Refusing
God’s Invitation has Serious Consequences
Homily
for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost (30 August 2015)
2
Corinthians 1:21-2:4
Matthew 22:2-14
The story of the King’s
wedding feast in today’s reading from the Gospel according to St Matthew is, as
the reading tells us at the beginning, a parable. A parable
is kind of a story in disguise. It seems
to be about one thing—such as a king’s wedding feast—but it’s really about
something else—such as the Kingdom of Heaven.
The details in the story
stand for aspects of the hidden meaning.
For instance, the King’s son is obviously Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. The guests who refuse to come to
the feast are the Jews, God’s Chosen People, who did not accept Jesus as God’s
son, the Messiah. The replacement
guests, good and bad, gathered from the roads and streets, are the Gentiles, to
whom the Gospel was preached after the Jews rejected it.
But parables aren’t
limited to one meaning. At the time of
Jesus, it was a great concern to Him that His own people, the Jews, refused to
accept Him. But in our time, we accept
that Jews worship God their way and Christians worship God our way. Surely, the meaning of the parable is not
that we should feel superior to the Jews, or feel sorry for them, or persecute
them for not accepting Christ.
So what does this parable
say to us, here in St Joseph Church in Lansing in 2015?
Some things don’t
change. The King is still God the
Father, the Ruler of Creation. The
king’s son is still Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
But suppose the wedding
feast is the Church—and not just the Church in general, all over the world, but
our church, St Joseph in Lansing in
2015.
And suppose that the
invited guests who refuse the King’s invitation to his Son’s feast are people
who belong to our church (or at least claim to, or ought to), who have not only
received the present invitation but have actually accepted many invitations in
the past. But now they refuse. And like the people in the parable, they make
their excuses: I’m too busy. I’m too tired. Sunday morning is the only time I can go
shopping. I have guests from out of
town. I have to work. I have to babysit. I have to go to a baby shower. It’s too expensive. It’s boring.
I don’t like the people—or the priest (who’s so boring)—or the lack of
parking. Etc. Etc. Etc.
All of us who have gone to
many wedding receptions know that often we don’t go for our pleasure or
enjoyment, but out of love and respect for the people hosting the banquet. We don’t refuse to attend because we don’t
like the caterer or the DJ or the hall; or because it’s too expensive or
inconvenient. We go to honor and
celebrate with our family and our friends, because we value our relationship
with them.
Of course, if we did refuse, we would not be killed and
our houses burned, unlike the disrespectful guests in the Gospel parable.
But refusing God’s invitation has serious
consequences. If we refuse God
altogether, we risk eternal death and punishment. If we refuse to accept God’s invitation in
our local church, we are rejecting God.
We are saying that we don’t respect and love God and we don’t appreciate
the great generosity and love of God’s invitation to join Him at the great
banquet in His house—the great banquet of salvation in which the host gives
Himself to His guests.
And we risk the punishment
of never being invited again, of being replaced by people who do appreciate God’s glorious
hospitality, even though they were not the first ones invited and come from
outside our community.
We need to be grateful for
what God has given us; we need to appreciate it and respect it. If we refuse God’s invitation, we may never
receive another, and could be thrown out into the darkness, where there is
wailing and gnashing of teeth.
So let us accept the
invitation with joy and gratitude, let us put on our wedding garments and bring
along our families and friends, and let us give thanks and praise and glory to
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and unto the
ages of ages. Amen.
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