The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A 2019-2020

Isaiah 25:6-10A | Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 | Matthew 22:1-14

May your grace, oh Lord, we pray, at all times go before us and follow after and make us always determined to carry out good works.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.

The scriptures today, on this 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, they’re filled with hope, and hope is that mysterious conviction deep inside of us that promises that are made to us by God will be fulfilled.  We are going to receive the gifts, the promise, everything, but we have a process that we go through that is anything but a nice, smooth, even course going upward, better, nicer, richer.  We go through these cycles of being full and being empty, being filled with understanding and being totally confused, and that’s the way we learn.  That’s the way of the world, the way of human nature.  Paul makes it clear that he’s experiencing that when he says, “There are times when my life is so full I can hardly stand it.  It’s great, and I have abundance.  Everything is working out, and there are other times when I have nothing working out and I’m depressed and discouraged.”  And he says, “I’ve learned how to deal with both.”  One is not a sign that the hope is going to happen and it’s going to be wonderful, and the other is not the opposite of saying it’s all going to go to pieces.  No, there’s a way in which we’ve learned, need to learn, Paul learned that we deal with good times and bad, times where we understand what’s going on, times when we’re totally confused, times when the truth seems evident, times when the truth just can’t be found anywhere.  That should feel familiar to most of us, living in the time we’re living. 

So let’s look at the promise that God has made, because that’s the thing that holds everything together, the promise of God, and one of the things about the song I chose, Deep River, is about the longing of people throughout history of finding a better place, a promised land, a better way to be, a better, fuller experience of life.  It’s like there’s a seed placed within us, and there’s something about being a human being that knows that, wherever we are, there’s more, not necessarily what we have is not enough, but there’s something about the way we are made that makes us feel that there’s something coming, something better, something freer, something more whole and complete.  I want to call that just human nature’s consciousness deep inside of us.  It’s like a seed planted there by God, and we long to know.  And consciousness knowing is not the same thing as figuring things out or having all the right answers or having all the information.  You can have all the information in the world, but what we really need is some kind of understanding of the mystery of how it’s all unfolding.  We need to, in a sense, surrender to the process, and that takes time and maturity and understanding.  

So let’s look at the first reading from Isaiah, because it’s all about the promise, and from the beginning, God seems to have given us, especially if you go to the call of Abraham, that he wants to unify us, call us into one people and take us on a journey.  And where we’re going, we’re not sure, and the image of the journey is to go from slavery to freedom, slavery being that you have to do things because you’re told, and if you don’t, you’ll be punished.  If you do, you’re rewarded.  But freedom is something radically different and somehow not feeling that you’re forced to do things, but you choose to do the things that are necessary for the growth and development of who you’re going to become.  It’s so core to who we are, but we get lost, lost in some kind of self-centeredness that demands that things be different than they are.  It’s really kind of the addiction of the mind and the will.  Need to fix things, make it right, make it good now, instantly.

Let’s look at these promises that Isaiah reminds us of.  First of all, the idea of a mountain is an image of, I think consciousness, a place high up where you can see more.  You see, what I want to do is I want to get you to this mountain.  It’s safe.  You have clear vision, and you’re going to be fed there, rich food, choice wines.  He repeats it, rich food, pure, choice wines.  That notion is that the God that we believe in knows our needs and knows we are struggling, but we have to believe with all of our heart that he’s giving us everything we need to be able to make the next step.  So we should never feel like we are empty or unable to move or we don’t have the energy or the ability.  No, he’s there to feed, feed, feed us, and one of the effects of being fed by God, that is with the truth, something will happen.  The veil that veils people, the web that is woven over nations, he’ll destroy those and wipe away sadness, the tears from every face and forgive us for everything that we’ve done wrong.  That image of the veil that veils all people, you can think of that as a form of racism, a form of anything that separates us.  It’s kind of interesting that we have to wear masks today because of the pandemic, and there’s something about when someone wears a mask, it’s funny if they wear sunglasses, I don’t think that I – if I can’t see their eyes, I still don’t feel like I’m separated, but when I meet people or talk to people in a mask, I have no idea who they are or what their response to me is.  It’s really interesting, but that feeling of separation, isolation is what God said, “I’m going to take that away from you, and all the complicated negotiations, this web that’s woven over nations, that keeps nations fighting each other instead of working together, I’m going to bring peace into the world.  I promise.  I’ll unify you.  I’ll bring peace.  I’ll destroy that which destroys, and I’m going to take away your tears.”  It’s an amazing prophecy, and why do we believe it?  Because he said it.  He said this, and we listen to it, and we believe in it, and we look forward to its working itself out.  And we have rest.  It feels so good.  It’s an amazing, beautiful promise.  Nurture us, unify us, forgive us, bring peace.  

So let’s look at, then, the gospel that’s based on – the first reading and the gospel are always chosen to work together.  So here we have the promise in the first reading, and then what happens in Matthew, we see the response to that promise.  And there’s always a problem with the response, because if somebody doesn’t believe it, then the promise cannot be fulfilled.  It’s weird.  Here’s God saying, “I’m there.  I’m with you.  I’ll do this for you.  All I ask is that you recognize me and allow me to join you,” because here’s the core teaching.  Everything that God promises cannot happen if we decide we’re going to achieve it on our own.  It just won’t happen, and God knows it shouldn’t happen, because the last thing he wants us to do is to feel that he’s created us, placed us on this earth and then left us.  It’s called deism.  God creates the world, checks on us at the end, checks off whether we did right or wrong, rewards or punishes – such a caricature of the beauty of human existence.  

