Lectionary Link
17 Pentecost, Cycle A
Proper 23, October 9, 2011
Today’s
installment of the parables of Jesus provides us with some very interesting
images. What if God threw a party and
nobody came? What would that tell you
about God and what would that tell you about those who were invited?
The other
part of a tag on to the parable is an image of a “wedding crasher” of
sorts. And the issue of the wedding crasher
seems to be a trivial matter of clothing, so we need more cultural information
regarding wedding customs of the time to truly understand the significance of
the “wedding crasher with the wrong attire.”
What is you
favorite image of the end of everything?
Some people look to apocalyptic images of a battle of Armageddon where
there is a fierce war and the bad guys are defeated.
I much prefer
the image of a party, a great marriage feast as the image of what the end of
life is all about. The end of life is a
big party hosted by God and all are invited, unless they by their own choice
excommunicate themselves from the party.
In the first
parable, Jesus tells about a king who is having a wedding banquet for his child
and he invites the A-list, and they don’t show up. How rude it is for them to treat the king in
such a way. And this is an ironic tale
because in a kingdom, this would not happen.
You could not say no to the king without consequences. What
does the king do? He tells his servants
to go and invite others, those who were not on the A-list and compel them to
come.
What insights
are evoked for us by this parable? This
parable speaks to me that the heart of God is all about a hospitable God who
wants to bring heaven and earth together and who also wants to bring the people
of this earth together in this great feast of hospitality. So God is the great Host of our world, a host
who wants us to celebrate our relationships with God and with the people of the
world.
But God has
big problem; it is the same problem that parents have. God is not like an earthly king who could
force people to do what he wanted. God is a hospitable God who has the profound
experience of being unrequited. A parent
often has the experience of being unrequited.
Parents desire the very best for their children, but sometimes children
do not know how to appreciate or even perceive what is best for them. And it really hurts when things are given and
offered with good intention, but rejected because of ignorance or
willfulness. So parents are often cast
in the role of being people who are enforcers or persuaders of their children,
in the hopes that they can get their children to choose good things for their
lives.
The parable
presents God in the role of an unrequited king giving a party, and the people
whom he invites do not come. The king of
the parable is more like a parent who wants the freedom of one’s children. Why
won’t they come? What have I done to
them to make them ignore such an invitation?
Do they not know how important this invitation is in that it is the
wedding of my son who will be their next king?
But in his unrequited feelings, the king honors the right of those
invited, not to attend. What does he
do? He simply invites the “B” list, and
the “C” list until his party is full.
The “A” list and the “B” list and the “C” list are only human bias
regarding who we often think is or should be favored guests of God. If you are Jewish, then you think it is the
Jews, and Baptists think they are favored guests, or Muslims, just as Roman
Catholics and Lutherans do, but we Episcopalians, think that we are natural
guests because we know how to party so well.
The parable
of Jesus tells us about God. God is a
hospitable God who invites all to communion.
Invites, not forces. And yet God
experiences rejection because people are ignorant of the importance of this
feast of feasts, this communion of communions that God desires with everyone. Even though God must face rejection and be an
unrequited party giver, God does not stop inviting. God cannot but be hospitable. That is God’s nature. So the invitation to the feast is always
open. This invitation to communion with
God and each other is always open.
Now what
about the tagged on parable of the party crasher? In the second parable a guest gets
unceremoniously bounced from the wedding for not having the right wedding
attire. From our perspective this seems
rather unfair. But what is the issue
here?
In the time
of Jesus, a king who gave a wedding party would also be one who provided the
wedding attire for each of his guests.
This was the custom for a king or someone of means. Obviously the guests did not have the means
to dress lavishly for such an important event and so the wealthy host would
provide the wedding garments as a sort of social leveler. It would give the appearance that everyone
was equal at the feast since they were all dressed because of the largesse of
the host who was pleased that they had come to share in the joy of honoring the bride and the groom.
So when one
of the wedding guests decides to do his own thing, retains his own clothes and
rejects the wedding garment of the host, it is a matter of offense to the
host. It is motivated by wanting to
stand out from the crowd based upon the pride of one’s own appearance.
In this is an
important understanding about God’s grace.
Because of the redemptive grace of God in Christ, we are clothed in the
righteousness of Christ and that is the great equalizer amongst us all. No matter what we have done in our lives, at
anytime in our lives, we still need God’s grace to make it appear as though we
are presentable to God. And that is how
God grace works; we are not invited to communion of God because we are better
than anyone else. We are invited to
communion with God, because God dresses us with a grace that has been provided
by God and not because of something of our own doing or worth or even brilliance
or heroism.
If we want to
do our own thing, and think that God should be more impressed with us because
we’re doing our own thing, then we have fallen into pride in thinking that we
attain the pleasure of God’s hospitality because of our own doing.
So what can
we learn in these parables? First God is
a hospitable God who has offered us the invitation to communion with God and
with each other. And we do well and are
wise to accept this marvelous invitation.
Secondly, in accepting the invitation, it does not mean we are on the
“A” list and others are not. It means
that with everyone else who is invited we allow ourselves to be attired with
God’s grace and not of our own accomplishments. The party is a celebration of the largesse of the generosity of God’s loving
heart.
Today, let us
accept the invitation to communion with God.
That communion involves receiving God’s grace which cleans us up and
makes us acceptable in a way not of our own doing. This Holy Communion today is but an advance
party to the big One. And so God says to
us now, “Y’all come to the party and get used to my abundant hospitality!” Amen.
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