Sermon - 2014-10-12

The parable today seems harsh.  It ends with weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Well, that does not sound like a good time.  Where is the grace?  Where is the mercy? Where is the God who loves us?

Today’s parable is a continuation from last week’s parable.  The parable of the wicked tenants who refused to give the land owner what was his, killing the slaves, and even the son of the owner.  So the owner killed the tenants.  Today’s parable seems just as harsh.  However, last like week, I think it is important to spend more time on the historical meaning and our own modern day understanding.

Today the wedding feast of a king’s son to an unknown suitor bears a lesson that we should strive to understand in our own modern times.  So often the king in the parable is God and the son is Jesus Christ marrying the church on Earth. This would be a monumental celebration in which anyone who is anyone would be there to join the festivities and enjoy the blessings of the king.  Those invited, the rich, wealthy and others who are typically thought of as deserving, refuse the king.  The king and his son were not good enough for them.  Instead they go to their businesses, to their land, and other things within their life.

Yet, this is so much like our own modern time.  Do we need something more to get us to church? Do we need more?  No and Yes.  We need to be reminded of God’s love for us and how God is calling us.  We do not need more than God’s Word for each and every one of us in our life.  This is something that we should truly take note of within our life, because we are getting dangerously close to worshipping false gods that we could easily go to instead of remembering that God is King in our life. 

We could easily get distracted by our jobs that God has called us to do for the whole community.  Our jobs can quickly and easily become the thing that defines us and the place where we spend all our time, energy and because of the paycheck, it can seem like the one thing that we need within our life.  Sports are another thing.  Sports are a great thing but when they begin to be the only thing that we share with our children, when they are the place where we become defined by to spend all our time and energy in, it can easily become the false god within our own life.  There are many other things within our life that could be there.  So in the parable, we are confronted with the question, who is our god?  What defines us, what shapes us, and how do we spend our time, energy and life?  

Back in the parable, the king hears that no one who is invited will come to the banquet and that his own slaves were mocked or killed, the king is enraged for this outright slap in the face and rejection.  He gives an order to his own army to kill and destroy the cities and towns where these invited guests live.  There were those who heard the call, but turned away because they wanted something of their own creation.  They wanted a god that they had created in their own image, and it was not God.  To those who were not worthy because they did not want to come, an army is sent to destroy.  This actually does take place.  In the year 70AD, the Roman army comes in and destroys the city of Jerusalem by burning much of it, including the temple.

Modern time?  God actually showing his own power and might within the world.  Yet it is also a time in which the truth of who God truly is, is made known.  Yet this begs the question, what is your god?  What do you serve? When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we ask that God would give us our Daily Bread, all that we would need from day to day.  Yet we also ask that “Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  This is such an important lesson that Jesus shares it with his own disciples.  Every time we pray this prayer, every time we gather, we are being reminded that we are in need of God and we long to rest in God’s tender love and care always.  Jesus wanted these words to become the work of the disciples.

Yet ultimately in the parable, there is a wedding feast held by the king.  There is one more huge lesson that we truly need to focus on and learn within our lives always.  Those who are worthy were not at the feast, but rather the good and the bad of the community were brought together for the feast and to celebrate this wedding of the king’s son.  Regardless of what the slaves thought, the king wanted all people present for this celebration.  However, even in the midst of the celebration, we find someone unworthy, a sinner.  Someone who has enraged the king, and when confronted does not know what to say.  He was invited to the party, but came unprepared for the wedding.  The king casts judgement of what to do with the person.  It is the king’s decision and not our own.  It is the king's judgement to make and we are to support it.  This is an important lesson and reminder for us within our daily life.  We do not know what is happening in each others life.  We do not know what each other is being called to do or be within the Kingdom of God.  So we should reserve judgement of others and allow our God and King to pass his judgement upon.  We are called to care and love one another and live out the King’s Will for us all. So today we celebrate and give thanks that we are gathered for a celebration in the name of the son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.