Looking for the Good News – sermon on October 15, 2017
Isaiah 25: 1-9 O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them. You turn mighty cities into heaps of ruins. Cities with strong walls are turned to rubble. Beautiful palaces in distant lands disappear and will never be rebuilt. Therefore, strong nations will declare your glory; ruthless nations will fear you. But you are a tower of refuge to the poor, O God, a tower of refuge to the needy in distress. You are a refuge from the storm and a shelter from the heat. For the oppressive acts of ruthless people are like a storm beating against a wall, or like the relentless heat of the desert. But you silence the roar of foreign nations. As the shade of a cloud cools relentless heat, so the boastful songs of ruthless people are stilled. In Jerusalem, God, who rules over all will spread a wonderful feast for all the people of the world. It will be a delicious banquet with clear, well-aged wine and choice meat. There God will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. God will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign God will wipe away all tears. God will remove forever all insults and mockery against the chosen land and people. God has spoken! In that day the people will proclaim, “This is our God! We trusted in God, and were saved! This is God, in whom we trusted. Let us rejoice in the salvation God brings!”
Matthew 22: 1-14 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven has been likened to a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So, go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So, the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and 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 wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Sermon: Looking for the Good News by Rev. Doreen Oughton
There’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get right to it. Jesus is still speaking in parables to the chief priests and Pharisees who have challenged his authority to do what he is doing in the Temple – preaching and teaching and healing – after chasing out the money lenders and turning over some tables. In last week’s reading, we heard how they were a little slow to catch on that Jesus was equating them with the evil tenants who abused and killed the landowner’s servants, and then his son. They revealed their vengeful hearts in their response that the wretches would be put to a wretched death, though Jesus talked about resurrection – the stone rejected by the builders is now the cornerstone.
He continues his challenge with them in this story likening the kingdom of heaven to a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent servants out with sort of a “save the date” notice, only without a set date. The practice was to let people know that there will soon be a wedding, and as soon as everything is ready, we’ll let you know. Getting an invitation for the next week or so, with maybe a day’s notice that all is ready and you should come. The party would last a few days, and you didn’t have to show up at a precise time, but it meant keeping things open, understanding that some things may get pushed back or have to wait until after the wedding. As Jesus tells it, even at this advance notice, people were saying they wouldn’t be there.
When everything was ready, servants were sent out to let people know it was time and they should come to the banquet. A few ignored the servants, going on about their business, and others, well, they mistreated some servants and killed others. The king was understandably outraged. In retaliation, he sent an army and destroyed the murderers and burned their city.
Let’s step aside from this story and consider the passage from Isaiah. The prophet is praising God’s name, exclaiming about the wonderful things God planned long ago and has now carried out. What is he praising? The destruction of cities – mighty cities into heaps of ruins, strong walls now heaps of rubble, beautiful palaces gone for good – never to be rebuilt. Was anyone else taken aback to hear that? Cuz I was.
In the parable Jesus told just before this one, he took imagery of a vineyard from the book of Isaiah. Is he doing the same thing here? Is the king’s burning of the city meant to recall Isaiah’s joy about the ruined city? If so, what are we to make of that?
Isaiah goes on to talk about how God, the destroyer of cities, is a tower of refuge to the poor and needy. He likens the oppressive acts of ruthless people to a relentless storm, or the relentless heat of the desert. The destruction was against these ruthless oppressors – it was their cities destroyed, and the destruction brought relief to the poor and needy. When the invited guests showed such disrespect for what had been offered to them, the king sent his servants out to invite any and all to the banquet, the good and the bad. Is there a connection with Isaiah here? Is the good news that the banquet is now available to anyone, good or bad? Had those originally invited lorded their status over others, and now their city is destroyed and the lowly are now feasting at the prince’s wedding? Could be, for Isaiah goes on to talk about the wonderful feast God will spread in Jerusalem for all people – good wine, choice meat. Not only will there be a delicious feast, but God will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death, forever, for everyone. Good news, good news indeed.
But that’s not where Jesus’ parable ends – with the common people replacing the elites at the wonderful banquet. No. The king comes to see the guests, spots someone (only one person!) without the proper attire, confronts him, then has him bound hand and food and tossed out into the darkness, with weeping and gnashing of teeth! What are we to make of that? And that last line, “for many are invited, but few are chosen” – what does that mean?! I have some problems with this parable. And I’m not alone. Pretty much all of my go-to commentators have problems with this parable, with its over-the-top violence. I mean really! People are so resistant to going to a wedding that they kill the person bringing the summons? I know Jesus can be given to hyperbole, but this just sounds crazy. And I really can’t stand this king. Sure, he has a right to be angry, but sending an army? Burning the city? Strong-arming people going about their business to attend his son’s wedding? It doesn’t sound like he suddenly had his eyes open to the worthiness of all people, he just wanted the hall filled, he didn’t care by who. And he sounds petulant about those who would not come who are now all of a sudden not deserving of the invitation. And after dragging people in off the streets, he is now outraged by someone who doesn’t have a wedding coat. Instead of just asking him to leave, or go get one, he has him bound and thrown out with weeping and gnashing of teeth. The king sounds absolutely unhinged.
