Proper 23: Preparing for the Banquet of God
Intro
Good morning friends. It is wonderful to be here with you this morning. Jesus tells us a parable in the Gospel reading today which encourages us to cultivate an awareness of our need for God’s grace and then to live into it once we encounter it. It is also a warning against those who, in their pride, presume on God’s grace.
Kids sermon
I want to invite the kids up to join me. Good morning everyone. How many of you have PE in school? What do you like about it? I want to tell you a story I’m not really proud of, but one that illustrates a point. When I was in Middle School, either age 13, or 14, I was in PE and I did something that was not good.
We were playing a super fun game in my PE class. My teacher had taken a giant wooden broom handle and duct taped it to an empty giant Alhambra or Culligan refillable water bottle. We were using this as a baseball bat and using a tennis ball as the ball. If you hit that ball just right it would go flying! I was up to bat, and I struck out. Now, for any of you who play baseball, you know it’s really common to strike out. What do your coaches teach you about striking out? Yes, my coaches taught me that too, but because I was in PE, I wanted to show off my baseball skills (pride) and when I didn’t do well I got upset.
Instead of having good sportsmanship, I angrily yelled a really bad curse word. Everyone on the field froze, and looked at my PE teacher. She looked at me and said “How dare you talk like that on this field. Go sit on the bench!” I don’t remember if I had to write home about that or not, but here we are, 28 years later, and I still remember watching the game from the bench completely red in the face with embarrassment.
I did not act with good conduct or good sportsmanship and because of that I missed the opportunity to have a ton of fun. If I had just done what was right, worked through the disappointment with a bit of humility, and had good sportsmanship, I would have had so much fun that day. My decisions had the consequences that I missed out on a really fun baseball game.
Today Jesus tells us a parable about a fun party. It is a wedding party. He tells us some of the things people should do to prepare for the party and who has not prepared well. His ultimate concern is that we come to know the goodness of life in God’s kingdom where Jesus is king and he is making all things new. And to do this, we need to prepare ourselves to enjoy life with Jesus. Would you please pray with me... “Thank you Jesus...for inviting us...to your table...help us love...what you ask us to do...so that we become...more like you...thank you...that you love us...amen.”
I. God invites us to come broken — vv 1-10 ; Isaiah 25:1-9
In this parable, a king is throwing a wedding banquet for his son and he invites an initial set of guests to be a part of it. He has prepared dinner and everything is ready. He sends his servants out to go and remind those who have been invited to come and eat. In the ideal scenario, those who were invited would go “oh! That’s right. I forgot to put that on my calendar. I’ll head over now.” But something unimaginable happens: Some make light of the wedding banquet and go back to their places of work. Others go a step further, and mistreat the slaves. The absurdity is meant to highlight the absurdity of Israel’s perpetual rejection of their covenant with the Lord. The Pharisees themselves are at risk of being part of those who were invited that reject God’s messengers, up to and including John the Baptist.
In the parable the king becomes enraged, sends troops, destroys those who mistreated his servants, and burns the city. St. Matthew is showing us that Jesus is the true Israel and those invited into the work of the kingdom are those being transformed by the grace of God with integrity, and not merely those who seem to have it all put together in public.
I think one of the helpful points in Jesus’ parable is the permission to admit we are a mess. It is an exhortation to avoid an over confident, overly triumphalistic, smug, curated life.
Politicians, Christian leaders, and Christian influencers all give well curated tales of success. You cannot judge a book by its cover, nor someone’s character through an Instagram Reel. I was just listening to a podcast where someone was sharing their story of being a content creator while in the background her husband was abusive and her marriage was falling apart. Eventually she had to announce her divorce in a reel and people were understandably shocked. If we take a step back though, we all know that content creation is curated, because real life is complex and not meant for public consumption. Perhaps if Jesus’ scenario was today, the Pharisees would have been on TikTok making funny Halakhah-style teaching videos about how many steps one can take on the Sabbath, or how to properly wash dishes, but then when the camera is off they’re committing acts of deep injustice against God’s image bearers.
