Party Time

October 10, 1993

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Scripture: Matthew 22:1-14

Here’s something intriguing---I’d never thought of it before until someone pointed it out to me: SO MANY OF THE STORIES OF THE BIBLE, AND EVENTS OF THE BIBLE ARE ASSOCIATED IN SOME WAY WITH FOOD, with EATING. Had you realized it? It’s almost a thread, in a sense, that runs through Scripture, from beginning to end. Over and over in the Biblical account, the role of FOOD stands out.

In the Garden, way back at the start of things, the fall of humanity is associated with the eating of an unspecified, forbidden piece of fruit.... That’s how the trouble began.

The Hebrews came down into Egypt because of a drought, the ABSENCE of food....When they escaped later, under Moses and were wandering in the Wilderness, they were sustained, remember, by the giving of MANNA, a special, provided substance which they believed God bestowed miraculously for their survival.

The Psalmist, in the best known poem of the Bible, speaks of God’s care and providence by saying, “Thou preparest a table before me... my cup runneth over.” And Jesus in the New Testament, for heaven’s sake... (How about that, for heaven’s sake!).... Jesus makes so many references to food, it’s no wonder they called Him a wine bibber and a glutton--- “I am the bread of life,” He said. “I am the living water.” “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, would you give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, would you give him a snake?” HE WAS ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT FOOD.

The only parable common to all 4 gospels is about food...the parable of the loaves and fishes, where 5,000 hungry people are fed, with food left over from the lunch of one little boy.... AND OF COURSE the great institution of the Sacrament, that unforgettable act which has become a central part of the worship experience of the Church, is derived from the act of eating...bread, wine, my body, my blood...Who could ever forget it? THE ROLE OF FOOD IN THE BIBLE IS RATHER REMARKABLY PROMINENT.

So, when Jesus wants to make vivid to people some of the deepest truths about life in the Kingdom, maybe it’s natural that He should portray them within the framework of a banquet. Isn’t it fun to go to a sumptuous banquet? Doesn’t everybody like to? It’s not just Methodist preachers who like to get invited out to eat.

Our reading today, the reading for this Sunday, is the parable of the great feast, another of those, incomparable stories Jesus told--- Listen to how Matthew begins it: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king, who gave a marriage feast for his son....and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the...feast.”

Wouldn’t it be exciting to get one of those invitations? HERE IT COMES, WITH MY NAME ON THE ENVELOPE.... Dear Tom (when the King invites you, he always calls you by your first name!).... Dear Tom, the king of the realm requests the honor of your presence... (MY presence can you believe it? The king himself wants me to come...) on the occasion of the wedding of the prince.” RSVP before Saturday. BOY! Do you know what I think it means, this first part of the story? The parable sort of falls into 3 sections, by the way, which only confirms the validity of Jesus’ teaching technique.... It’s incredible sometimes how orthodox He can be.

There are 3 scenes here, and I’d like to spend a little time on each one with your gracious permission. That’s the outline or whatever outline there is. Clinging to that will hopefully give you at least a little coherence in the midst of the accompanying chaos.

It’s the first scene, I think, that may well be the key to the whole story. Isn’t He saying to us here something we probably haven’t made clear enough in our preaching----I’m pretty sure we haven’t. CHRISTIANITY DOESN’T BEGIN WITH NEGATIVE DISCIPLINE...IT BEGINS WITH POSITIVE INVITATION.

It doesn’t begin with a demand....it begins with a GIFT. It doesn’t begin with a duty, and responsibility, and orders...that’s secondary, that comes later, as we’ll see, but that’s not where it starts. LIFE IN THE KINGDOM BEGINS NOT WITH GIVING UP SOMETHING, BUT WITH RECEIVING SOMETHING.

It’s an invitation to a party, to a banquet, to a feast...it’s something wonderful and exciting. God is the Host, and God wants you to celebrate with Him. God wants you to be with Him and to know Him. God wants you to share in His largess and generosity.... It’s an unending buffet table. It’s not all there is to GOSPEL, but it’s where it begins, where it always begins.

How often we come at it the wrong way. I think sometimes it must be easier...and I’ve heard missionaries say this...it’s easier to preach to primitive, untutored people than to debonair, sophisticated people. Why? Because the wonder hasn’t worn off yet, the miracle hasn’t become dulled by endless repetition, the freshness of the Good News still has a tingle to it. We’ve been so programmed by 20 centuries of acquired defensiveness.

As Peter Marshall used to say, “We’ve been inoculated with just enough Christianity to keep us from catching the real thing.” And we still think, many of us, that we must qualify, somehow, that we must earn God’s favor, somehow before we can be on speaking terms with Him.

Remember the old story of the preacher who went to visit a reprobate, ornery old mountain man on his death bed? He said to him, “Brother Jones, the time for your departure is at hand. Do you renounce the world, the flesh and the devil?” The old man just groaned, and said, “Preacher, I’m too old and sick a man to be taking on any new animosities.”

You ask most people what is required for a person to become a Christian and you’ll probably get answers that focus on the negative things that have to be pared away--- GIVE UP THIS, give up that...stop running around, change your ways...and THEN, maybe, after a while, you’ll qualify. THAT ISN’T THE GOSPEL APPROACH AT ALL.

