28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Cycle A 22-23

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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, God forever and ever, amen.

Most of my life has been lived out of an understanding that I have of God that flows so directly from the Old Testament, a God who had a conditional love for his people, a God who simply would look to them and ask them to do things for him, and when they failed to do it, God would reject them and cast them out. There’s that moment in the early days of salvation history where God looks at all the people that he created and says, “I see nothing here that I’m attracted to. They’re all filled with darkness and evil, and I want to destroy all of them.” And then he reconsiders and saves one, and the first covenant is made with God and his people to not destroy them. It’s the covenant of Noah. So having this as my image of God, it’s easy to see that I was drawn, in my simplicity of my understanding of the church at the time, when I was a child and even well into my ministry ⎯ I realized that my job was to seek approval from God. That was my core reason for being. I was taught so clearly as a young boy that sin was the thing that separated you from God, and whenever you sinned, he pulled away. And then this institution that he established, the church, particularly the Catholic Church, because I was taught then it was the only means of salvation, which gave me a strange feeling of sadness for those not part of my religion and then kind of a sense of pride that I’m with the real religion ⎯ all of that was changed so radically by the Vatican Council that teaches that all religions that seek the truth, seek God’s wisdom are means to salvation. But there I was, living in this church that had this conditional lover at the head of it, and so it’s easy to see why I was drawn to Jesus, because Jesus was the one who loved and who showed his love for me and would do something for me. And I didn’t quite understand it, but he somehow would do away with any responsibility I had to make up for my sins, which I was never taught that was true. I was always taught there would be punishment. Even if you had your sins forgiven, I was taught you would be punished for what you did.

So the idea of Jesus completely freeing me from the God of the Old Testament never really sunk in, but now it seems so different when I look at it. And I see the God of the Old Testament is limited in his ability to reveal who he is, because he had to deal with people the way they were. And they were not open as fully as they would be one day to the mystery of a lover seeking them instead of them being told to seek the lover. Nothing changed more for me in my understanding of my religious life than recognizing the initiator of what we are called to be engaged in. Our relationship with God does not primarily flow from us to God but from God to us. He is the passionate lover.

I remember reading once a phrase that I thought was so interesting since I’ve always grown in my understanding that everything in religion is relational. It’s all about our relationships, God with us, us with ourselves, us with others, and the thing that I was so struck by, by this particular author, he said, “The whole idea of the way God has chosen to work with us is surprisingly simple and embarrassingly intimate.” He wants to live with you. He wants to marry you. He wants to stay with you day and night. He wants to be with you in all the situations you’re in, and he’s saying, “If you allow me to do that, something will be established, and it’s the thing that I’ve always planned for my people.” The relationship that humans have with God and the ministry that God is able to awaken in us and use us ⎯ he needs our part in this, that together we will do something that saves the world and establishes something here in this world, on this earth, a thing called the kingdom of God. The goal is not simply to try to get to heaven. The goal is to try to make this world that you live in and I live in right now as fully in sync with who we are and what we’re here for and what we’re called to be as we can. And God is saying, “I don’t want you to be the one that takes that responsibility on so that you can please me so that I’ll give you a reward at the end of your life and you can go to heaven.” No. He wants a partnership. He wants something from us, but he is the initiator of that relationship, because that’s what he wants, an intimacy with you. Using your wisdom, your knowledge, your background, your weaknesses, all of that with God in you, you can do what he wants to see happen in this world, and that is the creation of a kingdom, a place of peace, not without struggle, not without pain, not without problems.

So I want to go back to two Sundays ago and last Sunday, as well as this Sunday, of course, to talk about something that I see so clearly about this relationship that God is pursuing, the one he wants so badly. It has the need, or it creates the need in us to do something, to freely do something, to choose to be with him, to choose him as he presents himself to us as one who longs for union and communion. It doesn’t just happen. So you look at that ⎯ two weeks ago, we had the image of someone who is told by his father to go to work in his vineyard, that the vineyard is the work of creating the kingdom of God. And he says, the first one says, “No.” And the next one says, “Yes.” And then, like true human nature, the one who said no thinks about it and wonders about it and ponders it and says, “Well, I think I will go.” And the one who said yes right away, he just forgot about it and didn’t pay any attention to it any longer. What is that about? When we’re presented with the images that God longs for us to participate in with him, usually the first response, and it seems a natural response, is, “Whoa, no.” Either, “I’m not worthy,” which should be one thing you’d get from the Old Testament. Another would be, “I don't know how to do that,” and then, “I don’t want to be religious and separate myself from the world and everybody around me that’s involved in all this stuff. But then when he ponders it and says, “You know what? I think this might work. I think this might be good,” that choice, that we look at God looking at us and say, “Okay, let’s try this. I’m open to it. I’m open to partnership with you.”

