Parable of the wedding banquet

Wedding Banquet

At parties I am usually the person in the kitchen.. Not sure what to do. This is a party that surely is to good to miss but then it all goes horribly wrong, on a epic scale. 

But the problem really comes when we try to place ourselves in the parable…

The king, clearly God. is throwing a party (we call it the kingdom of heaven). His son , the messiah has entered the earth.  How have the Jewish people reacted to the invitation? 

Sends out invitations to all of Israel. The party guest are those religious professionals of the time. Those religious professionals that were maliciously trying to make things difficult for Jesus. No one comes.

At this point :   Thats ok you say, I am not a religious professional. (err me) 

So the king sends out some more slaves to invite them again. Stress the point, look it's all ready. Food has been prepared. God is saying look;  Jesus heals, teaches, performs miciacles.

Reaction: Lame Excuses! You think they deserve it, God invites them into his kingdom - they refused it!

Not only were they stupid they abused and killed the slaves who had brought the message! Jesus clearly reminding us of all of the prophets that had come before Jesus, warning of his coming.  Shocking!

Israel's leaders had refused the party - the coming of his son - and they did not want anything to do with it. So then the king throws it open - 

The good news , not for those leaders but those from other parts of town (world, gentiles) are invited. And they come in droves. Tax collectors, blind lame etc all those who thought they had been forgotten.

Thats the kind of God we know. Open to all - We can relate to that. There is space for all of us ,  God has got room for all ! 

Great if it ended there, walk away and be happy/rejoicing! 

But wait - a twist in the tale. They sit down and the king notices someone not in there wedding suit. 

A trivial matter perhaps? 

After all, we have all been there, seen someone at a wedding who turns up in their jeans. People shaking there heads! 

Surely God accepts all?

God asks him 'how did you get in there?' Ties him up, throw him to the darkness outside. 

Jesus says 'Many are called but few are chosen’   (Eastenders music now). 

Two questions may arise in your mind right now 1. Where does that come from ? 2. Hang on, What about me?

Some theologians prefer to think that last bit was added on (often seems to happen when its difficult or ambiguous!) 

I think It is popular today to view God like before we got to the twist in the story, a loving inclusive God who accepts all and protects us. Which is true, we often think of God as a parent who fulfils all those things but the parent analogies do not stop there. 

We are children of God, But God also wants his children to grow up?  To Mature? Change?  Can we stay a child forever? 

We don't expect our adult children to call us up when they have had a nightmare! 

Change and growth is expected of us as part of our relationship with God.

God calls us into a relationship with him. A relationship of prayer, to study scripture and for that connection to inform our lives.  And we know, that in all of our relationships there is an element of change.

People who we know and trust have something to say about the way we live, the way we are. They sometimes notice things we don't and although we do not thank them sometimes they point out things in our lives that need to change.

Thats what good friends are for, not to agree with everything we do or say but sometimes to challenge us out of love. 

And this relationship we have with God through prayer, through scripture means that we are challenged, formed and then informed to make the right choices. And through it we grow. 

Jesus was all about transformation:

Blind and lame asked for Jesus - he did not say, you are fine as you are ! 

Prosititutes and extortioners came to him he didn't say your fine as you are! His loved reached them where they were but his love refused to let them stay as they were. It was messy, sometimes painful. 

But thats immensely difficult in a world that tells us that the goal of life is happiness! 

Sometimes character forming and growing is painful, it has to be both as individuals and as a church and we all know that. We can look back at our churches and own lives and identify those times. And afterwards we can thank God for them, (some times a long time after!) 

No wonder though that some people reject that relationship. We also know whilst Gods kingdom is open to all, few are chosen because they exclude themselves.

If we are not open to learn how to live from God, if we are not ready to change and our lives do not reflect that - then we are making a clear statement. 

- It does not matter what choices I make now, it will all work out alright in the end. Choices we make are not that big deal. 

This gets us to the heart of this parable makes it clear that our choices DO matter. 

In our parable the man comes to the table just as he is. Makes no special effort even though the king has invited him. He is screaming 'I will  come as I am , God will accept me, on my terms' 

**Point of the parable as Jesus told it is looking at a bigger picture .. that we cannot just rock up and ask for God to take us on our terms.  We cannot just go about our daily lives and assume that it probably be ok in the end. For surely if we do that then we are being complacent with the most important thing in our lives that could possibly count. 

Clearly some people reject God in favour of evil

Some people make a conscious decision to reject God because they don’t think anything exists 

But surely the saddest group of people are the third type

Those that don’t even get round to accepting or rejecting God because they are too busy, pursing happiness in material things, not worrying about the choices they make.

They are the people who we should be reaching out to, to help them realise that actually God is, and always has been working in their lives. And that its good to come together like this on a Sunday, or whenever we do and to give thanks, to be challenged and formed. Its not always easy, or happy but being a Christian is the most amazing way to live.

And what of us? Right here and now? What difference does it make to us? 

I seem to be making a lot of choices at the moment! Your new vicar is a bit daunted, excited and ready to be transformed!  

We have choices to make together - and this was a big part of my sermon last week and make no apologies for reiterating it again  - a new vicar can often be a fresh start and together we need to make decisions, choices about how we want to see our church in the future and how we can best sue our own gifts and talents towards achieving that aim. 

 if we make those choices without having that living relationship with God. With out having been formed by him then they will be empty, misinformed and legalistic. 

Over the coming months I think we need to listen to God. To pray - in our intercessions, before every meeting, every time we gather for Gods guidance. Before we make any difficult decisions for ourselves, before we decide on how best to use our time together lets ask God. What are you doing in our commuities, how can we help with your mission in them.