Clothes

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

October 15, 2017

23 Proper A

          My friend Rachel had four daughters: Megan, Kathryn, Chelsea, and Greta.  The family tradition was that when one of the daughters became engaged, all four sisters, Rachel and Rachel’s mother went off together to shop for the dress.  Not only do they all go shopping together, they all had to agree on the dress!  This sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.  First of all, I am a strictly functional shopper.  For me, shopping is a necessary evil, best done online, and not an event or a group activity.  Secondly, I’ve known the four daughters either since they were little girls or since before they were born.  They are very different and have very different tastes.  The idea that they would agree on a wedding dress is hard to fathom.  But they do!  They know each other so well that they can put aside their own likes and dislikes and help look for the perfect dress for the sister getting married.   For Rachel, her mother, and her four daughters, shopping for a wedding dress was about more than the search for an item of clothing.  The shopping event was a way of entering fully into the joy, the anticipation and excitement of the upcoming marriage, of welcoming this new step in their sister’s life. 

          This morning, just when we think Jesus’ bizarre parable of the wedding banquet is going to end happily ever after, the king realizes that one of his guests is not wearing a wedding robe.  "Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?" The poor guy is speechless.  Remember that the king had sent his servants out twice to gather the invited guests to the wedding banquet, and they had refused to come in no uncertain terms.  After registering his displeasure with the invited guests in an equally clear manner, the servants are sent to gather up people off the streets to fill the banquet hall.  Everyone at the party had put down whatever they were doing, and come to the wedding feast at the summons of the king.  Our under dressed guest had probably been coming home from work or was out running errands, and was dressed accordingly.  He is speechless at the accusation that he is under dressed since his day had not included a wedding banquet when he left home that morning.  He was doing the king a favor by helping to fill the banquet hall.  Most likely he did not even know the king’s son!  In what seems like a most unfair turn of events, the king, who we already know to have a bit of a problem with his temper, says to his attendants "Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.'  So much for happily ever after!

 Moses has to deal with a different sort of party.  When Moses is delayed on the mountain with God, the people think Moses has disappeared forever and they need a new plan.  The new plan is to take all the golden rings that are on the ears of the people and make a golden calf that the people can worship.  Once the calf has been completed, Aaron calls a festival for the Lord and the people spend a whole day offering burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being to the calf.  Then the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel in their own creation.  The people wanted all the benefits of being God’s chosen people, but did not want to trust God and actually live as God’s people. 

God is livid.  God tells Moses to leave him alone so God’s wrath may burn hot against the people and God can destroy them.  God sounds a lot like the king in the parable when the king sends the troops to destroy the murders and burn down their city, or when the king throws the under dressed guest into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In the case of the story of the golden calf, however, Moses is able to talk God down.  Moses reminds God of what the Egyptians will say if God destroys the Hebrew people after delivering them from slavery.  Moses also reminds God of God’s promise to Abraham, which will be broken if God

destroys the people.  So God’s mind is changed and the people are spared.

The king’s wrath is understandable when the guests refuse to come to the banquet.  God’s fury is understandable when the Hebrew people worship the golden calf.  But what about the king’s fury at the underdressed guest at the wedding?  What is that fury about?

In the first century, people often traveled by foot for days to get to a wedding banquet.  Rather than carry their best clothes with them, the custom was for wedding garments to be provided to the guests as a form of hospitality.   Here is a guest who came to the banquet to eat the food, drink the wine, listen to the music, and enjoy the festivities, but refused to wear the clothes that were provided.  The king did not expect the man to show up wearing the right clothes.  The king did expect the man to wear the clothes he was given.  The story is a parable, with many exaggerations and unlikely scenarios, but the message is clear: all are invited to the banquet in the Kingdom of God, and all who come are expected to put on the clothes they are given and enter into the joy of all that God is doing in the world.  The under-dressed man just wanted to enjoy the party.  Apparently, he had no interest in entering into the joy of the occasion.  So, he was thrown out into the utter darkness.

We are guests in the Kingdom of God.  We have been called to a banquet for which none of us are really prepared.  What clothes have we been provided to wear at this feast as we enter into God’s joy?  I believe Paul gives us a description of those clothes in the reading from Philippians.  Paul says “Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.  Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.”  Then Paul writes “Whatever if 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 on these things.”  These are the clothes God calls us to wear as guests at the great banquet. Some days wearing those clothes is easier that other days.  Some days we just want to show up and sing the hymns, receive the bread and wine, enjoy each other’s company and be on our way, forgetting about what is just, pure, excellent, and worthy of praise.  We want the benefits of being God’s people, without having to actually live as God’s people.  The parable of the banquet reminds us that God expects more than that of us.  God expects us to wear the clothes we have been given, and enter fully into the banquet God has prepared for us.

                                                                             Amen.