& when you get damned in the popular opinion

it's just another damn of the damns not given 

A sermon on the parable of the irrepressible wedding banquet:

This is one of those parables that make us blush. Isn’t it? If last week’s parable hit too close to home, this one strikes too far afield. As far as the likes of us are concerned, this parable has a number of strikes against it. 

First, there’s the fact this parable compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who’s all too willing to raze a city and even toss out a poor guest just for wearing the wrong duds! But that’s not the real problem we have with this parable. Is it? No, the real problem with this parable is that it dares to depict the kingdom of heaven as infringing upon our own present one!

If the kingdom of heaven has any place in our daily affairs, it’s mainly in the background. The kingdom of heaven is something that’s distant. Distant in both time and space. 

As Jesus would tell it, though, the kingdom of heaven is not so far off. What’s more, it’s actually interfering with our day-to-day existence. And if that wasn’t enough, the kingdom of heaven isn’t coming gently, either! No, the kingdom of heaven is coming with nothing less than holy haste.

…Now, I could examine our predilections. I could interrogate our resistance to this parable. In all likelihood, our genteel preference for all that’s reasonable and respectable is more gruesome than Jesus’ parable Itself! But you know what? That’s boring! 

Not only is it tiresome to take shots at the cruelty just below the surface of our decorum, it’s also the least interesting way into this parable! Because here’s the thing, Jesus’ parables are as wild and unencumbered as the kingdom of heaven itself! And this parable is no exception!

Here, I’ll show you what I mean. What is it that sets off all the savagery in this parable?

Go ahead and take a look in your bulletins. It’s right in the first sentence of the parable proper itself. And let me add, this isn’t a trick question, either. However, it is a subtle one. 

What is it that sets off all the rancor in this parable? Here’s a hint. What has the king, who’s like the kingdom of heaven, already done that sparks the rest of the drama?

…That’s right! Thrown a banquet! The precursor to all the fracas in this parable is a party! A party. How’s that for unexpected?

…The twist that ignites the rest of the parable is a party. The kingdom of heaven, as Jesus would tell it, is a banquet. A banquet God is hot under the collar to get underway! 

Contrary to all that is reputable, God will have nothing to do with that respectable business of counting sin. Rather, in Jesus Christ, God is throwing a party! A party to which God will not accept a declined invitation. A party to which God will not even allow for qualified merrymaking!

Consider well, sisters and brothers, God is deadly serious about really partying! 

And I’m not laying it on thick, either! As the author of Hebrews puts it, Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, endured the cross for the what that was set before him? Right! For the joy that was set before him! 

Jesus did not go to the cross to appease an angry God. No, Jesus went to the cross to get a bunch of party-poopers like us INTO the great party God has been planning since the word “go!” Or, in this case, “Let there be light.” 

Reality itself is a divine surprise party! And the surprise is that God didn’t HAVE to do any of this! Rather, all of this is God’s idea of a good time! And that includes YOU.

YOU don’t exist by chance. And neither do you exist to fulfill some line item on a cosmic work order. No, YOU exist because God is pleased as punch with you! You exist because, as far as God’s concerned, the party wouldn’t be complete without you!

Your breath, your very next heartbeat, these come, not as natural biological reactions. No, they come from the very mouth of God! The mouth of God who spoke all this INTO existence out of nothing! The mouth of God who is speaking no less of you right now.

___________, you exist because God is speaking your name. __________. And you, _________. God says your name, too! And you, ___________. And you, __________! And all of you! And me, too! 

So, before we venture another word, let this be said without qualifications or considerations, you are invited to God’s great party! You are already invited to God’s great party! What’s more, this invitation is not based on your past, and neither is it contingent upon your future! 

Understand, God has already made a decision about you! And that decision is you ARE on the guest list! No, that’s not strong enough! The decision is you are the guest of honor in God’s great party to end all parties!

God, in Christ, has invited you to the party! And you are invited right now! And the invitation comes from the lips of God Thyself! Your name is on God’s guest list.

