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October 31st is a great date for beer and brats and celebrations of Dr. Luther’s posting of the historic 95 Theses. But an even better date to mark the reforming process of Christ’s 16th century Church would be today’s date: 25 June. It was on this day 476 years ago that courageous laymen and pastors presented the Augsburg Confession to the Emperor.

A confession is a "creed," it’s an "I believe." It’s even more than an "I believe" because any chimp can believe something. A confession is a stand, an effort, a risk, a fight. It’s not for the weak hearted or weak minded. Remember that the word "witness" is the word martyr. Pick up your cross and follow your Savior.

Instead of simply preaching this morning about an historical high point in the life of the Church Catholic; instead of reading all 28 articles of the Augsburg Confession to you; I will do what the great Reformers would rather have me do. Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, Jonas, Elector John, Margrave George and all the rest would have me preach the appointed text. That would be the catholic thing to do; the Christian would expect such a homily. We remember who we are when the Reformers remind us in Article XXI of the Augustana: "There is nothing in our confession that varies from the Scriptures, from the Church Catholic, or from the Church of Rome as known from its writers." The doctrine which you believe, the Confession which you speak, make and fight for with your lives is the teachings of Scripture, the lives of the Father’s, and the struggles of the Apostles and Prophets.

"Then He said to them, ‘A certain man gave a great supper and invited many…" What is this that the Lord speaks? How does the Lord begin the story of stories? He starts the way He has given you all to start in the Creeds themselves: "I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." Does not the very first Article of the Augsburg Confession start with God; with God and not man? It is the grace filled doctrinal reality of monergism which begins with the Holy and Blessed One in Three as the source of eternal life. You don’t make the supper, order entrees in the supper, and dictate the cooking, seasoning or type of serving in the supper. God made your father Adam, and you, (by extension) out of dirt. God redeemed you at Calvary with His obedience, suffering and blood, not your efforts, good works or intentions. God claimed you "in time" with His washing of regeneration not your decision, choice or claim.

"But they all with one accord began to make excuses…" Excuses have been your daily dialog ever since the serpent blamed God, Adam blamed the woman, and Eve blamed the serpent; an un-holy circle of sin and rebellion. Article Two of the Augustana nicely picks up on this teaching of Original Sin: "we teach that since the fall of Adam, all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God…bringing eternal death upon those not born again through Baptism and the Holy Ghost." All that man can ever say without God, all that you could have ever uttered without the Lord re-making you in Baptism, is "I ask to be excused, I cannot come." God invited all, the whole world in fact, but all sinful men refuse, and most refuse the supper all the way to starvation, death, and hell.

Article Three of the Augsburg Confession deals with The Son of God, Christ Jesus. It tells you the content of the Supper in this morning’s parable. Jesus Himself is the slain fatted calf. It will be His flesh, His blood, which not only makes expiation for man’s sin, but will be man’s food and drink for new life. It will be the Son of God Himself Who is the content of your Confession, your life, and your death.

So who gets to sit and dine with God the Triune King; and how do they get there? Again, remember, the Lord does the choosing and the gathering: "The Master said to His servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind."

Ah, now again we see the brilliance of St. Melanchthon’s ordering of the Augustana. The very next Article, (Art. 4) explains that all you who are made poor, maimed, lame and blind by sin, by self, by nature, by action, and who now know it by God’s intervening Law, are the very pathetic miserable creatures Whom He delights in showing mercy to.

Article Four reads: "We teach men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, Who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins." That is the Gospel upon which the true Church stands. That is the Confession of Augsburg, Germany and of Augsburg, Olathe, and of you.

You didn’t join this Christian family of love, this Catholic fellowship of life, by anything you did or deserved. But the Spirit converted your hearts, changed you, so that you believe in the "fatted calf" slain for you, given for you. You believe in Christ, the Lamb of God, and by this gift of belief, by this gift of being brought in from the streets and lanes of the dirty city into the festive wedding hall, you receive all God’s favor. You dine with the King. You have all your sins cancelled out and washed away in the blood of the Host Himself.

And while Saint Luke’s pericope ends with Jesus’ words about the King commanding His servant to "go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in," which is a foreshadowing of the ingathering of all gentile nations, it is also a nice way to close our mini-examination of how the Augsburg Confession is laid out in the perfect path of God’s salvation. Article Five tells you who this "servant" of the King really is. These "servants" are those whom Christ has placed into the Office of the Holy Ministry; the Preaching Office. Preachers are "tools" of the Word. The Word is Jesus, the King. Preachers are the physical embodiment, so to speak, of the work of the Holy Ghost, since He works only through Word and Sacraments which are the very things Preachers are to use in tending the flock; or in this analogy, in "going into the streets, lanes, highways and hedges." Just as you did not choose to be saved, or to be banqueted, so too the preacher doesn’t make or force dinner guests into the hall. The Augustana correctly writes: "For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, Who works faith, where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel."

And since it is all about the Gospel, about tasting the Supper of the King which is the love, forgiveness and life of Christ, the very Supper Himself, the Church must confess, must speak, fight, strive, bleed, suffer and die for the pure Word, the pure Christ. Withdrawing into a shell in a local parish and not confronting apostasy, false teaching, and heterodox practices, wherever they may be in our larger communion fellowship is not just timidity, it’s abandonment of the Gospel. Luther didn’t tell his parish in Wittenberg, "well, you know, what they’re doing in Rome won’t have much of an affect here now in Saxony, we’ll just ignore them, teach our own people correctly against Tetzel, and maintain a low profile; for the sake of peace and comfort and safety." No, not hardly, Luther would have been drawn and quartered before he’d go out like that kind of a cream-puff pastor. Luther confessed not just to his people and congregation but to the Church body at large. We must do the same. We will do the same for the sake of Christ and His Gospel.

We believe, teach and Confess because Christ and His Gospel are active and alive in us.

In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost