"Put On Your Sunday Best" – Matthew 22:1-14

Matthew 22:1-14

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.”

-----------A lot gets lost when sermons are read rather than heard, which is why I will make it explicit that the first half of this sermon is scarcasm!-----------

I'd like to begin today’s message by telling you that every Sunday I get a good long look at each one of you and I judge you based on your appearance.

To be honest, I’ve always thought it was kind of a personality flaw on my part; but when I read today’s Gospel message I realized that Jesus wants me to notice how you are dressed and treat you accordingly.

Right?!?!

In today’s parable Jesus tells us about a king who throws a wedding banquet for his son. All the guests decline the invitation and resent that they were invited in the first place. So the king kills off all the original guests and opens up the party for everyone who wouldn’t otherwise be invited – the outcasts of society. And all of society’s outcasts are invited and welcome to the party. There’s only one tiny catch…those outcasts had better wear the right clothes to the party!  

This parable says that we have been invited to the party, but if we’re not dressed for the part, we will be humiliated in front of the other guests and thrown out on the street where we’ll cry our little eyes out and be left all alone; which means that the moral of the story is that God’s unconditional love and acceptance actually does have one condition – the quality of our outward appearance.

Perhaps you hear this as good news. After all, just about all of us already use factors such as appearance to determine how we treat other people: clothing style, haircut, hair color, glasses, wrinkles, tattoos, piercings, what kind of car they drive, what kind of house they live in, who they live with, etc. And here we are with Biblical assurance that we are right to judge people, especially based on such superficial things.

So, at this point we have a decision to make. Either we all start showing up on Sunday dressed in our finest clothes and continue feeling justified in judging other people based on how they look…or we decide to take another look at this parable and find its underlying truth.

Which would you prefer? Trusting in your clothes get you to heaven…or discovering the deeper truth of Jesus’ message?

I hoped you would choose that one. Let’s try this again.

-----------------(end of scarcasm)--------------------

I want to begin today’s message by assuring you that despite how this parable sounds, it is not about clothes! Jesus does not give a lick about what you wear and Jesus certainly does not permit us to judge and mistreat others based on their appearance. How can I say this when the scripture seems to argue the opposite point? Well, there's the verse from Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus says,
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

 And there’s my favorite verse of scripture, Micah 6:8,
“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (no mention of wearing nice clothes!)

So if this parable is not about clothes, what is it about?

This parable is about the acceptance or rejection of Jesus and how God’s grace affects our hearts and minds.

This parable was originally directed to the high priests and religious leaders. And, similar to the parable we examined last week’s, Jesus was reminding the religious leaders that they are subject to God’s judgment and punishment based on whether they accept or reject Jesus.

Now the phrases “accepting Jesus” and “rejecting Jesus” need to be clearly understood. We not talking about merely saying “I believe” and then carrying on with our lives as if God’s call upon us has no discernible effect. Accepting Jesus is not an one-and-done event; it’s not the day we were baptized, it’s not a single prayer. Accepting Jesus means that we radically re-orient our lives around those things which were important to Jesus – forgiveness, justice, loving the unlovable, speaking hope in the midst of despair. It’s a daily dying to our selfish selves and rising to the new life promised to us as we daily remember our baptism.

And I assure you what we wear is not important to Jesus.

Elsewhere in the New Testament, the writers use the phrase “putting on new garments” as a way to talk about the new life we have in Christ – a new life characterized by repentance and forgiveness. People don’t get tossed out of Jesus’ party for not wearing the right clothes; rather, they get tossed out when they simply show up but fail to be authentic disciples of Christ.

Simply accepting the invitation to the party – simply showing up – is not enough.

Living as a disciple of Christ demands more from us than intellectual belief or emotional trust; and certainly more than simply showing up to share God’s love with others only when it is convenient to do so. Instead, living as a disciple of Christ invites us to merge our behavior and actions with the teachings and life of Jesus every day of the week.

As a Christian, it is not enough for us just to show up. Rather, we must take our gifts, talents and abilities and use them for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

God’s grace is boundless and inclusive, but it is also demanding; it demands our whole life.

This is a difficult passage with a simultaneously uplifting and somewhat dismal message. Martin Luther once said about difficult passages that we must squeeze them until the good news drips out.

Well, the good news is that we are outcasts, but Jesus saw it fit to invite us into his kingdom. We took Jesus up on the invitation and each day we are presented with dozens of opportunities to overcome our selfish obstacles and share God’s life-changing love with others.

Even when we fail to live into the new, gracious and glorious reality of life with Jesus; even when we find ourselves back on the streets, looking in on the wedding banquet festivities, the invitation is re-extended.

