RSVP, Appropriate Dress Required
12 October 2014
Proper 23A
Parish of Trinity, Ashland (Oregon)
8:00 am said; 10 am sung Mass
God, give us hearts to feel and
love.
Take away our hearts of stone and give
us hearts of flesh. Amen.
In my second Foreign
Service assignment, I had an experience that forever changed the way I read
invitations. I always knew that the RSVP bit was to let the hosts know
how many guests to expect. I knew that
the “Dress: formal” meant black tie and evening wear, and “informal” meant
business clothes. But when I received an invitation marked "casual"
from the U.S. Ambassador to China to attend an outdoor reception at his home with
country-western music, I thought this meant comfortable. This was in the late summer, when Beijing is
hot and humid. I knew that Embassy officers were wearing western togs in
keeping with the party theme. Political
section officers would surely be in business suits, since they always wore business suits. This event was “social” in the sense of “social
obligation.” We would be "on the
clock." But it was going to be stifling, and the invitation said "casual." So I decided to wear a nice linen
suit, made for the tropics, with knee-length pants. The day after the
event, the Minister Counselor for Public Affairs called me into his office and proceeded
to scold my lack of judgment for showing up at an Ambassadorial event in “shorts.”
“But the invitation said ‘casual,’ I replied, “They taught us in A-100 that overdressing
was as bad as under-dressing.” This simply infuriated my boss, who, after
all, was trying to further embarrassment caused by young Mr. Hutchinson’s bad
judgment. He continued, “The invitation said casual. It did
not say beachwear!”
I got the message—never wear shorts at an event the Ambassador was hosting, no matter what. The polite insincerity of saying “casual” was to put guests at ease, not to relieve Embassy staff from wearing proper working clothes to what was a work event.
I got the message—never wear shorts at an event the Ambassador was hosting, no matter what. The polite insincerity of saying “casual” was to put guests at ease, not to relieve Embassy staff from wearing proper working clothes to what was a work event.
Today’s Gospel reading is all about RSVPs and proper dress for such a command “social” event.
The story seems to be about seriously disturbed people. A king orders the members of his court to the prince’s wedding banquet. Some reply by blowing the invitation off; others rebel, killing the king’s messengers. Insubordination. Treason. The king wipes them and theirs out. He orders staff to scramble to find someone—anyone— to serve as party-stuffers. But once all are seated at the party, the king notices that one of them isn’t wearing just the right attire. He orders his people to tie the poor man up and throw him out to darkness where there is “weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.”
Over the ages there
has been no shortage of capricious, erratic leaders who murder whole villages at
the slightest hint of rebellion, petty tyrants who abuse staff and capriciously
change their minds about guest lists and appropriate dress. But Matthew here is
not saying that God is like any of these.
This story in Matthew is about how invitees behave, not the king.
Once again, Matthew takes
a parable from Jesus and adds all sorts of details to turn it into an allegory,
changing its meaning in the process. Like
last week, the earlier form of the
parable is preserved in the Gospel of Luke and the non-canonical Gospel of
Thomas.
It originally ran
this way:
A king gave a great dinner to which he invited many guests. When all was ready, he sent his servant to summon the guests. But one by one, they all gave excuses for not coming. Hearing this, the king in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys and bring in anyone you find. I want my great hall to be filled for the banquet.’
Most of Jesus’ audience knew that a great banquet was a big scriptural image for God’s future saving act. Even though many passages said, like today’s Isaiah reading, that this banquet would be for all nations (Isaiah 25:7), many teachers said that it would be an exclusive event limited to God’s people only.
Jesus replies to such
a stingy image of God with parables. He points to the weather and says that God
gives his rain and sunshine to both good and bad people alike (Matt. 5:45). He points to families and notes that when
children ask for bread to eat, parents do not give them stones, or when they
ask for an egg to eat, do not give them a scorpion. “If even average parents
try to give their children good things, how much more generous will God be?”
(Matt. 7:9-10; Luke 11:11-13)
And Jesus’ actions matched his words. He regularly ate and drank with people declared contagiously unclean by his religion. He welcomed them.
And Jesus’ actions matched his words. He regularly ate and drank with people declared contagiously unclean by his religion. He welcomed them.
This is the context for today’s parable of the RSVPs. He tells the story of the host forced by RSVP “regrets” to drag in people from off the street to say God’s banquet is open to all. Those “regretting” the invitations are the people Jesus reserves his deepest anger for, people stingy with God’s grace, those he accused of “refusing to enter God’s door, and also barring the way to others” (Matt 23:13).
But later Christians like Matthew reflect on the parable and apply the narrative device of the regretted RSVPs to their own situation, where newly included Gentiles are rapidly overtaking what originally had been a Jews-only Church. They wonder about the large number of Jews who decline to join them in following Jesus. Such questions only intensified with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E. in what looked at the time to be a death stroke to Judaism. Matthew tries to make sense of the catastrophe by chalking it up to most Jewish congregations’ expulsion of Jewish Christians from the synagogues, and the Judean religious leaders’ rejection of Jesus himself. So he adds the nobles’ murder of the king’s servants and the destruction of their village to the story. Thus he tries to account for what appeared to him to be the end of Judaism. Note: this is not supercessionism, the wrong-headed idea that God rejected the Jews, and transferred his promises to them over to the Church instead. The Gospel author himself is a Jewish Christian still concerned with maintaining his faith. He is afraid that some Gentile Christians have taken liberties with the faith inherited from the Jewish Palestinian Church. His detail about the proper wedding attire underscores that regardless how broad the Church has become, there are still standards for the gentile late-comers to God’s banquet.