I hope we are always a church where you can feel undone and safe with one another. We are not a church of curated portraits of perfection. Life is too messy for that. And if we are honest about the mess, then we become more aware of our need for God’s help. When we know our need for grace, we are more apt to begin healing, more ready to extend and receive forgiveness, and more prepared for the banquet.
II. God invites universally, but not unconditionally — vv 11-14 — Pride moves us to stagnation, and away from the kingdom where we risk exclusion and replacement. look at Moab (Isaiah 25:10-12)
Another point that comes from this parable is that the call to God’s kingdom is universal but it is not without conditions. The meal on the mountain of God from Isaiah 25, which we read through today, is a place of shared joy for what God has done, a place to vulnerably share stories of the work of God among the people of God. This is the image that gets carried all the way through Scripture and even into the book of Revelation where the angel says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb”
We want this invitation, which is universally available, to be effectual for everyone, but the hard reality in both Isaiah and in Jesus’ parable is that it is not going to come about for everyone. In Isaiah 25, we didn’t read verses 10-12 in our reading, but the prophecy, which sounds universal, then singles out Moab. It says that Moab will be trodden down like straw in a pile of dung. They will reach out for help but they won’t be heard because their pride speaks louder than their cries for help. Similarly, one person among the new group of guests who is invited is found not to have the right clothes for a wedding. Then there is an extreme reaction from the king in the parable who tells them to bind up the man and cast him into the outer darkness because “Many are called, but few are chosen.” It isn’t just that the man chose the wrong wardrobe. The idea is that he heard the invitation, but didn’t prepare in any meaningful way for the banquet; he came in whatever he had on. This is the pride, a presumption on God’s grace, that is incongruent with someone who has been transformed by the grace of God.
We want this parable, and Isaiah 25 to be more inclusive and comforting, but how we live does have consequences. God invites us to come however we are, but we cannot stay in that place. In repenting he will meet us by his grace. And his grace is transformative, it is meant to bear the fruits of the kingdom in us — the virtues, the reconciliation, the joy, the peace. If someone presumes on God’s grace, shows nothing but a life of injustice, ingratitude, hypocrisy, and vice, their faith is not the kind of faith that can deliver them from the kingdom of darkness. The clothes that we need to wear to prepare for the wedding are God’s own love, justice, truth, mercy and holiness. These are the character attributes of God that reign fully in his kingdom and which we see as we grow in our relationship to him. The person who refuses to put them on is the who by their deeds is communicating that they don’t want to be at the party.
One theologian says this in a way I really appreciated: “But there was a difference between this wide-open invitation and the message so many want to hear today. We want to hear that everyone is all right exactly as they are; that God loves us as we are and doesn’t want us to change. People often say this when they want to justify particular types of behaviour, but the argument doesn’t work. When the blind and lame came to Jesus, he didn’t say, ‘You’re all right as you are’. He healed them. They wouldn’t have been satisfied with anything less. When the prostitutes and extortioners came to Jesus (or, for that matter, to John the Baptist), he didn’t say, ‘You’re all right as you are’. His love reached them where they were, but his love refused to let them stay as they were. Love wants the best for the beloved. Their lives were transformed, healed, changed.”
Conclusion
Jesus teaches us two very important truths in our Gospel passage today. First, God invites to come to him broken and aware of our need for grace. And second, God invites us to be transformed by his grace. Jesus puts this in stark terms because the religious leaders, who were the most prone to self-deception, and needed such a stark exhortation to cut through the thick smokescreen of self-righteous deception. The good news in this for the average person is there is an invitation to everyone here to come into God’s kingdom. Those invited are called to become aware of their need for the grace of God. Some people, who have faced deep brokenness are more aware of it than those who are well-put together and have curated their lives for others. These are those who will experience Jesus in the Psalm 23 way as their good shepherd. As people come to God’s party, they are invited to prepare for it, to live into the virtue and character of God in community, to let faith and trust in Christ have their intended effect on a life that is being restored, renewed, and prepared for the party. Come to Jesus, be a part of his kingdom in this community, and be changed.
Let us pray:
O God, our refuge and strength, true source of all godliness: Graciously hear the devout prayers of your Church, and grant that those things which we ask faithfully, we may obtain effectually; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.