A Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 80
Philippians 4:4-13
Matthew 22:1-14
I went to seminary in the Old South. A place where people wore academic gowns to class and garden parties were formal occasions. Students even wore coats and ties to football games.
While I was there preparing to be a priest, my husband Paul was part of "the seminary wive's group." Anticipating his new vocation as the rector's wife, he decided that when that invitation to the garden party came, he'd be prepared: He got himself a lovely straw party hat AND a pink dress.
Now, those of you who know Paul can probably imagine this picture. Paul is a construction worker, and he looks very much the part: muscular arms, hands that never look quite clean even when well scrubbed; and, although he does have long, wavy, dark-blond hair, he also has a full beard that is seldom neatly trimmed.
The quite proper but not humorless dean of the seminary liked the hat, so he did not have Paul bound hand and foot and thrown into outer darkness. (Though I do think there was some gnashing of teeth among a few folks at the party.)
Our Gospel today, however, sounds as if showing up at the party in the proper attire is really important. And somehow this story often leaves me as speechless as the guest who arrived without a wedding robe. When the king asks, "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?" I want to shout out the answer for that poor guest: "I'm here because you invited me! No one said anything about any special dress." And yet the guy just stands there speechless, unable or unwilling to respond to the king.
Now, as you probably know, Matthew is not telling us a literal story about the wedding of some historical king's son. He's writing symbolically about God and Israel and about Jesus and the celebration of the Coming Kingdom. The story goes this way:
It just seems really unfair to have a short-notice, sort of come-as-you-are party and then throw people out because they don't have the right clothes. Should they all have run home and got the equivalent of proper pink dresses and straw hats, whether they were debutantes or construction workers?
When God invites us to Jesus's party, what are we supposed to do? Wear a party hat? (Preacher puts one on.) There are some scholars who say that's how celebrations worked... The host provided the party clothes. (Preacher gives out hats to various people in the congregation.)
It does genuinely seem to be a come-as-you-are affair. The text says "Go out into the main streets and invite EVERYONE you find" and the slaves did just that, gathering "both good and bad." And Jesus seems to be a come-as-you-are kind of inviter as well: He says "Follow me" and people drop everything and come. There's no running home to get the pink dress or proper hat. But if you have the hat, by all means wear it.
The first groups invited were declared "not worthy," though they probably all had fancy clothes waiting in their closets. They were not worthy because they made light of the invitation or killed the messengers. They were not worthy because they didn't show up to celebrate with the King and the Son.
Worthiness seems to have to do not with good or bad but with being willing to party. So maybe the man without the wedding garment is thrown out not because of his clothing but because he is speechless, meaning that he is somehow unwilling to participate in the party.
He refuses to respond to the King's question, just as the first guests invited refused to respond to the King's invitation. He never enters into a relationship with the King, he never really joins the party. Perhaps if he'd responded in any way: whether by dressing up like the others, or even by stammering a lame excuse or apology, he would have connected with the King and made himself part of the celebration.
That, I think, is what God asks of those who are invited to the celebration. We are invited to come as we are, and to enter into a relationship with God. We can come even in our messy clothes or funny hats – in our robes of sin and hurt, our garments of prejudice and anger, our cheap disguises and our inappropriate pink dresses, with our soiled hands and broken hearts.
Everyone is invited. The good and the bad are all gathered in. All we need to do is show up when invited AND risk entering into a relationship with God. God wants us to be active participants in the celebration.
But it's difficult because this party of God's just isn't the way we're used to things happening. Somehow we think people ought to deserve an invitation. Or we may be tongue tied about our unworthiness and unwilling to participate. We may be astonished that God would really want us at the party. Or we may find it so difficult to believe that the party is free that we walk away. But God just doesn't play by our rules.
The party is wild and free an open to anyone, good or bad, old friend or new, anyone who is willing to show up and participate.
That's what is happening here today. Today God has invited little Jackson to a party. Jackson has showed up, and that he had to have a little help getting here only makes the party bigger and better. That he's hardly had time to be good or bad is really beside the point. The point is that God invites him, and God loves him, and God wants to be in relationship with him – that's what baptism is about. Doesn't matter whether Jackson wears his grandfather's dress or yesterday's play clothes. What matters is that he responds to God, or, in this case, that his parents, God-parents, and our parish community respond for him.
In baptism, Jackson is entering into a relationship with God.
Today Jackson is clothed with Christ --
that's the wedding robe we've all been given.
And today the Lord becomes Jackson's own shepherd,
so that, as our second reading reminds us,
God is near and there is no need to worry about anything.
And it's a for- better-or-for-worse thing, this relationship with God,
so that "in any and all circumstances" – well fed or hungry, in plenty or in need,
God is near to strengthen this new Christian, who is God's own child.
And it's true for all of us, even when our white baptismal robe becomes dirtied by our mistakes and hurts, God loves us and we are invited again and again to the party. We are invited today, with Jackson, to renew our baptismal covenant, and to renew our own relationship with God.
The invitation is for all of us: an invitation to celebrate, to rejoice always, an invitation to participate in God's kingdom.
And if sometime at the feast prepared for us today, God does come up to you, and noticing your odd appearance, asks you "Friend, how did you get in here?" Be sure to respond: say something -- anything will do to keep the relationship alive. Just speak up. And, for God's sake, join the party.