Sermon: 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

When we read this parable at my text study this week, the pastor reading it finished by saying, “The gospel of the Lord?” And I definitely find myself in that camp this week, digging desperately into the words of Jesus read this morning and imagining that somewhere, buried in there, is some good news. I just couldn’t see it at first glance, and it didn’t get any more apparent the tenth time through, but I think there is something, buried within the text that speaks to us this morning.

Yesterday we held a wedding here at Irving Park. Only months ago I was planning my own wedding, so I feel for the king in this parable. People aren’t sending in their RSVP cards! And he is hosting a very important wedding, the wedding of his son. The invitations have gone out, he has killed the oxen and the fat calf. The tables are spread with the most decadent of food. So his servants go out to the get the guests, the a-list guests. And instead of straightening their ties and heading to the king’s feast, they turn their backs to return to their fields and their offices. They go back to the day to day of their lives and ignore this most important of invitations. The regular work of living crowds it out. And, so when the servants return without guests, the king sends them out one more time, to tell them what is in store for them. And they still don’t come. They ignore the invitation.

So he starts again, this time with a new slate of guests, anyone that will come off the street, good and bad, the people you would never expect at the table, and those that have been there all along. And so the wedding hall is filled. Just filled with guests.

Let’s just stop here. If this is another allegory, than we can fill in the cast of characters. Jesus is telling this parable to those same chief priests and elders we’ve been following the last few weeks. So we have to imagine that the banquet is being hosted by God, and that the invitation keeps going out, again and again, and those people in power keep ignoring it, because they are too caught up in the day to day of the temple, in the day to day of doing what they have always done, never stopping to consider that they might have gotten it all wrong. And because the invitation keeps getting ignored, God invites everyone to the table, and that means that the table gets filled with tax collectors and sinners, prostitutes, and addicts and every other character you can imagine. The party will go on, and if the invitation is ignored, God is still hosting it, and anyone can come.

So I get that. I mean, we talk about that all the time around here. We want our church to be the kind of place where all people will feel welcome, where the table is open for everyone. But, we’d miss a lot of this parable if we imagine that we are always ready to skip down the sidewalks to church and answer God’s invitation. I know that for years, I ignored God’s invitation to ministry. I thought I had some better things to do, maybe ways to make a bit more money. But that nagging call kept getting in my way. I kept feeling God tugging on my heart, and the world kept looking more and more broken to me. But God’s invitation isn’t just to pastors- God’s invitation is to all kinds of places and all kinds of situations. Sometimes, God’s invitation is to the celebration of new ministries, sometimes it is to bring new life to places where there is only death, and sometimes, God’s invitation is just to come to the table. The invitation is just to come into the community, to be born anew here, to be grafted into a new family. And that invitation is too often ignored. It gets crowded out. For the people in our parable, as Dr. Elton Richards suggests, the choice isn’t between good and evil. It isn’t as if the invitation was to the king’s banquet and the people instead chose unsavory activities. The choice was to do the good work of the land or to go to the king’s banquet. Both are good choices. And we get confused if we consider that those things that beg for our time, that cause us to crowd out God are going to be choices between good and evil. They won’t be that apparent. They might just be the choices between the everyday and the new life in Christ. And if our stomachs aren’t growling and our hearts aren’t broken, than we might not have that hunger for the kingdom of God. We might just be satisfied with the everyday. And so we’ll turn away from the invitation and go back to those things that will never be quite the spread of the banquet.

But the parable isn’t over yet. Because now the new slate of guests are feasting and celebrating, and then the king notices a man who isn’t dressed like the rest. He isn’t wearing a wedding robe. He has shown up, gotten his plates full of food, feasted with the rest of the guests, but he looks different. Now, here is what I know about wedding attire in this ancient community- when a celebration was being held, the people would wear longer, usually white robes. You did not attend this kind of celebration wearing the everyday cleaning out the garage kind of stuff. If you could not afford this kind of robe, you would borrow one from a neighbor. It was inconceivable to consider showing up at a celebration not wearing the right kind of attire. There are even some scholars who suggest that the King most likely provided robes for those in attendance. So to not wear a robe, means that you refuse to join in the rejoicing. You have only contempt for the host and the occasion.

Again, the guest has refused the invitation. Yes, he has shown up. He has taken his appropriate place at the table. But he isn’t interested in the celebration, he just wants the face time. Perhaps he just wants people to see that he is there, but he doesn’t care for the king or for the celebration. He doesn’t want to change even his clothing.

We believe the invitation is open to all. That God’s table is open to all. The love of God that we celebrate here is available to all. God’s love for us cannot be denied, it cannot be changed, it cannot be removed. But, we can refuse to be changed. We can refuse to let grace to change us. We can come here Sunday after Sunday, maybe even a few other days during the week, and we can hear the words and shake the hands, and all the while keep blocking up our hearts and refusing to let God in. Grace is free, but it does not leave us where we are. God expects more from us than just showing up. God expects us to do something, to respond somehow to the invitation.

This is a tough parable. But at its core is that invitation- the invitation to the banquet, the invitation to the celebration. We can ignore it, we can turn away, we can even show up and refused to be changed. But in all of this, we are not living into our full potential as children of God. We are settling with less than the best, with things that will never satisfy the same way. The invitation is open, to come to the table, to rejoice with God, and to be changed. How will we respond? Amen.