The Marvelous Style Of Jesus: Truth And Love
Rhoda Boggs, The Strawberry Lady, touring with a theater company in Leningrad several years ago, was quoted as giving this report of a visit to a Christian church in that Russian city. This was while Communism still reigned over that nation.
"I'm tore to pieces. I've been going to church since I could walk, but I've never known Jesus like I knew him today. Oh, child, he was there -- he was out in the open. He was written on every face. He was singin' with us, and you've never heard such singin'. It was old people, mostly, and old people can't sing like that unless Jesus is helping them along. And then the pastor asked that we, the black members of the cast, would sing a spiritual. And they listened so quiet, all those rows and rows of faces lookin' at us like we were telling them that nobody's alone, that Jesus is everywhere on this earth -- which is a fact they know already, but it seems to me they were glad to hear about it. Anybody doubts the existence of our savior, he should've been there. Well, it came time to go, and you know what happened? They stood up. The whole congregation stood up, and they took out white handkerchiefs, and they waved them in the air and they sang 'God Be With You Till We Meet Again' -- the tears just pouring down our faces, theirs and ours. Oh, child, it really churned me up."
Invitation to the Celebration
Clap your hands and shout for joy! Christ is risen! Christ is here! Celebrate the feast of life!"
P: God in Christ invites us to the party!
M: We come to celebrate the Spirit's Presence and Power!
P: What a privilege! What a joy! What an honor!
M: We come with expectations! We come to experience what God can do with lives
receptive to the living Christ!
P: We open ourselves, our own needs, the needs of others, our relationships, and
the world to Christ's Spirit.
PRAYER God of power, God of gentleness, we pray for those inner qualities which produce this gentleness to be enlarged in us, that despite our petty attitudes at times, we might grow into that spirit which is revealed in Jesus Christ. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. AMEN.
"Rejoice, You Pure in Heart!" Stanza 1 only. Sing it until the people sing it as if they were attending a party.
Exodus 32:1-14
32:1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." 32:2 Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me." 32:3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and broug ht them to Aaron. 32:4 He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" 32:5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; a nd Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD." 32:6 They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. 32:7The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; 32:8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'" 32:9 The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 32:10 Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." 32:11 But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 32:12 Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your m mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'" 32:14 And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Response Text...Psalm 106:1-6+19-23
106:1 Praise the LORD! O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.
106:2 Who can utter the mighty doings of the LORD, or declare all his praise?
106:3 Happy are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times.
106:4 Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people; help me when you deliver them;
106:5 that I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory in your heritage.
106:6 Both we and our ancestors have sinned; we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.
106:19 They made a calf at Horeb and worshipped a cast image.
106:20 They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
106:21 They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
106:22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
106:23 Therefore he said he would destroy them-- had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
Lesson 1: Exodus 32:1-14 (C)
"And the Lord changed his mind." What a wonderful statement. What is most important here is that "Moses" (read the ancient writers) believed that God could become angry enough to destroy the people of his creation because they were absolutely incapable of living up to their calling. Moses' reported intercession reflects the belief that God can be appealed to, and will relent in his decisions so long as he believes there is any hope that the people will eventually turn and become faithful.
We Are Accountable! Stewardship Challenge
Jacque Ellul has said that "if we feel too much sadness in giving, if we feel torn or irritated, it is better not to give." However, we need to know what this means: it means that our money still controls us, that we love our resources more t than we love God, and that we still fail to understand and receive forgiveness and grace.
Prayer Following the Offering
Forgive us, Lord, if these gifts of money represent only the leftovers of
our lives. If so, commit us to a renewal of, a recommitment of, ourselves to
you.
Message with the Children of All Ages
Probably most children have never attended a banquet; they have attended parties. Discuss whom they invited and whom they did not invite and their reasons. Refer to the banquet in this parable.
Anthem
Many years ago, a lonely lady decided to give a party, hoping to regain many friends whom she had not seen for some time. Carefully, she prepared her invitations, made sure the food would be perfect, decorated everything just right and, when the day came, she excitedly awaited her guests' arrival. As the appointed hour came and went, she began to worry. "What if no one comes?" she fretted. Indeed, no one did. Not a one of her old friends showed up. Devastated, grief-stricken, the poor soul went into seclusion and lived out the remaining years of a lonely life. She died a sad woman. Soon thereafter, a distant relative arranged the disposition of the woman's effects. As they moved an old desk, a cascade of letters fell from behind it where they had been wedged between the desk and the wall. They were party invitations which had never been mailed.
