Puttin on the Ritz

Oct. 12, 2014      
Isa. 25:1-9, Matt 21:33-46

I heard a story from Larry King on the radio this past week where he shared a story of Betty & John who had been married for 60 years. Betty made as part of her commitment to John to have a healthy lifestyle. As best as she could she made sure they ate health foods.

The last 10 years of their lives Betty changed their meal routine to include bran in most of their meals. John wasn’t overly happy about this change.

Then Betty & John died and they’re standing at the pearly gates with St Peter to welcome them. John was amazed at the beauty of heaven and told St. Peter this is a great place… WOW!!! John then asked Peter… do you have bran here? St. Peter just smiled as John took it all in.

Then Peter started showing them around heaven and Betty & John were just amazed at the beauty of it all. St. Peter then asked if they were hungry. Sure… said John, and Peter took them to the banquet room and John’s eyes grew with excitement as he saw the banquet table full of everything imaginable to eat. The fruit & vegetables were so colorful and fresh… the roast beef… lamb… you name it and it was there.

John then turned to Betty and said… “Why did you feed us so much bran?” “We could have been experiencing all of this 10 years earlier.”

Prayer

Here we are again… another difficult story from Jesus. It’s not about a vineyard… but about a banquet. And this story is really bizarre. It starts out simple enough… but then gets really crazy. People don’t show up… and the people who do get beat up and killed. Then the king invites people off the street, then deposes them because they’re not dressed well enough. Then it gets really absurd and the king burns down the city. And those remaining get tied up and thrown out. What are we to make of this story from Jesus?

First… a couple of things this story is not…

1. This story is NOT a real event… this did not really happen. But is a method of speech Jesus uses often to get his point across especially over against the righteous religious leaders. Jesus is using Hyperbole or Exaggeration to make his point again to mostly the Pharisee’s.

2. This story is NOT a matter of “Jews Vs Christians” that often characterizes many a pastor’s sermons. Theologian Lance Pape says, “Matt and his community understand themselves as faithful Jews who had responded to God’s call to the kingdom banquet, but others had inexplicably rejected the great invitation and good news.” So… this story from Jesus is really a parable of an intense family feud. Emphasis on “FAMILY” because Matt. and his community are struggling with what it means to be faithful to the God of Abraham or to whether Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah as the prophets promised. So… Last week’s story was about the Religious leaders failing to nurture the vineyard and today… it seems to be a skirmish within Matt’s faith community.

A little background about Matt’s community…

Matt’s faith community is primarily Jewish and their faith understanding is tied to Abraham and the Torah, and the prophetic promises of a Messiah. Think of the challenge many of you experienced when St. Peter’s & Gethsemane merged…   

They have an understanding of God’s judgment along with God’s promises of salvation through a Messiah. They also have an understanding that they are God’s chosen people. And… they are struggling with their Jewishness is good or bad if they believe in Jesus. To go along with this struggle they are also being marginalized and experiencing alienation & rejection. An illustration of this might be something like… “What do we do with people we love, but don’t believe as we do?”

Often I think our response would be to condemn those who believe differently. We most often see this with very conservative religious groups. They seem to offer an argument of what we disagree with rather than what there is in common. I also think people might view this story out of its greater God context and use it to point out that all Christians are judgmental. Rather than point out where Jesus starts the story as the kingdom of God is like a wedding banquet where everyone is invited. Many tend to focus on the later part of the story as gospel when the good news is actually embedded in the invitation.

I believe we need to hear the latter in this story. That being… God is more interested in inviting all to the banquet despite all the good, bad, and the ugly. God is most interested in an expansive and radical love and inclusiveness.  And… I believe this story really offers us an invitation to forgiveness & Grace rather than punishment & fear.

Closing

I believe theologian David Lose says it best… “If we can practice trusting God enough to resist condemnation but instead pray for those we disagree with, we might find ourselves more capable of sharing why what we believe is important to us rather than just insisting that believing is what matters. If we respect the questions, beliefs, and struggles of those we disagree, we might be able to offer care and support in the name and example of the one who died and was raised rather than condemn, and we may just be the most powerful witness we can offer.”