The Church of the Good Shepherd, Richmond, VA
21 Pentecost, October 9, 2005, Year A, Proper 23
Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:4-13; Matthew 22:1-14
Becoming a Seamstress for God
Today our Gospel deals with yet another parable of Jesus. On the face of it, the story is a troubling one—and one in which God doesn’t come out looking like a very loving Father
Parables are puzzles, and Jesus, we are told, frequently spoke in parables. Today's Gospel incorporates one of his better-known parables. He didn't use them to entertain or to perplex his listeners, or to give them games to play. His parables were like pieces of string that had to be rolled up into a ball. Like poetry, they were stories at whose heart lay a metaphor. He was not trying to be difficult. He used the language of parable because he was speaking of something that was intangible. He was speaking of something unseen. And, he had the difficult task of making the unseen, seen—the “beable” a here and now reality.
Often the meanings contained in the parables were left, for the moment, a mystery. Even the disciples had difficulty understanding, and more than once asked Jesus to explain them. Scripture can be difficult. It takes work. The meaning of parables can lie hidden in our minds, but we are nonetheless curious about what lies within.
Perhaps one of the difficulties is that taken on the basis of the text alone, the parables often seem ludicrous. More simply put, the meaning of today's Gospel story of the marriage feast might be: if Jesus is coming to collect his remnant, we all better scurry off to Ann Taylor’s or Joseph A. Banks if we don’t want to be left behind, or, worse, you might be thrown to the dark, endless void! The better we look when we go into church for the wedding, the more likely we are of being able to pass into heaven.
It appears that in today’s Gospel, a literal interpretation of the parable seems to bring us to a dead end, so we, like the disciples, are left to sort out the symbols and analogies of these stories. Jesus is using the image of a wedding feast, a favorite of his to speak of the Kingdom of God. There is little mention of the bride in the story. It is not because she is not there. Rather, it is because she is everywhere, for she can be compared to the entire body of Christ's people.
Jesus was really talking about a sacred marriage between God and man; between the bridegroom and his church. Jesus himself is the bridegroom and the bride is every one of us. We are, remember, being given a picture of heaven, Jesus' vision, of the place of eternal life; a place where the divine and human have been united.
The parable shows us three possible kinds of guests. There are the absentee guests who initially accept the invitation, but when the time comes to honor the invitation they draw back. There are the guests without wedding garments who attend the feast but do not take the trouble to prepare adequately for it, as the occasion deserves.
And then there are the guests with wedding garments who make the necessary preparation to present themselves fit for the king’s banquet.
The scary thing about the guests who just didn’t show up is that they are not sinners. They are generally engaged in legitimate, not sinful activity. One goes to his farm, another to his business. These are, by the world’s standards, necessary and useful occupations. Sometimes what keeps us away from the joy of the kingdom is not sin but preoccupation with the necessities of life. To be serious with our job is a good thing, but when our job keeps us away from attending the Lord’s Supper, then it has become an obstacle that hinders us from experiencing the joy of the Lord.
There is a saying that the good is the enemy of the best. If only those absentee guests knew what they were missing by not attending the feast! Or better put, what awaits those who received an invitation but didn’t show for the wedding. Indeed, Many are called,, but few are chosen.
On the guest without the wedding garment, to speculate on whether he had enough time to go home and put on his wedding garment is beside the point of the parable.
The point of the parable is: if you must go the dance, you must wear your dancing shoes. If you must go to a wedding, you must wear your wedding garment. It is clear that the King’s invitation is offered to all, yet anyone who decides to attend has a responsibility to present themselves fit for the king's company. The kingdom of God is freely offered to us. Those of us on the way to the kingdom must spare no effort in acquiring the moral and spiritual character that is consonant with life in the kingdom.
And when he comes, will we be ready? Something more is needed than to merely accept the invitation; one must be clothed in righteousness. The wedding garment in the story is to be understood metaphorically. It is our lives we must change, the contents of our consciousness, our hearts, our vision -- not our clothes! These are the intangible garments that concern Jesus. When we wear them—then he will come, bringing his Kingdom of Heaven. Right here. Right now. As we are told in Revelations:
For the marriage of the Lamb has come
And his bride has made herself ready.
To her it has been granted to be clothed
With fine linen, bright and pure-
For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev 19:7-8)
Or we will be thrown out where there will be fire and the weeping and gnashing of teeth. Does this fate sound familiar? It should to anyone who has looked at the parables. The same language is used in other parables recorded by Matthew. It is a harvest metaphor. Literally, it is the tares that are thrown out from the gathering of the wheat, and the bad fish from the net. And is it a mean Father God who will throw us out if we show up without the proper gown?
No. The purpose of a parable is to make one point and the point here is to get ready, to stitch together for ourselves the garments of truth, of the Way, so we will be open to God.
There are many people who will remain well armored against the piercing truths today's parable conveys. They will refuse the challenge. It is easier to limit our vision, to wear a garment of armor. "The kingdom of God is spread on the earth and men don't see it," we read. Jesus' kingdom cannot be stormed. It must descend upon us like light.
In today's parable, Jesus has given us all a key to the gates. We have the patterns, the whole cloth, and all the thread we need. For God's sake, for Heaven's sake, don’t put off working on your wedding garment until tomorrow.