Year A Proper 23 12 October 2014
Exodus 32: 1-14 Psalm 106: 1-6, 19-23 Philippians 4: 1-9 Matthew 22: 1-14
In our readings this week we find that Saint Paul exhorts the Philippians to focus on the positive;
Philippians 4:4-8 “Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful. Let everyone know how gentle you are. The Lord is coming soon.
Don’t worry about anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. Then God’s peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ Jesus. God’s peace can never be completely understood.
Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things.”
I call it the Pollyanna principal. You might recall the book where the Heroine sees the good in everything, calling it the GLAD GAME. It would appear that Saint Paul promotes this unquenchable optimism and indeed he does, but it is not an irrational optimism it is actually an exhortation to hope and to see things through the eyes of faith.
In fact… the Bible tells us that anything that is not of faith is sin. So… when we doubt and we fail to trust in God it is actually sin. This may seem harsh, but I think it is worth noting because we all need to realize that we all fall short… we all sin… and now let’s get over it, because it is for this reason that Jesus came. There is not to be any judgment – Paul did not judge, but instead he encouraged and motivated the people such that their focus was moved from their circumstances to the promises and wonderful things of God.
THIS is what we are to do also. We are not to judge and we are not to give others the impression that they lack faith when things are bleak, but instead, we are to be messengers of a greater hope… we are to be the people that intercede for those who are hurting. My reason for claiming this comes from other Bible passages, including the story of Job and his friends and our reading from the Old Testament for this week from Exodus.
Our Old Testament reading takes us to the place where the Israelites were in the desert and Moses was up the mountain receiving the commandments from God. From the perspective of the people, they had been led out of Egypt by a miraculous hand that saw the Red sea parted.
Now to our way of thinking this would be a sure sign of the sovereignty and power of our God, and an event that would solidify the faith of the Israelites, but this was a people who were used to the magicians of Egypt and the supernatural happenings of demonic forces. They knew that they were a chosen race and belonged to a different God from that of the Egyptians, but in the minds of those people, was an understanding that was clouded by the influences around them.
Back in the 80’s was a computer term; GI-GO, Garbage in – Garbage out. I was talking today with someone who expressed that we need to read the Koran and other books to better be able to proclaim our Christianity. It is a common thought that we can’t properly argue without authoritative knowledge of these things, but we are in danger here, of becoming like those ancient Israelites who assimilated the pagan beliefs of those surrounding them, such that they actually were better acquainted with the pagan beliefs than that of their own beliefs.
To qualify my opinion here, let me add the parallel of a basketball game. I used to be a much better defensive player and not so good at offense. Defense is not the way to win a game and I always seemed to lose. Becoming skilled in offense is a much better tactic. How well do you understand the Christian faith? How intimately acquainted are you with all the writings of the Bible? As Saint Paul told the Philippians, we need to focus our minds on these things that we know are good.
I think I’ve mentioned in other reflections that those who are skilled in identifying counterfeit notes do not study counterfeits. They study the authentic notes so much that any slight alteration in a counterfeit is immediately obvious.
These ancient Israelites were easily led astray without any conscience that they were sinning because they were not students of the real thing. As we read further, we see that God expresses to Moses that these people should be destroyed. Moses, however, reminds God that these are His chosen people.
It is an interesting passage that reads as though Moses was able to change God’s mind. I suspect the truth of the matter is that God wanted Moses to become more acutely aware of the sacredness of HIS people, because it would be Moses’ job to lead them and teach them, and he was going to need this understanding in order to have immeasurable patience with them.
This Old Testament situation is echoed in our New Testament reading and sets the scene for us today.
Our New Testament reading tells the parable of the wedding feast. A man prepares a wedding feast for his son and sends out the invitations, but those invited refuse. In fact some of them even beat and mistreat the servants who are the bearers of the invitation. So the father sends the servants out to the streets to invite anyone and everyone – good and bad alike.
The feast is happily underway when the father notices someone not wearing wedding clothes and he then has this person thrown out. And the parable concludes with the announcement the many are invited but few are chosen.
What does all this mean?
Some of the parable is immediately obvious. The wedding feast speaks of the celebration of the coming of Jesus. The servants are those who invite others into a relationship with Jesus. Those invited guests are those who already have some kind of relationship with God who we’d expect to be an integral part of the festivities. In Jesus time, this would have been referring to the Jews- the chosen people of God. In our current time we can interpret this further as the traditional orthodox Christian Churches and take it as a warning.
In the time of Jesus, the Jewish church had been waiting for the coming Messiah. He appeared, and although many acknowledged and accepted him, the hierarchy of the Church rejected him. At this time in the history of God’s interaction with humanity, an invitation was sent out to Jews and, most significantly, to non-Jews…. to me and to you!
We are all invited to celebrate and be part of this story. The invitation is for Christian, for Jew, for Muslim, for Buddhist, for good and for bad. There are no limits on who is invited. Our part in the story for today is to understand that God has invited ALL. We need to understand this and reach out to others with the invitation because we are the servants who are sent to the streets to bring in guests for the celebration.
Now there is still a part of the story to discover. It is that of the person who was thrown out because he was not wearing wedding clothes.
It is thought that there was a tradition that those invited to a royal wedding would be given an appropriate robe to wear. Regardless of the tradition, this invited person is not appropriately dressed.
In 2009 when I married Joe, we had a wedding that was open to all. Most of those that came were well known to us. Some were only acquaintances, but all wore appropriate clothes. Initially we intended that we might have a reception outside in the garden at Holy Trinity, which is much more open to the public and likely to have party crashers. I’m guessing if this had happened we’d be able to spot them quickly because they’d be dressed differently.
The difference between a guest and a party crasher, in that circumstance would be immediately obvious through dress, and that difference in dress would indicate a deeper difference, that being the lack of personal relationship to the wedding couple.
All people are invited into the celebration of God, but what this is really inviting us to is a relationship with the Son, Jesus.
In other places in the Bible it speaks of us being “clothed in Christ”. We can only be worthy of a union with God through the sacrifice of Jesus and therefore it is our relationship with Christ that makes us “clean”. We can go to church, we can be a good ethical person, we can be someone who sacrifices for others, but if we are not “clothed in Christ” then we can have no union with God.
I do, absolutely and with all my heart, believe that if all the world’s religions and philosophies were laid out clearly, and properly comprehended, we’d all choose Christianity. It really is Good News (Gospel). But the biggest hindrance, other than ignorance of the extreme goodness of this way, is the humility to accept that there is something or someone greater, and then to admit that we are not as good as we’d like to think, and therefore admit that we need a savior.
We need to willingly admit our need, and therefore enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ in order to be “Clothed in Christ”…. Many are invited, but few are chosen – why? It isn’t God’s will that any should be left out, but it is the consequence of our free will that determines our fate. All has been done… The atonement and sacrifice made, wedding robes given by God himself– But will you wear it?
