Ready for Whatever....

Philippians 4:1-9

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.

Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement

and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

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 on doing the things that you have learned and received

and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Matthew 22:1-14

Once more Jesus spoke to them 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."

  

I have a bit of a confession to make here.

I have kind of an issue about clothing.

It’s probably something that started a long time ago with me.

You see, I grew up in a household with a mom for whom clothing and looking appropriate really mattered.

I mean, really.

She would “advise” my dad on what he should wear when they were going shopping, or to church, or out to see some friends. And by “advise”, I mean, she would pull the clothes he should wear out of the closet and lay them on the bed for him. She’d even make him change his hat if it didn’t match up properly with what he was wearing or where they were going.

She naturally dressed me when I was small, and there are, of course, lots of pictures of me all dolled up in a dress with petticoats, anklets, patent leather shoes and white gloves, ready to go to church. She couldn’t keep me in those clothes for long, though – I was what you would have called a tomboy back then, and spent as much of the week in what you would have called “playclothes” as I could possibly get away with. But of course I didn’t get to wear those to school. At least, not until high school.  Then I was asserting my independence, and would usually be found in a T shirt and a pair of bib overalls or painter pants. I liked to embroider little things on them, like daisies or peace signs, to make them more unique. My mom liked to grab them when I wasn’t around and take the iron to them, either pressing a crease down the front of them, or else pressing in that cool hammer loop that was always on them, so it wouldn’t stick out naturally like it was supposed to.

When I went away to college I relished in the freedom of not living at home, and of being able to wear whatever I wanted. Of course, paying for it myself at that point limited me somewhat.

But by my senior year, when I started to interview for engineering jobs, I was not only well educated in my chosen field, but I was also well versed in what was called back then, “Dress for Success”.

John Molloy was the guru of dressing for success back then, for both men and women, showing us what to do and not do to be seen as professionals, ready to move up the ladder of success to the executive ranks. And so I dutifully bought my dry-clean-only business suits with matching skirts and jackets, understated button down blouses, and just the right sort of floppy bow to wear.

Then the correct size heel on the black pumps, and the right hair style, makeup and briefcase, and I thought I was ready for the executive suite.

Of course, I learned over the years that I needed a lot more than the right clothes – I also needed the right tools, capabilities, and opportunities to move up the ranks, but the concern about dressing right for corporate life never really left me, even though at heart I have always preferred blue jeans to just about anything else.

And so this parable of the feast thrown by the king, and the one who was not properly clothed, really got me thinking over the past week. Is it true that the clothes really make the man or the woman? Did my mom really know what was best when she was picking out our clothes? What is Jesus trying to tell us in this part of the parable, as well as the rest of the story?

Let’s look back at this parable as a whole. 

The king is throwing a banquet, a wedding feast in honor of his son.

As was the tradition then, he sends out the invitations, and then, once he has slaughtered and roasted the meat for the feast, he sends servants around to call on those invited and tell them that the feast is ready, it’s time to come to the table and celebrate with him.

And once you have accepted the invitation, it’s really quite insulting and offensive to not come. It’s as if you were throwing a wedding reception today, and everyone shows up, and they’re in the social hall area eating snacks and having drinks while you and the caterers make the final preparations in the kitchen, and then when you invite them to sit down for dinner, they all suddenly pull out their smart phones,tell you they just got an important text from home or work, and they just have to leave. All of them.

Yeah, right.

And you are left with large quantities of a great meal, all ready to serve, not to mention the anticipation of a wonderful evening spent together in community, and the guests have opted out, and gone away.

In this case, some have made excuses, which are really all quite lame considering the circumstances, and others respond violently when the servants come to call them; they seize the servants, mistreat and kill them.

Well. The king is enraged by the murderers, and he sends troops out to destroy their cities.

This is probably a good time to point out that, in this parable, the king is, of course, God; and the son having the wedding banquet is Jesus, and the would-be guests who murder the servants are the Jewish religious establishment, the chief priests and elders, the same as the wicked tenants in the story of the vineyard we heard last week, in the parable just before this; the destruction of the city refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by Roman troops in the year 70 CE; and the servants who bring in “the good and the bad” are early followers of Christ who work to bring everyone into the church.

In Luke’s retelling of this parable, the anger of the king is not translated into destruction, but turns directly toward grace, as he tells the servant to go find new people to invite. In Matthew’s version of the parable, that grace comes next, after the destruction. In either case, this is the point where the story becomes quite similar to the stories of the landowner and the tenants, or the vineyard owner and the hired help.

Grace is displayed as more and more people are invited, and even compelled to come to the table, to fill all the seats. And for the most part, they respond to this invitation, understanding their obligation to come ready to celebrate, to party along with the king.

But there’s this one guy, and he catches the king’s attention - because he’s not dressed for the party, according to Jesus. And when the king asks him why, he is speechless. So, we are told that he is thrown out into the outer darkness, complete with weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And that reconnects us back to my opening remarks, because there was always much weeping and gnashing of teeth when my dad or I did not dress in a manner suitable to my mom.

But I digress.

But seriously, what is up with the need for proper clothing here? What is Jesus trying to tell us? What does this mean for us today?

Well, there are a number of theories about this. Some say that hosts at a wedding would typically hand out wedding robes or gowns for the guests at the door, and if this person wasn’t wearing it, it was a rejection much like those who bailed out on the invitation earlier in the story.

Some say that while the invitation to God’s table, to God’s kingdom, is free and un-earnable, that we are obliged to respond, and that obedience is expected from those who accept the invitation.

I see this as an issue of readiness.

When we heard about the workers being hired for the vineyard – some first thing in the morning, some later in the afternoon, and some at the very end of the day – we made an assumption, didn’t we, that all those who were hired were ready to do the work? It goes without saying that people came with the right tools and abilities – they were ready, willing, and able.

So the question here that is raised by the man who comes not properly dressed, and not ready to say why, is this; Are we ready? When we are invited to the feast, will we come ready to party, to celebrate, to rejoice? When we are called to work in the vineyard, will we show up with our tools, eager to take part in God’s kingdom?

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul calls us to go past being called, to being chosen – to live in a new way, to be clothed in the way we have been transformed, to be clothed in Christ. To clothes ourselves in compassion, and kindness, and love.

In today’s reading from the end of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul gives us a similar charge, and although it’s not directly connected with how we are dressed, it has everything to do with how we display Christ to others through our everyday lives. He says:

• ·      Rejoice together, in community.
• ·      Let your gentleness be known by everyone.
• ·      Don’t worry about ANYTHING.
• ·      Bring EVERYTHING in prayer to God. With thanksgiving.
• ·      Think about WHATEVER is true.
• o   WHATEVER is honorable.
• o   WHATEVER is pure, is pleasing.
• o   WHATEVER is commendable.
• o   If there is ANY excellence.
• o   If there is ANYTHING worthy of praise,  then come on people – think about these things!  Focus on these things!  Dress yourself in these things!

And keep on doing these things that you have learned and heard and seen in me – because I have tried, above all, to clothe myself in Christ, and so you can see that in me, and then you can show that to others. And then, the God of peace will be with you, and the peace of God which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus..

Sisters and brothers in Christ, let us put on the clothing of Christ, and let us always be ready to rejoice, to glorify God, to celebrate the resurrection and the new life that we have received, to share it with others, to be ready for whatever, freely serving our Lord and Savior through loving kindness to others, because we have been loved by Christ.

Amen.