That’s not how Jesus portrayed it. Exactly the opposite. HE DIDN’T BEGIN WITH A DEMAND. HE BEGAN WITH AN INVITATION.

Come to the banquet, come to the feast, come to the party...My Son’s going to be there. I want you to meet him. I want you to know Him. When you do, THEN some things will happen. You’ll begin to see some things about yourself that need to be altered. You’ll begin to see some things within yourself that need to be pruned. In the light of His illumined banquet hall, you’ll become aware of the blackness from which you’ve come.

There are a lot of things that need to be taken care of, but before any of that, JUST COME....Let Him feed you. Let Him bless you. Let Him grasp you in His forgiving arms.... Just as you are.

Repentance and remorse come soon enough, God knows, but JOY, the true joy of the Lord, never comes too soon. That’s the Gospel, that’s the sequence. It isn’t repentance that leads to joy; it’s joy that leads to repentance. It isn’t remorse that brings acceptance; it’s the recognition of acceptance that stimulates remorse. It isn’t changing on your own that qualifies us to receive His love; it’s simply receiving His love that makes us want to change.

That’s why we call it “good news”. It doesn’t begin with us. The start of it doesn’t depend on us. It begins with the KING, with an undeserved invitation. It begins with a wonderful, crazy, off-the-wall, gracious turnaround of what we would expect to be the case. It’s like a banquet, Jesus said, which God gives for no other reason than that God wants  to. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent servants to call those were invited to the...feast.”

2. But NOW....ahhh! We move to scene 2. Look what happens next.

IN SPITE OF THIS UNBELIEVABLE OFFER, in spite of this deal too good to be true, SOME OF THE INVITEES TURN HIM DOWN.... turn Him down cold. They reject the invitation to the party. Imagine! You can understand saying NO to an excessive DEMAND. But this is not a demand. THIS IS AN INVITATION, an invitation to receive something infinitely precious. They turn it down brusquely, even rudely. Matthew says that some of those invited “made light” of the invitation, actually ridiculed it. AND SOME EVEN WENT SO FAR, he says, as to treat shamelessly and put to death the servants who had delivered the king’s note.

Why? How do you explain this? Orneriness? Plain, old-fashioned cussedness? Stupidity? Why did they refuse to come? Luke tells a variant of the story, and his version may make it clearer. He doesn’t say they made light of it; he says they began to make excuses. That may be closer to the truth.... I’ve bought a field, Lord...I can’t come. I have to take care of the cows. The National League playoff game is that night...No, it doesn’t quite say that... I’ve just gotten married---It does say that. ARE THOSE BAD THINGS? Are those evil undertakings? OF COURSE NOT. They are perfectly good, legitimate, even honorable undertakings. AND MAYBE THAT’S JUST THE POINT.

Most people who turn down God’s invitation do so not because of the lure of something

downright evil, but because they’ve come to place ultimate value in a lesser good. Sometimes good things can be a greater barrier to fellowship with God than blatantly evil things.

I’ve known people, haven’t you, who very nearly worshiped family, or career, or country,

or alma mater... or success, or comfort, or prestige, or any number of things, and because of their allegiance to that GOOD thing, never quite got to the place of worshiping God.

I think Jesus is saying here...brother, sister...GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT. Don’t let anything, even good things, keep you from enjoying the best things. Nothing can satisfy

and bring the true peace and fulfillment of simply being a guest at the banquet.

The tragedy of the rejectees is not that they were evil. We’re not talking Al Capone here.... They were not bad. They were not wicked.... THEY SIMPLY LOST AN UNREPEATABLE OPPORTUNITY.

And notice---Jesus wasn’t angry with them. He just felt sorry for them. They could have had a V-8, as the commercial puts it. They could have been at the party, but they swapped that for a half-baked reward that wasn’t worth a... hoot. DO YOU KNOW WHAT OUR JOB AS CHRISTIAN EVANGELISTS IS? I’m talking now to those who have been to the party. Our job as Christian evangelists is simply to show the world how much fun it is. That’s the best kind of evangelism you can have.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, was not a Christian, but he was right on target when he said once to a group of pastors, “If I’m going to believe in your Redeemer, you’re going to have to look more redeemed.”

You see, the most basic Christian word of all, in a sense, the foundational word, is the word JOY. You can’t begin to understand Christianity from the inside out, until you understand this. This is where it starts. It’s like...going to a banquet.

A joyless Christian is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. It doesn’t mean a Christian is always happy. Joy and happiness are not synonyms. They may be miles apart. It doesn’t mean walking around with a fake smile pasted on your face.... Joy is neither Pollyanna nor Tammy Faye.[1]

JOY, Christian JOY, means a deeply embedded sense of cosmic well-being. It means being at peace within because you are included. For the Christian has a ticket to the banquet. God has invited you, has counted you in... And nothing, finally, can snatch you away from that riotous fellowship except your own willful apostasy.

Don’t tell me others have more fun than Christians. I don’t believe that. Don’t tell me the brittle, forced levity of a cocktail party can compare with the positive hilarity of a good Annual Conference session.