So come, feast on forgiveness and freedom, and party on.

Amen

"Nine Interesting Animal Facts (and What They Teach Us About Faith)" – Matthew 6:25-33

As we can see from today’s Gospel reading, Jesus used animals in his telling of spiritual truths. So, following Jesus’ established use of animal behavior as illustrations of God’s kingdom, here are a list several interesting animal facts and the spiritual insights they provide. I assembled the list from various internet sources, so that means they are all true!

1) Cows produce more milk when listening to soothing music.

This is a wonderful illustration of one of the most basis tenants of the Christian faith: our good works come as a result of the salvation that has been given to us. God is not using force or abuse to get us to produce something of value for the world; rather, God has removed the barrier of sin and the threat of destruction from our lives. This means we can be at peace, with the soothing sound of God’s grace working in, around, and through us to make the world a better place.

2) Millions of trees grow every year because squirrels bury nuts.

As a Lutheran summer camp counselor, I would spend every minute for a week with a few kids, do my best to teach and demonstrate God’s love, and wave goodbye on Friday, knowing I would likely never see them again. Often there was little proof that our week at camp had impacted the kids in any significant way. I began to look at my summers at camp as opportunities to plant seeds of faith in kids’ lives. I wouldn’t see a giant tree take root and reach toward the heavens in one week; however, I trusted that God was using me to plant seeds of faith, which God would continue to nurture as the child grew. All that to say: our actions plant seeds in the lives of others; God takes care of the rest.

3) Dolphins have names for each other and can call out for each other specifically.

Standing before the tomb of his friend, Jesus instructs the stone to be rolled away and yells into the cave, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came to Jesus (John 11).

As Jesus was passing through Jericho he saw a man sitting in a sycamore tree and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus was so moved by Jesus’ presence that he agreed to give back four time the amount of taxes he had extracted from the people (Luke 19).

 As Mary Magdalene stood in confusion outside Jesus’ empty tomb, Jesus approached her, saying, “Mary!” She suddenly realized that Jesus had, in face, been raised from the dead (John 20).

When Jesus calls people by name, incredible things happen – new chances, new relationships, and new life. Jesus calls us by name and promises to give us new chances, new relationships, and new life as we are encouraged to call upon the name of the Lord (Romans 10).

4) Sea otters hold each other's paws when they sleep so they don't drift apart.

We’re not in this alone; we never have been, we never will be. In the same way that God holds us close, we have a responsibility to reach out to those in the world who are most at risk of floating away, alone, in the darkness of the night.

5) African elephants produce approximately 220 pounds of manure per day.

Just thought you’d like to know. You’ll thank me when the question pops up in a trivia game.

6) Elephants show incredible empathy for others, even different species.

Elephants demonstrate emotional contagion. When an elephant is distressed, nearby elephants react to the other elephant's distress by acting in exactly the same way. In such situations researchers have witnessed elephants come to stand beside their friend and touch the distressed elephant with their trunks to provide comfort.

The case could be made that elephants demonstrate a greater degree of emotional contagion than humans. In our world where it has become so easy to tune out others’ suffering, where we have become numb to the news of violence, death, and destruction, perhaps we should heed the call to take a stand beside those who are suffering. May we be inspired and equipped by the God who took a stand beside the suffering creation through the incarnation of God through Jesus Christ.
(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-elephants-poaching-empathy-grief-extinction-science/)

7) The three-toed sloth sleeps up to 20 hours a day and is so sedentary that algae grows on its back.

Before you rush to judgment against this poor, slow, lazy animal, you should know that this green algae that grows on the sloth’s back ends up camouflaging the sloth in the rainforest. Perhaps this animal can remind us of the value of slowing down. Most of us have bought into the rat race, thinking that our busyness will buy our way out of suffering. But in reality the faster we go, the more exposed we become to the predators of exhaustion, materialism, and competition. I hereby nominate the three-toed sloth as the official mascot of Sabbath!

8) The monarch butterfly can detect its lover's scent five miles away.

We are never too far away from the loving reach of God. No matter how alone or spiritually distant we feel, God is able to seek us out and demonstrate God’s love to us.

9) Turtles can breathe through their butts!

Again, simply for trivia’s sake. Always helps to remember that God has a sense of humor!

In conclusion, we don’t worship God’s creation; yet, through creation that we see the truths of God on miraculous display. We have been called to sustain, serve, and support God’s creation (not the other way around). So today we give thanks for animals, domesticated and wild, slow and fast, carnivore and herbivore, birds of the air and fish of the sea; each one a unique gift of God’s presence, each one demonstrating a profound truth about God.