And don’t “invited” and “chosen” mean pretty much the same thing? If Jesus is saying those with the right clothing are the chosen ones, well how did they get the right clothing? Was it given to them because they were chosen? If that’s the case, I wouldn’t want to accept an invitation either where, through no fault of my own, I can be tied up and thrown into darkness for not being given the right clothes. No wonder the early invitees refused to go! It could have been a set up. Like when Harry Potter was chosen for the Triwizard Tournament – an honor that could easily lead to death!
What about if we leave that part out? Some scholars theorize that the last part was meant to be a separate parable about preparedness, so let’s go with that for the moment. I still have problems with the violence of the king. Do I really want to equate God with this man who is more concerned with saving face or getting revenge than with the lives of his subjects? I still have problems with how teachings like this fueled anti-Semitism and Christian triumphalism. Those foolish Jews who can’t see the truth and not only lose their place on the A list, but are now seen as enemies of the faith.
Now some may have no problem with the story. God is the king and has every right to expect people to honor him and his son, to make it a priority to respond to divine invitation. The king has the right to respond to violence with violence, and to discard those who accept the invitation but don’t follow through with appropriate action or attire. Some may find it motivating, a prompt to get right with God, to listen for the invitation and respond appropriately. Some may find it inspiring to believe that God will destroy their enemies, and has planned to do so all along. These messages have been part of Christian evangelizing for quite some time. And we can find some scriptural support for these ideas.
But for others, like me, the problems are huge. I believe that God is goodness and love and mercy. So it is inconsistent, to me, to think of God as violent, as planning and executing destruction, destruction of life and beauty that God created in love. I think of God perhaps being sad or disappointed when the invitations are not accepted, but not angry and vengeful.
I love the progression of the Isaiah reading. It starts with people fantasizing vengeance, then turns to their need for relief, then rejoicing as all people are reconciled, as the cloud of gloom and the shadow of death are removed forever because God has spoken. It is not people or cities who are destroyed, but mockery and insult. Instead, everyone is rejoicing. And think that in a way this is the progression of the bible, and the maturation of faith. God’s people move from our vision of God as a magic genie who will smite our enemies, or a jealous and angry despot who instills fear to keep us in line, to a force of love who invites us to love, a spirit of mercy who invites us to be merciful. A parent crazy in love with her children, one who may set limits but always with our best interests at heart. And I’m not saying the OT is the former and the NT is the latter – which would just be more anti-Semitism and Christian triumphalism. The love and mercy are of course woven all through the scriptures. I think there is a recurring cycle of forgetting and projecting, then growing awareness of the truth, then forgetting and projecting again. We are tasked with discernment – does a particular passage convey something about a people who have forgotten, or about God who is acting?
I believe this parable is the former – a passage conveying something about a people who have forgotten. I believe Jesus is calling out the chief priests and Pharisees for projecting their own violent impulses onto God. It is like he is saying to them, “People describe the kingdom of heaven as if God were like Herod.” And then goes on to describe a kingdom where God’s actions are like Herod’s, those of a petty tyrant who’s invitations to a wedding are political and not social, where people’s resistance to attending can be understood as rebellion against a tyrant, and a rebellion that is dangerous. Remember that in the parable he used just before this, which inspired the CP’s and Ph’s to predict a smiting, Jesus moved to resurrection instead. Why would he so quickly undo that? I don’t think he did. I think mirroring back to these people their beliefs about God, which are so far from the mark. He does not go on to offer the correction here, but he does in so many other places, and he shows it with his life and death and resurrection.
I offer this interpretation humbly, because I can understand that it is dangerous to try to twist the words of scripture to fit what feels comfortable to me. If we are not at times convicted by scripture, we are not reading it correctly, and have made it our servant instead of our guide to truth. But I have thought a lot about it, about what message aligns best with the over-arching message of the gospels, the good news, and reject the idea of a raging God displaying some of our worst human impulses and desires. Paul’s letter to Philippians urges us to gentleness, the gentleness of a Savior who submits to death rather than raise a hand in violence even against those who would kill him. It urges us to reach for a peace that surpasses all understanding – to let that peace guard our hearts and minds. He calls us to think about those things that are true and honorable, pure and pleasing, just and commendable. I suggest that we might draw on these attributes when we are discerning the meaning of scripture, or when we seek meaning in any source or event. It might not make our lives easier or more comfortable, but I do believe we the Good News will show itself as we draw ever nearer to Christ Jesus.
