St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
October 15, 2017
Year A, Proper 23:
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 25:1-9
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9
Matthew 22:1-14
God Risks Rejection
Well,
another week and, sure enough, there are more disasters in the news – the
continued struggles in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and elsewhere in the
Caribbean to recover from the recent devastating hurricanes – the seemingly
nonstop drama of our government in Washington – and, now a Category 3 hurricane
is, unbelievably, about to hit… Ireland!
And, there have
been the ferocious wildfires in California.
That
one has especially moved me because, as some of you may remember, Sue and I
were out in the California wine country this past summer and it’s so hard to
accept that such beautiful places, and the lives and livelihoods of people who
live and work there, are being destroyed.
So,
it’s been a lot, right?
There
have been a few bright spots recently, though, and one of them has been the
fact that the five living former presidents – from Carter to Obama – have
joined together to raise funds for the places and people affected by the recent
disasters.
Maybe
you’ve seen the commercial that they’ve made.
Whatever
you might have thought about their politics and their presidencies, it’s pretty
moving to see these old competitors setting aside their differences, uniting to
help people in need.
It’s
true that, like all of us, they had their strengths and weaknesses, certain
characteristics that shaped their time in office.
Bill
Clinton was a controversial president, and certainly a very flawed person, but
I think one of his more endearing traits was his obvious and extreme need to be
liked. I remember reading about him that he could be in a room filled with
people applauding and cheering for him and his policies but if he knew that
there was even just one single person he hadn’t convinced, one person who maybe
just didn’t like him, Clinton would stay for as long as it took to win over
that one person.
Despite
all his success, despite his high office, he just couldn’t bear rejection.
And,
it’s true, being rejected really is one of the hardest experiences of life,
isn’t it?
I
remember how much it hurt when the first girl I asked out on a date rejected me
– yes, I know, hard to understand, right?
And,
later there were jobs that I wanted and was absolutely sure I’d be perfect for,
but they’d choose someone else – crazy, right?
And,
even here at church, I’m always inviting people to different programs and
events and, obviously, just inviting people to come to church. Some accept the
offer, but many more say very clearly through their words and actions, “no
thanks.”
And,
the truth is that when people come here for a while and then stop coming,
although I try to not take it personally, I’ll admit that it does feel pretty
much like rejection.
The
unfortunate truth is that, unless we never take a risk, unless we never stick
our neck out, we all experience rejection.
And,
that very much includes God.
Throughout
the Old Testament, God risks rejection each time God invites people into a
relationship, each time God invites people to the wedding banquet, each time
God invites people to the big party. It’s very simple:
God wants to be
their God, and wants them to be God’s people.
And,
over and over again, God is rejected.
The
people refuse to follow God’s Law and, even worse than that, sometimes the
people of little and not very powerful Israel would look around at the big and
powerful empires of their day and choose to worship their gods, understandably reasoning that must be the way to more
success and riches.
You
know, it’s always theologically risky to talk about God experiencing pain, but
I think we can be sure that God doesn’t feel good when faced with our
rejection.
Yet,
despite that, God continues to invite us, continues to risk and, yes,
experience, rejection.
So,
it shouldn’t be a surprise that Jesus faced rejection, too.
Back
in the first century, most people who encountered Jesus during his earthly
lifetime rejected his radical message
of repentance and love; rejected his
call to love everyone, even those who hate us; rejected his insistence on welcoming everybody, even the outcasts,
the tax collectors and prostitutes; rejected
his demand that we give away what we have to the hungry and the naked.
Back
then, most people, most especially including the religious authorities, flatly rejected
that divine invitation, condemning Jesus to die nearly alone on the cross.
Yet,
despite even that rejection, God continues to invite us, risking even
more rejection.
Today
and last Sunday, we’ve heard some pretty hard parables from Jesus, as recorded
in the Gospel of Matthew.
And,
we need to remember that this is Jesus as remembered and understood by a
particular community, by Matthew’s community, probably a Jewish-Christian group
living near the end of the first century, fifty or sixty years after Jesus’
death and resurrection.
It seems that
Matthew’s community faced a lot of pressure, a lot of tension, as people found
it increasingly difficult to be both Jews and followers of Jesus.
Some
remained part of the Jesus community while others abandoned it, which to those
early Christians must have felt like quite a rejection, a rejection which hurt much
worse than what you and I feel when a St. Paul’s parishioner starts going to
another church, or even when someone drops church from their lives altogether.
So,
the parable we heard today works on at least two different levels: the
rejection of Jesus during his earthly lifetime; and the rejection of people
abandoning the early Christian community.
And,
we can certainly hear the pain of those long-ago rejections, right?
We can hear the
pain of rejection as the enraged king sends in the troops and kills those who
rejected his wedding invitation, burning down their city in a murderous rage.
The
king then extends the invitation to others, to all different kinds of people.
For
Matthew’s community, the meaning of this parable was probably pretty clear:
The
Jewish religious leaders failed to accept God’s invitation, so now they’re
excluded from the banquet and instead God extends the invitation beyond the
people of Israel, to the gentiles, to all the peoples of the earth.
But,
what does this tough parable mean for us here today?
Well,
first, especially considering the centuries of horrendous Christian hatred and
violence towards Jews, we must remember that God has never broken the covenant
with the people of Israel – God continues to extend the invitation to our elder
brothers and sisters in faith.
Second,
the good news is that, at least at this moment, you and I, we’ve accepted God’s
invitation, we’re here at the banquet, and what a feast we’re enjoying as we
pray and sing together and embrace one another and receive the Bread and the Wine!
And,
that’s beautiful and great, right?
But,
for me anyway, it’s the strange conclusion of today’s parable that kind of
haunts me, that weird little bit about the guest without the wedding robe being
cast into the outer darkness.
Did
you pick up on that? Scary, right?
And,
at least as I read it, it seems that this improperly dressed person is like
someone who superficially accepts
God’s invitation to the banquet, who shows up, but is not willing to even try
to accept the deeper and more challenging invitations to love, and to welcome,
and to share.
And,
as I watch the news and even when I talk to some people, it seems like a lot of
so-called Christians, people who seem
to have accepted God’s invitation to the banquet – they are giving into the old
temptation to not worship God but instead to worship the gods of the Empire,
the gods who seem like they will bring success and wealth, the gods who maybe
even make us feel good for a little while, but, ultimately, always bring suffering
and destruction.
Maybe
some of us are giving into that old temptation because, like Israel long ago, we
feel so weak and powerless today.
But,
for what ever reasons, unfortunately, there are a lot of “improperly dressed” Christians
who are ready and willing to choose hate over love, greed over generosity, resentment
over forgiveness, suspicion over hospitality – there are a lot of “improperly
dressed” Christians choosing tribe and nation over the kingdom of God –
rejecting God, yet again.
Long
ago, Matthew’s community faced a lot of tension, a lot of division.
And,
today, here in America, struck by one disaster after another, we face a lot of tension,
a lot of division, too.
The
very good news is that God must really
love us because God continues to risk the kind of rejection that God has
experienced so often.
God continues to
invite us to the banquet.
The
response is up to us.
Amen.
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