The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



Proper 23, Year A, October 9, 2011, Church of the Messiah Pulaski

“The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy” (Matt. 22:8).

Caroline and I are going to a wedding next weekend, and so I suppose Jesus is telling this story for our benefit. The bride is nervous, but the guests are not too unworthy, and in any case the wedding's about the folks getting married. I think we’ll all get through it. This reminds me that everyone’s got a wedding story that they can tell, either about their own wedding or about someone else’s. My wedding story has to do with the pictures, which seemed to take longer than the service itself (this is probably a trick of the mind, but it sure seemed that way). By the time we got to the reception it was just about time for us to leave on our wedding trip. People told us afterwards it was a great party and we’re sure glad they enjoyed themselves, but we couldn’t have offered personal testimony about it. We were already on our way. I guess that’s how these things work. The couple is pre-occupied; the party’s for the guests.

The wedding banquet in Jesus’ story is not one you want to miss. The story conjures up the wedding banquet that God makes for those he loves in the kingdom, the party that he prepares for his People. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and the Church, the People of God, is the Bride “Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet” (Matt. 22:4). Everyone’s eventually invited, both good and bad, but not everyone is open to the invitation. There’s another story attached to that one, about a person who shows up at the banquet without the right clothes on. This fellow was open to the invitation but wasn’t prepared. You have to be open to the invitation, but you also have to be ready to move, to show up with your party clothes on.

The first story really lays it on in describing how closed up these folks are, the folks who’ve been invited. Now I’ve been to some bad weddings before, but this one beats all. Not only are the king’s slaves murdered when they bring the invitations, but the king’s reaction is pretty conclusive. “He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city” (Matt. 22:7). Fortunately most weddings are not so rough. But the emphasis is on the lack of openness, on the unwillingness to accept the invitation.

So there are two movements for us as Christians: to be open, and to be prepared. If we’re going to enter the kingdom of God and join in the banquet we need to be open to what God is doing all around us. We need to be paying attention, listening carefully, trying to understand what God is saying to us. Folks at Church of the Messiah have been doing this fairly intensively for the past couple of years, seeking to discern what God is calling this parish to in its mission and ministry, and seeking to discern who God might be calling to this parish as Rector. Church of the Messiah is an important parish for us in the Diocese, holding down a lot of territory on its own. We’re counting on your openness to what God can do here in this community through your church. We know you’ve been working hard on discerning the way forward; we know you are open to the power of God. God is addressing an invitation to you, and now is the time to respond and walk through the door into the future, into the party that God’s prepared for you for this next part of your life as a parish.

That leads us to the second story that Jesus tells, the story about the man who’s turned up at the feast but who’s not wearing the right clothes. He’s not prepared, but we need to be. If we accept the invitation we need to be ready and responsive to what God will require of us. Now you may think I’m talking about getting the Rectory ready, or putting new carpet in the Office, or what not, but in fact the real preparation for the future that God is preparing for Church of the Messiah is prayer and repentance, confession and faith. He’s called us to this altar so that we may receive his grace. This is what God requires, for this community of faith and for each of us. God needs to clothe us with his grace so that we may be ready.

We need folks who are willing to turn out and be counted, like our confirmands today. God has issued an invitation to you; God will require of you the willingness to turn from the old life to the new life in Christ, over and over again. He’s brought you here today, chosen you to be his disciple, and made all of us here witnesses to it. He’s given each of us gathered round you the chance to renew our own commitment, and to step through the door with you into the future that God is creating for each of us and for the Church of the Messiah. We are open to the power of God, and God gives us grace so that we may be ready when the invitation comes.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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