A Hard Parable

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 11, 2008; 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 22:1-14) – Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

"But 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."
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I've been at St. Paul's for over eleven years. I've never preached on the week when this gospel reading was assigned by the lectionary. Some of that is the luck of the draw, but I believe at least once I looked ahead and saw it coming and managed to pass it off to one of my colleagues. If I had exercised a little foresight this year, I probably would have done just that. But I wasn't paying attention. So this week, when I realized it was this parable and it was my turn to preach, I thought, "Oh, no. Can't it were someone else's weekend. No."

This parable is a tough one. The commentators all have trouble with it. So do the preachers. Sometimes people will try to allegorize the story with God as the king, but the violent behavior of this king bears little resemblance to the God Jesus points us toward, whom Jesus calls "Abba."

I do not know what this parable means. So you're not going to get something definitive, maybe not even something very helpful from me this morning. I'm flummoxed.

But I do know that one of the things Jesus used parables for, was to shake people out of their complacent attitudes and world views. Jesus' parables are often very subversive. They are like verbal hand grenades that Jesus tosses out to unnerve and destabilize us. It's like Jesus says, "You think you know something about reality? Think again. The Kingdom of God is like..." and then he tosses his grenade. When he's finished, everybody looks perplexed. He gives no easy answers. He just challenges us. "What are you going to do with that?" Fair warning. That's where we're going today. I don't know what this parable is saying, so here we go.

I'm guessing that when Jesus started this story, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son..." his listeners thought immediately of the Emperor. They were familiar with kings. And in Roman times, there was really only one: Caesar. Jesus speaks of a king, and his listeners think of Caesar.

There is to be a royal wedding. Caesar's retainers invite the elites to the wedding. In Israel, that would be those Jews who were collaborators with the Roman occupation – those who had become powerful and wealthy through their cooperation with the Empire. The High Priests and the Sadducees; wealthy landowners, multinational businessmen and governmental officials. "Everything is ready," says Caesar, "come to the wedding banquet."

But the unimaginable happens. The elites say "No." They diss the Emperor. Can you imagine the buzz among the peasants hearing this story? "Good. At last. Someone is standing up to the hated Romans, like Judas Maccabeus did nearly two-hundred years ago." This is the kind of story they've been waiting for. When Messiah comes, he will lead the rebellion to throw off the oppressors and defeat them forever.

But that's not the way the story goes. The king is enraged. His army comes and massacres the rebels and burns their city. The people remember that story. That's happened before. The fall of Jerusalem; 587 BCE. And it's not the last time either.

So the Emperor sends the Legions into the streets. They "invite" everyone, both good and bad. They've seen what happened. They go to the wedding hall. At sword-point or voluntarily out of fear. Nobody turns the invitation down this time.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe." Who do you think that man might be? I think there is a clue. Look at the description of that unclothed man. When he's asked to explain himself, the man is speechless, silent. So the king binds him hand and foot and throws him into the outer darkness." I think this is Jesus. "Like a lamb that before its shearers is mute, so he uttered not a word." He was bound hand and foot upon the cross and crucified into the utter darkness.

While everyone else is cowed in fear before the oppressor, coming to the wedding banquet, wearing the dress the tyrant expects, Jesus simply refuses to cooperate. He will not wear the clothing of injustice. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't accuse or attack. He doesn't meet power with power; he doesn't return violence for violence. He simply stands there in his integrity and refuses to acknowledge or cooperate with the misuse of power. He accepts the predictable consequences of his defiance. He is crucified.

Not many people have the courage to do that, do they? "Many are called, but few are chosen." Few so choose. There's Rosa Parks who just sat there, refusing to cooperate when she was told to give up her seat and get back to her place in the back of the bus. She was bound in handcuffs and thrown into the utter darkness of jail. There's Abraham Lincoln who resisted the demands to punish the rebellious South, saying, "With malice toward none and charity for all." There's Gandhi, who marched 240 miles to lead hundreds of Indians to pick up a handful of salt and walk non-violently into British clubs and batons, some to their deaths.

When brave people refuse to cooperate with power exercised as injustice, they expose tyranny to the light of day. They force the ugly violence, which so often remains hidden under the camouflage of threat, to do it's repugnant work openly, to be revealed as the evil it is. Ultimately, darkness cannot overcome its exposure to the light.

Sometimes it is something simple. An employee tells a boss, "I'm not going to do that." A spouse tells a beloved, "I won't cover for you anymore. I'm letting others know about this." The consequences are often powerful and costly. It is the price of freedom.

And maybe there is a connection here with the words we have from Paul. Paul has weighed in to a conflict and brought it to the light. "I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord." There has been a fight, a disagreement, maybe an injustice. Paul offers a context for standing up in the presence of unpleasantness.

As I read these words of Paul, imagine these words being in the mind of the mysterious wedding guest who refuses to wear the king's garment and will not cooperate with the violence and oppression that the king wields. Or let these words be in Rosa Parks' thoughts or in Gandhi's heart as they place themselves peacefully before injustice. Or hear these words in the soul of the employee or the spouse who is standing up to wrong.

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

One more thing. Did you notice who was missing from the parable? There's no bride and no groom.

After Jesus was bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness, God raised him from the dead. Jesus became the bridegroom for his bride, the church. And the real King, the Sovereign of the Universe, prepared a wedding banquet. To this wedding banquet all are invited, without coercion or violence, but with love and acceptance. It is the banquet of the Lamb. It is the light that comes into the world, and the darkness cannot overcome it. We are participants in this banquet, welcomed regardless of raiment. We are fed and empowered, made one with God and with one another, so that we can share in God's work of reconciliation which overcomes all injustice and oppression.

Welcome to the wedding banquet. Keep doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in Christ, and the God of peace will be with you.
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