18 Pentecost A October 12, 2014
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
Isaiah 25: 1-9 + Psalm 23 + Philippians 4: 1-9 +
Matthew 22: 1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Those little cards that arrive in the mail are the first hint we have that a great party is being planned. Usually sent to us by a couple planning to marry, those festive announcements implore us to “save the date” and await the invitation that is sure to follow. Performing weddings is one of the great joys and privileges of my vocation. What I’ve learned from observation is that some couples are able to weather the unexpected bumps that come with planning a wedding with less stress than others. And that’s true of all of us in the course of our lives, that some of us deal with challenge and trial with more ease than others.
In today’s gospel story, we have an over the top story of wedding planning gone wrong. It’s helpful for us to remember, before we delve into the story, that Jesus often used hyperbole and exaggeration when he wanted to make a point. After all, he was the one who said we should pluck out our eye if it offends, and cut off our hands when they don’t do what they should.
And today’s parable from Jesus is a just such a story, an elaborate allegory, packed full of hyperbole. Everything in this story has a deeper meaning.
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. Of course, that Son is Jesus. And the king is God. And once we’ve established that, we get into the strange plot and the even stranger behavior of the characters in the story.
An invitation to a feast in honor of the king’s son is rejected….who would do that? Who would reject a royal summons? Well, maybe they were busy. But then a second invitation is sent out with the servants whose job it was to deliver such invitations. This time the king sweetens the deal with a mouth watering description of the party, and again the people shrug off his invitation and carry on with the everyday tasks of their lives.
That’s not particularly troubling, we might imagine something like this happening in our busy world.
Then, the plot begins to take bizarre turns. The servants who delivered the invitation are murdered! Whoa! That seems a bit much. And it’s just getting started – the king exacts revenge by going to war against his own people. With the city in ruins, he issues the invitation to the dinner once again – was the dinner just kept warm all this time, or how did that work? Invitations to the banquet are to be delivered again and this time they are to go out into the streets, which we just read had been reduced to ashes, and invite everyone they could find to the wedding banquet. Everyone comes, the good and the bad, and the banquet hall is filled and all are welcome at the feast.
Even with its troubling parts, if Jesus had just stopped telling the story here, we could find good news in this parable. You see, for the people for whom this story was written, the original hearers of Matthew’s Gospel, this would offer some amount of hope. For these folks, the burning city in this parable would have called to mind the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70CE and they could have interpreted the story as God’s judgment on those who rejected Jesus as God’s presence in the world. This invitation to all the people in the story, the good and the bad on the streets would have been a hopeful sign, a sign that the invitation to God’s table is wide and even they, the Gentiles, who had no history with the God of Israel, are welcome there.
In 2014 this story might serve as a helpful reminder to us. After all, the context of the story has changed a bit and we no longer consider ourselves newcomers in the Kingdom, we’ve now been here for awhile. In 2014, perhaps it is us who need a reminder of the wide welcome of the king to everyone on the streets, good and bad. We like to think that in this day and time equality among God’s people, and we are ALL God’s people, is something we would not struggle for. But the sad truth is that we still live with many kinds of prejudice, many “isms”….sexism, racism, ageism…our LGBTQ sisters and brothers still fight for the exact same rights as our straight sisters and brothers. And the margins of society are filled with the poor, the sick, the transgendered, the homeless, and the mentally ill. And to those streets, the servants of God carry the invitation….come to the banquet….all of you….whatever you have done, whatever you have failed to do….come to the table.
If the story stopped there, it would be a good parable – for both the original hearer’s of Matthew’s Gospel and for us. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. Instead he continues to tell the tale of the party, which is now going pretty strong, when the king enters and upon seeing the guests, notices that one of them is not dressed for a party. Well, of course they aren’t dressed properly! It was a last minute invitation and their homes had been burned down by the king’s army!
Many scholars interpret this part of that parable as a reminder that although we are all freely invited, we are all equally welcomed, we cannot forget that it is the king’s party. That there are standards and expectations that come along with being at a party. That we are to be prepared and committed to what it means to come to such a party; not that we just slink in the doors in our street clothes.
And that is true. Grace is not cheap. It is free, but it is not cheap. We are expected, and encouraged, and called to put on our banquet clothes, our wedding garments. Because this is also true: the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast. A wedding feast, friends. A feast that has been planned and anticipated and dreamed of for many days. A feast for which save the date cards were sent out. A feast of great celebration! A feast where there is dancing and there is wine and there is joyous celebration! There is food to spare and cake and photos and smiles and hugs and kisses and it is a grand party! The kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast!
So the problem with the guest who isn’t wearing a wedding robe is not that they haven’t taken the invitation seriously. The problem is that they have not come prepared for a party. When we are invited to the kingdom of heaven, that is like a banquet feast, a party of the grandest proportions, of extravagant love, we’d better put on our party clothes and our dancing shoes. We’d do well to brush up on the latest dance steps and figure out what songs we want to belt out when the Karaoke starts. And, oh come hungry. Hungry to be fed with the bread and wine that will fill us and feed us like nothing else will.
The kingdom of heaven is like a big honking party….a wedding feast…..and all are welcome, even us. That’s the good news, the Gospel news for this and every day.
Thanks be to God! Amen! Let’s Party!