…

…However, no sooner do I say this than a conflict emerges. Doesn’t it? Now maybe you can’t tell exactly what the nature of that conflict is. But you can sense an aversion bubbling up within you. Don’t you? 

Well, don’t worry. We all do. And the truth is this conflict takes many shapes and forms. The old word for this internal friction is original sin. But whatever you call it, it’s innate and nearly instantaneous, too. 

Jesus’ parable today, though, doesn’t so much name this conflict as it does describe it. And, good parable that it is, it describes the perfectly reasonable forms our resistance takes! 

The folks in Jesus’ parable don’t turn down the invitation because they’re lax. Do they? No, quite the contrary! They decline the invitation because they’re too busy! They’re too busy.

What’s more, they’re too busy with practical concerns. Aren’t they?!? They don’t PASS on the invitation because they're fooling around! I mean, how much sense would that make? They’re being invited to a party, for heaven’s sake! No, they reject the invitation because they’re too busy working! Working.

As far as the invitees are concerned, a party might be nice, but they’ve got real business to attend to. The animals need feeding, and the accounts need balancing. And all that work isn’t going to do itself, either. So, thank you for the invitation, but NO, thank you.

…However, and don’t kill the messenger, but I’ve got to tell you, not doing. God’s insistent about this party. And you’re repeated deferrals actually amount to outright rebellion. 

Sure, right now, it might seem like nothing more than respectfully postponing. HOWEVER, just like this parable, your deferring will come to out-and-out rebellion! The thing is, there will always be more work to do! 

This compulsion to get all your ducks in a row before you join God’s party will eventually lead you to try and snuff this God out of your life! Be it literally or just functionally. The sad truth is many of us are functional atheists in our day-to-day decision-making. Aren’t we?

But the scary truth is God will not tolerate this! God will sooner burn it all down than abide to be no more than a religious accouterment in your life. It’s like the musician I’m skipping out next Wednesday to hear sings: “You thought God was an architect / NOW you know / He’s something like a pipe bomb / ready to blow / And everything you built / that’s all for show / goes up in flames / in 24 frames.”

By the way, 24 frames are how many times a film reel spins in one second. In other words, Isbell is singing it only takes a moment for all our schemes to come to nothing. And like a true theologian of the cross, he can’t help but suspect God, of all people, has a hand in all the destruction.

The truth is, you will not win the war in our mutiny against God’s grand designs. Sure, you may win a battle or two. But God’s not about to let your refusal to celebrate go on forever! One day God is going to kick off the great party! And if hell couldn’t prevail against the festivities, neither will your miserable fastidiousness. 

…Let it be perfectly evident, though, NONE of that has any bearing whatsoever on your invitation to the party. GOD has ALREADY invited YOU to the banquet! It’s God’s good will that you pull up a chair at that great feast!

There’s a place for you at the table where Death is dead and gone forever! The table where all that got between us in this old world is finally removed! The table where everything we wished we had said is said! That table where everything we wish we hadn’t said is forever left unspoken in the tomb!

Beloved, not only does such a table exist! In Christ, it’s finally the only real thing there will be! What’s more, there’s a chair at this great table of eternity with your name on it! And all your loved ones, too! And even all those you couldn’t love but deep down wish you could! 

And at that table, you WILL be finally able to love them all fully! You WILL at last LOVE those you most loved without holding back! AND you WILL at last LOVE those you had so much trouble loving without reserve, too! And you, you will be fully loved yourself.

…

…But that doesn’t settle the conflict. Does it? No, in all truth, it only gets the conflict all that more revved up!

Suppose you do go along with the initial revelry. No sooner do you get started than another conflict erupts. Doesn’t it? And this one, too, is reasonable. In fact, it’s all about being reasonable! 

And here’s how this perennial contention sounds, “How far are you going to take it?” A little celebrating is fine and all, we tell ourselves, but we can’t overdo it. We’ve got to stay respectable. We’ve got to stay presentable. We’ve got to stay sensible.

