Sermon given at Grace Episcopal Church on October 12, 2008 by Lynette Schaefer

Matthew 22:1-14

Come to the party!

There is no place like Molokai! Go into the kitchen of any home and you will see refrigerators covered with invitations to weddings, baby's first birthdays, graduation luaus, 60th birthdays, retirement bashes… weekend after weekend with celebration upon celebration. It's a lot of work planning the menu, fattening the pigs, hunting the deer, catching the fish & squid, gathering the opihi & limu, picking taro & cleaning the luau leaf, picking up tables and chairs, ez ups, serving dishes, and decorating.
But one of the hardest things to do for a party is to figure out just how many people will actually show up. On Molokai that is an art form since we don't have standard RSVPing. You all know how to RSVP on Molokai? We call it HBIH. "Hey brah! I'm here!" That's how we often do it. You show up. But first you have to be invited. In our younger days, people used to actually bring the invitations to the party to show they were really invited. One of the great Hawaiian insults is to come without an invitation, called maha'oe.
Jesus shared a story that told His listeners that everyone would be invited to share in the Kingdom of God. In heaven, there would be no one who will maha'oe.
"Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son...'" Wow. We're going to grind with the Lord! Just like home! A banquet was prepared, and when all was ready the invitations went out.
At that time in Palestine hospitality was almost universal. In fact, it was unforgivable not be welcoming. But it was also considered rude to refuse offered hospitality. It was taken as a deliberate insult to the host. So, in this parable, this host, or God had been insulted. The people He had invited just shrugged Him off. But this host was persistent. Again He invited His guests to join in the party and even gave them the menu- pulehu steak and ox tail stew.
If you were listening to Jesus that day you would have understood the idea of a banquet given by God the King. The Jews believed that when the promised Messiah came, a new age would dawn. One of the events of this new age would be a banquet, at which all Jews would sit down together with Abraham in the new King's dominion. (King'- dominion = king-dom- get it?). So Jesus used this expectation to say that the Kingdom of heaven is like a feast, a banquet. Many people totally misunderstand what life with God is like. It's not boring. The Kingdom of God is a banquet feast prepared for all mankind. Indeed, the Kingdom is a party!
But who were the invited guests in the parable? Jesus was teaching that the Jewish people were the first to be invited, but that many of them refused the invitation. John 1:11 says that Jesus came to His own people, but His own people did not receive Him. Even though the early church was made up of converted Jews, most of the Jewish people rejected Jesus and His message of grace. They were so proud of their own goodness and religious heritage that they saw no need for forgiveness or for His grace.
God likes parties! Remember when Jesus was baptized? It was the first boom box heard on earth. The Father's voice came out of heaven and boomed, "This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased." When the Lord went to parties, He chowed down, and like to suck 'em up. His cousin John was the teetotaler. He ate bugs and drank honey. No one called John the Baptist a party animal. But Jesus? The Pharisees used to criticize Him because He partied too much. They called Him a drunk and a glutton.
Revelation 19 says, one day, there will be a marriage supper in heaven to celebrate the joining of Jesus and the Church! First we will fall down at the presence of Jesus. Then there will be lots of joy at God's party. I can't wait to be there!
And each of you is invited. God has issued you a personal invitation to join in the festivities, to dance before Him. On the cover of the invitation is a symbol of a cross and the nail-scarred hand of Jesus signed it. The place on the parchment that has your name on it wasn't written in ink. If you look carefully your name is written with His blood.
Here is how the parable relates to us. When the initial guests refused to come, the Master had His slaves go out and invite everyone they found to the party. Now here is the clincher. Read verse 10 with me… "those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests."
Notice who comes to the party: people both evil and good. God is making no distinction between open "sinners" and the "morally correct." Everyone is invited. It doesn't make any difference whether people have a respectable reputation or a dishonorable one. No matter who they are, what they look like, and no matter what they have done in the past, all are invited. "Whoever will may come," says God's word.

But when the king came in to looked over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who wasn't dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?' And the man was speechless.
I can remember not wanting to go to a party with someone who was underdressed. A few years ago we were invited to a wedding at a fancy hotel in Honolulu. Scotty didn't have any dress up clothes; you all know… you've seen his best stuff here at worship! We just knew that we couldn't go to this fancy hotel with shorts and a t-shirt. He had to go over for a meeting early and decided to do his own shopping. Now this might not seem like an impending disaster to most people. But to my color challenged husband, this was a potential catastrophe. So I told him, "make sure you have the clerk help you get a 'forest green" aloha shirt." Seemed like a good idea at the time. I flew to Oahu and met my beaming husband wearing the ugliest, most obnoxious aloha shirt that I have ever seen. And that's saying something. I lived through 60's aloha attire in acrylics… It was so bad that I thought he was playing a practical joke on me. At first glance it hurt my eyes, made me nauseous, and I wanted to turn away in laughter. So I did what any good and sensitive woman would do. I started laughing and said, "I'm not going out with you looking like that!" Then I said, "I wouldn't even be seen in public with you wearing that horrible shirt." But then I saw something I didn't expect. I saw hurt in his eyes. He didn't have a clue how bad it really was. He was proud that he had gone out and picked his own shirt. After seeing that he was wounded, I did what every other normal woman would do. I still refused to go out of the room while he was in that shirt. No way was I going anywhere with him looking like that. But since I loved him, I went downstairs to the hotel lobby and bought him a new shirt. He sulked for a bit, but eventually he knew I was serious. So he put on the newest shirt and then we went to the party.

