Sermons

The Last Sunday of Trinity Season
Sunday 29 October at 8am

Ikuko Williams
Readings: Ephesians 5.15; Matthew 22.1

In the parable we heard today that Jesus told, the king, whom we can read as God, invites guests to his son's wedding banquet. But the invited guests, or the people of Israel, refuse to come. They make light of the invite.

The behaviour of the unresponsive guests gets worse from just ignoring the servants' call - to the killing of the servants. The king becomes enraged, and sends in his armies to kill them all.

The reasons for their not responding to the invitations were not necessarily all 'evil' ones, e.g. working on the farm or attending their businesses. In their eyes, their 'work' seemed more important than going to the wedding. Unfortunately, they had a mistaken basis for their judgement.

How did this happen? These were the 'chosen' people after all. They should have known the meaning of their privilege. Why did they fail to see the importance? Why did they think it was alright to ignore it?

Their world was revolving around the preoccupation with their own concerns. They had stopped listening to God. Their misguided priorities resulted in their perishing.

Now, banishing those unworthy invitees, the King tells his servants to invite all the people on the street, who were not originally invited. He wants to fill the table of celebration - with whomever that would respond to his call.

We hear that the people of both 'bad and good' were gathered; qualifications of the people for coming did not seem to matter. We can interpret this as that all the Gentiles are being invited to enter God's kingdom.

Whoever we are, we can just come to him. He invites us all whatever backgrounds.
Yet, reading on in this parable, we are surprised to learn that we are required to respond in a certain way that would show our respect to his generosity. A guest without the proper garment is bound up and thrown out into the darkness.

Speaking of the appropriate clothing, I have had an occasion to think about it myself recently. Two weeks ago on the Sunday night, I received the news that my grandmother with whom I grew up in Japan had just died. I was on a flight by Tuesday to get back just in time for the wake at home on the funeral eve with all the relatives and neighbours, and the funeral service on the following day. I knew that I would arrive at the wake literally straight from the airport, so I had fairly smart clothes on. But when I did arrive there, I really felt like sticking out like a sore thumb - because I was the only adult not clothed in complete black. But myself aside, on observing everybody else, I was struck by how the whole atmosphere seemed to accentuate the communal sense of mourning for the deceased loved one by everyone clothed in a way that explicitly showed the mutually shared sentiment. It is not the clothing per se but the respectful attitude behind it was what I found touching.

So, the garment in the parable could be the appropriate clothing that would show the respect, but it could well be used here as a metaphor for righteousness. Our being 'righteous' before God would include 'repentance and faithfulness as well as doing the right things in God's sight'. Of course, we are invited before we do any good works; God's invitation comes purely by his grace as shown in Christ. Yet, in the process of meeting Christ, that very encounter changes us. We receive his Spirit who causes us to be truly 'repentant' and forgiven and then much to our surprise, we find ourselves 'righteous' -fit to be seated - amazingly - at a God's banquet. Receiving of the Spirit is what clothes us in the right 'garment'.

Just accepting God's invitation is not good enough. The true acceptance of his invitation demands genuine turning of our hearts to him, which will be the key to the dynamic, transforming work of the Spirit within us.

But once again, the first thing to remember is that God wants us to come. He wants us to have the joy of being in commune with him at his banquet. Isn't that wonderful news?

This parable warns us the complacency of forgetting the single important thing in our lives - to put God first at the centre of our lives - as the first top priority. Is our heart truly turning to God in our every day life? Mightn't we be too 'diligent' in our so called, pressing and important work, whilst putting God on the sideline, making him wait outside, until we finish just 'one more thing', followed by yet another 'one more thing'? We might be in danger of making the same mistake as the fist invited guests in the parable.

Moreover, we are called to respond to him in a way that would 'rightfully' honour God. The letter to the Ephesians, which we heard earlier, reminds us that 'the days are evil' with far too many temptations for foolish ways and it implores the readers to 'make most of the time'(not to waste time), 'walk wisely' by 'understanding the Lord's will', and be filled with the Spirit. Indeed, we can use this reminder as our own.

God calls us to come to him, and to truly turn to him. In so doing, we 'discern God's will'. By humbly opening ourselves to him, God's Spirit will surely lead us to walk in his way.

The terrain of our walk may be hard at times, making us anxious. But we can take heart in his open invitation; it is the Banquet, after all, that God is inviting us all to, whether we are good or bad. All we need to do is to have a child-like desire to say 'Thank you' and go! Let his Spirit guide your way; he will surely help us get there safely.

Amen.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay