In the parable just read Jesus again likens the kingdom of God to a human event, the king who gives a party. Here the host has given due warning of the invitation to come. I sometimes receive in the post notification of an event to which I am to be invited in due course. This practice familiar to us was apparently the custom in the time of Jesus. Here the parable opens with calling of the already invited to the dinner. It is therefore the more shocking that the invitation is turned down. But the king does not give up that easily. He again sends out servants with the invitation. This time even more surprisingly the invitees treat the whole thing lightly and go about their business and occupations as if nothing else mattered. We are more familiar with the version of this parable in Luke’s gospel where the excuses given are more detailed. Remember one says I have married a wife and cannot come. Rather like Scott who was married here yesterday. I trust he is on his honeymoon by now. Matthew’s version is somewhat overlaid by other themes which are expressed in the violent response of the king to the ungrateful guests to be.

But before we get too distracted by the details (it is important to treat this parable allegorically rather that a factual story) we must not lose sight of the basic theme. And that is the king who invites and goes on inviting. If others give up on the king he does not give up in his desire for a table full of guests. In other words God’s love is never-ending; his grace is truly amazing. It is clear that the king is God. But who are these guests who need to learn their manners. I would have to admit that one thing that drives me crazy is sending out a formal invitation with the request for a response and then people turning up unexpectedly with no care in the world. I was at a lunch recently where the opposite happened. Twenty-five indicated they were coming and were well catered for but only fifteen showed on the day. Either way it makes it tough on the host. But as we read the parable today the guests are us. We are the ones being invited to respond afresh to the gracious and loving approach of God to us. Are we ready to respond? Or have we a catalog of excuses ready to churn out to the person bearing the invitation? Let’s wait till I get my life in order. When the kids are through college I will have time for religion. I have so much on at present that I simply don’t have time. We all make excuses at all sorts of levels of life including those with spiritual implications. Here in the parish we are about to focus on stewardship, that time of the year when we are asked to consider our giving to God and his church. It is a time when we rustle up all sorts of excuses why we cannot be as generous as we would like to be. This gospel has a message for us right now.

But God is a patient host and tries several times in the parable to fulfill the original invitation. I like to think of God as the gracious host who goes on inviting us even though we are busy or distracted or simply indifferent. But there is a sting in the tail of the first part of this parable and that is the king’s anger. That violent response does not sit easily with us. But under the imagery used is that sense that the God whom we worship and praise as the God of love and of grace is also the God of judgment. Somewhere we have to come to terms with the wrath of God. It is not a theme found in popular liberal preaching very often these days. I find it most helpful today to talk of accountability, a term that rolls off our tongues in the commercial world. We expect governments and officers of companies and boards of directors and over institutional governing bodies including vestries of parishes these days to be truly accountable to their constituents. So is it surprising that there is a like expectation of each one of us with relation to God?

It is that theme of accountability that is fleshed out in the Matthew version of the parable in the surprising ending to the gospel passage. That is the bit about the wedding guest who is thrown out for being improperly dressed. It reminds me of taking some Australian tourist friends to the Rainbow Room for a drink recently. I arrived in jacket and tie but they poor things who had been serious tourists all day arrived in sneakers. Well we didn’t even make it into the elevator. However we did manage a good drink in a nearby Irish pub for a fraction of the price! Our heart goes out to the improperly dressed guest. If we read this final scene as part of the original parable how on earth was the guest who had been dragged off the street expected to have a suitable wedding garment? But this is an allegory not a straightforward story. Or as some have said Matthew has put two separate but related parables together. Either way what is the point of this latter incident? Here the concept of accountability is helpful. Assuming we are the guests who have accepted the invitation to the banquet our obligations do not cease once we have taken our places. Rather that is where they begin! Paul uses the terminology of being “clothed with Christ” and “putting on the new person” to describe the content of the Christian life. This approach reminds us that we are called to grow into our faith; that the Christian life has a dynamic to it which presumes maturation and spiritual growth; that it is not a static concept which does not involve commitment and effort on our part.

We in this parish are familiar with our motto: Faith and Works. Being clothed with Christ is much more that having the correct clothes for a particular occasion but includes living the Christian life of faith, hope and love, as intentionally as possible. The life of faith to which we are called, the religious life if you like, is a life marked by certain obligations. These obligations permeate both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. They include such things as our attitudes to each other; being good neighbors; showing compassion and mercy to the poor in our midst; how we exercise our stewardship of the earth God has made and of the wealth he has entrusted to us; how we make room for God in our lives through worship and prayer and the study of the sacred scriptures. All this and more are the content of our faith; what it means to be clothed with Christ. It is to us who claim religious faith that the final encounter in the parable is directed. Are we still wearing the baptismal garment; the clothing of our salvation? Are our hearts open and responsive to him who calls us into his banquet hall? Today we come again in faith, hope and love in response to the divine invitation to receive a foretaste of the messianic banquet in this eucharist. But it is a meal which does have consequences and obligations and it is to them that we commit ourselves afresh each time at the conclusion of the eucharist “to go and love and serve the Lord”.   Amen

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