Pentecost22, Proper 23, Year A

October 12, 2008

This has been one of those weeks when I’ve felt like I’m not doing anything very well.

I feel cynical and crabby.

So it was a bad week for me to read about weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We’re looking for comfort and we get “many are called but few are chosen.”

I’m not comforted.

So I need to talk about a couple of things before I get to my point.

First off I know I’m not the only one that feels discombobulated.

I can’t even wrap my mind around $700 trillion dollar bailouts or $400,000 executive spa retreats or 500 point stock market drops in one day.

I hear and read the words and I’m not quite sure how to feel.

We’re still getting in our cars each morning and driving to work or school or soccer practice.

There’s still food at Raleys and gas at the Shell station.

But there’s still this unsettled, kind of low grade buzz of fear and anxiety.

There’s just too much information about stuff that seems surreal.

And the truth seems almost impossible to grab a hold of.

What is the truth about how we got into this mess?

And what is the truth about how to get out of it?

I’m not asking your opinions by the way.

Because if I polled 40 of you I would probably get 40 different opinions that would be all over the map.

We each have the same opportunity to be overloaded with news and information.

And we each draw our own conclusions.

And then on top of that we’re in the middle of this huge political campaign season.

I don’t know if I’m going to make it to November 4^th.

I watched part of the debate on Tuesday night but I had to flip to the Food Channel every so often just to keep my head from exploding.

What is up with the state of our public discourse?

People should have their ears boxed by their mothers for talking about each other the way they do.

I don’t care who you are supporting in any of the races…there’s enough shame and blame to go around.

Public rhetoric seems to be all about the end…which would be winning… justifying the means.

Truth?

I’m not sure it’s at the top of the list of what to consider when making a point.

Sometimes truth doesn’t even seem to be on the list at all.

I’m not sure we recognize the truth nowadays.

I’m incredibly distressed…I’m a wreck.

So thank you so much Matthew for telling me about the guy who is invited to the wedding banquet and then gets the big boot.

Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The guy is innocent, right?

All he did was accept an invitation, show up, and then he finds out he isn’t wearing the right clothes.

It doesn’t seem like it’s his fault.

This really is one of those Bible stories that sound like we should just file it away if we’re into a loving God kind of thing.

It seems like God is picky and unfair and capricious.

Is Jesus telling us that it just seems like God loves everyone and wants everyone to get saved…

But really, when it comes down to it, God is just going to chose a few people to go to heaven?

Many are called, but few are chosen?

What is the truth?

Jesus is telling this story in Matthew to the Jews.

They’ve just confronted him in the temple, asking who gave him authority to teach.

They’re trying to catch him up somehow.

And Jesus tells them three stories.

Two weeks ago we heard the story of the two brothers who were asked to work in the vineyard by their father.

One says no, but does work, and the other says yes, but doesn’t work.

And Jesus asks which one did the will of the Father.

Last week we heard Jesus tell the story of the wicked tenants who bludgeon and kill the landowners slaves and then his son and then get the land taken away from them and given to someone else.

And now Jesus tells the Jews about this wedding banquet for the king’s son.

The people invited at first by the king say no and even kill his slaves.

So the king says to invite everyone…the good and the bad.

Then the king notices this one guy who doesn’t have the right wedding robe.

The guy is speechless when the king asks him how he got in.

And then the king gives him the big boot.

What’s that about?

Does God love people, invite them in and then judge them based on their clothes?

It doesn’t seem like that could be true.

How can we understand this?

God’s grace, mercy, and love, are freely offered.

The invitation is being given to the good and the bad.

Yet, somehow, it’s not enough to simply recognize the invitation.

God is wanting a response.

God is wanting us take the grace offered but not to take it for granted.

All of the guests at the wedding banquet are recognized by the wedding robe they wear.

And yet this one guy is without the wedding robe and has no answer for why he doesn’t have one.

He was ready to accept God’s offer of love and forgiveness and solace.

He was ready to come to the party.

But he forgot to do what it takes to be recognizable as a guest.

It’s a picture of our everyday struggle with faith and works.

On the one had we rely on being saved by faith through grace.

And on the other hand there is this persistent message in the Bible that it matters to God how we live our lives.

Somehow we need to be living our lives in such a way that we can be recognized as followers of Jesus.

Many are called but few are chosen.

I suppose you can look at it like a scare tactic, that the odds are against us getting into heaven.

But that doesn’t seem consistent with all of what Jesus says in scripture.

It seems more likely that Jesus is wanting the Jews, his listeners, to take very seriously God’s desire for them to be changed by grace.

God wants us to hear the invitation to be loved and forgiven, to come to the banquet.

And God wants us to see the importance of living our lives in such a way that we can be recognized as followers of Jesus.

Don’t take grace for granted.

Do strive every day to live a life that is pleasing to God.

Remember way back at the beginning I said I needed to talk about a couple of things before I made my point.

So now I’m actually to the part where I make my point.

Did you hear what Paul said in our lesson in Philippians today?

Let me summarize it.

Be gentle.

Pray with thanksgiving and let your worries go.

Pray with thanksgiving and you can have the peace of God guarding your heart and mind.

You want the God of peace to be with you?

Do this.

Think about things that are honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

There’s more.

It is possible to be content whether you have a lot or a little.

What’s the secret to having that contentment?

To rely on and be strengthened by God alone.

If I am looking for the way out of feeling crabby and discombobulated and anxious…here it is.

If we’re looking for truth…here it is in Philippians.

There is a way for us to work at living our lives with peace and contentment.

Even if politicians and finances of this country are out of control.

There is a way to live differently…to be citizens of the KOG first.

To make that happen, to be changed, you may have to turn off CNN and read the Bible instead every so often.

Read Philippians…it’s four chapters of the best reminders ever.

Chapter 1…live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Chapter 2…let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.

Chapter 3…I press on toward the goal for the prize of heaven.

And what we heard in chapter 4 today.

This is truth.

This is what will give us the strength to follow Jesus no matter what.

No matter how bad things get in politics or with finances.

We don’t have to wonder where the truth is in this.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, 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. ⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. ¹²I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. ¹³I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Do you want to know and feel the God of peace in your life?

Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, excellent, worthy of praise…think about those things.

Do you know the secret of being content with whatever you have?

You can do all things through God who strengthens us.

We don’t have to live with fear and anxiety.

God is making a way for us.

Peace and contentment are real possibilities.

We can trust God…That is truth.