Prayer of Praise Psalm 106:--"Praise the Lord; O give thanks to the Lord for he is good." Center it around the theme that God has invited us to a banquet, a party, in which God is Host, that Jesus enjoys a good laugh, and that the Holy Spirit inspires a joyful worshipping people.
We Seek Forgiveness
Introduction to the Act of Self-awareness If we could choose whom we would invite to God's banquet, whom would we choose; to whom would we send no invitation? (Two minutes of silence.) Write down the names of those whom you would and would not invite. Now, in another two minutes of silence, write down the names of those who, you think, would and would not invite you, and why. Write down their names also. In the words of Walter Wink, in the February, 1987 issue of Sojourners: "It is not out there, but in me, that the oppressor must die." Our calling, of course, is to let God make the decisions about who is, and who is not, invited to the banquet.
Invitation to the Act of Healthy Self-awareness Frederick Buechner, in his book Telling the Truth: Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, says that "if we want to make a fool of ourselves, we can most effectively do that by telling the truth," "Recognizing and telling the truth about oneself." What truth about yourself do you need to face today? God offers us a new invitation now to share in the banquet of life. Do we really want to attend, or do we only say that we want to attend, so long as we get to send out the invitations?
P: Listen folks! Here is the Good News! Jesus the Christ came into the world to liberate us from our I-centeredness. In him, the Lord of Life, we are forgiven, made whole, and free to be responsible.
M: I hear! We hear! This is Good news indeed! Jesus the Christ came into the world to liberate me, us. In him, I am, we are, forgiven, made whole, free to be responsible. What a deal!
Jesus, We Just Want to Thank You # 595
Matthew 22:1-14
22:1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 22:2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 22:3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 22:4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' 22:5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 22:6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 22:7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 22:8 Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 22:9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' 22:10 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. 22:11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 22:12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. 22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen."
prayer: "Lord, we have heard the biblical words; teach us to respond to your biblical truths."
The Marvelous Style Of Jesus: Truth And Love
Jesus' use of parables is his way of communicating a striking truth with significant love. The most amazing quality of God is that He approaches us with equal doses of love and truth. How different He is than us. When we see someone in error and that error has personally hurt us, we go for that person's jugular, to deliver the truth, but little or no love accompanies it. Hence, the person becomes defensive and flatly refuses the truth which could correct the error. In this parable, Jesus shows himself to care both about the truth he wants to communicate and the manner in which it is cradled, via an earthly story. It serves to reiterate a precious principle to us: You and I will never be able to separate God's love and God's truth. We will always receive both. We need both. All people do!
For hundreds of years, the Jewish people have had a special focus of God's love. God's Son, Jesus, was born through Jewish lineage and of the Holy Spirit. He is a true fulfillment of a number of messianic passages in our Old Testament, also the Jewish Scriptures. Full grown, a rabbi and Holy Spirit-driven, Jesus is given great press by the Gospel writer, Matthew. The material most unique to Matthew gives central focus to Jesus as the One who truly fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. With all his heart, the Jew-become-Christian, Matthew, provides a proof-text that Jesus is the true heir of King David and the hoped- for Messiah for all Jews.
In this parable, we note that the original invited wedding guests--invited twice, not just once--are God's beloved people Israel. Historically and spiritually, they should be the first to say "yes" rather than "no." They are the people who know the true God and who, with their forebears, longed for the Bridegroom, Israel's Messiah. Ages earlier, God invited them to be His chosen people. When the Jews spurned God's repeated invitation, God broadened the invitation appeal to non-Jews, to the Gentiles, who were in the midst of the highways and byways of life; i.e., they were sinners to whom such an invitation into God's kingdom was more new than familiar. The reference in verse 7, about the King being so enraged that he sent out his troops to destroy the murderers and to burn their city, some scholars tell us, is Matthew's way of referring to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD The destruction was so complete that "a plough was drawn across it."1
The reference in verses 11-14 to the wedding guest not wearing the proper attire is the old rabbinic way of reminding us of "the duty of preparedness for the summons of God, and the garments stand for the preparation that must be made."2
"Jesus told them several other stories to illustrate the kingdom" (v. 1). Meaningful storytelling speaks personally to one's heart and is instructive to one's mind of the specialness of a person and of an event. The fact that Jesus spent time and used his creative energy to share a number of stories about the kingdom of God reveals his gracious willingness to connect his Father's kingdom to the living of people's lives. How special both God and we must be to Jesus!
In verse 2, we are reminded of God's excitement about and commitment to arranging His Son's wedding feast. The word "prepared" or "gave" reveals one who has been willing to wait and to plan for centuries for His Son's wedding. Think of the centuries God has moved with, through, and even against people and events to stay on target for that day when His Son would arrive on earth!
