At-Home Liturgy: Wedding ClothesMatt. 22:1-14, Rev. 19IntroductionWelcome to our at-home liturgy podcast, friends. I'm excited for this month as we have this week to rest and reflect; then, next week, we start at our new location at 800 SE C St off of 8th in Bentonville. Oct 18 at 930 AM!Today, let's think about what God offers his people… and maybe consider how we're responding right now. Are we accepting his invitation? This is one of those Jesus parables that can be uncomfortable. Jesus says something clearly true that no one really wants to hear. And it's an allegorical story, meaning everyone knew he was talking about specific groups and historical moments. At first, it sounds good. But then, hmmmm… challenging. Here it is:Read Matthew 22:1–14The first thing Jesus says is worth plenty of our consideration: the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.God's kingdom, God's way and rule, is like a wedding feast! In Jesus' day, these were lavish parties that lasted seven days, featuring food and drink, entertainment and dancing. They knew how to throw a party. They knew how to savor the good things and special moments. How to stop their preoccupations to embrace goodwill and merrymaking.God's kingdom, the divine intention, is a celebration. A feast. To keep special what is special. To savor the holy. To welcome goodwill and a good future. Amen and amen! God, let your kingdom come!This image is common in the New Testament. The Wedding Supper of the Lamb is one of the pictures of God's redemption fulfilled in Revelation. Revelation gets a bad rap for the ways it's misread and abused, and because it is the biblical book most likely to attend Comic-Con. But read as intended, weird stuff and all, Revelation imagines the hope of God's kingdom finally coming to earth: the end of empire and injustice, sickness and death, and the completion of Christ's work.And one of the images of that hope is a wedding feast! Christ welcomes his bride, the Church, and she is given white clothes described as "the righteous acts of God's people." Based on NT Wright's work, those "righteous acts" include restorative justice, holding onto gospel truth in dark times, showing mercy, and the heart posture of holiness. Keep that image in mind. God's saving work culminates in a wedding banquet, and the clothes are provided for the bride.Exploring the ParableNow back to our parable. The king sends his servants out to tell the wedding guests that it's time. In first-century marriage customs, invitations would go out and people would actually respond to them. No text messages: "Hey, can you RSVP? Do you want chicken or fish? We need to know what to tell the caterers!" The first invitation didn't specify the exact time. The servants went out to say, "Okay, it's ready. Come to the feast!" And since it's the king asking, you drop whatever you're doing, get dressed, and go.In Jesus' story, the guests don't come. So the king repeats himself: "Friends, everything is ready. The feast is luxurious. The wine is flowing. Come, friends. The time to celebrate is now!"But those who have RSVP'd don't want to come. It says they "made light of it." Some went to their farms, others to their businesses. (Pause.) Then a smaller group mistreated the king's servants and killed them. This was not a done thing. You might as well slap the king.Now, if this were a real situation, the meat would be spoiling and the fruit going bad. But this is allegory. Jesus is making a point about Israel's own history. The king punishes those responsible and burns their city. Matthew's first readers had already watched Rome burn Jerusalem in 70 CE, and many would have heard that history in the king's anger.Exploring AllegoryMatthew tells us Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and Pharisees. Jesus is the son whose wedding feast is coming, and God is the king. The wedding feast is the great joy of heaven coming to earth at last, setting all things right. But who are the people who don't want to come?The farmers and business folk resemble us common folks, preoccupied with our labors and worries: the next promotion, a balanced checkbook. The sent servants are the prophets of Israel, sent by God with the same invitation. Micah sums it up: Wanna be feast people? “Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” Sound familiar? Those who mistreated and killed them represent the religious and political establishment that rejected the prophets because they didn't like the message. Scripture tells that story: God sent messenger after messenger, and the people mocked them and despised their words (2 Chronicles 36). And Jesus is telling this story to leaders who are about to do the same to him.Exploring the Good and the EvilI can imagine everyone listening would have heard themselves in those first groups. I hear myself in the farmer and businessman, certainly. I'm often too busy or preoccupied to pay attention to God's presence ...
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22 mins