The Invitation

The Invitation

Lent 3 (NL1) John B. Valentine
Matthew 22:1-14 March 12, 2023

“THE INVITATION”

Let me begin this morning with a confession ... I am NOT a big fan of what they call the ‘Wedding Industry’.

• Not “Bride Magazine” ...

• Not “TheKnot.Com” ...

• Not the destination wedding craze by which you get your best friends and family members to each drop four thousand dollars on a week-long vacation to make you feel more special ...

• Not ANY of it.

In fact ... the whole wedding industry thing leaves me feeling kind of baffled ...

Because ... in my experience ... the “wedding industry” tries to get you to buy into the idea that ... if you get the wedding right, you’ll get the marriage right ...

But ... as one who has officiated upwards of a hundred weddings in my life ... I’d be willing to testify in court that ... if couples would devote the sort of time and attention to their marriages that they do to their weddings ... the divorce rate would plummet!!

Anyhow ... you’d think ... as one who knows his way around wedding ceremonies ...

That this morning’s Gospel lesson should be right in my wheel house ...

But ... I have to confess ... there’s at least part of it that isn’t.

You see ... what we have before us is this story ... this parable that Jesus tells ... about what has to be maybe the most curious wedding of all time.

Wherein a king throws a wedding party for his son and mayhem ensues of the sort that would make that “Mayhem” character on those Allstate commercials look tame.

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Now ... in order to plumb something of what it is that Jesus is trying to tell us in this story that he tells ... we’re going to have to make sure that we start by getting the details right.

First things first ... there’s this wedding.

That part is simple. Weddings were ...and still are ... major events in the life of a family and the life of a community.

Everyone vitally important to the bride and the groom gets included ... for the most part ... relatives ... family friends and neighbors ... key business connections.

Because weddings are causes for celebration.

Second thing we need to be clear about is that this wedding isn’t “just” a wedding ... it’s a royal wedding. A BIG deal ... a “can’t miss” event.

• This was a wedding of the sort that would have been televised internationally ... a “Charles and Diana” or “Will and Kate” thing ... if you will.

• This was a wedding of the sort that would have left people standing by their mailbox hoping beyond hope that they might be among the invitees.

And then there’s the question of the guest list.

As in ... “Who gets an invite to this soiree?”

Obviously you can’t invite just anyone and everyone. The guest list has to be pared ... and massaged ... and pared again. That’s just the way guests lists and party planners work.

Such that the people who get invitations are the folks who really actually matter to the King.

Having an invite to this here wedding would have meant you’d made the list ... that you had what it took ... that you mattered to the king.

Invites to which NO ONE in their right mind would RSVP a “No”.

So far ... so good.

+ + + + +

But here’s where this story starts to get a bit weird.

The King sends out his messengers to remind folks that the event is about to start ... “but they would not come.”

What kind of an idiot would turn down an invitation like that .....

I mean ...

• GOING to that wedding would have been good for one’s business ... good for one’s family ... and good for one’s social standing ... while ....

• NOT GOING would have put you on some governmental watch list.

But ... nonetheless ... they choose NOT to go.

So the King sends out messengers to urge the invitees to get with the program ... this time stressing the quality of the festivities and the urgency of the request.

And ... in response ... they come up with every cockamamie excuse they can to get out of going to it ...

• I’ve got to sort my sock drawer ...
• I need to run a software update on my computer ...
• I promised my wife we’d weed the garden this weekend.

And some of them seemed to get so bent out of shape by the insistence of the invitation that they decided to shoot the mail carriers.

Needless to say ... the King gets ticked.

And the payback for their misbehavior is their own destruction.

+ + + + +

Now let’s call a quick “time out” here and see if we can make any sense of what Jesus is trying to tell us with this story.

This is obviously NOT an object lesson about having good manners ... or being good neighbors ... or how to be a good host.

Obviously ... the King in the story is intended to be the God figure ...

And ... by extension ... the King’s son is the Messiah.

But if you’re someone whose spent some time studying the Hebrew Scriptures ... the Old Testament ... it’s also pretty easy to draw a connection between “the King’s messengers” and the biblical prophets.

