October 12, 2008

“Beyond the Welcome Mat” – Matt. 22:1-14 – October 12, 2008

One time I performed a wedding that was scheduled on the afternoon of the Ohio State-Michigan football game. That is the biggest game of the year here in the Midwest and many of the guests who were invited did not show up because they didn’t want to miss the game. The men in the wedding party arranged to have a television located in the church fellowship hall so they didn’t have to miss the entire game. Just when the game was getting interesting it was time for the wedding to begin. The men had to leave the game and hope that the wedding wouldn’t last too long so that they might return later in the second half.

During the wedding I observed a man with a listening device and miniature radio. This was before text messaging and cell phone internet access. I watched him give hand signals to some of the other guests, apparently signaling the current score of the game. It was distracting. In my opinion it was very disrespectful. The wedding concluded and the groomsmen rushed to the fellowship hall to see the end of the game. Since then I am reluctant to schedule weddings on big game days. Couples are under the illusion that their friends will come to the wedding and have the decency to put football on hold for a Saturday afternoon. Most, however will skip the wedding because football is a higher priority.

In the story of the wedding banquet there are those who were invited but they had other things to do. “They made light of it and went away, one to his farm and another to his business.” Their own personal agendas had a higher priority than attending the wedding banquet of the king. In that society you were expected to come when invited. To refuse meant you were disrespectful. In fact it was a deliberate act of sedition if not treason. In the very least it was shameful behavior.

Some even went further. They were hostile toward the king’s servants, even killing them. This was more than an absolute refusal to skip the wedding banquet, it was rejection of the king himself. Consequently, the king had them destroyed and invited people on the streets to be his guests.

The action of the king in the parable is behavior. I doubt seriously that our friendship would end with our friends who decided to attend the football game instead of the wedding. We might be angry for awhile but we’d get over it. The king, however did not take the behavior of his guests lightly. They were unworthy and the king responded harshly.

The parable is not really about attending a wedding banquet. The parable is about being in the kingdom of God. God invites us and we are expected to accept God’s invitation. There is a place at the table for us. God has gone out of God’s way to make it a great feast. Missing it would mean being on the outside of the community of faith. There is no higher priority than being in the kingdom of God. It doesn’t get any better than that. To refuse that opportunity is to refuse God.

What’s more important than being in the company of God? What’s more important than being part of the faith community? What’s more important than accepting the call to discipleship?

A friend of mine, who is eighty years old, told me that he has only missed mass a total of six times in his entire life. The reason he missed those services was due to the fact he was recovering from surgery and unable to leave his home. He is just a regular guy, not a person of prominence or stature. But, he has a great respect for the priority of worship and no doubt will be sitting at the table at the king’s wedding banquet.

In today’s society the church has to compete with everything. People make excuses for not making their faith a priority. What that really means is that they are giving a higher priority to those other things that they participate in.

Jesus was speaking to those who rejected him, those who didn’t take his message seriously. The parable is about God calling us. The call to be in the kingdom of God calls for a radical reorientation of the way we live our lives. It is a call to repentance, meaning God is calling us to walk in a different direction. Our faithful response means we are a welcomed guest at God’s table. To reject that invitation is to reject God. What the parable also illustrates is that those who reject that invitation can be replaced.

The 1987 NFL season was the 68th regular season of the National Football League. A 24-day players' strike reduced the 16-game season to 15. The games that were scheduled for the third week of the season were canceled, but the games for weeks 4-6 were played with replacement players.

They are the almost-forgotten performers who played in a minimum of three games, the three strike games. As a result, they qualified for the winning share of Super Bowl XXII which was $9,000 each even though they were no longer on the rosters of Washington and Denver. But five of the so-called replacement players actually played in Super Bowl XXII. One of the players was Kevin Clark.

''I could write a book about my life,'' said Clark, who stayed beyond the strike. He was a Denver Bronco punt-returner and reserve defensive back. Clark said he might start the book with an anecdote about what he was doing before the strike: trying to sell cars. He didn't sell one. ''He struggled in that game, but he gained confidence,'' Coach Dan Reeves recalled. ''He's going to be a heck of a player.'' The next week Denver played the Oakland Raiders. Clark got an interception on their first series, and he didn’t look back.

The kingdom of God is open to anyone. Those who refuse God’s invitation can be replaced. God is inclusive. God doesn’t discriminate. God’s call goes beyond insiders to anyone who will come. Even those we consider to be unworthy are included in the kingdom of God.

That being said, there is an unusual twist to this story. One of the street people showed up in inappropriate attire. The symbolism of his improper dress didn’t have to do with what he was wearing but how he “clothed” himself. He was disrespectful. He showed up, short of righteousness. Barbara Brown Taylor said, “The wedding clothes needed for showing honor are made from the fabric of our lives, using the patterns God has given us; patterns of justice, forgiveness, loving kindness and peace.” (from her sermon – “Wedding Dress, Home By Another Way, Cambridge, MA, Cowley, 1999)

It isn’t enough just to show up. God welcomes us to the banquet and at the same time expects us to be disciples. In other words we have a responsibility to pattern our lives after the ways of Jesus. God is not looking for warm bodies, God is looking for participants in the kingdom. It is not up to us to decide who is in or who is out. The only one who makes that judgment is the king. More importantly the parable points out that God has a claim on us and to turn away from that claim is no small thing.

The wedding banquet will be filled with guests, good and bad, all sorts of people as Matthew suggests. We come because we are hungry for righteousness, thirsty for peace and longing for justice. Blessed are those who come to the marriage supper of God’s son. Blessed are those who welcome outsiders into the church and accept them as equals. Blessed are those who give the community of faith first priority. Blessed are those who are will to make sacrifices for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio

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