"What Shall I Wear?"
Sermon Presented October 9, 2005
Matthew 22:1-14
When my grandsons came to visit a year ago, Christopher ran into trouble at the airport. I can't imagine why security would object to his black garb, studded boots and chains! The guard said: "I guess you realize that what you're wearing isn't airport friendly!"
In my past life, fashion magazines told me what was appropriate for black tie dinners and formal balls! Schools tell students what is appropriate dress through dress codes or uniforms. Even churches appear to have unwritten dress codes, because the people who attend dress similarly. (When I was in Marysville, the pastor of the Vineyards Church wore jeans and I wore a robe and our congregations dressed accordingly.) Even though people aren't as concerned about what they wear today as they formerly were, there is still a sense of what is appropriate and what is not. And there are always those who want to challenge propriety!
Our text this morning concerns a challenge to what is proper to wear to a wedding. Because the first part of the parable is similar to the one from last Sunday, I will concentrate on Part II - the part where a guest is kicked out of the wedding because he isn't dressed properly. Hear the story from Matthew 22:1-14. (Read text.)
What should the king expect of people who are invited at the last minute? If you go into the streets to recruit guests, how can you expect them to be wearing the right clothing? It seems only right that even for a royal wedding, the king should cut the guests some slack. No one walks the streets wearing a wedding robe just in case he or she might be invited to a wedding banquet!
Some scholars say that in those days wedding hosts provided proper garments for their guests, the same way some fancy restaurants formerly provided jackets and ties for men who wore none. If that's the case, then the spotlight shifts from an unreasonable king to the guest and we wonder why he refused the robe that was offered. What made him think he could come as he was to such an auspicious occasion? Is he protesting the dress code - or the king?
This story has many problems. For starters, who would kill servants who come to remind you of your invitation to a royal wedding? How likely is it that the food for the feast remained edible while the king calls up his army, burns a city and gathers more people for the party? In other words, the story lacks logic! So as we did last week, we will try to see the theological meaning.
One way to understand the story is to know what Matthew - the writer - is confronting when he relates it. Luke is the only other gospel writer to include the parable, but he stops before the part where the person gets kicked out of the party because he isn't wearing a tux. Matthew is writing to people who have witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. He has seen his people reject the invitation to celebrate with God's son, Jesus, and his audience is his Jewish brothers and sisters. Because the church has opened to Gentiles, new controversy envelops his congregation.
The last ones invited to the wedding - Gentiles who have no history with the God of Israel - act as if grace gives them permission to live any way they please, and the Hebrew Christians, who have known God forever, are still trying to figure out what it means for them to be free from the law. This results in a discipline problem, as believers come to God's table with no sense of what it means to be there. As far as they are concerned, they can come into God's presence any way they want. The invitation is to "come as you are," and they probably came on the 16th verse of "Just as I Am." All are welcome and nothing is required: no tux, no cocktail dress, and no etiquette.
"Wrong," Matthew says. "Being an invited guest doesn't mean you can do as you please. Being invited at the last minute doesn't mean that anything goes. You have been invited to a feast by the king and you need to remember that!"
The guest who was kicked out refused to dress properly for the wedding of the king's son. Maybe he thought the king was lucky he accepted his blanket invitation. Maybe he thought he was doing his host a favor by showing up to eat food that would surely spoil if he didn't help eat it. Whatever his reason for accepting, he wasn't prepared for the occasion. Instead he demeaned it by refusing to change. And I'm not talking about clothes, either.
Like everything else in this story, the wedding robe has a deeper meaning. It's not a royal garment, but a way of life - one that honors the king, one that recognizes the privilege of being called into his presence, even if it is a last-minute invitation. His mistake isn't that he arrives in shorts, but that he shows up disrespecting his host and thinks no one will notice.
On one hand, this is a story that is addressed to a particular situation in the life of Matthew's church and on the other hand, it happens every Sunday in every church. This worship service may not be the heavenly wedding banquet, but we can consider it a rehearsal dinner where we have an opportunity to practice for that time. You are here because you accepted the invitation.
But like the guest in the story who is underdressed, some of us are here without thinking much about why we're here. We come with little preparation and have refused to change - to surrender our fears and resentments, to share our wealth, to respect the dignity of every person. These are the every-day clothes we choose to wear to the king's banquet instead of the wedding robe that is provided.
The truth is that most of us don't think it matters how we come, but that we come. God should be delighted that we show up! Your pastor sure is! And that's just what the guest in Jesus' parable thought. He thought the king was just looking for warm bodies. He was happy to eat the king's food and enjoy the festive occasion. So there he was in his shorts and T-shirt, eating the food and enjoying the music, when the king speaks directly to him.
"Friend," he says, "how did you get in here without a wedding garment?"
God isn't looking for warm bodies. God is looking for wedding guests who will rise to the occasion and honor the son. I believe we can do that, even if we are wearing black and chains or running shoes and shorts. You see, we aren't talking about real clothes, here! Paul tells us in his letter to the church at Colossae: "As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." When we dress like this, we are perfectly attired. Then we're ready for the wedding feast whenever the invitation is extended.
The king issued such an invitation to his guests. There was no royal subpoena! And the invitation went out to both good and bad, with no moral standards set for those invited. But after entering the banquet hall, they were expected to wear the wedding robes that were provided.
Ann Lamott wrote in her book Traveling Mercies: "God loves us just the way we are and God loves us too much to let us stay like that." We receive a call of grace that is offered to all people to come as we are, and then we are asked to live a life appropriate to that calling. Grace comes through the invitation and obedience follows - not the other way around.
The invitation is extended. So come and put on the clothes of righteousness - day after day after day!
(Major source - Barbara Brown Taylor's, Home by Another Way, pp. 192-196.)
