Accepting the Invitation

The wedding party was set.  The three year-old, twin nephews walked down the aisle in their tuxedos ringing bells while their sister follows with flower petals dropping them one by one.

But then he enters—the ring bearer. 

With ring and pillow in hand, he sprints down the aisle spinning and throwing ‘em in the air!  He catches the pillow, drops it, then chunks it to the minister.  This frees him to run laps around the wedding party slaloming in and out making airplane noises!

What seemed to be the perfect wedding was turning into a disaster. 

Then out of nowhere the ring bearer’s father swoops in, grabs him and heads for the back door. But you better believe right before they crossed the threshold into outer darkness the boy screamed: “DADDY DON’T BEAT ME!”

This would be the worst wedding story ever if it weren’t for Matthew 22.  Do you know this parable?

God’s kingdom is like a king hosting a wedding banquet for his son.  He organizes a great feast, a huge wedding banquet!  He invites everyone he knows!  The day of the wedding arrives, and the king sends his servants into the town to track down his guests – but when the servants approach them with the king’s message . . . they refuse to come!

So the king sends out another batch of servants saying, “Tell those people I’ve invited to come to the wedding banquet!  Tell them I have prepared a great feast! – Everything is ready!  The oxen and the fattened cattle have all been butchered, the wine is decanted and the table is laid out just so.”

So off the servants go carrying their king’s demands – but the guests still pay no attention.  Some of the guests actually turned on the servants, beat and killed them. 

To the remainder of his servants the king says, “The wedding is ready, but those I invited didn’t rise to the occasion.  So go into the streets and invite all you see; invite everyone you meet! 

They hit the bars . . . the nail salons . . . and even the coffee shops on the corner lots . . . they invite all they can find!  Rich and poor, good and bad, high and low, sick and well – the banquet hall is bursting at the seams!” 

But then the king spotted a man who was not dressed appropriately.  In fact he was dressed rather plainly, in clothes not at all fitting for this fine nuptial feast. 

The king says to the man, “Sir, how did you get in here without a proper suit of wedding clothes?”  The man was speechless – I mean he’d been invited off the streets for goodness sake!  What kind of question is this?  Getting no response, the king throws him out into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth!

And that’s the story.   

Think about it.  A king goes out to celebrate his son’s wedding.  He invites the big-wigs and big-names, puts the wedding announcement in the paper.  TV shows are running commercials about the cost of the dress and the size of the cake.  This wedding is big.  And why not . . . this prince is worth it!  So the invitations go out . . . and they are nice invitations . . . but nobody RSVPs.  Nobody cares.  Nobody goes. 

So the king sends his servants to find out why but half of them are killed (Who would murder servants hunting down RSVPs?). 

But I know you already know what’s going on?  I mean come on Barrett, pay attention to the setting of the story.  Jesus is in the temple having a private conversation with the Temple rulers.  No one else is there.  He’s two chapters away from being murdered, and he’s making enemies left and right.  This parable must be about the religious leaders.  I mean the two verses right before this parable say that even they realized these parables were about them!

So it makes sense.  The kingdom of heaven is like a banquet that God’s hosts in Jesus’ honor.  The Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes make the invitation list but they don’t go.  They don’t even RSVP. 

But how could they not go?  They were invited to God’s party!  Why couldn’t they see this was a big deal?  They rejected it.  Spat on it.  Killed those who came after them begging them to come!  And they should have been the first in line.  They should have been serving the food.  They were so close.  They were invited.  They were right there on the cusp of something great, something perpetual, something everlasting, but they could see it.  They saw no value in it.  

And I wonder, do we?  God comes to us, invites us, hosts a party in Jesus’ honor with us in mind, yet we refuse the invitation.  We make excuses, rationalize our fate, and downplay the importance of the celebration.  We don’t see it as an invitation to meet God; we, instead, care more about everything else than we do worshiping God.  That which our lives should be most about has become what its least about.

