19th Sunday after Pentecost 4.10.15 Salvation
‘I must get around to it someday’. This is a familiar saying, and one which is used often in relation to the practice of the faith.
People have an idea that they are not at rights with God and they resolve that ‘one of these days’ they will straighten things out.
The Gospel passage of the banquet, and other similar passages, convey a warning that there may be a time limit to such things.
‘One of these days’ may never come; we may be called to judgment before we do actually ‘get around to it’.
These passages (cf servants being busy when the Master returns; the foolish virgins who did not keep their lamps lit; the servants who buried their talents instead of using them) are meant to hurry us along, so that we put our good resolutions into effect now, and not at some vague future point.
We must not rely on a deathbed conversion because by then we may not be able to think straight or make a proper confession.
We may not even have a deathbed death – we could die suddenly, and thus be stranded as far as repentance is concerned.
Even those who call out ‘Lord, Lord’ may not be saved because the Lord will know their cries are insincere (Mt 7,21).
A last-minute repentance will be accepted if it is sincere, but it may be made more through fear than love. The question is: if we did come back to health would we behave differently?
This is a more fundamental problem than the matter of timing. The real issue is one of attitude.
We might confess our sins at 11.59 and be just in time, or 12.01 and be too late. But what really counts is whether we have any love for God in our hearts.
We cannot manipulate God, like playing a system. He will not be mocked (Ga 6,7). We must give Him our full allegiance to make a proper repentance (thus the man without the wedding garment in today’s Gospel).
If He is not important enough to me now how will He ever be important enough?
One can reach a point of no longer caring; no longer being able to distinguish right from wrong.
We are changed by all our moral decisions. We cannot just commit sin for forty years and think we can turn around in a moment. Our hearts may have hardened too much for change to be possible.
In fact people do turn around, but that is by grace and takes a lot of prayer from others. It is not just something we can switch on at will.
For those of us who have accepted the invitation to the banquet, who have tried to get it right - we conform by wearing the wedding garment, meaning we give God our best.
We are not just worried about judgment, but we want to give Him as much glory as we can, by the way we serve Him.
We wish we did not have to threaten hellfire (to ourselves or others), but human nature is so stubborn and perverse, that sometimes explosives are needed to get people to see the problem.
God is so good that to lose Him is something worth making a fuss about. It is terrible for a soul to be lost.
Ideally everyone will be able to see this and we will have no more need to tell each other, Learn to know the Lord (Jer 31,34) No more sermons about repentance because everyone can see that it is the obvious thing to do.
Repent, and come to the banquet of heaven. Everyone is invited. Everyone should come.
No more delays. Now is the acceptable time (2 Cor 6,2).
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