October 15 - Proper 23 A - Season After Pentecost
Lectionary Reading
Matthew 22:1-14
Today's Gospel tells us a wonderful parable - simple, direct and to the point. But lets review anyway…
God throws a party - a wedding party to be specific. A wedding party puts us in mind of Jesus - the bridegroom.
And God invites the "A" list of guests. This will be a great party and all the right people will be there. Except there is a problem… The "A" list people decide God's little party is not quite the social event of the season. In fact they decide it's completely miss-able.
Which is good news for us - since we're the "B" list. And we don't need to be asked twice! Off we go to the party and we have a blast. Except for that looser guy who gets bounced. But we'll come back to him…
The obvious interpretation is that the "A" list is Israel and the "B" list Christians. God's chosen people refused the party, ignored the profits and John the Baptist, and executed Jesus. We embraced Jesus and came to the party. Story over - we can all go home… our eternal home in Heaven, that is. Salvation is ours. End of story.
But - not so fast. There are really two distinct cautionary tales in this Gospel and we need to hear both of them.
First - it might have been helpful 2000 years ago to think of this as a story about Jews and Christians. But over the years we have, at least subliminally - and at times really very explicitly - begun to think of ourselves as God's chosen people, the new Israel, the new "A" list.
Especially in the United States… We are inconceivably rich, powerful beyond measure, we have an economic system that is the envy of the world, and a justice system that, for all its flaws, really does provide an admirable measure of justice for the poor and powerless. Its tough not to feel just a bit smug, just a bit like the "A" list, when God is clearly smiling on our country.
So we need to pay attention to the cautionary tale of the "A" list people.
Most of them blew off God's party for understandable reasons. They had businesses to run, enemies to defend against, crops to harvest, important matters to sort out.
Any parallels for us? We have armies to maintain, weapons systems to build, regimes to change, economies to tend, fortunes to be made on Wall Street.
We'd love to live in peace and unity with all of God's children, but Capitalism only truly works when you can win it all. And for someone to win it all, someone else must loose it all. The "have nots" are just as important in our economic equation as the "haves." Economic injustice is just one one example of our human structure that keeps us away from God's party.
So… sorry God - we'd like to come to your party… We're sure the Kingdom is a really great. We'll get there eventually. But not right now. We want to build a newer and bigger home, get a bigger car; We've got Sadam Husein to worry about and September 11th to avenge. Our economy is in trouble and we need to keep oil flowing. We're sure its a very lovely party, though… Please, God, accept our regrets.
Moreover, it is very tempting and remarkably easy to start to understand our will as God's will. If we could examine the hearts of the "A" list guests in today's parable, we'd probably find that most them weren't bad people trying to do bad things - though, to be sure, a few of them were. We'd probably find that they were good, decent, hardworking people who thought they were doing God's will by tending to their own concerns.
This is the first cautionary tale and it is one that we in the first world need to hear again and again.
I promised you two cautionary tales and there is one more detail that I said we'd come back to…Remember that guy who got kicked out? What's up with him?
This is a detail of the parable that has always bothered me. This poor guy gets dragged off the street with no warning to come to a party. And then he gets yelled at because he isn't dressed properly. It seems really unfair, very "old testament." And the punishment, being sent more or less to hell, is really way out of proportion to his crime, not having appropriate attire.
Well I don't think a fashion faux pas is really the issue. I bet if we could peer into his heart we'd find that he only came to the party for the food… or the wine… or because he was curious and just wanted to watch… or he was bored. Or he didn't have anywhere else to be so why not follow the crowd…
I think he is the inverse of the "A" list crowd. They stayed away for poor reasons. He came for poor reasons. He might have been physically at the party, but I suspect he wasn't really present at the party - just going through the motions.
And so here is the second cautionary tale: When we do decide to come to God's party are we really completely going to the party? Are we truly being present? Are we letting our hair down? Or are we going through the motions?
I know somebody, a salesman by trade, who goes to Eucharist pretty much every Sunday because, as he says, "it can't hurt and it just might help." Selling things is his whole life. He lives to "ink" contracts. He believes that its just possible that going to Eucharist might improve the odds of another contract being inked. When he comes to the God's Eucharistic party it isn't as a form of surrender - it's a form of control. He's dressed for manipulation rather than for a party.
And while I'm wondering about him, guess what? I'm not present at the party either. If I've really lost myself at this party, I'm no longer really interested in judging the other guy. And when I am judging the other person, my ego is still firmly in control. I'm wearing my own garments of control.
Now I don't think coming to God's party means being stupid or ignorant. I don't think it means just letting go and accepting that whatever will be will be. It's pretty safe to say that at God's party we won't just get drunk and roll around together.
God has given us some rules of etiquette and through prayer, scripture, community life, and our own God-given intellect, we can begin to know and live in God's way.
Jesus summed up those rules in about two sentences: We are to love God fully, completely, totally, and without reservations. And we are to love other people as much as we love ourselves. And, as James Huntington, our founder, said so beautifully, love must act. So really going to God's party involves loving God and acting on that love; nothing more, nothing less…
Acting on our love of God, our selves and other people can probably take infinite forms. It may mean living and working with the poor. It might be the ministry of 12 step programs where healing of self and of others are so thoroughly bound together. It might mean taking the time to go sit with a lonely senior citizen, or providing bodily comfort through the healing touch of massage, or providing sanctuary for animals, or all of the above and more.
Being really present at God's party involves acting on behalf of justice and mercy. It means treating our selves and all of God's creation with respect.
Ultimately, being at God's party means not protecting our own interests, but giving away our very lives.
So when and where is God's party. It is not next weekend, or next month, or next season… God's party is here and now and always and at all times. Going to God's party is a process - we do it one day at a time.
Almighty and loving God - divine party planner - help us to hear your invitation, accept your invitation and live your invitation by joining completely in your heavenly dance.
Br. Scott Borden, n/OHC
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