October 15, 2023

Pentecost 20

Lectionary 28

Epiphany, Winnipeg

Exodus 32:1-4

Matthew 22:1-14

Some of you might remember the song: “I cannot come, I cannot come to the banquet, don’t trouble me now…” The song is peppy, and the way the song tells the story it’s got kind of a happy ending, but the way that Matthew tells it today, it’s kind of a bleak story.

What do we make of a story where a king invites guests to a wedding banquet and then they all say “Nope, I can’t make it.” Some of them just go back home or to work then, and the ones who don’t go back home just, you know, kill the messengers who came to deliver the invitations. That might give you pause if you’re thinking of inviting a friend to a dinner at your place. So the king flies into his own rage and kills everyone and burns their towns to the ground, and then he gets the surviving messengers and slaves to go out and invite everyone they can find to come on in and eat, and those ones – the ones who were left off the first list, come to the feast. Of course they said yes, after seeing what happened to the ones who said no! So the banquet is full, but there’s one guest without the proper wedding garment, and he ends up tied up hand and foot and thrown out into the gloomy, cold night. And many are called, and few are chosen. And then the pastor says, “This is the gospel – the good news – of the Lord.”

Sometimes when we read parables it’s tempting to try to match up all the characters in the story with characters in our lives or in our faith, it just gets strange. Right off the start we might think that the king is God because, well, God’s the one on top, right? But if the king is like God, is that the God we know? Flying into a rage and ordering destruction? Is that what grandma told you and Ralph my confirmation teacher or Laura my youth group leader told me? Is that what the first kids’ song we learned – Jesus Loves Me – told us about God?

If we try to match up all these characters we might even start to wonder about ourselves or our neighbours. Are we bad if life is too full and there’s not room for one more thing, even if it’s the king’s banquet? Are we the first ones invited, and if we say no we’d better watch out? There’s a wedding guest who’s in trouble for having the wrong outfit, so we ask, “Who is wearing the right outfit?” Who belongs at the feast and who does not? Do I belong? Do you? Does that person down the street belong?

Do I have the right wedding robe? And can I tell who does not?

Am I really called? Am I really chosen? Are you?

Actually, this story Jesus tells sounds an awful lot like the world that we know, doesn’t it? It’s like the world that we’ve always known. There is vengeance and anger, and there are powerful frightened angry people who attack and threaten and fight back – like a king and the guests who said no.

There are those who are judged to be good or named bad, and others who just don’t belong because they dress the wrong way or live the wrong way; like the one in the parable who for some reason doesn’t look right for the feast. And everywhere we look, as long as we open our eyes, there is someone who ends up thrown out into the street, into the cold of an October night, and they no longer seem to matter.

Jesus just tells a strange story today, but he doesn’t tell it so that we can try to make it not strange or make it all fit together nicely. He also doesn’t tell the story to give us some kind of guide to the proper way to think or feel or believe.

Maybe what Jesus is doing is telling a story that begins and ends with the worst of the world that we know.

And right in the middle of the story is the best of what God knows and what God is doing. Do you see the ones who end up at the feast? The one thing they have in common is that they’re all just called in off the street. They were not onn the first guest list, and they received no invitations in the mail. They didn’t buy tickets online and they had no time to head off to Abercrombie and Fitch or Holt Renfrew (I don’t know – where do you go to get the best clothes?) or to the Bay or Winners or Value Village to get just the right outfit. The king’s slaves just came by and brought everyone who wasn’t invited first into a dinner that was prepared for them all along, and they’ve come just as they were when they were found. They didn’t have time to clean up, get changed, and become something else. Maybe that’s the proper wedding outfit: Whatever you’re caught wearing at the time, and there’s no time to change, and no time to pretend. And the doors of the wedding feast are thrown open for you.

Look around at this wedding feast here today, on this ordinary October morning. What are we wearing? There are some really nice pants in this crowd, and there are probably some jeans with frayed hems or holes in the knees, on purpose or because they’re just worn out. Some fine jackets and some shirts that fit just so, a dress or a skirt that won’t be worn next year because it will be so 2023 by then; maybe some pants that are too skinny for someone that age and an outfit that’s a little too…old for someone that young. There’s a strange dress from the Middle Ages or something that the man at the front wears. There are few tattoos right out in plain view or else hidden away somewhere, and there are piercings and not-piercings. There are clothes in this place that might break the bank for some of us, and a bit of this and a bit of that in this place that cost no more than a cup or two of coffee. A few of us are meticulously put together and a few of us probably just grabbed whatever was on the top of the pile. And here we all are; No one’s going to be tied up hand and foot and tossed out into the cold because they’re not wearing the right thing.

And of course, it’s not all about the clothes. It’s more like this, like the story says: “The slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, the good and the bad.”

Maybe you fit the description yourself: Are you the one who always feels like you’re left off the guest list? Well guess what: the servants found you anyway and called you in to a feast. You don’t think you’re good enough? Well guess what: the servants found you anyway and called you in to a feast. You think you are good enough? Well…the servants found you anyway and called you in to a feast. Have you heard the message, just once or more than that or most of the time, that someone like you doesn’t have a place at the table? Well guess what: the servants found you anyway and called you in to a feast. We are all here because the host at the banquet wants a bunch of people at the table. The messengers have found us and told us to come in, because the host at the banquet just wants a full table.

The host of the banquet called us here, and has given us a garment for the feast: it’s just called the mercy of God. That’s what we’re clothed in today: God’s mercy. Or call it God’s goodness, or God’s grace, or God’s warm and open invitation. So we don’t need to prove again and again and forever that we belong here; a life like that is its own kind of misery in the cold and the shadows. We are all just dressed in the mercy of God, and we are here because we’ve been found and called to a feast that is already spread.

This is the feast that our gracious host who is a servant gives for us, and our host has given us the garment of mercy and kindness before we even walked in the door. It is a mercy that welcomes us and feeds us and brings us to life. God’s love is a feast of mercy given for us here and for the world – even a world torn as it always seems to be by war and division the we know of so well. The love of God is a feast of mercy that will somehow some day bring enemies and friends together and they will be at peace. God’s love is a feast of mercy spoken out loud by Christ who promises: this is my body, my blood, my life…given for you. God’s love is a feast of mercy given for you…given for us all.

AMEN.