Lectionary 28, October 9, 2011

"The Wedding Feast" by Kazakhstan Artist Nelly Bube

Matthew 22:1-14

      “The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son..” Jesus begins this familiar parable.  The parable Jesus told would have reminded his hearers of another banquet in scripture:
      

      On this mountain the LORD of host will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged wines, of rich food with marrow, of well-aged vines strained clear.  (Isaiah 25:6)

      This text from Isaiah is actually about God’s judgment.  The understanding is that Israel- God’s people, will enjoy this feast and all the other nations will be destroyed.     In the story Jesus tells, there is a feast like the one God will hold for his people-but the people who are invited to this great feast refuse to come.
      “But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business”
      But they made light of it.  Jesus is turning the story of God’s feast for his people around.  Yes, God prepared you this feat and everything is here and ready.  But you made light of it.
      God has rich food he wants to feed us.  God has rich gifts he wants to bestow upon us.  “But they made light of it” Does this have any application for us today? Has not God prepared us a feast of rich food and gifts and only invites us to come?  Come and worship?  Come and feast upon His Word and Sacrament.  Come and be fed and strengthened and comforted and refreshed.  Everything has been prepared.  Come.  Come and participate and be part of the Kingdom.  Come and be part of the church, part of the community.
      But they made light of it and went about their business.  Had the nobles been invited to so many wedding feasts that they took them for granted?  Well if we miss this party, there will always be another party to go to.  If I don’t come to worship this Sunday, there is always next Sunday.  If I don’t support the ministry of my congregation, there is always someone else who will.
      They made light of it and went about their business.
      Not only do they refuse to come.  They are hostile and violent to the very one who is inviting them to the feast.  And if there was any doubt who Jesus was talking about the story goes on to tell how the King decided he was going to have a party and if the rich and powerful people he invited didn’t come, he’d go and bring in people off the streets.
      “Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests”
      If this is a story about the Kingdom of God it is a shocking story.  Everyone is gathered into the Kingdom.  Really?  Everyone?  Both the good and the bad?  That’s a pretty shocking idea.
      Everyone is invited and gathered into the party.  You don’t have to be the right kind of person.  You don’t have to do anything to get into the party.  Just show up.  And in fact, the one throwing the party comes and gets you and brings you to the party.
      Now when Jesus tells this parable in Luke, that is the end of it.  All the poor and outcast and sinners are gathered into the banquet.  That is the version we like to tell.  That is the version the kids sing in “I cannot come to banquet”
      But in Matthew that is not the end of the story.  Someone is not dressed properly and he is thrown out of the party, into the darkness where there is gnashing of teeth.  This seems rather harsh.  I mean, he was just picked up off the street, how is he supposed to be expected to have the right clothes?
      Well this is how.  In those days, in that culture, wedding garments were provided to the guests by the family throwing the party.  They were special robes.   The robes made everyone part of the celebration.  You couldn’t tell by how people dressed who was richer or had more status.  Everyone was just there to celebrate the wedding.  To refuse to wear the garments was an insult to the family and was to say you thought you were better than everyone else.
      Ah.  So someone has come to the party and doesn’t want to accept the gift of the wedding garment.  Just like the first nobles invited, he thinks he is too good to accept the hospitality of his host.
      Don’t show up to the Kingdom thinking that it is what you bring that makes you worthy of being in the kingdom.  That is the kind of attitude that will find you back on the outside.  In Matthew’s day those who were baptized were given a white robe to wear.  The white robe symbolized their new life in the community of faith.
      This parable is like last week’s parable.  While it seems harsh, the harshness is for those who would refuse God’s grace and try to approach the Kingdom on their own terms.   That won’t cut it.  Everything from God comes to us as a gift.   Everyone is invited to the party.  You got invited through no act of goodness or morality or decision of your own.  It is only the SHEER generosity of God that has brought us here.  We do not have to bring our own robe of goodness.  That’s what got that fellow into trouble.  It wasn’t that his robe was not good enough; it was that he refused the robe offered to him.  He thought what he could bring himself was good enough.  That is what gets us in trouble.  When we think what we have is good enough and we don’t need to rely on God’s grace and forgiveness.  God has thrown us a party and even gives us the party clothes.  Just put on the robe and join the party.  Amen.