Sermon for March 24

The reading

Matthew 22:1-14

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, "Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, "The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' 10 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. 11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 For many are called, but few are chosen."

The message

Over the next few weeks, we are going to hear some difficult readings that will challenge us, that will push us about who enters the kingdom of Heaven.  So far, we have heard a lot about this kingdom, the full  presence of God in the world, Most of it has been inviting, welcoming, Jesus pushing the boundaries to include non-jews and sinners, to include more and more people under God’s promises.  Out of the 4 Gospels, Matthew shares the most parables or teachings about God’s final judgment, the time when those promises take their ultimate effect, the sorting of people, after death, into 2 places, into heaven and hell, eternal peace with God or the outer darkness with the weeping and gnashing of teeth,  These discussions in Matthew are frightening, complicated and intense.  They happen at a frightening, complicated and intense time. The aggression and intensity of these readings on the final judgment increase along with the aggression of Jesus teachings, more intense confrontations with authorities and with Jesus own struggle as he heads to Jerusalem where he will die and rise again, 

Over the next few weeks, we will gather around 4 of these readings. We are still talking about the kingdom of Heaven, as we have been throughout Matthew, They are not easy readings. They force more questions than they answer:  how do we know we are included? Can you be removed, how?  Do we get membership cards, do we have to renew them every few years like licenses, are there requirements like continuing education credits, what authority determines who is in, is it a group, a single person, a committee?     

They can leave people of faith reeling, wondering if their good, but not really Christian neighbor is in, wondering about their children or even wondering if they, themselves are in, Those questions, “am I saved”, “did I do enough”,  was a tremendous cause of anxiety in churches during the years leading up to the Reformation.  Addressing that anxiety and fear of hell is the pastoral setting that Luther (and others before him) sets out to address, finding in scripture and experience the good news, we are saved by grace through faith, The answer to “am I saved” or “did I do enough” is yes, because of God’s grace, not our works. There is lots of support for that in Jesus life, teachings and scripture, but now we need to compare that to readings like today’s where a man not wearing the proper garment after answering a last minute invite is cast out into hell.   

It feels like the unfair generosity in last week’s parable about the vineyard owner who pays everyone the daily wage, even those hired at the last hour and who did very little shifts to unfair judgment, a man condemned simply for showing up in the wrong outfit.  Now, this is scary for me, I am historically always dressed wrong.  I put on a suit and tie to go to a nice lunch with Jen and we end up sitting next to people wearing sweaty gym clothes, I show up in jeans and a t-shirt and every other pastor is wearing a pressed suit and collar, I wear a collar and get told, wow your so formal, we are causal here, I sumbit a picture for a webisite of me wearing robes at church and get told that’s intimidating for people, makes you look unapproachable, can you give us another one?,   Culturally, black is a very negative color, wear something bright. Our pastors don’t wear that stuff. You’re a pastor, you should look like one. Why would you wear that to church if your not a Catholic priest, your confusing us.  

I have hit the point where people no longer trust my ability to dress myself.  Friends tell me “you are an invited visitor, ecumenical guest, dress like it, that means wearing the following, a collar, black suit (that is clean, fits and is pressed) no sneakers, work boots or scuffed shoes, do not come right from the food pantry or neighborhood clean up, nothing with paint on it. We are a casual new church, do not wear a collar or tie, nothing with stains on it. Perhaps the hard part is I give off a sense that I do not know what is going on, or understand the situation I am walking into, not knowing what community I am entering. That is what this man at the wedding is punished for. He does not understand where he is, he does not understand the honor and the privilege he has received, he treats an invitation to the wedding banquet of the king's son like he's going to the market to buy some bread. He was just given it for free, out of nowhere, so he forgets it is the most important event of his lifetime.   

This banquet was a big deal. I’m not a king and haven’t gone to a lot of banquets. Well, really I have never been to one like Jesus Parable talks about. These feasts took days, and were incredible. Guests were to be fully cared for and people were looking at how you acted, who your guests were. what you served, etc. The original quests do not come, choosing to ignore the invitation, to go about their daily lives,  and then engage in acts of war by killing the king's servants.  After this, the king invites in everyone and anyone. The banquet is ready, the food is prepared, the show must go on.  This open, even desperate invitation does not mean the event is any less important or any less special.     

That brings us to the condemned guest. We get the impression that he is unfairly treated, after all, he just learned about the wedding, what if he had no time to get a garment, what if his was at the cleaner or he forgot it at home, what if the wedding garment market was sold out of his size or he was too poor to buy one.   He is the only one not wearing a wedding garment. He is asked “how did you get in here without a wedding Robe”.  Now his problems start.  The man offers no reason, Instead of offering a reason or excuse, he is silent. Instead of  trusting the king's mercy and saying “well I thought it was most important to come here, I knew I was not properly dressed but I also knew being here mattered”. he says nothing.  Instead of trusting the king's forgiveness. coming clean and saying “I snuck in cause I heard the music and saw free booze” instead of saying, "well I saw just regular people entering and I am certainly better than them so I came in too", he says nothing.  He doesn’t even sarcastically say  what i would be tempted to “I came in through the door”.  We are left to wonder, why he was not seen entering and turned away, why he was not given a spare wedding robe from some storage room (like the yucky jackets they give you at the few remaining gentlemen must wear a jacket restaurants),  Why didn't anyone tell him (maybe they did but he refused to listen, dismissing their warnings as foolish, after all this is an anybody event). 

What do we wear to living a Christian life, what do we wear to God's  judgment, We do not enter the Christian life quietly, we do not enter judgment quietly, we enter lifting high the cross, we enter wearing Baptism, we enter wearing God's promises, we enter humble sinners, wearing trust in God's forgiveness, we enter wearing thankfulness, knowing that we are given something we do not deserve, we enter knowing we are in the kingdom of God.