Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again 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.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then 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.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Matthew 22:1-14
My sermon from the 18th Sunday after Pentecost (October 11, 2020) on Matthew 22:1-14
The General Theological Seminary, where I graduated with my Masters of Divinity degree, is located on 22nd street between 9th and 10th avenues in Manhattan. In the late 1800s, it was rebuilt and expanded so that it would resemble the kind of university you might find in England. The dorms, classrooms, and even the chapel create a brick wall around the entire city block. But if you peered through the first story windows on 22nd street or through the old iron fence on 21st street, you’d notice a large park, full of trees, right in the middle of the seminary. That green space looks inviting, exclusive, and something that fits better in the magical world of Harry Potter rather than New York City. Which is why tv shows and entertainment companies like to rent that space often. For example, if you’ve watched the tv series Law and Order, you’ve seen the seminary’s green space when the show visited the fictional “Hudson University.” And if you happen to be a big fan of the 2014-2016 showtime tv series Penny Dreadful, you would have seen the seminary campus as the backdrop for the red carpet series’ premiere and party. I was a week away from graduating when I suddenly noticed contractors and entertainment companies turning the seminary’s ground into that red carpet event. There was a lot of hustling and bustling as they built special plywood platforms to hold all the fancy lighting equipment needed to take photos of all the celebrities who would be there. Instead of studying for my last few finals, I sat outside and watched them lay down a literal red carpet in front of the chapel where I worshipped and occasionally preached. It wasn’t long before my friends and I gave up pretending to study and instead gossiped about which celebrities might be there. We also started scheming different ways we could sneak onto the red carpet because it was literally happening out our front doors. But before our scheming could get very far, we received an email from the seminary telling us that all students were invited to attend Penny Dreadful’s premiere party. We would get to hang out in a trendy hotel’s ballroom next to our campus and enjoy everything that the A list celebrities experienced. We no longer needed to figure out a way to get onto the red carpet because we were invited to be part of it. And when that happened, we had a new and overriding concern dominating finals week: what would we, the future pastors and priests of Jesus’s church, actually wear to an event that was really out of our league?
Now today’s parable from the gospel according to Matthew is one of the more violent parables he chose to share with us. It includes war, violence, armies, and even one of Matthew’s favorite phrases: the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The over-the-top violence in this story is not pleasant to hear especially since it’s coming from the lips of Jesus. Our first instinct might be to downplay that violence or act as if Jesus was kidding. But a better way to handle this story might be to allow it to make us uncomfortable. Sometimes, the stories Jesus told were designed to stir up our emotions. Because he is God-incarnate – God-living-a-human-life and that includes everything that comes with being human. As we listened to these words, we might have found ourselves squirming in our seats because everything within it feels so excessive. The story began during one of the biggest parties that might happen in our lives – a wedding. And it continued with an over-the-top kind of rejection where every originally invited guest told the king to go away. In response, the King went overboard and used an excessive amount of violence to harm those who said no. But that excessive violence was also equally matched by invitation that invited people into a party they had no right to attend. There’s a bigness to this story that has to be part of its point. Jesus wanted us to recognize that the kingdom of God – God’s grace, love, and presence in our lives and in our world – is above and beyond what our everyday life is all about. When we’re invited into a life with God – we are no longer asked to live only according to our very human view of the world. Instead, God’s invitation introduced us into a vision of life that becomes our vision too. And that way of life means that hope, mercy, justice, and forgiveness should become our excessive response to a God who loves us in a very excessive way.
So in the handful hours before the party began at General Seminary, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to wear. I’m not a celebrity and although I think I’m pretty fancy, I don’t have a team of people available to help me look my best. I think I tried on half-a-dozen outfits before giving up and heading to some trendy stores nearby. I went from store to store, trying to find that shirt, hat, or pair of pants that was appropriate for the occasion. My goal wasn’t to pretend as if I hang out with A-list celebrities all the time. But I did want to wear something that said I knew how fun and unique this party would be. I knew this would be the only time I would ever be at a tv red carpet premiere so I wanted to make the most of it. I wanted to let myself and the people around me know that I, in my own way, belong; that I knew I was invited; and that I understood how weird it was for me to be there. But even though I couldn’t, on my own, earn a spot to be on that red carpet – I could, once I got there, dance and twirl and enjoy the night away. I could live out that special moment fully and deeply – because I had been invited to live a sliver of my life in a different kind of way.
Now, through Jesus, we have been invited to know a central truth about our lives: that we already belong. We belong to a God who is above us, beyond us, and who loves us in an excessive way that knows no bounds. Because when you, like Bodhi, were baptized and publicly declared as a beloved child of God, that gift wasn’t given to you because you were perfect, wonderful, and that would never screw up. Instead, you were grafted into a body of Christ that knew you needed to be there. This body could not be what Jesus wanted it to be without you being a part of it. And that the faith you were given was a faith big enough to hold all your sorrow, your fears, your mistakes, and all the ways we’ve lived our lives in a self-centered way. But your invitation into this life with Jesus was more than just having your name on the guestlist. You were given a Savior who made a promise to push you into a deeper experience of what life is all about. You weren’t just invited to follow Christ but you were also given a faith that can help you do it. That faith, of course, will not always be strong. And there will be times when we will have experiences that no one deserves because we did everything right but we’re still heartbroken and full of grief. Those kinds of experiences are a little excessive and they seem to happen a little too often. But you also have a God who has an excessive amount of love for you – and whose promise of a deeper life also means that Jesus will never let you go. That promise was made real today for Bodhi in his baptism – and it’s a promise Jesus renews with you everytime we worship, or pray, and even just eat at his holy table. And since that promise was already given to us in the little bit of water poured over our heads – we get to live that promise out in lives that are also different. We get to be part of a community of faith; to read the scriptures; to spend time in prayer. We get to trust God; to share Jesus’ love with others; and to work for justice and peace. We get to live in this world as if love, not power or greed or sin, is what everything should be about. And we get to metaphorically and spiritually dress like we truly belong to the kingdom of God. Bodhi, you now get to know that Jesus loves you; that Jesus died for you; and that you will never be alone. And we, together, as the body of Christ in this world, get to live lives that show how God’s inclusive invitation is rooted in an excessive amount of love – a love that actually makes a difference in the here and now.
Amen.