During Jesus’ last week on earth, he tried to convey to the religious authorities and leaders in Jerusalem that they were missing the mark – Jesus was sent by God and they were failing to accept he was the messiah. Instead of embracing his teachings, they were looking for excuses to have him killed. Instead of listening to him as the word of God, they were denying his legitimacy as the messiah or even a prophet.
The allegory we read this morning is pointed – Jesus wanted the religious leaders to conclude they were headed in the wrong direction. Listen to Jesus’ words as they were recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, verses one through fourteen:
22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.
6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.
9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’
10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and 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 wedding clothes.
12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Here ends the reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer for Understanding
Let us pray: Take my lips, O Lord, and speak through them. Take our minds and think with them. Take our hearts and set them on fire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In 1990, Dr. Seuss published the last book he would publish during his life time. In the thirty years that have followed, many of us have loved the words of “Oh, the Places You will Go.” This book is often gifted to young adults when they graduate from high school. Lucia and I were gifted a version of this book for babies when she was but a twinkle in my eye.
This is how the book starts:
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.
You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.
It's opener there
in the wide open air.
Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.
And then things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.
OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!
In our lives, we are each in charge of the places we go and the choices we make. Like the guests invited to the wedding feast in today’s story, we can decide to go to the feast or to stay at home. We can decide to go to college or go to trade school or go straight to full-time work. We can decide to live in Skippack or East Oak Lane or Perkasie. As people who live in the United States, we can decide to follow Christianity, to choose another faith, or to not believe.
Jesus invites everyone to follow him. God invites everyone to follow God. Not only are the usual suspects invited – not only the nice people – not only the up-right citizens. But, everyone is invited to follow God – all of us….the people who make mistakes, the people who have sinned, the imperfect people, the broken people, the people who have hurt others, the people who were born on the wrong side of the tracks and the people who don’t fit in. We are all invited to follow God. We are all invited to the wedding feast.
In the allegory we read today, Jesus described a wedding party thrown by a king. The king invites all of the usual people …the rich and powerful people of his land….the lords and ladies…the military leaders…the famous entertainers and socialites. But, none of them showed up. They ignored the invitation. They even killed the pages who brought the invitations to them.
The king was embarrassed. He was a powerful man, and he would lose prestige if the wedding banquet was not full of people. So, he sent his messengers out to invite new people….he had them gather people off the street…the undesirables…the street sweepers…the homeless people….the prostitutes….the mentally ill people…the people with illnesses and diseases.
In the first century, if you were invited to a wedding, when you arrived the host provided special wedding robes to wear. It is like when we go to the family reunion, we all get a special “Sell Family” tee shirt to wear. The guests gathered off of the street wouldn’t have had fancy robes to wear. When they arrived at the wedding banquet, servants would have wrapped them in special “wedding robes.” In the story, the man who was not wearing a wedding robe would have been given the robe but rejected it. He would have had the opportunity to dress like he was supposed to be dressed, but had chosen to not put on the proper robe. So, in the part of the story when the king had the man removed from the party, the man was punished for coming but then rejecting the proper etiquette ad attire.
Jesus used this story to send a message to the Temple authorities and Jerusalem officials who were working to have him killed. Over the centuries, God had sent prophets and messengers. But, most of the people who heard the prophets rejected their messages. Some of the prophets where killed for their messages. Jesus was about to be killed for his message. Instead of the religious authorities and pious Pharisees accepting and following him, Jesus was embraced by the outcasts of his day and age: working class fishermen, hated tax collectors, prostitutes, rejected people with leprosy or chronic illnesses, gentiles. The people the society looked down their noses at were the people who embraced the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When I hear this story, I know the background. I know Jesus was taking digs at the Temple authorities. I know he was warning the people who were about to have him arrested, tried, and killed. I know Jesus’ work opened up God’s grace to the people their society rejected – the Stone that the builder rejected has become the cornerstone. The part of the story that I find shocking is the detail about the guy who wasn’t wearing the right clothes. This is an example of a person who halfway embraced the call of the King – he came to the party, but he refused to wear the wedding robes.
This guy is like people who sort of embrace Christianity, but allow excuses to distract them from really living out our faith. “I believe in God, but I am not going to work to implement Jesus’ teachings in my life.” “I believe in God, sort of, but I am still going to openly take advantage of other people for my own financial gain.” “I believe in God, but I am too busy to go to church…or I am too busy to pray…or I am too busy to read the Bible.” “I sort of believe in God, but I am not going to stop doing this activity that separates me from God or keeps me too preoccupied to focus on my faith.”
The wedding guest was a tad too self-confident. He was offered the wedding cloak, but was too self-assured to wear it. He was not willing to fully embrace his role as a wedding guest – he was halfway in and halfway out.
Jesus invites us to give our whole selves over to our faith. We are not called to be lukewarm Christians. Our faith compels us to jump in all the way. We are encouraged to live out Jesus’ teachings – to love God with our whole hearts, minds and will; to love our neighbors --- all other people – as much as we love ourselves; to treat others the way we want them to treat us; to extend kindness and welcome to people the rest of our society rejects; to share our resources to help people who don’t have enough; and to praise and worship God unceasingly. There is nothing lukewarm about our call to live out the teachings of Jesus. We can’t do it halfway.
Friends, we are living in tumultuous times. Let us work to live out our faith with our whole beings. Let us work to treat each other well, with kindness and generosity. Let us work to listen to people who don’t vote the way we vote, let us work to be kind to people who don’t look like we do, let us work to treat others better than we are treated.
I pray we will be blessed by God as we follow God with our whole beings. May it be so. Amen.
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