Sometimes Alleluia: 19th Sunday after Pentecost

19th Sunday After Pentecost Live Video

Let’s start with three deep breaths and relax….

Opening Reflection

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo3HgtT_OiE&ab_channel=FaithDisplayed

let us begin today’s worship

Call to Worship:

L: Invited by God,

P: we gather to worship.

L: Partnering with God,

P: we gather to grow in faith

and to change the world.

Opening Hymn #55 rejoice you pure in heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V3bi93G2J0&ab_channel=joenwayne

(All candles lit.)

Matthew 22:1-14

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

22 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The word of God for the people of God!

P: Thanks be to God

Sermon.

Today’s gospel reading is an interesting one to say the least. Mathew has seemed to take two stories and blended them into one. The story of the wedding banquet and the story of the vineyard holder. Both appear to be harsh and cruel.

But let’s place ourselves in the context. Professor Sharon Ringe of Wesley theological reflects…

“Think back over the recent celebration of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. It was the event of the season!

Can you imagine those invited not attending, and even making a joke of it? Even those of us not bowled over by royal pomp and splendor caught the reruns on television, to catch a glimpse of The Dress, or simply because we were charmed by the sweet affection evident between the bride and groom.

And oh, the "wedding garments" in evidence, from the elegant and cheerful yellow ensemble worn by Queen Elizabeth, to the military uniforms covered with medals, to the extravagant hats and "fascinators" (Who had even heard the word before this event?) of other women guests!

That is the type of event evoked by the beginning of the parable, depicted as directed once again to "them"--the chief priests and elders who have been the audience of the previous two parables (21:23). It is a story of etiquette and bad manners that escalate into violence, and of an arbitrary decree by the king reminiscent of the royal folly Alice encountered in Wonderland: ‘Off with their heads!’”

I mean it is confusing to me why anyone in their right mind would refuse a summons by their king and to a wedding yet. Then when invited again with a full menu of all the wonderful foods that the ordinary cannot afford to put on their table they still refuse. In normal days this would be seen as strange and yet it is strange behavior we come to expect in a parable.

We are aghast at the next actions the messengers are seized upon and slaughtered with all the shock and horror of an unexpected murder scene in a Hollywood movie. Wow did not see that coming! “And the weirdness and violence are just getting started. In retaliation, the king goes to war against his own people. Enraged by their actions he unleashes an army. Before we know it, the murderers themselves are murdered, and a city (presumably the king’s own city!) is a pile of smoldering ash (verse 7).

But it gets weirder still. With our heads still spinning, we learn that the dinner is still on (verse 8)! Now the invitations go out again, this time to commoners on the “main streets” of the (destroyed?) city (verse 9). Apparently, while soldiers pillaged and slashed -- all the while as great flames devoured the buildings outside the palace walls -- little Sterno burners toiled away silently under the sumptuous dishes in the great hall, keeping the meal hot for the eventual guests!”

Ok this sounds ridiculous because it is. This is the way it is supposed to be heard. The hearers for which it was originally written would recognize the burning city as Jerusalem bringing images of the city destroyed after its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. “interpreted here as God’s judgment on those who rejected the new thing God was doing in Jesus. An unexpected invitation to commoners on the main streets points toward the surprising ways the invitation to God’s kingdom banquet is increasingly extended to and embraced by those once considered outsiders.”

Another note about this is at the time Mathews community was having a “turf war” if you will with a synagogue down the street. Lance Pape from Brite Divinity reminds us that “this is not a matter of “Christians vs. Jews” -- that kind of thinking would come later -- but an intramural conflict within Judaism. Surely Matthew and his community understood themselves as faithful Jews who had responded to God’s summons to the kingdom banquet offered in honor of God’s Messiah, Jesus. But others had inexplicably rejected the great invitation, ignoring or persecuting both the prophets of old, and the new missionaries of this good news.”

So after all are invited and the wedding is in full swing, in walks the King. He wanders among his guests and stops at one.