God is truly the most imaginative of all. We need only look around at one another to easily note how unrepeatable and unique each person is. God must delight in diversity! Yet given all His imagination and creativity, when it comes to talking about His kingdom, both in this passage and elsewhere where it also makes reference to His second coming, God chooses to use wedding feast illustrations. Why lift up something so familiar as a wedding event to portray something so unique and profound as His Son's first and second comings? A couple of answers I would venture: (1) The kingdom of God is about relationships between God and His people on earth and about their relationships to one another as well. They are permanent relationships. They mean a lot to us. (2) We gather together around one heavenly Father to be in Holy Family again, and in that context joy is then rebirthed. In verse 3, regarding the invitation and assembling of guests to the wedding banquet, it is not a good day for the slaves. At the first invitation attempt, they return with a whole list of refusals. In verse 4, even as the Lord takes pains to explain, through His slaves, the specialness of the event and His excitement and anticipation in their coming, the slaves are mistreated and killed. As ministers of the gospel, whether lay or ordained, we too return at times from our work for the Lord empty-handed, discouraged, and even at times sorely mistreated. But this state of slavehood, being sentries and messengers for Christ, is, comparatively speaking, preferable to the spiritual slavery of those in this story, as verse 5 reveals. Why do the invitees make light of the invitation and choose to return to the farm or to the business? Could it be that their lives are connected more to earthly duty than to revelation and the eternal side to their lives? As William Barclay put it: It is very easy for a person to be so busy with the things of time that he forgets the things of eternity, to be so preoccupied with the things which are seen that he forgets the things which are unseen.3
Are we at times so busy making it in life that we obscure the meaning of life? Have you ever seen people reach an impasse, where one chooses to retreat from further involvement and exhibits fear of the demands of relationship. I have often observed that one of them, quite frankly, does not yet have the maturity of personhood to see and to appreciate the gifts and qualities the other person carries and is willing to offer. The more immature person in the relationship simply cannot see the gift package in the other and is not ready to continue to build the relationship. Often he takes flight from any deeper sense of intimacy and shows interest only in the more superficial physical and social expressions of that intimacy. // God's kingdom coming into our lives, through the person of Jesus Christ, is to affirm and to understand life in its fullness and not merely in its points of duty. As Pastor Bill Coffin, once said, "You're young only once, but you can be immature indefinitely!" // Kingdom living and kingdom understanding are truly calls to maturity of personhood. Why do you suppose the invitees in verse 6 seized the slaves and mistreated and killed them? Could it be connected to their anger over their own agendas of daily life being disturbed, coupled with their lack of peace of mind in not being more intentionly spiritual? No one knows for sure. These invitees went "to town and back" and behaved very destructively. In not liking to be disturbed and interrupted in their own agendas, they revealed a deeper abiding disturbance within themselves: They were out of harmony with the Lord, and they lacked a willingness to reconnect with Him. In verse 7, we see God's response, a very different one than that expressed in the repeated invitations He graciously extended earlier. He is now enraged because He has been insulted. What He is really offering, in this story of a wedding feast, is His love, salvation, and eternal presence. What the invitees have really turned down is not a mere dinner date, but that invitation. When you and I turn our back to repeated invitations to salvation and blessing, we will receive judgment and destruction instead. In the words of one pastor: Same of Jesus' parables are like that. Some of us are under the mistaken idea that God's grace cancels out God's judgment. Not according to the teachings of Jesus. Many of them are quite demanding and the consequences of disobedience are quite severe.4
In verses 8-10, we see how committed God is to community and to salvation. If the original guest list has no takers, people found in the mainstream of life, to their own utter surprise, are invited to an event they never sought after. Somehow, in their persevering service to their master, the slaves were able to gather into the wedding hall a great number of guests, "good and bad" (verse 10). In the last analysis, neither those originally invited nor those subsequently invited "were worthy" (verse 8b). This reveals to us the precious truth that the invitation is not based on merit, but on grace, on "undeserved" love. Not only Jews but also Gentiles and sinners are included in the loop of invitees. God's love for us, whether we are prior religious practitioners or not, must be so deep that the sins which break His heart and scar our lives will never be deep enough to cancel His love and redemption of us.
Verses 11-14 introduce a related but different point. The inappropriately dressed guest at the wedding feast was unceremoniously expelled from the gathering. To make any sense of this, we need to be aware of two rabbinical stories familiar to Jesus and his hearers. One had to do with several people invited to a feast by a king. The wise ones immediately prepared themselves, purifying themselves ritually, dressing in their finest, gathering at the palace door because they realized the feast could begin at any time. The foolish ones went back to work, thinking that they had plenty of time to get ready later. Then the feast began and the foolish invitees had to stand outside and miss the fun.
