St. John’s Lutheran Church, Toluca, IL – 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:1-14
Matthew 22:1-14
1Once 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.”
NRSV
. . .
The Party Is On
Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I think I mentioned before that I went to school with pretty much the same group of kids from pre-school until the end of elementary. I was an only child for most of that time. Therefore, my little classmates felt like family to me, if not actually brothers or sisters. Our birthday parties were awesome. Everybody came, and it was always a blast.
Then, coming to middle school, my parents moved me from the neighborhood Catholic school to another one, which was supposed to better prepare me for college. So, I went from a group of kids I knew my whole life to another group that had been together all their lives, except I did not know anyone. Guess what? Nobody hung around with me. So, by the end of the school year, I had this brilliant idea: I would throw a birthday party. Parties were awesome, right. I will get all the kids to come, and we will have a blast. After, everybody will hang around with me. So, I gave my parents notice. My mom arranged for a lot of food. I announced the party at school. I’d gotten my dad to allow me to bring his stereo equipment down to the hall in our building where the party would take place. The one classmate who actually talked to me promised he would bring his vinyl records. All set. When the time came for the party to start, the music was already playing. Then, five, fifteen, thirty minutes, an hour passed. Nobody arrived. Something was wrong. My mom got upset, “Mauricio did tell the people the right time? I told you to send written invitations!” This classmate, who kind of became my friend – long story there – went up to my parents to make some phone calls. Nobody was coming.
Therefore, I get the frustration and the disappointment of the king who generously throws a big wedding banquet for his son, but nobody comes.
See, God may have changed direction a few times in our history together, but the arch plan was always the same. God wanted to reconcile with all God’s people, and God wanted us to live well with one another. In Deuteronomy 6:5, God says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” In Leviticus 18:7, God instructs, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” God has been inviting us to trust his ways so we can be in a wholesome relationship with him and live peacefully with others for a long, long time. When Jesus recites these basic instructions and says they summarize all the law and the prophets (Matthew 32:37-40), he is not telling us anything new. He is referring to things we should know already. God’s people have heard these things before. The weeping and gnashing of teeth that come with the human rejection of the Kingdom peace and the refusal to rejoice in celebration is our own doing.
The horrors brought to us this past week by the late bloody and brutal conflict in the land where God was revealed to the nations that trace themselves back to the faith of Abraham – Jews, Muslims, and Christians – are not new either. They sink our spirits and devastate our hearts. However, these are the realities of every armed conflict that follows the human ways of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. The difference is that we no longer can sugarcoat them. We cannot glorify them by the stories we tell. We cannot hide them anymore. The brutal violence is broadcast live on social media for the world to see. The proof that the human ways of arrogance, judgment, vengeance, retaliation, and dominance don’t vindicate anyone or anything and only cause death is widely available for everybody to see in the evening news. They don’t honor Jesus, and they certainly do not glorify God, for God has no pleasure in the death of anyone. God wants everyone to live, to love, and to laugh. God does not want pain and suffering. The God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love has never stopped inviting us to a lavish celebration of restoration and life. God insists because God wants to be with us.
There, sorrow will be no more;
Hunger will be no more;
Thirst will be no more;
There, tears will be wiped from every face;
And the disgrace of all God’s people will be taken away.
There, the music will never stop blasting, and the people will never stop dancing.
In the meantime, beloved of God, stand firm. Reject violence. Hear and learn from the Word so your hearts and minds may be transformed, encourage and support one another, rejoice in the gift of faith, and bear gentle witness for the whole world to see. The Lord is near, and the party is still on. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Bridging Faith 