“The Joy of Faithful Community - Parables of Jesus for Faithful Stewards, Part 2” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, October 15, 2023, Year A / 20th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23) –  Exodus 32:1-14 and Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 • Isaiah 25:1-9 and Psalm 23 • Philippians 4:1-9 • Matthew 22:1-14

THEME:  Respond to God’s grace in Jesus Christ with gratitude that prompts generosity and creates joy through acts of loving service and care for one another.

Are any of you royal watchers? Do you follow the doings of the royal family in Britain? There’s always something in the news about them, isn’t there? For one thing, over the last few years, we have seen several royal weddings. One after another, Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren have been getting married. Prince Will married Kate in 2011. Prince Harry married Megan in 2018. Then, over the last few years, Prince Andrew’s daughters got married, Princess Eugenie in 2018 and her older sister, Beatrice, in 2020.

All of them made the news, of course.  A royal wedding is always a big deal. Loads of pomp. Spectacular dresses and oh, those hats! Does anyone do ladies’ hats better than the English? And a guest list that numbers into the thousands, and includes some of the most famous and important people in the whole world. To get an invitation to a royal wedding is quite the coup.

Can you imagine anyone turning down an invitation to such a grand celebration? And yet that is exactly what is happening in the parable Jesus tells in our gospel text. Let me set the stage for you. Jesus and his disciples have reached Jerusalem, along with hoards of others. They have all come there to celebrate the Passover. He has not been in town long, but already his conflict with the Jewish leadership has escalated.  It’s not hard to see why. Jesus has just told them a series of parables that characterize them as murderous, greedy thieves. 

They reject him.  They reject his message. And, as a result, Jesus declares that the Kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to others who produce the fruit of the Kingdom.  By fruit, he means justice and compassion, two things the religious elite most decidedly lack. As you might expect, this does not go over very well.   They want to arrest him on the spot, but they are afraid of the crowds who, at least for the moment, support Jesus. And so, Jesus carries on, telling them one final parable about the Kingdom of God. 

He compares God’s Kingdom to a Wedding Banquet thrown by a King for his son. The King (who represents God) sends his messengers (that would be God’s prophets) with a wedding invitation to the elite of his realm. The elite in this parable represent the Jewish religious leadership - Elders, Scribes and Pharisees.  Astoundingly, the elite ignore the king’s invitation – an unthinkable insult.  But this is no ordinary king. He is patient and persistent. Above all else, he wants to share the joy of his son’s wedding with his people. So, he sends other messengers with the same invitation. Come – the feast is prepared.

But the elite are more concerned with their worldly affairs than celebrating with their King. Some of them even assault and kill his messengers, much the way that Israel killed so many of God’s prophets. So, the King finally runs out of patience. He punishes the rebellious elite in the extreme. But, despite his deep disappointment and anger, he remains intent on sharing his son’s joy. So, he throws the door wide open to all the rest of the people. These are the commoners. Anyone and everyone are invited to experience the joyous celebration of this royal wedding. The ordinary folk respond – and they respond in droves. For them, this is as unexpected as you or I being invited to the next royal wedding at Westminster Abbey. The ordinary folk fill the wedding hall.  There is great rejoicing. 

But not all of them are suited for the wedding banquet.  One man is without a wedding garment.  He soon finds himself outside suffering in the darkness. We wonder about that. This is where the parable gets a little confusing. What does the missing wedding garment signify? Then we remember what Jesus told the Elders, scribes and pharisees: they lack the fruit of the Kingdom. In other words, they do not have works of justice and compassion to validate the authenticity of their faith. Now the parable makes sense. Being suited for God’s Kingdom requires us to accept the invitation to celebrate his son, and then to follow through by treating those around us with justice and compassion.  The man without a wedding robe has said yes to the invitation, but he has not followed through with just and compassionate deeds. The religious elite have done neither. 

This is, of course, a parable about judgment. Judgment on those who actively oppose God’s son and fail to respond appropriately to his good news. But if that is all we take from this parable, then we have done a major disservice to God and to ourselves. This parable is really about God’s relentless, unquenchable desire to share the joy of his Kingdom with all humanity. In telling it, Jesus is calling everyone – including you and me – to experience the joy of his father’s Kingdom by following him.

 That means putting our faith in Jesus and putting our faith into action. We do that by living the way he taught us to live: with justice and compassion, for those in our own faith community and for our neighbors outside. On this second Sunday of the Season of Commitment, we focus on how we share Christ’s love within the SSPC family of faith.  Our benchmark and our inspiration come from the early church. From the very beginning, the church set the example we still do our best to follow. The book of Acts gives us a clear picture of a faith community that worships together, prays together, studies together, eats together, and shares resources together.

All of this was done out of gratitude for God’s love in Jesus Christ. Those early Christians found out that gratitude breeds generosity, and the result is joy.  This is true here at SSPC, too. At our very best, gratitude, generosity, and joy are the hallmarks of life in this congregation of faithful stewards.  Just like the early church, God’s love creates gratitude, gratitude is expressed in generosity, and the result is joy for all.  At least, that is what we strive for. I am biased, of course, but it seems to me we succeed more often than not.  

Here is how that happens:

We express gratitude for God’s love, first and foremost, in the way we glorify God. Just like the early church, we gather to worship and study his Word. Our two beautiful worship services, our Christian Ed program and Sunday School, our weekday Bible study groups, our CORE Youth ministry, and our small groups are all proof of that. We welcome strangers. We practice Fellowship better than any church I’ve ever been a part of. Man, do we love to eat together. That is what the early church did, too. That is how we form deeper relationships with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We also express gratitude for God’s love in the way we care for each other. When our members are hurting, we help them. Our Deacons provide care for those who are ill or homebound or who have special needs. Likewise, our Health Ministry Team is there to help those who have questions about a medical diagnosis or a recommended treatment.

For those going through serious crisis, our Stephen Ministers are there to walk with them in a confidential way. They do their work quietly, but our Stephen Ministers are a powerful, caring, spiritual presence. They encourage those in distress by sharing the burden of their emotional and spiritual pain. If you or someone you know is going through grief, serious illness, job loss, divorce, relationship crisis, financial problems, please contact Lisa or me. We will connect you discretely with our Stephen Ministry coordinator. All of this ministry to and with our members grows out of gratitude for what God did for us in Christ.  Our extraordinary generosity of time, talent, and treasure make this ministry possible. We are not perfect, but very often the result is joy.

We are like those ordinary folk who accept the King’s invitation to the wedding celebration for his son. Christ is the groom.  We, in his church, are the bride. We have accepted his invitation to trust him. We trust that our deeds of compassion and justice are wedding clothes that, in God’s eyes, surpass any you will ever see at a Westminster wedding. We trust that in so doing we will experience joy.

This coming Saturday, we will get a fresh example of just what this joyous wedding celebration is like.  Two of our members, John Fider and Alixandra Chronister, are getting married. The ceremony is out at the Harmony Hill Estate in Middletown. I will have the honor and pleasure of officiating their wedding. I am sure there will be pictures on Facebook and elsewhere. When we look at them and see just how happy they are – the joy on their faces – let it remind us of the joy we experience when our gratitude becomes generosity, and our generosity leads to joy.



May it be so.