A Wedding Garment

Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The parable we pick up today often gets lumped in with those of the end time or eschatological parables. And being about the Wedding Feast is certainly has some of those shade. But how this one is told it has much more to do with the impact of the gospel in this age. The parable is about two things: 1) the invitation and summons to the feast and 2) the wedding garment. And how this sermon thinks about that division is grace alone and faith alone. And I’d assert like all the longer parables you really need to identify the part that causes offence to hear it. The offence in the first part is in the change and reminder of the grace. You have to accept it. In every generation there are those who take the invitation – the grace – for granted. They assume it is theirs, they presume upon God, because of their name or lineage or learning or some other part. But the Kingdom of Heaven is for those who respond to the summons. Now is the wedding feast. Come. And the Kingdom is for those who show up. Who accept the grace at its calling.

The second offence point is both easier and tougher. It is the wedding garment. The unlimited grace of God is on offer, but it can only be received in one way – through Christ, through faith. There are all kinds of reasons people might show up at a wedding, even crash a wedding. But you don’t get to crash the eschatological banquet in your way, wearing your clothes whatever they might be. You have to have the wedding garment. Which is faith in Christ alone. This is the distinction summed up in the aphorism “many are called, but few are chosen.” The grace of God is available to all. The call of the gospel is universal. But there are many who want it their own way. The chosen wear the righteousness of Christ.

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Rejoice! You’re Invited to the Wedding

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This is midweek advent 2 and for us the last of the Advent midweeks this year. A Short Season. Part of that is we are going caroling next week. I ran with LCMS worship’s themes for the season this year. And they did what most LCMS products do. They gave you two hours of stuff for something you want around 25 mins. That is much better than the flip which is 10 mins of content and you’ve got to fill an hour. (There is a reason BigEva places go through the refrains of the worship songs multiple times.)

The biggest problem for me with jumping off of someone else work – something I rarely do because of this – is connecting the theme and material to the lives of the people present. If I was only teaching the scriptures this wouldn’t be a problem, because most study of most things isn’t practical. You learn calculus because “it’s the next thing” not because you’ll employ it in the job. And the dirty secret of education is that the things we label least practical – say literature – are the stuff that is real. And preaching is supposed to be real. Theology is for everyday living. The bridge here is two fold. We all have piety practices and a shared one in advent is the candle wreath. There are lots of meanings given to each candle. And older form of that piety that we connect with theological virtues connected with the 4 last things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. And the Wedding Feast is the biblical picture of Heaven.

The text, the parable of the wedding banquet, establishes a contrast between the invitation to the wedding and what those who refuse to go do instead and the outcome of the choice. It is the contrast between tragedy and comedy. The invitation you have – Come to the Wedding Feast – tells you about this life. All Comedies end in a wedding. The road may be laughter and tears and cringe, but it ends in love.

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Worthy

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The Gospel text is the parable of the Wedding Feast. It immediately follows last week’s text – the wicked tenants. So they are covering some of the same territory, but this one expands on the tenants in two ways. First, it answers what is counted as the wickedness. In the wedding feast is it described as being unworthy. And it is simply dishonoring the King and his son. The second way it expands is the Wedding Feast parable continues to add how the new tenants or the second invitees are both called and treated. And it is this second part that is the most important for the church. This sermon meditates on both the lessons of former Israel for us, and for what is called from us to be worthy. Or maybe the best way to put it is how are we not unworthy? Which is everything to do with the wedding garment.

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Lacking Wedding Garments?

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus tells three parables in a row in this section of the gospel. We’ve read each of them on successive weeks. They spring from a confrontation with the Priests in the temple, but this one – the Wedding Feast – I believe has much less to do with them directly. The two sons has already told them where they have gone wrong. The wicked tenants has rendered the judgement against them and essentially removed them from office. The Wedding Feast is forward looking. “The reign of heaven has become like….” such a wedding feast. This tells us what it is like now. The call is universal. Come to the wedding feast. But it is possible to fall into the same error as ancient Israel, to disrespect and dishonor the Son.

The real question to ask isn’t what is the wedding garment. There are lots of answers that all have some amount of truth. The deeper question is what does it mean to lack it? And to that there is one answer, to dishonor the Son. Is there anywhere in your life you are in open rebellion against the reign of the Christ? Today is the day of grace. Prepare. Put on the garment before you go.

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Parabolic Questions

Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14
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The text is the third parable in a row that Jesus has told to the Chief Priests and the Elders in the temple. By this time the meaning at the time of telling is obvious, but the question is what does it mean on the other side of the parabola’s line of symmetry.

This sermon, with the help of Augustine and Gregory the Great, stakes out what it means for the church. In particular it looks at three things: 1) Where are we confronted with Jesus today?, 2) What do we take the wedding garment as? and 3) Do these things themselves point to something greater? Along the way we tackle a few other modern questions that cling to this parable.

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