The other story was about several people who received fine robes as a gift. The wise ones put their robes carefully away for a special occasion. The foolish ones wore them to work and they were soon soiled. Again, the feast was suddenly announced and the foolish people were not properly attired for the king's presence. Jesus was therefore speaking against a background of familiarity on the part of his hearers with such stories. Thus, the improperly dressed man was not merely a poor man with no expensive clothes. He was foolish and irresponsible.
As verses 11-14 counsel us to note, we must not presume to be forever welcomed by the King, if that presumption assumes no significant change of heart or new life direction on our part. Hence, the man who was not wearing a wedding garment in verse 11 was "speechless" in verse 12; i.e., he had no justifiable excuse for not being properly prepared. The mystery of God's open, loving heart to us coupled with the mystery of a sinful life willing to be transformed provide a balanced picture of this parable and passage. How can one really get into the spirit of the wedding feast without adopting within oneself a true love and joy for all that the event characterizes? God wants to be so deeply central and residential within our lives that we carry new affections for Him and His holy purposes. // In the words of William Barclay: there are garments of the mind and the heart and of the soul -- the garment of expectation, the garment of humble repentance, the garment of faith, the garment of reverence -- and these are the garments without which we ought not to approach God.5
Jesus shares an earthly story to convey a precious truth in as loving a way as one could convey. You and I are invited to be his kingdom sons and daughters. Our names are on his lists of guests. Will we truly enter into this wedding feast, i.e., into the matter of salvation and redemption, with hearts and lives willing to be changed and transformed? If so, you and he shall share the same joy and eternal company. If not, darkness and unhappiness will be the predictable end result. Choose wisely! Welcome his welcome. Let's line up our hearts with his!
Indeed, this may sound like bad news. Point out the surprise about who gets invited, who rejects the invitation at their own expense, and then who gets invited. This whole business of who's in, who's out is not ours to decide. On whose side are we?
God Be With You Till We Meet Again
Charge to the Congregation
"Live! Live! Life is a banquet ... and there are so many fools starving to death." What a sad commentary on us, if we profess to be followers of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. How will we allow the Spirit of the living Christ to transform our sadness into gladness?
Dr. Barclay points out that verse seven is an addition by Matthew himself. Writing in the period of 80 to 90 AD, he was aware of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Jesus did not use military figures in his teaching, we know that. However, the main point is that the Jews had been invited to enter into the joy of God and had refused. The host had patiently repeated his invitation and, again rejected, had responded with anger. If we exclude the part about destruction wreaked by the armies, we see that he was making the point that the Gentiles were invited in because the original People of God had refused.
Title: "Come To The Party" Text: Matthew 22:1-14
Our souls are given to us to be cared for and kept clean for the feast. Those who are foolish and irresponsible clearly soil them and, as the parable would have it, are qualified to be cast aside. Thanks to Dr. Barclay, we might use the following outline. 1. All of us are invited to the heavenly feast. However, it is expected that we will make every effort to preserve ourselves in cleanliness. I, not, Barclay, observe that this isn't easy. Most of us have to learn about life the hard way and it 's a rare one among us who has not done a few things we'd just as soon not talk about. God, of course, knows all about these things and, fortunately, he forgives us. Once again we must be reminded that parables strike hard, quick, to the point. T hat point must be seen in light of the total teaching of the gospel. 2. Our attitude is important. The man in the wedding feast was disdainful of the custom of honoring the king. Seen with the background we mentioned, he was trying to get in on the joyful fun without accepting any responsibility at all for those qualifications which make us ready. God would not exclude someone for lacking something material. He might not even exclude us for a lousy attitude. Jesus was simply urging that we begin to show respect for ourselves and for Jesus Christ and his teachings. 3. There are ultimate consequences. That man was invited. He knew there was little he needed to do to be included. But he must how regard for the king and f or the son. This also applies in the here and now. Many a person is missing out on the joy which prayer and a spiritual life can bring, simply because they come with the wrong attitude. Our churches have many members who are there for reasons other than to honor the Son, and they are missing out. His final warning, that "many are called but few are chosen," was a dart to the heart for the listeners. From today's perspective (remember, Matthew had never read the other biblical writers and may very well have still arbored some Old Testament ideas about punishment and retribution), we believe all of us are called. We do the choosing. Jesus has told us the conditions, easy ones he has said, and we decide how to respond, just as those invitees to the party did.