I had to share. SERMON: Rev. Duetzmann “Wait! Stop! Read me that again!” Have you ever had one of those moments when you were listening to a text being read and about halfway through it you suddenly wished you could call a time out, say to the reader, “Wait! Stop! Read me that again! … Something didnt quite sound right to me. Well, thats happened to me more than once. Reading this text from the 22nd chapter of Matthew I had to stop and ask myself what is really going on here. Its the kind of story where you think, Oh, I know where this is going. I get the point. But then halfway through it, it suddenly changes on you. It’s a parable about the kingdom of heaven using the symbol of the wedding banquet, and the king, fills in for the role of God. Jesus tells us there was a king who wanted to give a wonderful banquet, and invited guests. But the guests were downright rude, saying they werent concerned at all about coming. He tried inviting them again, they were not only rude, they killed his messengers. Well, the king decrees they must be thrown out and destroyed. He sends his attendants out, and they call in a new set of wedding guests from the highways and byways, people both good and bad as the scripture story says, and they all get to come to the banquet instead. The story could stop there; and it would make perfect sense. Those that were asked didn’t come, and they got their just desserts, and those who were suddenly invited, who didnt expect to come, and they were brought in by a loving God. Everything sounds so wonderful, but then you get to verse 11 and the story starts to change. It gets strange because when the king comes in and sees the guests, he notices a single man who stands out because hes not wearing formal attire. And he has this man, who when confronted and asked, Why arent you wearing a wedding gown? doesnt really know what to say, and is suddenly cast out into darkness. What does that mean? Time out! I want to understand it. What is really going on here? It sounds so out of place. Was it because this man couldnt afford better clothes that God would cast him into darkness? We’re dealing with a powerful symbol. The wedding gown is a symbol that has been lost to us. It meant something to the listeners of the time of Jesus -- a wedding gown recognized the hospitality that was being extended and the respect that was due in return. Its been lost in our culture, we’re so informal that the idea of showing up without the proper attire isn’t a one-way ticket to damnation. That symbol has been lost, but its been lost in a story filled with symbols. The wedding banquet is a symbol. The king is a symbol. Parables are symbols. What we are dealing with that seems to confuse us is our own confrontation with a symbol that we dont understand and that is the point. Think about it in this way: Why do we spend time: talking about the language we use in worship? considering whether we use inclusive language that encircles people of both genders? Why are we worried about the stories that we tell in our Sunday schools? making sure that how we pray, we sing and worship makes sense to everybody here?
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 06:41:48 +0000
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