Was bound to happen

Sadly I did not have my recording device with me this morning so I was unable to capture the audio of my sermon. Sorry folks, you'll just have to read the following with my voice in your head.

As always your comments are welcome and encouraged.

Sermon for the 19^th Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 28a

15 October 2017

Parish of St. Peter’s, Birch Cove, Halifax, NS

May only truth be offered here this day, and may only truth be received; in the name of God: Father (+), Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving. For me, I celebrate this by sharing in a festive meal. I was very joyful this year to have eight people around our table. I usually try to find family or friends to gather around the table. In my home this means that there is a turkey to be cooked and veggies to prepare. Oh and hopefully a pie to bake.

This year was no different. I cooked the turkey, baked the pie, got the veggies ready and then we shared in a truly sumptuous meal. Then, the very next day, I got to do it all over again as we had been invited to our friend’s home for their feast. It is a rare and glorious year when I get to enjoy TWO thanksgiving dinners!

Then after the turkey coma past I opened up the readings for today and what do you suppose I found? FEASTS! Today’s readings from scripture are full of amazing imagery of feasting!

In Isaiah we see the great feast of the heavenly banquet where God wipes away all our tears and swallows up death forever. In the psalm we see a table being spread in the face of so much opposition. In the Gospel we see the great wedding banquet that is prepared. If I hadn’t been so full of turkey all week these readings would have my mouth watering.

All of these readings have one very important thing in common. In all of these readings, at all of these amazing feasts God is the host. God is preparing the great meal, God is the chief cook, God is acting first.

The reading from Isaiah is one of my favourite – this very reading will be offered at my funeral – in it we see God’s grace flowing all over the place. At a feast of rich food, of well aged wines, God will destroy death. The ultimate gift of God is the eternity of our souls and God gives us this great gift through the joy of inviting us to that great table of fellowship where all people are gathered.

But as wonderful as this reading is and as eager as I am to dig into it with you it is the Gospel reading that I want to discuss with you today. I want to talk with you about it because it is often a very difficult piece to read let alone understand.

It is all too easy for us to read this and see it as an example of God’s judgment upon others in this world. The line “for many are called but few are chosen” can lead us down the path of self-righteousness.

But I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. So let’s put some structure, some rules, to work, let’s look at Cliff’s Three Rules of Biblical Interpretation once again.

Rule One: Scripture is always astonishing and if it is not astonishing then you’re not reading it right.

We are often not astonished anymore because we do not know what the first people who heard and read these stories know. What we don’t know anymore is the procedures around inviting someone to a wedding banquet. With out this knowledge then this parable won’t make much sense.

So, here it is. In the first century when someone invited you to their wedding they sent you an invitation. They would send a servant, or a slave to you with an invitation. But unlike what we do now, which is to offer a nicely crafted paper invitation they sent a very different form. The servant, or slave, arrived with a set of clothes for you. They arrived with a wedding garment. It was this garment that was your invitation and you were expected to wear this garment when you came to the wedding. It was the height of insult to show up to the wedding wearing something else.

The astonishing part of a this parable comes when the original guests have rebuffed the invitation... not just of some random person but of the king himself. There would have been gasps from those who heard it first, for if the king invites you you had best be there. Then the king fills the banquet with whom ever he can find, both the good and the bad.

The marginalized, the downtrodden, the poor, the sick, the lowly, the common person, all have been invited in place of those who may “deserve” it. They are given the garment of invitation. AND they come. But one person decides to come but not wear the wedding garment.

Now many people assume this is one of the so called “bad” people who have been invited. After all the “bad” people are who rebuff authority and don’t “fit in” with the rest of society. I have a hunch though that Jesus wants us to go deeper.

What if, just imagine, this person who chooses not to wear the wedding garment is one of the “good” people who has been invited. And that person thinks they are different than the “bad” people there. What if this person thinks he is better than the rest of them and does not want to be seen wearing the same thing because that would make them all equal in the eyes of the king.

That’s what’s going on here my friends. God is sending us all the garment of invitation. And sometimes that makes us feel really uncomfortable when we think this just might mean that we are all equal. All people – ALL people – are made in the image and likeness of God. God loves us all beyond human love. God invites all people, the good and the bad, to that great table of fellowship of eternity that Isaiah speaks of. God spreads that table in the face of adversity for all people.

Now here’s the twist. WE get to choose what WE do with that invitation. We can say we are too busy to accept it. We can turn our faces away from the unfairness of God’s all encompassing invitation. We can accept the invitation and in doing so we have to accept that we’re going to find others who have accepted that invitation who we may think shouldn’t be at that table but that’s not our call to make. God is choosing to invite EVERYone.

We can accept the invitation and sulk in the corner or we can accept the invitation and rejoice in the diversity and outrageous hospitality of our God and then emulate that.

For us who call ourselves Christians we have promised to accept that invitation and then spread that invitation to all we meet and we have promised to do that without judgment, without prejudice, in joy.

God is standing before us all today with the wedding garment of invitation extended. Do we dare take it?