A Galactic Gala – Becoming A Festival Pt. 4
Matt. 22:1-14 February 22/23, 2002
Intro:
Friday September 6th was a very good night to be a football fan in Edmonton. The Eskimos pounded the defending Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders 45-11 to sweep the two game Labour Day series and improve their West Division leading record to 9-2-0.
A crowd of 61,481 jammed Commonwealth Stadium. It was the largest crowd ever to watch an Eskimos home game (until last year’s Grey Cup final, with 62 531) and the largest crowd to ever attend a CFL regular season game.
I was one of those 61 481 people, sitting in our unofficial “Laurier” section, giving Neil Attwell a hard time because he had “Go Stamps Go” written in black marker across his belly. There was something unique about that experience. Every touchdown the Eskimos made the crowd jumped to their feet in wild excitement, every good tackle or defensive play was applauded. Now, I’ve been to plenty of other games where that wasn’t the case – where it was actually kind of boring, the fans were apathetic, where there was more booing than cheering. And those games weren’t much fun. But Sept. 6, 2002, was a different story. 61.5K people joined in one really big party.
I think that atmosphere is getting close to what we will experience as we worship in heaven. Oh, I don’t think there will be football teams taking the field (are Calgary players even allowed into heaven??). And I’m quite sure that there won’t be people throwing food and getting drunk and smoking pot. But there will be an immense crowd, focused on the main activity, heavily invested personally, erupting with praise at times while at other times watching in stunned silence. And there will certainly be celebration.
Is that only a vision of the future? Of the next life?? Of worship in heaven???
Matt. 22:1-14
I want to look at a parable Jesus told in Matt 22. As you are looking that up, let me sketch the context. Jesus is speaking to a group of Pharisees in the temple, during the last week of His life. He has marched triumphantly into Jerusalem, has torn through the temple throwing out the money changers, and is now confronting the Pharisees directly. The parable in chapter 22 is the third of three, each making the same point: the Kingdom of God is being given to those who will receive it rather than to those who reject it. Let me read vs. 1-14.
Understanding the Parable:
It is a fairly straightforward story, but let me fill in a little background to help us understand what Jesus is saying.
o “kingdom of heaven”: What is Jesus talking about? This phrase is exclusive to Matthew – Mark and Luke tend to use the phrase “kingdom of God.” They are synonymous terms, meaning the same thing. The key word in the phrase is not “heaven,” which we tend to think of as a spiritual place that we go to when we die. The key word is Kingdom, which began with the coming of Jesus, which Jesus preached about constantly, and which sort of “officially” got underway with Jesus’ resurrection. Of course we don’t yet experience the Kingdom of God in its fullness, but we are living in it right now. It is to be part of our earthly experience as Christians. We eagerly await its fulfillment at the end of time, but we do also participate in it now. This is significant because I want to underline that what Jesus is talking about is for us today, not just for when we get to “heaven.”
o The wedding banquet: the subject of the parable is a wedding banquet. The image still speaks today – we still celebrate weddings with a big party, often with feasting, we still make a big deal about them. Royal weddings all the more, as I’m sure we will discover if and when Prince William or Prince Harry ever get married, or if Charles and Camilla ever legitimize their relationship… And if you think we make a big deal out of weddings today, you might be interested to know that in Jesus day, a wedding banquet was seven days long. These people knew how to feast! It was a week-long party. Today we feel more freedom to choose how we might like to respond to a wedding invitation unless of course it is someone close to us, but in Jesus’ day, the invitation was not often refused – and if it was a royal invitation, refusal would be far more than an insult, it would be a treasonous rejection of the king himself.
o The wedding clothes: the last part of the parable talks about one particular guest who shows up dressed poorly – “without his wedding clothes.” The whole section seems to not quite fit with the rest of the parable, and it is certainly making a different point than the first part. We maybe can’t sort out all the confusion, but we can make note of this: this guy was the exception. The others, who were also gathered from the street corners, “bad and good” alike, managed to come dressed appropriately. Some suggest the king gave out the good clothes and this guy refused, others suggest that the other guests made some kind of effort to at least wear their clean blue jeans, we don’t really know. But we do know this guy was singled out because he hadn’t bothered to do what everyone else had done – namely show respect for the King by dressing appropriately for the occasion. So he was judged harshly, and kicked out of the party.
o “many are invited, but few are chosen”: The parable ends with these words. The word “many” should probably best be understood as “all” as is clear from the context of vs. 9 and 10, where the servants were instructed to gather “anyone they could find” and in fact they brought “all the people”. The invitation was universal. But there is also an onus on the person to respond appropriately, and that is why the second part of the phrase is important alongside the story of the man who got kicked out. We are all invited to join in the wedding feast of the Kingdom of God, but we have a responsibility to respond to this invitation in the right way. Or else we might find ourselves left out.
o The main point: it is pretty clear from the context that the main point of the parable was that the invitation to join God’s great party had first gone to the people of Israel, but it was rejected. So now the invitation is going out to all people – all are now invited – and those that respond accordingly will enjoy the celebration.
