In
less than one month I will travel to Alexandria, VA. At Christ Church in the
old part of town I will don a nice new tuxedo, put on patent leather shoes, and
tie up my bowtie to take part in one of my best friend’s weddings. Since that
couple got engaged I have been excitedly looking forward to that day. “Why?”
you ask. I’ll tell you why. Because I love weddings and I love a good party!
Who
can withstand the joy of a beautiful ceremony? Who doesn’t love dining on
delicious food in the company of many friends? Who can resist getting out onto
the dance floor? I mean there will even be cake!
What
happens though when things do not go as planned? Almost every wedding I have
attended has that one moment when something goes wrong, and usually that is the
thing everyone charmingly remembers. But…what if it’s something big? What if no
one were to show up? What if people burned the invitations instead? What would
happen if say a hurricane interrupted the wedding making it impossible for the
celebration to go on? Well, I pray that no storm will befall my friends’
wedding, but back at the beginning of September that very thing happened in
Houston.
September
2nd was not what Shelley and Chris Holland had hoped it would be.
The plans of the last six months and all the details big and small surrounding
their dream wedding were swept away in the destruction of Hurricane Harvey. So
what did they do? Did they decide that it would be cancelled? Since many guests
couldn’t come shouldn’t they just call the whole thing off? Even with the
catering, the cake, the chapel, and the reception venue gone the couple decided
that the wedding would go on just maybe not as planned.
The
congregation, wedding planner, and pastor at the Holland’s church helped this
couple to have—not their dream wedding—but something else, something far more
profound. Even though Pastor Jorge Cardenas’ own home and the Church on the
Rock in Katy, TX were flooded, he helped them find other accommodations. Even
with so much destruction all around them—the people of that church found a way
to celebrate!
The
pastor summed up the experience to a local TV station, “The reality is that we
all go through a crisis of our faith in moments like this... The church and my
house, all gone and then I said, ‘Wait a minute, why not me?’ I can take it because
I have faith.” The bride marveled, “WOW! We are so grateful to these sweet
people... Such a testimony of God's
faithfulness! Harvey we WON!”[1]
They didn’t have to respond in this way.
The
pastor could have said, “Sorry, I just can’t be there. My house is ruined. My
life is a washed up pile of rubble. Try back in a month.” The bride could have
just said, “I don’t want to participate unless it is just perfect.” What
happens when we are extended an invitation to be part of the celebration, but
it’s not exactly what we think it will be or dream it will be? What happens
when we let life get in the way instead of accepting an invitation? What if
that invitation is extended by a king?
We
don’t have the same affinity for royalty as in the past. Still if you got an
invite to a Royal Wedding wouldn’t you be there? If we received an invitation from
God to be part of the celebration wouldn’t we show up? Of course we would, so
why is it that we don’t?
The
parable Jesus tells in today’s Gospel lesson stands out as exceedingly
difficult. Often it gets hijacked and turned into something terribly
anti-Semitic. That bad interpretation goes: the invited guests are the Chosen
People of Israel, they don’t show up and are murderous instead, and Christians
are the ones who do show up! Honestly I think this reading of the text makes
Jesus, a righteous Jew himself, weep. For not only does this make us supposed
followers of Jesus smug, arrogant, and even violent at times, it also is a bad
interpretation that prevents us from seeing what God is truly speaking to us.
This
story is about God’s invitation to us—all of us, at all times and in all places.
So often though, we ignore the call of God to come join in the festivities. We
are too busy with work, with our business, with the worries of life—with bills,
doctor’s appointments, the latest political drama, being the right kind of spouse/parent/grandparent/friend/person,
and proving how right we are and how wrong everyone else is—that we never see
the invitation with our name on it.
There
is however an invitation. You—yes you—are invited to celebrate God’s Son’s
wedding. It’s happening right here, right now, exactly where you are. Jesus
came to start something—to inaugurate a grand celebration—that binds heaven to
earth and earth to heaven. We recall that mystical start of the festivities
every Sunday when we gather around God’s Table to share in a meal that
stretches across all time and space. There we discover that Christ is dwelling
within us and we in Him. But, this invitation does not only get extended to you
and me here on Sundays—it’s happening in all times and in all places.
8
o’clock: We say in Eucharistic Prayer during this service, “It is very meet,
right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places,
give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty, everlasting God” (BCP, p. 333).
10:30:
We say in the Eucharistic Prayer during this service, “It is right, and a good
and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth” (BCP, p.
361).
When
we give thanks it opens us up to see the festivities all around us. We say
thank you to God and then, our world changes because in being grateful we are
able to see that we are already involved not only in the cares and occupations
of this world, but also in the life of God and the Kingdom of God happening
here and now.
Once
we are grateful and we do notice that God is inviting us to celebrate with Him,
how do we respond? We may worry because we see at the end of today’s parable
one was kicked out for not wearing the right clothes. This is not an episode of
“What Not To Wear.” This is Jesus telling us something very important. Once we
accept the invitation to be part of life with God, something is required of us.
We
must allow that life to transform us. It is not enough to let God in just a
little bit. It is not enough to allow God to have part of our lives. It is not
enough for God to transform us only how we want to be transformed. Life in the
big party that is the way of Christ will profoundly change us! To be in the
party is to allow it to transform us. This is not about something we must achieve
on our own, rather we must let God’s transforming love dress us in the finest
clothes for the festivities!
You
have been invited. You have been invited to be part of how Jesus is binding
together heaven and earth, earth and heaven. You have been invited to the
greatest feast of all time. How will you participate? How will you be transformed
by God? How will you let God celebrate with you and clothe you in His splendor?
Because I bet like me you too love a good party.
x
[1] Aiello, McKenna. This
Couple Took Their Wedding Photos in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey's
Destruction. September 6, 2017.
http://www.eonline.com/news/878245/this-couple-took-their-wedding-photos-in-the-aftermath-of-hurricane-harvey-s-destruction
(accessed October 12, 2017).
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