Here’s the rub, though, God is going to call the dance! And if you’re going to forever tie yourself up with all of those silly considerations, God will leave you to them! In fact, God will call the servants to finish the job. God will have you bound and tossed out into that hell YOU’VE been bound and determined to drag into the party.

Beloved, Christ went to the cross for the joy that was set before him. The joy! Not some knockoff BLISS mingled with self-imposed misery. 

Christ wills to celebrate! And he’s deadly serious about it, too! When Christ vanquished hell, he did so once and for all! He’s not about to continually indulge our miserable attempts to party half-heartedly because we won’t let go of our shabby designs for a respectable little life.

…Let it be perfectly evident, though, NONE of that has any bearing whatsoever on your invitation to the party. GOD has ALREADY invited YOU! Furthermore, in Christ, God has already set the table and spread out the feast! What’s more, NOTHING in all creation can stop this party, either! 

However, you can spoil it. Now, you can only spoil this party for yourself. But nonetheless, you can spoil it.

The shock, though, is you won’t spoil the party by overdoing it. No, the only way you can spoil this party is by trying to underplay it! 

You can spoil the party by insisting you MUST get your life together before you celebrate. You can spoil the party by clinging to your own worn-out intentions instead of just receiving the one Christ has come to clothe you with! No matter what, though, the only thing that can keep you from the party is your own death grip on life! 

Your own death grip on life. The one that was never going to bring life anyway! On the contrary, our death grip is just that, one that kills. All our attempts to control our own lives just smother them!

History is only too full of examples. Isn’t it? Our idea of a party is a sad form of a blame game that never ends.

Blessedly, in great mercy, God has taken that miserable pastime out of our hands. After Eden, God determined our days would be numbered. That way, we couldn’t forever go on trying to avoid blame while casting it on everyone else in all creation - including, finally, even GOD!

The only reason God called it quits on OUR unhappy little game, though, was to call a new one! A true game! At the cross, Christ BECAME the curse! And when he died, SO did the condemnation!

But then, when he was resurrected, Christ brought a whole new cosmos into existence with him! An existence free and forever clear of the curse! An existence where the only rule left is the rule of God’s immeasurable love! And good savior that he is, Christ just turned around and handed that game over to you and to me!

And that, that dear sisters and brothers, is the sheer joy Jesus threw himself unto the cross for. It wasn’t just the joy that paradise. No, Christ flung himself upon the cross for the joy of handing the invitation of the great lark of his joyful banquet over to you and to me!

And that’s precisely what you have in your hands right now! In Christ, it’s time to party! And you’re holding a VIP pass to all the festivities!

…But God’s not about to accept no for an answer. And neither is God going to tolerate any half-hearted partying, either. Ok?

Here’s the deal, though, all that aversion you have to the party runs deep. You can’t just decide not to have it. It doesn’t work that way. What you can do, though, is just sit there helplessly!

Because here’s the trick, all the work we think we’ve got to do and all the face we think we’ve got to save, it’s just a bunch of nothing anyway! It can’t stop the party any more than it can get it started. However, CHRIST’S party is, as the kids say, everything! 

It’s coming, you understand?! You can’t stop it. And you’re ALREADY invited TO it, too! 

Plus, in these words, Christ has one more PARTY trick for you! CHRIST is right NOW taking all your resistance and overcoming it by his holy persistence! In fact, he’s making your aversion into a party favor! Now, your resistance is just one more part of Christ’s redemption! 

All those pathetic excuses you’ve made to keep from partying are no longer anything to grieve over! No, now they’re one more cause for celebration! For they, in Christ, are part and parcel to your salvation! 

Your refusal to party no longer reveals your general cussedness! No, now it reveals Christ’s blessed insistence upon getting you in on the fun!

Alright. Time’s up. It’s time to get down! It’s time to celebrate! It’s time to party! It’s time to let the music roll!

I Am the Bread of Life; ELW 485