Self-Excommunication: A Much Too Common Practice

18 Pentecost, Cycle A  Proper 23, October 12, 2014

Exodus 32:1-14  Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23
Philippians 4:1-9 Matthew 22:1-14

Lectionary Link

  

  In the parable of Jesus which we have read for today, we are ask to imagine God as the king of the universe who is hosting a wedding banquet for his son.  By definition, a king is the most important and most valued person in a monarchy and so if a king extends invitations to his subjects to attend the wedding party of his own son, one would imagine such an event would be a "command performance" requiring the attendance of all who were invited unless poor health prevented an invitee from attending.

  The wisdom parable of Jesus is an attempt to provide insights on the nature of God, the nature of humanity and the state of interaction between God and humanity.

   The nature of God is to be one who is hosting a party for the one closest to the divine family.  The divine host wants to invite human subjects into this fellowship event.  But the human subjects are those who apparently view the kingly God as a distant kingly God and as one who does not practice regular intervention in the everyday affairs of the kingdom.  And so many of the human subjects do not have the need or the interest to bother to attend the banquet of the kingly God.  The kingly God is presented as an "unrequited party-giver."  He extends invitations and those invited do not bother to RSVP or attend.  So the kingly God just keeps asking more subjects to the party.  He goes through the “A list of guests,” the “B list” of guest, the “C list” of guest, down to those people living on the street who are not on anybody’s guest list.

  In the parable, the various waves of extended invitation refers to the timing differences in how people have come to know and experience the invitation to fellowship with God.  Throughout history humanity has lived in various states of alienation from the divine presence.  People come to God at different times and in different ways.  And the people who seem to the most obvious chosen people for the kingly God's party do not turn out to be so chosen, not because God did not choose them but because they themselves were not in the condition of heart and mind to understand the divine invitation.

  For the ancient Hebrew people, the giving of the law was seen to be a great invitation from God to live in this state of preparedness to attend the divine party of fellowship with God.  And so even when Moses was delayed on the holy mountain of Sinai to receive the law, the people of Israel felt like they had to make their own replacement god in the image of the golden calf.  People who have lots of different golden calves to worship are often distracted into alienation from the God of the universe who is the kingly owner of all.

   But let's be honest, the kingly God of the universe as presented by Jesus is not like earthly kings.  Earthly kings are quick and ready to make their obvious presence known in their kingdoms.  They have large standing armies to enforce their ability to own everything and to collect taxes for the maintenance of their authority.

  The kingly God as presented by Jesus seems distant and not a very specific interventionist.  The kingly God of Jesus is not like our earthly superheroes who exact punishment upon the foes of society right after they commit their heinous deeds.   The kingly God as presented by Jesus seems to be one who completely honors the freedom of all of his subjects to deny completely the kingship rights of God in the universe.  The kingly of God of Jesus is presented as one who just keeps issuing invitations; A list, B list, C list and all the way to the Z list and then the kingly God of Jesus just starts over again.  This kingly God of Jesus does not excommunicate people from the divine kingdom; they excommunicate themselves by living in the state of alienation from the inviting God of the universe who owns everything.  God as an unrequited party giver would be frustrated with the alienation of so many people except the freedom of alienation is expressive of freedom, even the freedom of sin which is so evident in our world.

  I quite admire the subtle way in which this parable indicates God's tolerance of the genuine state of freedom, because pure freedom and creativity is what is most true to the nature of God.

  The final tag on parable always was a problem for me as a young boy who thought that individual choice in manner of clothing was a downright American right.  But the wisdom of this parable of the man who shows up in the wrong clothes at the wedding is this: God does not excommunicate people from the divine party; each person has the right to do that on one's own.  At a typical wedding party a very wealthy host provided the wedding garments so as to insure that all of the guests had the appearance of equal standing at the party.  The wedding garments were like a uniform of equality indicating that all guests had equal standing in the eyes of the host.

  So a person excommunicates oneself from the fellowship of equals.  If one wants to play on the team, one has to wear the team uniform and be proud of the group association.  One can accomplish lots of individual excellence on the team wearing the team uniform; but if you don't want to wear the uniform, you excommunicate oneself from the team.

  God does not excommunicate people from the divine kingdom; God can't because it would mean that something would exist outside of God.  Only members of God's creation can live in the illusion that they don't live within God's kingdom and hereby excommunicate themselves from God's great world.

  Excommunication in the church is a practice of withholding the sacrament from people who have willfully removed themselves from a state of grace.  Certainly that might at times seem to be all of us.   And I think excommunication sometimes has been used wrongfully by church leaders.  In my memory, I don't recall a situation of knowing a priest who has excommunicated someone.

  The most common form of excommunication is self-communication; it being invited to the party and choosing not to come.  There are people who "excommunicate" themselves from the sacrament of the church, except at Christmas and Easter or except "once a month."

  This parable of Jesus is about people who "self-excommunicate" from the divine party.  This parable of Jesus is about a loving God who continues to extend invitations to all to come to the banquet and this is a loving God who provides the loving garments of equality to all who come to receive the one fullness of God's graceful presence.

  Let us not excommunicate ourselves from the divine party.  Let us come once again to the party of the one who owns the universe and our lives.  Let us come to the one who has stamped the divine image upon us as sons and daughters of God and who has given us the party garments of the full and equal grace of God.  God’s invitation to the divine party is offered to us again today.  Let us hasten to attend.  Amen.