Sermon:  “Wayfarers Welcome!”

Prayer:   “May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts and minds here together be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.”

When you first hear the name of it, “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet” sounds so nice, doesn’t it?  But what an awful, violent story it really is!  I think it’s hard to reconcile this image of an angry, vengeful, murderous King with the God of love and mercy that Jesus usually preached.  It’s hard to believe the gentle Jesus most of us know would even tell it.  We might wish he hadn’t.  In fact we might prefer the other, much nicer version of the story in Luke, chapter 14.  At least Luke’s version doesn’t have any actual bloodshed, and that poor guy who wore the wrong clothes didn’t get dragged into the party, only to get bound up and thrown out again into the “outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

So before we jump to too many conclusions, let’s check a few assumptions.  First of all, let’s remember that Jesus doesn’t say “God is just like a King who sent his slaves out to invite people to a wedding banquet...”  He says “The Kingdom of Heaven is like...”  I don’t believe Jesus intended this parable to describe the nature of God but instead to capture how hard it can be to work to introduce the Kingdom of Heaven to this messed up world.  “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” is a very hard prayer to put into practice, I think.  And so I believe this parable was meant to express the frustration Jesus and his followers must have felt as they tried to spread the Good News of God’s love and make disciples of all the nations. They were, after all, inviting the world to a great and joyful feast.  It must have been hard for them when so often people would refuse to listen, and even persecute them for their message. 

When you stop to think about it, we know the feeling.  I mean, it’s hard enough to be a Christian among other Christians.  It’s a very rough world out there, as any kid on the playground can tell you.  That’s why I brought this kid’s drawing into church with me today.  When the CE committee at my last church wanted to do art with the kids to illustrate a parable, we chose this one – with great trepidation, because it’s so violent.  But they loved it.  The boys especially loved it.  The drawing at the top there was done by my 9-year-old son – the one with the castle on fire and people screaming through the streets – the boys recognized their world, I think, and thought “hey, finally, here is a Bible story that tells it like it really is.”  The world is a mean and awful place much of the time.  There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth out there.  Aren’t your castles on fire a lot of the time?  When life’s like that for you, it feels very good indeed to get to come inside to a feast – a wedding banquet of God’s love.  That’s the colored part below that my 6-year-old daughter illustrated, the table overflowing with purple and gold flowers.

That’s where the brilliance of this parable comes in – how a simple story with the simple image of the man who forgot to wear his wedding robe can help us know how to live as Christ’s disciples today.  It helps to first remember that brides and bridegrooms are central images of St. Paul’s teachings, in his letters to the early churches he had planted.  Paul’s letters, we remember, came before the Gospels – and Paul loved this image of the church as the beloved bride of Christ.  What you may not know is that the bridegroom’s robe in the culture of Jesus was not a fancy rental tuxedo, but instead a simple white burial shroud.  That wedding garment (in Yiddish, Jews today know it as a kittel) is worn first by the bridegroom on his wedding day, and then every year he puts it on for services on High Holy Days – like the one Jews celebrated this weekend, Yom Kippur, the great Day of Atonement, where people are called to fasting, repentance, and prayer.  It was a humble thing, a great equalizer for the Jewish people – kind of like our worship robes or choir robes today.  Its function was to hide the social or economic status of the person underneath it, right?  No one knows if our choir members have ripped jeans under their robes or designer suits.  Also, kittels (like coffins) do not come with pockets, as a reminder that we are all equal at the end – we do not take it with us.

This message is very like the teachings of Jesus when he calls us to a life of simplicity and humility – to walk with him on the way of the cross, in solidarity with the poor and the outcast.  And we know our highest calling is to be like him.  Problem is, that’s hard to do most of the time.  We are most of us not naturally blessed with God-like perfection.  I mean, it’s easy to be a Christian when everyone is nice to us and we’re having an easy stress-free day.  But in the midst of conflict and persecution, or just the ordinary troubles we meet each day, it’s not so easy.  That’s where Jesus and Paul have this robe image to help us along.  For their audience, it was a familiar and easy image to grasp – and I hope now for us too, it’s a little easier to understand.  To put on the robe is very like what Paul said in Romans 13:14, that we are to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

And so, Jesus says, the Kingdom of Heaven is like that, like a great wedding banquet where society’s most respectable and even admirable people may decline to attend but where wayfarers are all welcome – the good and the bad alike are invited to the feast.  All that is asked is that we clothe ourselves in the humble garb of the bridegroom at the feast, as Paul would say, that we are to be clothed in the likeness of Christ. 

It’s such a simple thing, but it makes all the difference.  You know the shock in people’s faces when we remember to be kind to them, when we do make “wayfarers welcome” in our church or in our lives?  Everybody understands earned grace, reciprocal affection in return for a good deed.  But when we show love for our fellow human beings BEFORE they have done anything to deserve it – or maybe especially when they did NOT do anything at all nice to us, that’s when you see real Christianity at work.

There was a lady here at our church yesterday who was looking for the Yankee Fair, right when we were getting ready for a wedding.  She stumbled right in on the wedding party and she was so apologetic.  She felt so stupid that she drove all the way from someplace else and got here the wrong weekend.  But we invited her in to use the rest room, get her bearings, use the phone.  Because that’s what Christians do. That’s what we’ll do next Saturday, when we get to welcome more people onto our church property than we probably have come into our worship services all year long – what an opportunity to share the astonishing grace of God with the world! 

And so it’s in that spirit of offering a true “wedding banquet welcome” that I want to leave you with closing words from the 4^th and final chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, because I think it’s good advice for us around here – especially as we move into our final week of preparation for the Fair, where we can sometimes get swept up in stress and worry (the gnashing of teeth) about our last round of preparations and set-up.

Paul’s church at Philippi, a church that had been fighting over some trivial thing or another – we can no longer be sure of the reasons, but we know that Paul is writing to thank them for the money they had sent to him in prison, but also to beg them to stop fighting with each other.  We no longer know who was on the side of what, exactly – and we sure don’t know the names he mentions (Euodia and Syntyche) but we can clearly hear the love Paul has for them.  Think about how you would feel if you were one of these poor people whose names would have been read aloud in front of the whole church when this letter from their imprisoned and maybe doomed former pastor was delivered:

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. ²I urge you, Jean Dorrell and Sue Ronan, to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, Dave Honeyford, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with John Mangold and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Especially this week, as we prepare to host the Yankee Fair, we must remember to say “yes” to God’s call to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and invite others to the wedding banquet of His Kingdom – the place where all wayfarers are welcome, and all are equally beloved children in God’s eyes.  All of us are called to wear the robe of the bridegroom, our host Jesus Christ – just as all are invited to share in the joyful new life he offers. 

Thanks be to God for this Good News.  Amen.

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Matthew 22:1-14

22Once 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. ³He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. ⁴Again 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, ⁶while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰Those 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. ¹³Then 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.’ ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”
 

Philippians 4:1-9

4Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. ²I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. ³Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. ⁴Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Luke 14:16-24

¹⁶Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. ¹⁷At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ ¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’¹⁹Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ ²⁰Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ ²¹So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²²And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.” ²³Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.²⁴For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”