So what does all this have to do with worship and Laurier and me?
1. It’s a party. Of all the images Jesus could have chosen to represent what the kingdom of God is like, He chose the image of a wedding feast. A seven-day party. If you study the Bible you’ll see a whole lot of this – the OT is full of parties, full of celebrations, full of the idea of worship as a feast. Our vision for worship at Laurier is depicted with the word “festival”, which is intended to have some of these same connotations of joy and exuberance and celebration. One of my goals for our worship services is for there to be laughter, for us to leave feeling like we have met our Lord and we are glad that we have. For it to be a place to celebrate Who God is and all that He is doing.
You’re immediate response to that might be something like, “but my life is too full of pain and difficulty. I don’t feel like celebrating. In fact, I don’t think there is anything to celebrate.” I understand that feeling – many times I feel that way also. Things in my own life or things I see in the lives of people around me that I care very much about are hard, they are painful, they hurt. Sometimes we look at our life and see only the pain and the struggle. And the last thing we feel like doing at those times is to celebrate. We don’t want a party, we want a quiet corner to sit in and feel rotten. Can you identify with that?
Let me gently suggest that it is at those times that we most need to go to a party. Not to hide, not to pretend none of the pain exists, certainly not because we have this joy welling up within us that we just need to express. But we need to go to reconnect with God. We need to be surrounded by others who have some joy and some hope and some life, and can point us down the road to the place where circumstances will be different and we will feel joy again. We need to laugh even if it hurts, because that brings down our defenses and allows us to release that stress and pain and allow others to come alongside of us in the midst of it. And above all, it brings us back into God’s presence – a presence which is always characterized by goodness and hope and life – and allows us the opportunity to pour our pain and circumstances out to God in honesty and integrity and in faith. It brings down the barriers so that God can touch us, can heal us in whichever way we most need that healing touch.
We need to join the party, because, you see, the party is not for us. We are not the guest of honor, it isn’t a celebration of all the great things we have done or that are a part of our lives. The party is for God, with Jesus as the guest of honor (or bridegroom, continuing the image Jesus gives us.) We don’t go to a wedding expecting to be the center of attention (unless you are the bride, that is…), we go to celebrate the love of two people we know and love. And even if the circumstances of your life are difficult, It is possible to celebrate and get caught up in the love of two people choosing to exchange marriage vows. And that is good for us.
That is the Kingdom of God; that is the vision of worship I want to pursue together. It is a wedding banquet, celebrating the love of Jesus for us and our love for Him. There are times of great intimacy – of quiet seriousness – of the expression of deep and lifelong vows. There are times when the feast is served, the choice meats prepared, the wine corks popped, and we talk and laugh around the table. There are times for some speeches – some funny, some deeply personal, but all straight from the heart. There are times for tears – maybe as we remember someone who is no longer participating in the earthly festival with us but is now joining the great heavenly festival. And there is a time to push back the tables and fire up the band and dance until the midnight buffet is brought out.
The festival is about recognizing the incredible love of God for us and responding to that by expressing our love in return. And because of the power of that love – the power which rose Christ from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us and to continue to work in us changing us and healing us and making us fruitful for God’s Kingdom – because of the power of that love, we rejoice. We rejoice when life is good because we see and experience and appreciate the incredible blessings of God; we rejoice when life is difficult because we know that God’s power is still with us and will not – EVER – abandon us and leave us alone in misery.
2. It’s God’s party: Notice in the parable that all the preparations are done? The guests aren’t expected to show up and take over – they are just expected to come and participate. The point I draw from this for us is that we most need to show up and join in. God doesn’t want us messing around in the kitchen trying to tell Him how to run His party, He doesn’t want us huddling around a table at the back complaining that the napkins clash with the tablecloths or casting disparaging glances at people at another table who are expressing themselves differently. He wants our undivided attention focused on Him and our mutual love. In all honesty, nothing else really matters.
I often have the privilege of participating in wedding preparations. Almost always, there is this great flurry of activity and stress and plans and decorations and expenses. And it comes to a climax at the wedding rehearsal. And then, almost always, the bride wakes up the next day and feels like none of the details matter anymore. If something goes wrong (as it almost always does), if a detail gets missed, it is no big deal. Because what is important is that this couple is about to express their love and commitment to one another, and take their wedding vows. That is what matters.