“The parable-within-the parable has no parallels outside of Matthew, so it must reflect his particular agenda. The language of the parable ranges from sarcasm, with the address of the man as "Friend" (see 20:13 and 26:50), to apocalyptic violence (verse 13). The details of ejection into the "outer darkness" with "weeping and gnashing of teeth" invoke earlier declarations of judgment (for example, 8:12; 13:42; and 13:50) and require that we read this parable in an eschatological key.

Clearly the issue is not the man's clothing, but rather something else about how he presents himself in this ultimate moment. We are left without a list of specific criteria that move a person from the list of the many "called," to that of the few "chosen" (verse 14), but it appears that Matthew envisions further accountability beyond one's initial response of discipleship, our "yes!" to God's invitation to the banquet.”

What more is required of us? What more is required of who is prepared to participate in the Banquet? I definitely do not want to be thrown out of heaven for having the wrong shoes!

What more is required? Before we discuss what more is required I suggest we pay attention to the verses again…

The king sent out his servants once more and invited everyone….both Good and bad and the hall was filled…

Did you hear that? No one was excluded…no one and the king’s servants were not told to stand outside the gate and judge who was too be allowed in or not. This is a vision of what the Kingdom of heaven might be compared too.

I cannot help but think on my own experience as a queer person and the witness of The Church. The UCC prides itself on being the first church to welcome the LGBTQ community. It wasn’t. The united fellowship of metropolitan community churches were. This being LGBTQ History Month and National coming out day I thought I would include a bit of Troy Perry’s story.

“In 1968, after a suicide attempt following a failed love affair, and witnessing a close friend being arrested by the police at The Patch Bar, a Los Angeles gay bar, Perry felt called to return to his faith and to offer a place for gay people to worship God freely. Perry put an advertisement in The Advocate announcing a worship service designed for gays in Los Angeles. Twelve people turned up on October 6, 1968 for the first service, and "Nine were my friends who came to console me and to laugh, and three came as a result of the ad."[10] After six weeks of services in his living room, the congregation shifted to a women's club, an auditorium, a church, and finally to a theater that could hold 600 within several months. In 1971, their own building was dedicated with over a thousand members in attendance.

Being outspoken has caused several MCC buildings to be targeted for arson, including the original Mother Church in Los Angeles. Perry's theology has been described as conservative, but social action was a high priority from the beginning of the establishment of the denomination. Perry performed what Time Magazine described as the first public same-sex unions in the United States as early as 1968 [11] and ordained women as pastors as early as 1972.”

All are invited. The servants do not get to decide who comes to the banquet if they did well…

Tomorrow marks the 22nd anniversary of the Murder of Mathew Shephard…the details of his torture and murder make this gospel reading seem tame.

The servants do not get to decide who comes to the banquet if they did well…

“Medina Leon was the second trans woman to die after falling gravely ill in ICE detention in just over a year. Roxsana Hernandez Rodriguez, a Honduran who had traveled with one of the migrant caravans to seek asylum in the U.S., died on May 9th, 2018. Though autopsies found she died of dehydration, an independent autopsy commissioned by civil rights advocates also found that Hernandez Rodriguez's body showed signs of abuse sustained during her 16 days in ICE custody in New Mexico—an allegation ICE denies.

Jennicet Gutiérrez, a transgender and immigrant rights activist who helped found the Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement says that these deaths continue the "heavy attack" on transgender immigrants enabled by an immigration system that emphasizes criminalization and detention. She also fears for her own well-being: "As a transgender person, living in this country without documentation for some time, it makes me feel like it could happen to me at any time," Gutiérrez says. "That I could be the next victim, that my own life could be at risk just because of who I am."

The servants do not get to decide who gets into the wedding banquet…we just don’t!

Maybe our churches ( I use the term in the broadest sense) need to start looking more like this kings banquet as opposed to any of London’s royal weddings. Our church should be homes to rich and poor, all nationalities and all sexual orientations. We should be doing what we can to stand with those in recovery as well as those who need help with mental challenges. We should welcome the person who just got out on parole with equal if not more enthusiasm as those who have a big checking account.

