"Called and Chosen" - October 12, 2014

Matthew 22:1-14

This is one of those parables that leaves me saying, “You have to have been there to get it.”

On the surface, what you have is a deeply disturbing story.  There’s a wedding and the king who is the father of the groom invites guests who don’t come.  Some of them send their regrets even though their excuses are lame.  Others decided it’s their chance to make a political statement and it gets very ugly.

“‘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.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them.”  [Matthew 22:4-7]

That’s when the king loses his temper.  It’s the end of the road for some of them.  When the smoke clears, he has random people dragged in off the street to the wedding banquet.

So far so good.  It’s an understandable, if extreme, response.

Then the weird part is tacked on.

“When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless.  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.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”  [Matthew 22:11-14]

How is it that someone who hadn’t planned on being there can be blamed for not being dressed for the occasion?

Like I say, you have to have been there.

Last spring, we held an event at Steel City Coffeehouse at the corner of Bridge and Main Sts.  We called it “The Spring Thaw Concert”.  I’ll spare you a lot of the details, but it took a good bit of legwork to pull off.  When the evening of the concert arrived, I got there and found that the staff hadn’t been notified of the nature of the event and had written on the signboard that the place was reserved for a private party.  I had that changed right away.  It was about an hour before the concert.

The musician arrived thirty minutes later.  He had called earlier in the day to let me know that he would be a solo act instead of half of a duo because the bass player’s grandmother in Ireland had died the day before and he was on his way across the Atlantic for the funeral.

Fifteen minutes later, a friend I had invited arrived and stationed himself near the door, against the wall.  Five minutes afterward, two people from church came in.  The soundcheck began.  It was concert time, with three people there.  That’s when the evening switched from a fundraising event to an outreach event.

The bouncer and I went out onto the sidewalk and began to invite people in as they went by.  “Free concert and free refreshments tonight!”  “Got some good music going on.”  “First United Methodist is throwing a concert tonight.”  As it turned out, it was an unusually slow night all along Bridge St. and even Molly Maguire’s was looking empty, but a few people did wander in.  “Free music and free coffee!”

I enjoyed talking to the bouncer, and we did have time to talk.  I also enjoyed talking with some of the people who sat down for awhile.  There was one woman who was there with her son, who was about eleven years old.  She told me she goes to a Mormon church and then pointed to her coffee and whispered, “But I do indulge sometimes.”  The couple who were there from the church shared a pizza that they had brought with a younger couple who had come in.  All of that was fine.

There were some people, however, who just came in for a minute or two, saw that the place was pretty much empty, and went right back out.  I found myself becoming annoyed at them more than anybody else.  What got me was that they just didn’t give the whole thing a chance.

So when I read the parable now, I think I see something that I didn’t see before I found myself in a position similar to the father of the groom.  I see that there’s an incredible sense of frustration that comes along when something really good (and the music was terrific) is placed in front of someone unexpectedly and freely and when you go out on a limb to do that, and then it is turned down.

God offers us human beings a chance to be part of the exciting life of his kingdom.  He offers us a chance to hear its music and enjoy a seat at his own table.  He has gone to a good deal of trouble, and in the person of his Son has endured infinite pain so that the doors are open.  Then we human beings do what?  Yawn?

The wedding clothes that he looks for are not the outward things.  They represent the joy of being there, the surprise of being called to the party, the appreciation of God’s great generosity, the awareness of the amazing grace that saves a wretch like me.  They represent the sort of excited response that we call “discipleship”. 

“As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’  Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”  [Luke 9:57-62]

Jesus was not some uncaring person who had no feeling for people’s physical, social, and emotional needs.  Far from it!  He did, however, have the awareness that discipleship includes a sense of urgency and isn’t anything to be brushed off or minimized.

            We are all called into the kingdom, and from there we are chosen for the excitement of discipleship.  So get ready.  John Wesley summed up what might or might not be asked of a disciple when he wrote a prayer that we often use around New Year’s.

“I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.”

Again, I say, “Get ready.”