I heard a young candidate for the ordained ministry a while back say that he was attracted to the ministry first by his preacher father, who, he said, “just looked like he was always having a good time.” Isn’t that great? I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a finer testimony.

The banquet is where it starts. The joy of the banquet is what it’s all about, and the tragedy of those who opt for a lesser kind of satisfaction is that they don’t know what

they’re missing.

Now here’s an incredible thing about God. There are lots of incredible things about God, in the sense of astounding, but this one has got to be up there close to the top.

God will never force the issue, not even for the recipient’s own good. Isn’t that astounding? Of course God could, but God won’t. You can stay and suck whatever pitiful nourishment you can get out of your own tawdry rewards for as long as you want to, and God won’t bother you.

But God won’t let your shortsightedness spoil the party. If you won’t come, God’ll invite

someone else. AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS. It’s happened all through Christian history. With a terribly upsetting, almost revolutionary kind of democracy, when the “good” people turn God down, God turns to the riffraff.

One of my professors at seminary used to say, “Thank goodness, Jesus never lost His taste for bad company.” Unless you’re an intolerable snob, that’s not bad news. It may, indeed, be one of the most endearing things about Him.

When the better people turn Him down, He turns to the nobodies, the outcasts, the misfits, the broken people, who at least recognize a legitimate invitation when they get one. And there in the castle, the king’s house, the party goes on.... See it as the light fades, a swinging session, with a nice gang of people, totally unselfconscious, and totally uninhibited. Admittedly, there is not much decorum, and not much order.... And there is a wide variety of individual differences...but because of a common hunger, and a common sense of gratitude for the king’s generosity, a whale of a good time is had by all.

3) WELL, almost all. Here is scene 3. A ringer has slipped in. An imposter has crashed the party. A guest without a proper wedding garment is discovered, licking his fingers over there by the crab dip. The alarm goes off the servants rush over, grab the imposter by the scruff of the neck, and before anybody can say “antidisestablishmentarianism”, they throw him out on his ear.

What’s going on here, anyway? What is this all about? What is the meaning of this dramatic interruption, just at the peak of the evening?

ARE WE RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED? Is there, after all, a hook in God’s love at that? Is there a “catch” in this grace business?

Do we come now to the bottom line, after all our talk about unmerited favor still with a demand to prove something? Is that what the wrong kind of wedding garment means?

Jesus never pulled punches.... He never glossed over the hard realities, and I think the meaning of the wedding garment is a sober reminder of ANOTHER truth about God’s love.

Human effort in the Christian life is not eliminated...it’s put in proper sequence. THERE IS SOMETHING WE MUST DO...but it’s after dessert, not in order to get it. It IS true that we can accept God’s call to the banquet without being worthy.

It IS true that we don’t have to be ashamed of the highways and byways, the mud puddles, the mean streets, the sordid past from which we’ve come. It IS true, gloriously true, that we can come to God JUST AS WE ARE. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT WE CAN STAY JUST AS WE ARE. And that, I think, is the meaning of the wedding garment.

We are improperly clothed at the banquet when we allow our sins to be forgiven, but still want to cling on to them. Remember Augustine’s prayer during the early days of his conversion, “Make me pure, O Lord, but not tonight.”

Improper wedding garment. We are improperly clothed at the banquet when we try to play fast and loose with God’s grace and try to claim His fellowship while continuing in the old way of selfishness. We are improperly clothed at the banquet when we allow God’s unmerited love to make us arrogant instead of human.

The wedding garment is not a prerequisite; it’s a consequence. It’s not necessary for entrance; it’s the result of entrance. It’s not what you put on to get in; it’s what you become BECAUSE you’ve gotten in.

It’s a willingness, out of gratitude, to submit to discipline, a willingness to let God dress you however God wants to dress you, a willingness, indeed, a readiness, to let yourself be changed...even if it’s painful, into what God wants you to be.

You see, you can’t have it both ways. That’s what Jesus is saying. At this banquet you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. You’re either for Him, all the way, with all your being, or you’re NOT, and only YOU, and HE, know which it is.

In the kingdom banquet it’s feast or famine, light or darkness, freedom or bondage, joy or incompleteness. The invitation is free, the experience is free, the food is free, the acceptance is free...THEN the garment is your response to His gift. AND YET, even here, I submit, even in this aspect of the story, the soberest part of all, there continues to run the thread of joy.

For the garment, after all, is a wedding garment. These are not prison suits we’re talking about, these are PARTY THREADS.

What we’re asked to give up, what we’re asked to renounce, what we’re asked to change from is NOTHING compared with the stylishness and chic of just being the king’s guest.

You can ask anyone who’s ever been there.

Repentance is not a woeful repudiation of things that mean a lot to us. It’s a joyful, ecstatic homecoming to a place where those things no longer matter to us. It’s my privilege to tell you about that place, and about the great King who has prepared it for you. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast for his son...and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the...feast.”

The banquet is prepared...the invitations are issued. LET’S PARTY!

 --

[1] Tammy Faye Baker, wife of television evangelist James Baker