The next gospel, the next Sunday, is about servants who are working in the vineyard, and they become extremely caught up in their own self-interests and greed. And they’ve decided, instead of working for the master of the vineyard producing grapes, they’re stealing from him constantly, and that’s about what it is to be empowered by God, is not in any way, shape or form to use that power in a negative way, in a greedy way, in a taking and using way. And that’s a major part of this. When God empowers you to be the one that you’re intended to be, you will be powerful, and how careful one must be with the power of God. The commandment that says, “Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain,” means not to use the power of God for anything that’s self-centered. So the kingdom has to have, or the partners of God have to have a desire in sync with God that is there. Their power, their gifts are only there in the mode of service for others, and indirectly, in a sense, serving them with the satisfaction, the joy that can only come from a life of service.

So there we see not only do we need to make our own decision about choosing this relationship. It must be focused on others, and then in today’s reading, it’s really interesting, because what is clear is the kingdom is described in this passage beautifully as a wedding feast. What could be better? It’s a wedding feast where you’re invited to come to a celebration of union between two entities, man and woman usually but in this case, divinity and humanity. That’s the celebration that the New Testament is all about, God’s full plan revealed. He chooses to marry us and become part of us in our everyday life, bringing life and freedom and hope to the people around us. And so the fact that people have ignored this invitation is probably the most common thing that’s going on right now. Most people are too busy to talk about any kind of deep connection with the sacred. It’s more about, “What do I need to do to make myself healthy? What do I need to do to make money? What do I need to do to make friends, keep friends? What do I do to have fun?” All that, and that’s okay. Those are things that are important, but when you’re not paying attention ⎯ not paying attention to what it is that you’re invited in to ⎯ I can see where you’re just busy. That’s kind of a scary thought. “Thank you, God, for working with me or at least inviting me to work with you, but I’m too busy. I’ve got other things I’ve got to do. I’ve got business to take care of.” But then what you see so clear, that that isn’t the will of God, but he wants everyone to enter into this relationship, everyone. So when those people who are invited don’t come, he said, “Look, kill those people, and then I want you to go out and get everybody in here for this feast.” And so they have the good and the bad and everyone. This is a beautiful image that this invitation from God goes out to everyone.

And then the interesting thing, maybe the most dramatic thing in this particular passage, is everyone’s been drawn right off the road into this banquet, so there’s no way that they would have a wedding garment on. They wouldn’t run home, get a tuxedo, a ballgown or whatever. No, so when he sees that they’re not dressed right, he casts them out. Now, what is that? It’s so clearly that, when one understands this relationship with God, when one is working in that, they resonate something. They resonate this Spirit of God, this willingness to serve and to love. It’s just so attractive and so beautiful. It’s the outer garment that one perceives, and so when he’s saying, if you don’t change, if you come in here, even though you’re not worthy maybe, to say that, or not so much worthy but if you’re ⎯ there I go back to my old self. If you’re not interested, okay, but if you’re here and you understand the celebration of divinity and humanity, you understand who you are now called to be, then you will be changed. There’s no showing up at the wedding celebration and automatically becoming in union or moving to greater union with God. It’s a choice. So the idea that those who come have been given an opportunity to choose, and the unfortunate thing he says is that most of the time, people don’t realize that they’ve been chosen, and they walk away. And that is a deep sadness in God and in the person that witnesses so clearly what we are to be. Jesus, he came to explain to people not with words but by actions. His very nature was human and divine, 100 percent both. He’s the model. That’s what we need to focus on, not our worthiness but a choice that we’re free to make. Amen.

Father, your invitation is so exciting and scary at the same time. Bless us with the courage to make the right choice so that we can experience the world as you intended us to experience it, with things that are difficult and things that are so wonderful they’re beyond our imagining. Help us to trust in you and everything you teach, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.