His concern is that once we receive grace, we might not take it seriously. Sisters and brothers--we are the body of Christ. We sometimes don't behave that way, because we lose the vision of what we are. Matthew is here saying to take this grace of God seriously.
There is nothing so holy or good that we human beings, left to our own resources, cannot manage to mess up. In his day, Jesus stressed that we can twist God’s Law into something ugly and oppressive. Matthew, in his, said we also can misuse God’s grace, and twist it into an excuse for cheap self-will.
You know what I’m
talking about. How many of us haven’t wondered at some point whether we might
go ahead and do something we know in our heart is deeply wrong thinking “it’s
O.K., I’ll repent later. God will accept me back.” Phillip Yancey, in his book,
What’s So Amazing about Grace? calls this twisting of grace into an
excuse for sinning as “the loophole of grace.”
Just before and
during World War II, Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book The Cost of
Discipleship used the term “cheap grace” to describe using God’s grace as
an excuse for spiritual laziness or mediocrity in following Christ. He argued
that we should dutifully and joyously follow Jesus out of gratitude for his
grace. Such gratitude for expensive, precious grace on Jesus’ part requires a
lifelong commitment to the way of the cross: self-sacrifice and service.
Bonhoeffer lived here what he preached. Unrelenting in his witness
against the Nazi regime, he was ultimately executed brutally by the Gestapo.
It is precisely “cheap grace” and the “loophole of grace” that St. Matthew condemns in his image of the man caught without proper wedding clothing. This celebration can have no party-poopers, no half-hearted acceptance of free tickets, no cheapening of the event by Johnny-come-latelys.
It is precisely “cheap grace” and the “loophole of grace” that St. Matthew condemns in his image of the man caught without proper wedding clothing. This celebration can have no party-poopers, no half-hearted acceptance of free tickets, no cheapening of the event by Johnny-come-latelys.
In order to accept God’s
invitation, we have to be open to receive it. St. Augustine says, ‘God gives
where He finds open hands.’ You can't receive the gift if your hands are
already full, or are clenched tight.
In yet another parable, Jesus compares God’s kingdom to a narrow path and a tight gate, which at any given time only a few can manage to squeeze through (Matt 7:13-14). This is because in order to get through such a tight fit, people have to be willing to abandon all the baggage they are carrying, whether riches, resentments, self-will, sins, or even what appears to be good things if they are getting in the way. This is a far cry from the loophole of grace, from “cheap grace.”
In yet another parable, Jesus compares God’s kingdom to a narrow path and a tight gate, which at any given time only a few can manage to squeeze through (Matt 7:13-14). This is because in order to get through such a tight fit, people have to be willing to abandon all the baggage they are carrying, whether riches, resentments, self-will, sins, or even what appears to be good things if they are getting in the way. This is a far cry from the loophole of grace, from “cheap grace.”
C.S. Lewis said that
asking God to forgive our sins without also sincerely wanting to amend our
lives is like asking God to change us without changing us. Cheap grace, the
loophole of grace—these simply misunderstand what is at issue in grace, and
what is at issue in sin.
What does accepting grace, freely offered, look like in practical terms?
It looks like me admitting that I am helpless and hopeless. It sounds like the sincere phrase “I am sorry and I humbly repent.” It feels like Martin Luther’s heartfelt cry, “I am yours Lord, save me.”
What does accepting grace, freely offered, look like in practical terms?
It looks like me admitting that I am helpless and hopeless. It sounds like the sincere phrase “I am sorry and I humbly repent.” It feels like Martin Luther’s heartfelt cry, “I am yours Lord, save me.”
I myself have known
God’s grace. All was hopeless and
helpless, through my own “thoughtlessness, weakness, through my own deliberate
fault.” I found that I had to accept my
own powerlessness and turn it all over to God. And keep doing that, each
day. Gradually, steadily, God worked
wonderful changes. I am still far from what God wants. But I live each day in
gratitude.
I know that many of you have had similar experiences. You have told me your stories. We need to continue in faith and gratitude, and share the invitation to the party through our actions and words.
If you have not had such an experience, then please listen to this call to God’s banquet, you random passerby on the street. The tickets are free. But they are not cheap. And neither is the celebration. The banquet is priceless, the bread the finest, and the wine, a vintage that makes our hearts gladder than any other.
Come to the banquet, and let’s try to wear the right clothes.
I know that many of you have had similar experiences. You have told me your stories. We need to continue in faith and gratitude, and share the invitation to the party through our actions and words.
If you have not had such an experience, then please listen to this call to God’s banquet, you random passerby on the street. The tickets are free. But they are not cheap. And neither is the celebration. The banquet is priceless, the bread the finest, and the wine, a vintage that makes our hearts gladder than any other.
Come to the banquet, and let’s try to wear the right clothes.
In the name of Christ, Amen.
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