In the name of God-
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
There is a story of three well known preachers who were
attending an Atlanta Braves baseball game after giving some lectures at Emory
University. As they were sitting there watching the game, two men wearing
yellow jackets that said “security” on them approached a man sitting a few rows
in front of them. And without any words being exchanged, they picked him up and
carried him away from his seat. The crowd was stunned. What had happened to
make them remove this man? One of the preachers surmised, “he must not have
been wearing the wedding garment.”
This parable that Jesus tells about the wedding banquet
is a bit like that story, and it’s easy to be as confused as those people in the
stadium were. What is going on here? I don’t mind preaching on tough texts, but
texts such as this are why the Church created Assistant Rectors who can get
assigned to preach on such passages.
A king gives a wedding banquet for his son and invites
all of the usual suspects- the wealthy landowners, maybe a few foreign
dignitaries. But none of them show up. And I can’t help but wonder- what kind
of person turns down an invitation from king? When I was working at a church in
DC, we would get invitations to the White House for various events. And let me
tell you, it didn’t matter what I had on my calendar, I made sure to accept
that invitation.
But the text says that the invited made light of the
invitation and came up with some poor excuses- “oh, I need to go tend to the
farm” and “gee, I wish I could, but I have to be at work that evening.” In
turning down the invitation, they were insulting the king and disrespecting his
son by refusing to celebrate at his wedding banquet. And I think we all know
what it is like to be one of these people who were invited. We are addicted to
being busy and it seems that there are always more invitations than there are
nights in the week. Maybe they just wanted a quiet evening at home to relax.
And we’d prefer that Jesus understand this reality.
Or perhaps those invited guests had forgotten their role
in the world. Maybe they thought- “oh, I don’t need the king, I have all that I
need already.” They may have forgotten that no person is an island. Sometimes
the reason to attend the banquet is to be a part of the community, but these
people had fooled themselves into thinking that they were above that.
Wouldn’t
it be nice if the king said “don’t worry, friend, the next time I have a party,
I’ll invite you again.” But that’s not what the king said. He responds with
“bind them, kill them, send them to hell!” That escalated quickly. The king was
really serious about this invitation. While all are welcome in the Episcopal
Church, we can also admit that it is mostly the establishment that sits in our
pews. As a whole, we are prim and proper and we’d rather not have anyone rock
the boat. The response isn’t the one that we’d have chosen.
The
king’s shocking response is a reminder to us that we don’t get to mold God into
our idea of God. As much as might want a God that accommodates our schedules,
we instead have a God who demands our entire life. This is what is going on in
the reading from Exodus. The people of Israel weren’t comfortable with this
demanding and invisible God. They wanted something they could touch and feel,
something they could fashion themselves. So they melted down their gold and
cast the golden calf.
It is important to realize that Israel’s sin was not that
they were worshipping a false God; they had not abandoned the Lord who brought them out of Egypt in
favor of this golden calf. Instead, the problem was that they had made a false
image of the true God. By casting God in gold, they sought to shape God into
what they wanted God to be instead of worshipping God for what God is. And our
uneasiness around tough parables such as this one is a symptom of the same
disease.
This is a call to examine our lives and find those things
that we have confused with God. Clergy can be one example. All clergy have egos
to fill, but churches should grow not around the personality of a priest, but
rather the service to God that happens in a congregation. And the church
building is another. I love churches that look like this one. When I am in a
historic church that is soaked with the prayers of the faithful for hundreds of
years, surrounded by beautiful stained glass, I can tell you that my spirit is
lifted heavenward. But it would be a mistake to confuse the grandeur of a
building with the glory of God. And sometimes we can confuse ideas such as
hospitality or justice with God. I’ve seen some churches that become so
infatuated with being hospitable that they refuse to do anything that someone
might disagree with. It has been said that those who stand for nothing will
fall for anything. Some churches have elected to stand for nothing in the name
of hospitality and in doing so, have created a golden calf that is a false
image of the true God. And still other churches focus on social justice more
than the God from whom all justice flows. Let this text be a reminder to us,
that God has made us, and not the other way around. The way to tell the
difference between a true God and a false god is that a false god will never
surprise us. Though we might have preferred the king to respond differently, we
do not have the luxury of worshipping a God whom we ourselves create.
The
king’s rage burns and the issue is that in Jesus’ time there was no
refrigeration. Once the ox and fatted calves had been slaughtered, someone
needed to eat them. The party must go on. So the king sends out more messengers
to invite more people, any people. In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus
feeds. Jesus feeds the 5,000 and later the 4,000. Jesus notes that God feeds
the birds of the air. And we’ve been hearing from a series of parables over the
past several weeks that Jesus is concerned not with status or empty promises,
but with those who actually provide fruit in the harvest. God has provided a
great feast, and the invitations have gone out. It is up to us to show up and
eat.
