Matthew 22:1-14
I thoroughly enjoy watching college football. I love the excitement, the drama, the competition, and the school spirit. Back in the day when Texas played Texas A&M the Friday after Thanksgiving, I found the school spirit for both teams extraordinary, especially when I discovered why the students of Texas A&M stand the whole way through the game. Back in 1922, the Aggies were having a great season. They were on their way to becoming champions of the Southwest Conference. In January, they went to Dallas for the Dixie Classic. A basketball player named E. King Gill went along to scout the game from the stands.
But the team was hit hard with injuries. By the end of the first half, the coach wasn't sure that he would have 11 healthy players to put on the field. He looked up in the stands and waved for E. King Gill to come down to the field.
There were no locker rooms, so the coach brought the guy down to the field and put a jersey on him right there. E. King Gill stood there throughout the second half as the 12th man, so that if they didn't have 11 men to put on the field, he would be ready to play. He stood there, the whole second half, saying, "Coach, if you need me, I'm ready to play." And ever since, the students at Texas A&M have stood the whole way through the game. It's their way of saying, "Coach, if you need me, I'm ready to play."
And I wonder if, during these days, some of us won't feel the Spirit of God moving within us so that we say, "Lord, if you need me, I'm ready to play."
The kingdom of God is for everyone who is prepared and ready to play. Everyone gets an invitation. And although the invitation to God’s kingdom is open to all, it rests upon the invited to respond appropriately; to be prepared and ready to play. In the parable, the king plans to throw a wedding feast for his son. Wedding feasts are a major celebration in the ancient times of Jesus. Wedding feasts are a big deal. Nobody missed a good wedding feast. And if it’s the king, you know it’s going to be awesome. The king sends his slaves to go and invite guests to the wedding. But they refuse to attend. They don’t want to come. Can you imagine inviting people you know well, who you are close with, to a wedding you are hosting and nobody wants to come? They refused to go. They just flat out blew him off. The only thing they did do was kill the king’s messengers.
After eradicating these murderers from the face of the earth, the king sends other slaves to invite more people. They are to invite everyone they meet, good and bad alike. Invite everyone: the outcasts, the riff-raff, the blind and the lame, tax collectors and prostitutes; invite everyone, regardless of race, regardless of class, regardless of gender, regardless of sexual orientation, regardless of their citizenship. Invite the poor, the abused, the misused, the lonely: all are welcome. And they accept!
Now the joint is jumpin’! The wedding party is in full swing. People are dancing, eating great food and good drink, enjoying the night of their lives. It’s the social event of the year. Everyone is having a great time. Everything is awesome!
But not everyone responds appropriately. There are expectations of every guest. Although the invitation to God’s realm is open to all, it nevertheless rests upon the invited guests to be prepared and ready for whatever. Disciples who aspire to faithful stewardship recognize that when they respond to God’s invitation, they do so with a proper attitude, a proper demeanor and are properly prepared. When we arrive at God’s banquet, we approach as those ready to share in the festivities, prepared to offer our lives to serve those for whom Christ died. We are given a robe of integrity from Christ.[1] With that robe, we come prepared and ready to play.
How can we be ready to offer our lives to serve those for whom Christ suffered and died?
Historically the church in the Western world has worked hard to be prepared. It has utilized and embraced a model of church growth designed to attract people to attend congregational events, and ultimately invites them to join a local congregation, by providing services to the individual. A local church will provide excellent child-care, professionally played music, state of the art facilities and ministries specially tailored to individual desires. If you build it, they will come.
I believe this has resulted in a consumerist church where individual Christians choose their congregational affiliation based on personal preferences and choices. Increasingly, the caste, the class and the taste -- the “attractional” value -- will be what determines the choice of one's church more than anything else.
The main task of the church consists in going out and getting the salt out of the saltshaker and into every corner of society. But when the salt continues to seek out larger and larger saltshakers within which to seclude themselves from the world, the mission of God suffers. God's mission for the church requires each and every Christian to take personal responsibility for seeing that God's kingdom comes to the little corner of the earth that they inhabit. We are called to take the Gospel message out into the world, not sit back and wait for everyone to show up at our door. How do we get ready for this mission work? How do we prepare ourselves to be the messengers ready to live out and share the Gospel?
We prepare ourselves by allowing God to change us through the Holy Spirit. God loves us for who we are, but not enough to let us stay that way. But we don’t want to hear that. Deep down we don’t want to change. We want to hear that everyone is all right exactly as they are; that God loves us as we are and doesn’t want us to change. People often say this when they want to justify certain habits and/or behaviors, but that dog won’t hunt! Think about it: when the blind and the lame came to Jesus, he didn’t say, “You’re all right as you are”. He healed them. When the prostitutes and tax collectors came to Jesus, he didn’t say, “You’re all right as you are”. He forgave them. His love reached them where they were, but his love refused to let them stay as they were. Love wants the best for the beloved. Do we believe that God wants everyone to stay exactly as they are? God loves serial killers and criminals; God loves ruthless and arrogant businessmen; God loves manipulative parents who damage their children’s emotions for life. The point of God’s love is that he wants them to change. He hates what they are doing and how it affects everyone else and themselves, too.
In the end, if God is good, he cannot allow sinful behavior, and an unrepentant person, if they don’t change, to remain forever in the party he’s throwing for his son.[2] We must be willing to change according to the leading of the Holy Spirit to become all who God has called us to be, not who we think we are to be. We must be willing to embrace the new things God is doing in the life of our church. As we celebrate and remember 75 years of ministry at the crossroads of Main and Lawrence Streets, we are amazed at the life and ministry that has taken shape within these walls; the legacy of this grand facility to be used to minister to the whole community of God in Jesus Christ.
It’s not enough to rest on our laurels and accomplishments always living for some moment five years ago, ten years ago, fifty years ago. It is not enough to want the safe, soft side of discipleship and shy away from the more difficult work of outreach and social justice. It is not enough to want blessings from God, but bawk when it is time to share in the work of ministry. It is not enough to share in a free dinner at the church, and be unwilling to serve a meal in a soup kitchen or hand out groceries at Helping Hands. And if we refuse to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty, if we refuse to do the more difficult work of ministry, and not be prepared for the wedding feast, the kingdom of God, then we are saying we don’t want to stay at the party; that we do not want anything to do with God, Jesus, the church, any of it. We will not be able to say, “Lord, if you need me, I’m ready to play.”
Billy Joel sings that “the good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” And tomorrow is scary. Tomorrow is unclear. Tomorrow is uncertain. But tomorrow is…exciting, electrifying, stimulating, mind-blowing, thrilling. What a ride it will be!
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