Alban Institute’s latest research on church activity has the highest attended members on average come to church twice a month.  We don’t worship.  We don’t accept the invitation.  We don’t celebrate with God.   

Except there are those who do actually make it to church, but these people are more consumed with denominational affiliations or doctrinal supremacies that that’s what ends up taking precedence over celebrating Jesus.  Worship becomes a place for us to push an agenda and define one’s self by what she or he is not.  So even churchgoers reject celebrating with God. 

Which takes me back to the parable: Not only do the townspeople kill the servants, but the parable says the king then declares war on the townspeople – although this is debatable. 

Several ancient, manuscripts omit verse seven.  But whether you think the king killed more of the townspeople or not is not the point, this day was supposed to be about a wedding . . . now it’s turned into a war! 

That’s where the sadness hits.  It’s supposed to be a party that inaugurates a marriage.  It’s supposed to be a rite of passage, but everyone involved in it is at war. 

But I don’t know why this shocks me.  Our world today is the same way.  We can’t get past our bruised egos, our backstabbing or pointing nuclear bombs to actually prepare for enjoying life together.   

We don’t care about the banquet.  We aren’t interested in celebrating.  We don’t want to be around one another.

Maybe this is why mainline Protestantism is dying.  Maybe that’s why the millennial generation dubs itself spiritual but not religious.  Because none of our religious organizations care about the Messianic wedding banquet. 

We don’t care two lives are merging together.  We don’t even understand that this wedding is between God and humanity.  

Maybe that’s the point of the parable.  God’s saying here, “This wedding banquet’s a big deal and you aren’t even paying attention!”  There’s something life-changing in Jesus right now, right in front of us and we’re missing it.  We’re rejecting it.  Sometimes we’re even subverting it, holding it up, and killing it. 

It’s time churches and individuals realize the importance of being at this banquet.  God is calling us to be participate with Christ.   

The power of this moment is incomprehensible.  We are being invited to join in on the ongoing work of God’s kingdom on earth.  Our role is to help usher in redemption, peace, love, and forgiveness.  To stop the cycle of violence, to end wars . . . to offer everyone a chance to celebrate . . . to feed the hungry, to give rest to the weary . . . to find joy and happiness and to share it with others . . . to give people bread for the journey . . . and release to the captives . . . But to do all of this – we have to go to the banquet. We have to meet God in our daily lives. We have to worship. 

For “Thy kingdom’s come, thy will is being done . . . but not by us.”   But we could if we just accept the invitation.  We’re already invited . . . the life-changing banquet is moments away . . . we just have to go!

But there’s a catch.  If you keep reading the parable you get to a moment between the king and young man that illustrates what happens when there’s no intentionality in our going.    We don’t get to just be a part of all this and do nothing.  A young man who attends the banquet is caught not wearing banquet attire.  The king asks him why but gets no response, so he escorts him out.  He has to leave.  He’s no longer welcome. 

This is a serious detail.  God wants us at the banquet . . . but it’s a black tie affair.  In other words, it’s not enough just to go, God wants us worshipping, participating in the in-breaking of the kingdom, and celebrating at the party.   

For too long we’ve come to church with no intentionality.  For too long we’ve sacrificed missional engagement for a country club membership status.  Instead of being the hands and feet of Jesus we keep a firm arm’s distance length away from the poor, downtrodden and disenfranchised.  We say we love the world but what have we done for it?  We say we’re missional but who are we serving?  We say we offer authentic worship but who is being moved by it? 

These clothes that we wear to the banquet matter.  So it’s time that we examine them. 

But there not really clothes.  You get that right? They’re metaphor for what we wrap ourselves in when we celebrate and partner with God.

So start with love and justice, goodness and mercy, forgiveness and hope. 

These are the clothes that keep people from war.  These are the clothes that create authentic places for worship.  These are the clothes that participate in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom.  These are the clothes needed by the church.  They are hanging in our closets.  We just have wear them.