as faithful, noble, or virtuous as they may have been. While we can remember the saints who came before in thanksgiving and encouragement and emulation, their prayers and good works cannot save us. Our confidence is in the Divine Promise of Jesus and in His merits. We want to be confident that our prayers are heard. That can only come from Jesus and His promise of mercy. 

The church sings the new praise song that it receives through faith through the Holy Spirit. We sing of Christ, the Lamb of God, sitting at the right hand of glory, whose blood cleanses us from all sins and sanctifies us to be the people of God. Everything the church sings in the faith will have this new song as its heart and foundation. Everything we sing and do flows from the confession of Jesus, the Lamb, whose blood washes and makes us clean. All faithful singing will sing of the faith we have received in the Gospel. 

1 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The Holy Scriptures have clear instructions both for government and citizens. They might surprise you. St. Paul tells the government how to rule. He says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”(Romans 13:1-4). The Apostle of Jesus makes many assertions for civil government. 1) Be subject to authorities. 2) God establishes all authority on earth. 3) Resisting authority is resisting God. 4) Authorities punish evil and commend the good. 5) Authorities bear the sword, e.g., are authorized to do violence. 

When Jesus suffered and died, His disciples and the women grieved and wept tears of sorrow. But when He rose again, He came to them, proclaimed peace, and showed them His hands and side. He is risen and victorious. He wiped away their tears of sorrow and turned them to tears of joy. Today, you have sorrow and bitter tears. Your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and friend died. Despite her long life of eighty-five years, the sting of death is still real. It hurts to lose to the grave one we love, and we cry. 

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.

As hard as it is to believe that our sufferings are for but “a little while,” we are given to believe an even greater mystery! Christ Jesus overcame the world, sin, death, the devil, and hell, and has received all authority in heaven and on earth. And now that His enemies have been conquered, He reigns as the mighty King on Mount Zion, from where He strengthens, guides, and governs you, His own Church, with the Holy Spirit.

Colossians 1:18–23 (NKJV)18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.