But
then we run into the really tough part of this parable- the king notices a man
who was not wearing a wedding robe. He asks him, “friend, how did you get in
here without the proper attire.” I’m not sure how the king expected him to be
properly dressed, as this man was likely begging on a street corner just an
hour earlier when the messengers came and invited him. The man is speechless.
And again, if we had written this parable, the king might say “no worries, I’m
just glad that you came. Come, you can borrow one of mine.” But no, “bind him,
torture him, kill him, send him to hell!”
Being
unprepared is a terrible feeling. I remember my first day of little league.
Everyone else on the team had been playing for years, so I was the rookie. I
had a tiny glove in which a baseball could barely fit. And the coach started
our first practice by saying “everyone needs to always wear cleats, long pants,
and a jock strap.” I was wearing none of those, and I felt out of place.
Luckily, the coach was more forgiving than the king in this parable.
Is
salvation really about a dress code? What happened to what Jesus said in
Matthew 6, that like the lilies of the field, we shouldn’t worry about what are
we are to wear? We must remember that
Jesus is telling a parable about the Kingdom of God, so we should not interpret
this literally and fool ourselves into thinking that Jesus is trying to tell us
that clothing is what makes the man. It doesn’t matter if you come to church in
denim, silk, or wool. The wedding garment is a way of life. And wearing the
proper dress is about recognizing the honor of being invited. So the problem is
not that this man is wearing shorts, but that he is short in righteousness.
Woody Allen is reported to have once said that 80% of
life is just showing up. And he might be right, but it’s not 100%. Going
through the motions isn’t what is required of us, nor is just coming to church,
or even dropping a check in the offering plate. God is not looking for warm
bodies to fill the pews, but rather wedding guests who will celebrate at the
banquet. When we are invited to the wedding banquet, we are expected to show up
with the best we have to offer. Our wedding garments are made up our moral
fabric of graciousness, faithfulness, forgiveness, generosity, and
loving-kindness. We are to wear our faith on our sleeves.
Leonard Bernstein once told a symphony he was conducting
to “give it all you’ve got, then crescendo.” Two Sundays ago I told you all
that my vision and task for this first year of ministry together is to be the
best that we can be. I will strive to be the best that I can be, and I ask for
you to do the same; so that, together, we can be the best St. Luke’s that we
can be, for the glory of God and the benefit of our community.
There is book called Good to Great and the first line is
“Good is the enemy of great.” Or we might say that good is the enemy of the
best. I’ve served with priests who seemed to be content with mediocrity, but
that’s not me. I’m not content with good enough. And through this parable,
Jesus seems to be telling us that if we try to show up at the wedding banquet
wearing anything less than our best, that we’ll be kicked out of the party.
What is the best that you can offer? What is the best
that you can be for your spouse? Your children? Your colleagues and customers
at work? Your church? And together, what is the best that St. Luke’s can be?
One note of caution, while the best is to be our goal,
perfection is not. Perfection is the never ending quest that always ends in
failure and disappointment. Perfection quickly turns into idolatry and leads
away from God and towards what we think the golden calf should look like.
Perfection is a façade that we try to put up for others, while the best is more
about knowing deep down, that we have given all that we could, even if it
doesn’t match the expectations of others.
As we’re gearing up to have an intentional focus on
Stewardship in the coming weeks and months, this is a launching point for
considering what is the best that you can offer to St. Luke’s so that St.
Luke’s can, in turn, be the best that it can be. Next Sunday, we’re going to
have a potluck and ministry fair. St. Luke’s is blessed to have many dedicated
parishioners who volunteer their time and talents to make sure that St. Luke’s
is the best that it can be. But all of you are invited to join this effort. So
I hope that you will plan to attend and, if you are not already involved in a
ministry here, that you will sign up to take part in one. And then in a few
more weeks, when that pledge card arrives in the mail, I ask that you
prayerfully sit down with your budget and consider what is the best that you
have to offer.
And finally, this passage reminds us that there are
always consequences to our actions. The first guests pay the price for
disrespecting the invitation. The next round of guests are rewarded for showing
up and get to enjoy the banquet. And the improperly dressed man is cast out for
trying to phone it in.
This
is a parable that the American church should pay attention to. You can read all
of the reports you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that in the United
States and Europe church attendance is on the decline. We are turning down the
invitation. But others have been invited. The Church is growing rapidly in
other places in the world, such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In the
past, maybe we were able to get away with just giving 80% and showing up. But
we aren’t going to end up with the world we want for ourselves or our children
with an 80% effort. We aren’t going to be able to get a good harvest in the
Kingdom with anything less than our best. And if this parable is any
indication, others will take our place at the banquet if we don’t show up prepared
to party.
It is a tough parable. Many are called, but few will be
chosen. The Good News of this parable is that we all are invited and that we
have been given a task which demands the best that we have to offer. The
invitation gives us a purpose and a mission, which makes it all worth it. Jesus
said that he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. We have been
invited to that life, and it’s going to be a party to remember. See you there.