It was the same thing in this parable. The man who was poorly dressed was not a party crasher. He was invited. He didn't insult the host by his absence. He came to the party. However, he was not dressed appropriately - he wasn't wearing the right clothes!

You might be wondering, "How could the king expect these people from all over to come properly dressed? They had been rounded up from everywhere. Many had come from the streets and back alleys. They wouldn't have had the clothes for a royal wedding."
But think about it for a minute. The rest of the dinner guests were dressed in the right clothes. In those days, you weren't able to walk into the presence of the king in surf shorts. No shirt, no shoes, no service. People who wished to be in the King's presence were required to be dressed properly. Often they would wear a robe supplied by the king himself. So, in this story, the wedding outfit was available to everyone. The king himself had made provision for everyone to have the appropriate wedding clothes. That means that the one who came under-dressed to the party refused to wear the clothing from the king.

See, we can't just wear whatever we want to the party. We may think what we're wearing is just fine. We think we're pretty righteous just as we are. Here's the point. Spiritually speaking, if we want to be dressed for this heavenly party we must take off the old and put on the new. Isaiah 64:4 says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. We won't be able to come to His party clothed that way. We need to get cleaned up. We need forgiveness and a righteousness that isn't our own. He provides it. When Christ died on the cross, He took our sin, our rebellion, our dirt and made us clean. The old hymn says, "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!" Our salvation and everything that comes with it is already prepared and ready because Christ has done it all.
And it isn't that we're now wearing clean rags. Listen to Isaiah 61:10. "I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness."

The King of Heaven has made provisions to make us clean and clothe us with garments of salvation. He doesn't invite us so that He can toss us out. He invites us to join in the party.

Most everyone here knows people who are thinking that they are going to the party one day because they believe they are good people, just as they are. "I believe in God. I say my prayers. I go to church. I do good deeds. I give money to help people." But on that day, those clothes, those attempts at self-righteousness, will be seen for what they are - filthy rags. And unless we agree with God and choose to wear the clothes of the king, we will be left out of the celebration.
In the parable, the king told the attendants to tie up the man and throw him into a dark alley and let him suffer. One of the great lessons of the Bible is that God doesn't have to send plagues to make us suffer. He doesn't have to send mercenaries to harm us. All he has to do is to just let us go and follow our own paths. All we have to do to discover evil is to do… nothing. It will find us. The entire world and creation have fallen under the dominion of sin. We don't have to work hard to incur God's anger or wrath. The wrath of God is what happens when we step out of the shadow of His protection. It is not a good place to be.
That brings us to our role in all of this.
First, accept the invitation and wear the clothing of righteousness from God. That means putting away the old and putting on the new. It means giving up the old bad habits and replacing them with good habits. Philippians 4 says it so beautifully, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." That is a picture of God's holy clothes. Quit dwelling in the cesspool. Stop looking up how much your 401K has lost. Start smelling God's roses. Don't let bad thoughts hold you captive. Instead, begin to train your mind to go to things that are beautiful and good, and positive. If you find yourself complaining, try turning those to thoughts of joy. Wear the garments of righteousness in all circumstances. And look for God to be at work in every situation. He will be there no matter how bad things seem.
I could go on for an hour on just this point. But there is another important piece to this parable

Every Christian here has the incredible privilege and responsibility to invite your family and friends to the party! This story teaches us some important truths about inviting people to that party.

When inviting people we will experience some rejection. Many people we know are unwilling. If you invite people to the party, you'll know rejection. Sometimes people will make excuses. Sometimes they will reject you outright personally. Because many would rather chase after the things of this life. For them the wedding party is no big deal. They think, "How's that Jesus stuff going to help me in the here and now? I have kids to raise! I have a degree to earn! I have a business to run! I have to worry about getting a job. I have a movie to watch! Don't bother me with an invitation to a party that isn't going to happen for a long, long time! I'm too busy living for today. "

But Jesus tells us to go to the highways and byways to find and to invite people to the celebration, no matter what they're wearing. Don't call yourself a passionate follower of Jesus unless you are seeking to find the lost! If we keep inviting, people will respond. Their lives will change when they discover that the banquet isn't a vague future promise, but real life and real joy with Jesus starting right now! They will never be the same after they discover that the good news about Jesus has power in this life as well as in the age to come. Romans 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."

Wherever people are, that's where we are to go. We don't wait for people to come to us. We go to them. When we wake up, we need to think, "Lord, show me who needs to be invited to the party today!"

Don't give up! Find the people who will come. In building authentic relationships with people outside the family of God and communicating our faith to them, we will be contagious Christians. I love what Reggie White used to teach, "I'm just a nobody tellin' everybody about Somebody who can save anybody!"

Lastly, don't just talk the talk. Go DO something in the Name of Jesus. We should be the nicest people in the whole world, the most giving, the most loving because we are starting the party with the King right now. Start dancing, grab a partner today, cook a meal, give a ride, clean a yard.
Jesus taught that His Father in heaven would notice even when we give a cup of cold water in His name. One of the greatest joys is seeing the smile on the face of someone who has just discovered how to party with Jesus. God uses us to be His hands, His eyes, and His loving touch as He invites the world to His party. Amen.

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