THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST
Year A, Lectionary 28
October 12, 2014
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-19
Matthew 22:1-14
Pastor David Tryggestad
Concordia Evangelical
Lutheran Church
Duluth, Minnesota
I have had the privilege to officiate at three weddings in
the past eight days, and what fun it has been! While all of my efforts in
weddings are focused on the marriage service itself, I never cease to be
astonished at all the preparation that goes into making the wedding reception a
spectacular event. The décor, the table linens, centerpieces, placer settings, individual
favors, delicious meals. Everyone has on their finest, giving honor and
gratitude to the newly married couple and their families.
This past Wednesday at our weekly Sandwich & Scripture
Bible study, someone remembered having seen an article in the paper about a
wedding that had been cancelled, and the family of the bride opened up the
reception, with all its festivity and finery, to the homeless in Atlanta. The article in
the newspaper was entitled, “Atlanta couple hosts ritzy meal for homeless
after daughter cancels wedding.”[1]
After Carol and
Willie Fowler's daughter called off her nuptials, the Fowlers decided to give
the upscale, four-course meal to 200 of Atlanta's
poor. A kind-hearted Atlanta
couple made the best out of a bad situation by donating their daughter's
canceled wedding reception to the homeless. Carol and Willie Fowler decided
that the first-rate meal they had reserved . . . at upmarket Villa Christina
restaurant shouldn't go to waste — so they invited 200 of the Atlanta's
destitute to join them. Bosses at Hosea Feed the Hungry charity initially
thought the offer to feed their attendees a lavish four-course meal was a
practical joke. But the Fowlers . . . insisted they were sincere — and the
event went ahead, albeit with a new list of invitees. "It was my husband's
idea," Mrs. Fowler [said]. "We prayed about it. And when he woke up
the next morning, he said, 'We're going to call Hosea Feed the Hungry and ask
if we can donate it to the needy,'" she added. Many of the guests were not
accustomed to the gold plates and crystal stemware at Villa Christina, nor the
formal presentation of the food. “The passed hors d’oeuvre were very
interesting because the children were wondering, ‘could we take the whole tray,
or do we just take one off of the tray?’” . . .
I can’t imagine the wonder on
the faces of those 200 guests, especially the children, most of whom had never
seen a linen napkin, let alone a gold plate.
Now imagine one of the guests
being ungrateful, being rude, or complaining about the menu, or maybe having to
sit next to someone her or she didn’t like.
Our Gospel for today is another
difficult text. We’re not so sure we want to hear about the king sending soldiers
to kill the reluctant guests and burn their city. We’re perplexed by the king
having one of the guests thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.
In a recent conversation in the
sauna at the YMCA, a man who belongs to another ELCA congregation in Duluth asked me how we
pastors decide what scripture texts to preach on. I explained that we, along
with many other major denominations, share a lectionary, a set of readings on
the three-year rotation. I told him that we sometimes are faced with difficult
texts, as a result, texts that we might not otherwise choose, had we the
choice.
This is one of those difficult
texts.
One of the highest honors one
could bestow on another in the ancient world was to offer hospitality,
especially lavish hospitatality. It was lavish, not to impress the guests and
glorify the host (though, no doubt, that was sometimes a motive), but it was
lavish in order to bestow honor and dignity to the guest. It was especially
gracious to offer hospitality to those who could not repay, who could not
reciprocate.
The occasion of the wedding of
the king’s son was no doubt something talked about for a very long time, and
the guest list would have been carefully deliberated. The wedding parties of the
three weddings these past eight days no doubt took great pains to come up with
their guest lists.
Imagine no one showing up. No
one! Not one! Hardly anything could be more insulting.
Our parable is filled with
hyperbole, with exaggeration. The reluctant guests kill the king’s messengers.
So the king kills the guests and burns their city. A bit over the top, perhaps.
Scholars tell us that Matthew wrote his gospel after the Romans destroyed and
burned Jerusalem.
Our parable is perhaps a reference to that cataclysmic event.
Meanwhile, the dinner is getting
cold!
I offered the blessing at the
reception this past Friday night at the Holiday Inn, and the very moment I
said, “Amen,” an army of wait staff came rushing through the door from the
kitchen into the dining room to serve the first course. Imagine telling the
kitchen staff to put the dinner on hold until the king had finished sacking the
city of the recalcitrants and then sending servants into the highways and
biways to gather everyone they could find.
My stepmother always chafes when
my dad prays over dinner, because he tends to pray for everyone in the family,
especially those no present, while the dinner is getting cold.
Imagine the cooks in the king’s
kitchen holding dinner.
Finally the wedding hall is
filled with guests, both bad and good.
It is important to note that the
king has declared the first guest list as “not worthy.” They were “not worthy”
because they refused the hospitality offered by the king. Now the wedding hall
is filled with both bad and good. We can see here that worthiness does not have
to do with moral rectitude, with being bad or good. Evidently even the bad are
welcome to the wedding banquet. The original guests were not worthy, not
because they were bad, but because they were ungrateful.
Now we are once again astonished
at the king. He comes into the wedding hall to see his guests and sees that one
of them is not wearing a wedding robe, a customary cloak, or something at least
clean. I imagine one of the wedding guests at these recent weddings coming to
the dinner in pajamas, or just rolling out of bed, not bothering to shower or
shave.
The story is outrageous on many
accounts. It’s not about our attire; it’s not about having the latest fashions.
It’s about coming to God’s marvelous table, to God’s overflowing abundance,
with a sense of wonder and gratitude. It’s having a willing and joyful spirit.
It’s joining the Apostle Paul in singing, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I
say Rejoice!”
As our Gospel writer Matthew tells
this story, it’s much harsher than a similar story as told by Luke. Matthew is
seeing the early church take God’s grace with complacency, without gratitude.
He is troubled that members of the Body of Christ take discipleship so blithely,
so lightly. He grieves that there are those who come to the church to receive
its benefits without investing in the health of the ministry of the
congregation.
Our Sunday School children are
making Praise Sticks today—those we have been using previously were borrowed from
CHUM Church. Coming to worship with your
Praise Stick is like wearing your wedding robe. Why would anyone come to
worship without their Praise Stick?!
Come to the wedding banquet. And
bring your Praise Stick. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say,
Rejoice!”
Thanks be to God!
[1]http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/homeless-enjoy-woman-canceled-wedding-article-1.1464704
(accessed October 11, 2014).
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