I believe it is the same in worship. Of course we care about the details, we work hard at them, but there needs to come a time when we pull the tea towel out of our belt, close the door on the kitchen, and come on out and join the party. Leave the details alone and concentrate on the love of God for us and our love for Him. That is one of the reasons I sit in the congregation until it is time for me to preach – that is the time when I attempt to abandon all the details (which I know I’m somewhat responsible for) and just join the party and love my King.
3. It’s God’s party, and you are invited: One of the incredible truths of this parable is the generosity of the King, who desired so much to throw a party that He invited absolutely anyone. The emphasis in the text is on the “bad and the good,” on the complete lack of differentiation or sense that any of the guests, in the end, “deserved” to be there. The servants went and combed the alleys, they looked for every person they could find, and the invited them to a party.
Just a quick aside – isn’t that a beautiful picture of evangelism? Not so much the combing the gutters, though I like that too, but of the nature of the invitation. We aren’t “enlisting people” – attempting to convince them to join an organization and sign away their life – we are telling them about an incredible party that they can be a part of. We are inviting them to the wedding feast of the King’s only Son. Talk about being on the “A” list for party invitations! That is how Jesus depicts the Kingdom of God.
I see part of my role as a servant of the King to invite people to His party. I see that as part of your role also. And so I invite you. You might think you don’t deserve it, and you’d be right. I don’t deserve it either – none of us do! But the King has chosen to extend the invitation to join Him. You might feel like your life is in the gutter; God has sent His servants to meet you there and bring you out of that place and into His presence to celebrate the love that is shared between God and us. He leaves the choice of how to respond to us, as the parable makes clear. We can ignore the invitation, we can beat up the messenger, we can even come in a way that insults the Host. None of those responses has a pleasant ending in the parable.
Or we can join the party. We can enter the celebration. We can be a part of the festival. We can experience the love of God and respond to it by loving God in return.
Conclusion:
Tony Campolo wrote a book called “The Kingdom of God is a Party.” In chapter one, he tells the story of a trip to Honolulu in the mid 80’s. Having crossed far too many time zones from Philadelphia to Hawaii, he found himself awake and needing breakfast at 3:30am local time. He ended up in a greasy, divey place ordering a donut and a coffee, and while consuming this wholesome breakfast in walks 8 or 9 prostitutes. The place is small, Campolo is surrounded, and like most of us decides the best thing to do is to get out of there. Then he overhears one of them say, “Tomorrow is my birthday; I’ll be 39.” Somebody else tears into her. “So?? Whadya want me to do about it?? Want me to throw you a party, bake you a cake, sing “happy birthday???” The first shot back, “Come on! Why do you have to be so mean? I’m just telling you, you don’t have to put me down. I don’t want anything. I’ve never had a birthday party my whole life, why should you give me one, why should I have one now. I’m just saying.”
If you know Tony Campolo, you probably have an idea what happens next. He hangs around till they leave, then asks the guy who runs the place if those people come in every night. They do, so Campolo asks if he could throw that one prostitute a big birthday party that next night. They get excited about the idea, make all the arrangements – Campolo decorates the diner, the chef bakes a cake, somebody gets the word out on the street. This is how Campolo describes the scene:
“By 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. It was wall-to-wall prostitutes… and me! At 3:30 on the dot, the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and her friend. I have everybody ready (after all, I was kind of the M.C. of the affair) and when they came in we all screamed, “Happy birthday!”
Never have I seen a person so flabbergasted … so stunned … so shaken. Her mouth fell open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend grabbed her arm to steady her. As she was led to one of the stools along the counter we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. As we came to the end of our singing with “happy birthday dear Agnes, happy birthday to you,” her eyes moistened. Then, when the cake was carried out with all the candles on it, she lost it and just openly cried.”
She couldn’t blow out the candles. She couldn’t cut the cake. In fact, she was so overwhelmed that she asked if she could just keep the cake for a little while. The gruff chef said, “It’s your cake. Go ahead.” And so Agnes picked the cake up and carried it home as if it were the most precious thing imaginable.
The crowd was stunned into silence. Not knowing what else to do, Campolo said; “what do you say we pray?” And he did. He prayed for Agnes, for her salvation, for God to turn her life around. At the end, the chef turned to him with a trace of hostility in his voice and said, “You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?” Campolo replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”
That is the Kingdom of God. That is what Jesus came to do. We are all sinners, just like that prostitute. We don’t deserve to be invited to a royal wedding feast. But the invitation has come. Worship is joining the festival, celebrating God and the love He has for us and expressing our love back to Him. God’s feast is unlike anything we have experienced, and beyond our wildest imagination. It is a place of celebration, a place of joy, a place where you can lay all your burdens and struggles at God’s feet and know His gifts of peace and healing and presence. It’s God’s party. And you are invited.
