Trinity 18 – 11th October 2020: : Philippians 4, 1-9; Matthew 22, 1-14.

Revd. Canon Leonard  Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

At a religious rally the preacher who was famous for his fire and brimstone sermons addressed the pressing subject of God’s judgement. Among the familiar phrases at such a rally he used the phrase, ‘and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’, a phrase he may have picked up from today’s gospel reading in Matthew. Someone in the audience shouted out, ‘but I don’t have any teeth!’ to which the preacher responded, ‘and teeth will be provided’.

Today’s gospel is set within the image of a wedding banquet. This is a popular image in the gospels, and allegorically it is Christ who is usually considered to be the bridegroom of these wedding parables, with the corollary that the bride is his church.

Indeed in the new Marriage ceremony of the Church of England these words ‘Marriage is given that as man and woman grow together in love and trust, they shall be united with one another in heart, body and mind, as Christ is united with his bride, the Church’.

So in this formulary of the Anglican marriage ceremony the connection between bridegroom and bride is overtly stated. It is so plain that you don’t have to read anything into the language to develop the image.

Weddings were great social occasions in cultural life in the setting of the scriptures, indeed they still are in the East and here in Greece. They are huge events, and in smaller villages everyone will turn out to the wedding feast, the marriage banquet. No expense is spared, and the food and drink never seem to run out. When it did run out at a wedding in Cana of Galilee Christ was there as a guest, and he ensured that the wine supply was restored.

In St. Luke’s gospel this story of a wedding feast is presented differently. It is a man who puts on a great banquet. All who are invited find excuses not to attend, so everyone from the surrounding streets get swept up and gathered for a magnificent meal – because all are included.

Our wedding banquet as presented in Matthew has one really major difference. This is a banquet not about inclusion, but about judgement. That’s why Matthew includes this really difficult line about the man being thrown into the outer darkness for not being in his best suit at the wedding feast.

I know what you are all thinking. Tell us why this poor man should be treated so unfairly by the King who hosts the wedding meal for his son – after all surely this parable is about God as the king, and Christ as the son. You are all looking to me to give an explanation – I just know it, and I know whose side you are all on!

The poor guy was just getting on with his normal everyday business and suddenly a complete stranger comes along and tells him to stop what he was doing and come to a big wedding party. Maybe he was a street sweeper; maybe he had a little stall or rickety old cart from which he was trying to flog some watermelons, or figs; maybe he was sitting on a street pavement trying to sell some little pots and pans, or headscarves, or something. The last thing on his mind was attending some posh wedding breakfast.

So he turns up and sits down on the couches that are placed around the low tables and anticipates some decent food and drink – a real treat.

The father of the bridegroom arrives and spots that he is still in his dusty old work clothes, and he gets singled out. We have to assume that somehow all the other folk who had been gathered up must have gone home and washed and put on the appropriate apparel – we are not told. But this poor man is bound and thrown into what Matthew calls the ‘outer darkness’ and we have to hope that this man has his own teeth.

How can this be fair? How can God act in this way?

 

The answer must lie in the fact that Matthew is not telling us a story to help us understand inclusion – which is probably St. Luke’s intention – but rather to remind us that a central part of our faith is that we are judged. It may not be the most popular part of Christian apologetics, and judgement is not a theme commonly heard in our pulpits these days unless your preacher is one of those fire and brimstone types.

We all prefer ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ and the central theme of love, and anything goes is a more palatable message. However there is no way to sweeten the bitter pill for the sanitized taste buds of modern day men and women.

If we say and believe that ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again’ as we say in our liturgy frequently, for what will Christ come again? What is the purpose of his return journey? In the crucifixion of Christ, with its sequence of resurrection and ascension into heaven, we might believe that everything has been accomplished – didn’t Jesus say that from the cross – so it is OK to present the good news of God’s love in Christ as supreme, and our message, our gospel, is only about love.

Yes, but how do we fit the themes of Advent into this one sided model of the gospel – we used to preach in Advent on what we called ‘The Four Last Things’. These were death, judgement, heaven and hell. Maybe only one of these four would rank high in the popularity scale.

The wedding banquet is a parable told, to remind us that there is judgement, that Christ is our judge. We sing so many hymns about the Christ as judge, but because we like a good tune we often don’t realize what we are singing. There is one hymn based on another scriptural story of the arrival of the Bridegroom, often set to a wonderful Vaughan Williams tune:

Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night,
And blest is he whose loins are girt, whose lamp is burning bright;
But woe to that dull servant, whom the Master shall surprise
With lamp untrimmed, unburning and with slumber in his eyes.

This wedding banquet parable then is not about feasting and rejoicing, not about including all and sundry, but about judgement – and as a lesson to the church. Matthew’s gospel at times is a very ‘churchy’ gospel – you may remember a few weeks ago that I said it is only in Matthew’s gospel that the word ‘church’ ekklesia appears from the lips of Jesus.

We are being reminded that although we may feel that all is well with us within the church that our future relationship with God is secure, and that it is only those outside the church who will have issues – that sense that ‘we’re alright because we are the insiders’. No – this will not do for me and for you. We too are constantly under the judgement of God, but thankfully God does not see as we do, and does not think as we do. He has sent his only son into the world not to condemn the world but to redeem it. This places us under the judgement of HIS kingdom of justice, and compassion.

This message is not lost on St. Paul when he communicates with the Christians at Philippi. Those early Christians lived and practiced their faith with the belief that Christ’s Second Coming was imminent. ‘The Lord is near’ Paul tells them, this is urgent so live and behave accordingly. He doesn’t tell them just to sit back, do nothing and wait, but rather to ‘rejoice’ to be known by their gentleness, to offer prayer and supplications with thanksgiving, and ‘finally beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, 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.’

We are called by God to be clothed with these things. These are our wedding garments, and it is up to us if we choose them. Today’s parable is but a sharp reminder that there is no room for complacency, no back sliding; we must always be alert, ready for when the Bridegroom arrives. And teeth will be provided.