And those who turn down the invitation to the wedding banquet are those who ... time and again ... have disregarded ... and in some cases even put to death ... those whom God had sent.

And so ... thus far ... this story can be understood as a review of the history of God’s people ... and how again and again God invited them to the party ... and how again and again ... they turned down the offer.

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But the story doesn’t end there.

No ... the King has prepped this elaborate feast ... and he doesn’t want it go to waste ... after all ... the King is proud of his party-planning-prowess!!

So he sends out his servants ... whatever servants he has left ... that is ... to invite anyone and everyone they can find to come to the feast ...

“Both the good and the bad” ...

• The loved and the unloved ...
• The successful and the unsuccessful ...

• Men and women ...
• Kids and adults ...
• Rich and poor ...

• The musically-gifted and the musicallly-illiterate ...
• Those who self-identify as gay and those who self-identify as straight ... and those who self-identify as LGBTQ or something else ...

• Citizens and aliens ...
• The educated and the uneducated ...
• Insiders and outsiders ...
• Those of Asian descent ... those of African descent ... even those of Swedish descent for that matter ...

• Introverts and extroverts ...
• City-slickers and country-bumpkins ...
• Liberals and conservatives ...
• Home-owners and homeless ...

EVERYONE!

To the end that “the wedding hall was FILLED with guests.”

+ + + + +

What a great story ... huh??? It’s the big reversal!! Payback!

The rich and powerful don’t know what they’re missing.

And the benevolent King shares the love and lamb and the lobster with people who would ordinarily never see such glory or such generosity.

Raise your toast in crystal goblets ... cue the dance music ... roll the credits. Let’s party. Thanks be to God!!

+ + + + +

Problem is ... that’s not where the story ends either.

For “When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

What’s going on with that?

Everyone gets invited ... but one of the attendees gets the heave-ho??

What did he do different than everybody else that got him evicted from this feast to end all feasts??

Actually ... if you find this part of the story a bit confusing ... you’re in good company.

No biblical scholar ... no preacher ... that I have ever come across has come up with a definitive explanation of that “no wedding robe” thing.

• Why didn’t the man wear a tuxedo?
• Didn’t he have one?
• Couldn’t he afford one?
• Was it his fault ... or was the King just being arbitrary or vindictive ... or worse?

I don’t quite know ... and ... quite honestly ... I’m embarrassed by some of what is said in this regard by people who insist that they DO know.

But the ambiguity of that story ... and it’s particularly quirky ending ... leads me to conclude three things:

ONE ... this text of Scripture is a reminder that the Word of God is a word that doesn’t always confirm my own biases and assumptions. Sometimes it leaves me confused. And THAT is a reminder that God is God and I am not. And that’s not a bad thing .....

TWO ... this text of Scripture seems to indicate that ... though the King is generous and hospitable and inviting and all ... gracious beyond our wildest imagination ...

But how we respond to our invitation from God is also a part of the equation. “Just showing up” just isn’t gonna cut it at the wedding feast of the Son of God.

In other words ... God wants everybody at the party ... but not everybody really wants to come or knows how to behave when they get there.

For while the invitation God offers may be shockingly universal ... there ARE some expectations laid on those who wish to show up ...

After all ... as I reminded our Confirmation kids last week ... there’s a difference between being spectators and fans and followers.

And THREE ... sometimes we don’t ... we can’t ... see the forest for the trees. We get so hung up on the bad news and the challenges in this story that we forget to see the good news that plastered all over it.

That the Kingdom of God is a party ... a party beyond all parties ... a feast beyond all feasts. That life with God ... and in God ... is just “heavenly”. And we’ve got NO excuse not to attend!!

To which I can ONLY say ... “Think on these things!”

“The Invitation” was a sermon preached by Pastor John Valentine on the 3rd Sunday in Lent — March 12, 2023.  The text upon which it was/is based is Matthew 22:1-14.  To access a copy of this week’s worship bulletin, click here: Worship Order 20230312