This is exactly what the king’s banquet hall looks like. But wait didn’t the king kick someone out for not being properly robed?

“This king is no pushover, and if the new guests are beneficiaries of an unexpectedly generous invitation, they must nevertheless be on guard against the complacency shown by the first invitees. The doors of the kingdom community are thrown wide open, and the invitation extends literally to all. But once you come in, there are standards. You can’t go on acting like you are not at an extraordinary party.

But even if appropriate clothing is a metaphor for the need for appropriate behavior in the new, inclusive community, the parable may be saying more here than anybody expected -- and the surplus will preach. Maybe Matthew originally intended this as a stern warning to live up to the rigorous standards of a higher righteousness (5:20, 48), but the story, pushed down and contorted by allegorical demands for too long, rises at the last to assert its own delightful possibility.

Within the world of the story as told, the problem with this guy is not that he is not taking things seriously enough. No, his problem is a failure to party. The kingdom of heaven (verse 2) is a banquet, after all, and you’ve got to put on your party dress and get with the program. The kingdom music is playing, and it's time to get up on the dance floor. Or, as the slightly more sober, but no less theologically astute Barth put the matter: “In the last resort, it all boils down to the fact that the invitation is to a feast, and that he who does not obey and come accordingly, and therefore festively, declines and spurns the invitation no less than those who are unwilling to obey and appear at all.”

We know we have an invitation to a royal banquet. We know now that no matter what we believe to be good or bad the invitation is to all. We are called to celebrate the invitation and treat all around us as equals in that invite. That’s the hard part. That’s the challenge today. No matter what someone does, no matter how they behave in public and or do their job we are called to remember that they are just as equal in the invite as we are, no better no less. Let us Pray;

“God, we come before you in these mortal bodies,

Pledging that we will become instruments of peace, love and hope.

Christ called us to serve as disciples to all nations, to all people.

We commit to serving without fear, learning how to serve as Jesus served,

Seeing the beloved-ness of your people, people set free through the Life of Christ.

Let us be instruments to glorify you, O God.

Let our hearts and minds hear the message of love and hope delivered on Calvary.

God of all truth and goodness, help us to set aside shame,

Shame that has no advantage.

Shame that does not reflect the good news, that we have been given eternal life.

Let us be obedient to the work Jesus entrusted to us,

Let us hear their teaching, and through it learn how we are to treat one another.

Hear this prayer of our hearts, O God. Amen.”

A call to prayer

God of All,

gather us into a time of prayer

for our family.

Expand our vision

to understand each human being

as our sister or brother;

and enlarge our hearts

to offer love for each other,

even as you love each of us.

Be with us now as we pray for members of your family.

#423 Great is your faithfullness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZJRpJv9NiE&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=CommunityCongregationalChurchofChulaVistaUCC

Let us pray the prayer Jesus taught us

Our Creator, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kin-dom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kin-dom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen

Invitation to the Offering

Offering our gifts to God is a holy act. In this sacred moment, let us offer our gifts and our lives to the holy work of God.

‘Donate Here!

Doxology #778 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9My-_5s6bBQ

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise God, all creatures here below;

Praise God for all that love has done;

Creator, Christ, and Spirit, one.

Offering Prayer

Gracious God, thank you for your abundant love

and your nourishing grace.

Thank you for the gifts we return to you now.

Bless these gifts,

that they may become for others

signs of your abundant love

and vessels of your nourishing grace.

Amen.

The office is open for regular hours

We are accepting donations for the kidz cupboard and the food pantry

I am available for one on one virtual visits or phone calls if you need any prayer we will be together again one day, but until then remember you are the hands and the feet of our lord in this world and in this world of no physical contact we can still smile, wave, chat, check in

#543 Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfjiw8bkHA&ab_channel=UnionChurchofHinsdale

Benediction/sending forth

As partners with God,

go to serve God’s world.

As friends of Christ,

go to share Christ’s love.

So go Now with the blessing of God,

the strength of Jesus Christ,

and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Remember we have coffee with the pastor on Tuesdays and Bible study on Wednesdays and the link to those meetings come out the evening before.