So let’s look at what this story is trying to say.  Jesus again, the third week in a row, he’s talking to the scribes and Pharisees, not the disciples, and they have a problem.  They have a problem with Jesus.  They have a problem with really interpreting the Old Testament properly.  They have lost their way.  They have – I love the description of the Pharisees that Jesus came out with, “making converts twice as fit for hell as you are.”  There’s something about them that was completely off, way off, and what was off, they were enslaving people in a system of the temple where they had to perform in order to be loved, in order to be saved, and if they didn’t, they were condemned.  It’s the classic shadow of all religion.  And so he said, “All right, gentlemen, I want you to realize something.  I’m going to give you a parable.”  And parables were interesting, because they were always made to create in a person – or to ignite an imagination, because logic, linear thinking, this happens and that happens and all that, all that mind and will stuff is valuable, absolutely, and terribly important in the world.  But it’s limited in being able to enter into the spiritual world, which has a mythical, or rather, a mystical side to it.  Unless you can be, in some ways, a mystic in this world, unless you can understand there’s something bigger than just the literal story, you’re going to be lost, and you’re never going to find the kingdom.  It’s like looking at the world today and saying, “I want a nice, clear answer as to what’s happening, why it’s happening and how to fix it.  I want somebody to step in and fix it all.”  Well, that’s not the way life works, and generally, when you look at leadership, the leadership is so important, but in a sense, what’s more important is the individuals’ relationship to each other and to the world that is the power force.  That’s where you want to get to.  You want to get to the ordinary people being filled with an understanding of who they are and why they’re here and who God is and the plan of God.  If you believe in that and you believe he is the truth, then we’ve got this potential of the people being the real power.  How you are dealing with other people is the real power, not so much what a government or a religion is forcing you or telling you to do. 

So we look at this image, and the image is beautiful, the parable.  It’s about a man, a king, who has a wedding.  His son is getting married, and he’s so excited, and he wants to celebrate with everybody.  Well, what’s that?  What’s the incarnation?  God entering into humans.  The Old Testament has a quote that I love. – I go back to it all the time – where God said, “I just want to marry you.  I just want to be inside of you.  I just want to be a partner with you, and I’m not going to take away your freedom.  I’m going to be there to enable you to be fully who I intended you to be, and it’s not a competition.  It’s not who’s in charge.  It’s like I’m the source of whatever you need, and you make the decisions, and you make the choices.  But you need wisdom, and you need understanding, and you need compassion and empathy.”  Those are things that human beings can – we do have that capacity, but somehow God says, “If you let me inside of you and let me be the source of these things along with you, then –” Really this is what I love about God.  He’s always asking us to do something that doesn’t quite make sense, and if we make it literal, it just dies.  “Okay then, God, you do everything.  I just sit here like a puppet, and you’re working through me.”  No.  “Well then, I’m going to do everything on my own.  Then that’s the way it’s going to be.”  No, no.  It’s always both and.  It’s always this mysterious – you can’t go to either/or in the spiritual world.  It’s not that clear.  It’s mysterious.  So this mysterious union is what we’re here for, this incredible union.  And so everyone’s invited, and the people who were invited were the people who were the religious leaders.  And they had no intention of doing it, either because they were too busy – one goes to his farm; one goes to his son’s work – either they were too busy doing whatever they were doing, or they simply were more demonic, in a sense, or were darker, when they would say, “No.  I think I know this message is going to come and save people.  So I’m going to stop it.  So I’m going to kill these people that are talking about this.”  That’s the Pharisees.  And so Jesus said, “Well, all right.  I’m going to bring everybody in, good as well as bad.”  And that’s what he does.  He welcomes everyone into this banquet, but there’s something curious about the ending of this story, which I think is the heart of it.  Think of it.  These people are grabbed off the streets, and so then they say – the king says, “Where’s your wedding garment?”  And that doesn’t make any sense.  They just were called in.  Parables don’t make sense, but what was the deal?  He said, “You are not understanding.  When I call you to this banquet, I don’t just call you by name and just as an anonymous person.  I’ve chosen you, and my work inside of you is very deliberate.  I need your gifts, your wisdom, who you are.  I need your history.  I need your ancestors’ influence on you, all that.  I’ve chosen you to do a particular work with a group of people.”  That’s full consciousness.  When God said, “I want you to come and serve me,” well, it’s not just this, “Okay, I’m just one of the many that’s being hired by a company.”  “I want you to work for me, but that’s it.  Go work for me.”  No.  He said, “I have a job for you, a particular job.”  That’s the beauty of it.  “I’ve given you a destiny, and I long for you to say yes, because we together can complete it.”

Father, you’ve promised you are in us.  You are with us.  You will hold us up.  You will give us strength.  At times it seems so confusing and difficult and demanding so much of us in terms of giving in to what we don’t really want, like not having the kind of job or the kind of support.  So give us, at this time, more strength, more ability to trust in you than ever and knowing that the things that make us strong, the things that make us happy, the things that make us confident that we’re doing something really good is founded in the way we treat our brothers and sisters.  We look to authority to fix the world, but really it’s only fixable by ourselves when we deal with the way we deal with each other.  Bless us with trust and faith in your plan but most especially in our capacity to love, forgive, nurture and care for one another.  And we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.