Party at Jesus' Place!

This past Sunday was a special one at the church I serve, as we had our first bi-lingual celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The day came about, in large part, as a result of me serving on the Bishop's Committee on Liturgy.  At our August meeting both our diocesan and suffragan bishops encouraged us to incorporate more Spanish into our liturgies and to raise up the voices of our Hispanic brothers and sisters, who make up the largest growing population in the Episcopal Church.  Over the past month churches throughout our diocese and the larger Episcopal Church have been finding ways to add more Spanish, honor Hispanic ministers, and a number of other celebrations as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15).  Good Shepherd did our part on Sunday as a way to remind ourselves that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.  We are part of a worldwide church that worships with the same liturgy and offers the same message, even when we do so with a different tongue.  Thus, Sunday was our day to remember our part in this great big family of God, a family whose members are all invited to celebrate at God's banquet table.  

This was one of those weeks when the Revised Common Lectionary gave me a great gift.  I was worried about preaching not only for a bi-lingual Eucharist but also for a Sunday that is smack-dab in the middle of our stewardship season.  Thankfully, the RCL gifted me with this reading from the Gospel According to Matthew: 

 'Once more Jesus spoke to the people 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

An artist's rendering of the Parable of the Wedding Banquet

There’re a few things worth noting about this story when we look at who is represented in the parable and what it might have meant for Matthew’s audience.  The king, of course, is God.  The wedding banquet for his son is Jesus' coming into the world, either the first time or at the Eschaton--the latter is a recurring theme in Matthew's Gospel. The invitations were sent out by God well in-advance, and in the ancient world that was normal; in fact, very seldom was a day or time attached to an invitation, meaning that folks just had to be ready whenever the host finally put the word out and said, ‘Alright everyone!  It’s time to party!’  God, therefore, had long ago issued the invitation, and the people were expected to be ready whenever God called for them to join the party.  But they weren’t ready, even going so far as to kill God's messengers who came to bring them to the party.  The messenger are the prophets, and one-by-one they were all denied when they tried inviting people to the party.  Even Jesus, the very one to whose party they are being invited, is standing there telling them, "It's time!" but they will not listen.  Seeing that none of those folks are interested, the king—God—calls for every sort and condition of person to come into the banquet hall.  Go and invite EVERYONE, the king says, especially those who may have never been to a wedding banquet.  Thus, Jesus embodies this by ministering among the outcasts of society, including:  widows, tax collectors, prostitutes, Gentiles, drunkards, and every other kind of sinner.  Jesus himself invites them to the party, to a new relationship with God, and therefore a new way of being.   

Parables, of course, have something to teach us even now, and so we are reminded here that it is our task, as well, to invite every person to a relationship with God.  It’s been said numerous times that the most segregated time in America is the church hour on Sunday mornings.  Often people get drawn to church because that’s where their friends go, or that’s where the people of a similar social or economic status go, or that’s where people who look and speak like them go.  Yet the invitation is for everyone, especially those that we would never even think to invite.  We are the very servants in the story being called by our king to go out into the highways and byways, into the homeless shelters, thrift stores, jails, soup kitchens, and every other place to invite all to the celebration—the good, the bad, the clean, the dirty, the rich, the poor, the black, the white, the straight, the gay, the liberal, the conservative, the English-speakers, and the non-English speakers.  For the party that God invites us into is one of praise and worship, a place where where the labels we give each other disappear at God's banquet table; that is, at the altar of God.  The Communion rail, where we reach out our hands for Jesus, is the place where all are invited, all are welcomed, and all connect with each other and with God, for it is here that we get a taste of the very banquet of heaven. 

Yet there’s another part of this parable, isn’t there?  What about the guest who doesn’t have a wedding garment and is therefore thrown into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?  What kind of person is that?  

He'll kick you out of the party, but with a smile on his face!

By not taking on the wedding robe, this individual in the parable is showing a supreme sign of disrespect to the party's host.  Yes, the door was opened to him, but once he came inside he did not want to actually be a part of the party itself, rather he wanted to continue doing whatever he was doing before he arrived.  He had not changed into the proper garment, had not taken on a new identity within the community of the party, and thus he was told to leave.  The host had not intended for folks to merely show up, instead the host clearly intended for the guests to engage and be changed by being a part of this celebration.

Indeed, we are all invited to the party, but that also means we must be willing to be changed by the party.  We must engage with the party, taking on the proper garment(s). This piece of the parable has nothing to do with actual clothes—Jesus isn’t saying we must wear certain things when we come to church—instead it is about putting on the garments of preparation, faith, reverence, hope, love, and thankfulness.  If we accept the invitation to the party, we must be willing to put on Jesus' wedding garments, rather than keep our same old ratty clothes on.  We cannot go to the party and keep being who we were before!  Instead, we are invited into an experience that will change us for good, and we cannot do that if we simply show up.  We must engage and allow this celebration to change us.  Yes, it is a celebration--a party, even--but it is not a social club.  Being a part of Church does not mean just going to hang out with our friends for a couple hours and then going home.  Instead, this celebration is one in which we are called to engage, take on those garments that Jesus hands us, and be transformed by our experiences within the life of the party.  That, after all, is the very nature of stewardship! 

So today, may we be eager to go out into the streets and invite all that we meet to this great big party of God’s.  May we remember that everyone has an invitation, that we are part of a celebration that is so much bigger than ourselves.  And may we hold true to the fact that we are called not just to attend the celebration, but to be active participants in it, so that by engaging with one another and with Jesus we may be changed for good.  So, brothers and sisters, vamos de fiesta!  Let's party!

At this guy's party, all are welcome!!