Dress Code (Matthew 22:1-14)

 *****Formal banquets among people with power weren’t just occasions to eat and drink. The politicians and power brokers who attended were all there to get something. They were all trying to make an impression, or cut a deal, or win favor.

So they showed up dressed to perfection. Not one hair out of place. It was important to look confident… and to be seen with the right people. 

If the right people weren’t there… if the people with whom you needed to cut a deal weren’t there, or if those who owed you a favor weren’t there, or if the ones you wanted to impress weren’t there… well, it would be easy to think that there wasn’t much point in going.

A king who gives a banquet for his son’s wedding would certainly invite people close to him, and close to his son—friends and family—as well as the friends and family of the bride.

But he would also send out invitations to important people whose favor he needed to maintain, or with whom he might want to cut a deal, or who he wanted to impress in some way.

In our story today, those who the king invited—for whatever reason—chose not to come. This is not realistic—no one would actually refuse an invitation from the king. But in this parable, that’s what they do.

And the king doesn’t take no for an answer. So he sends slaves to invite them again, and to say to them: “Look! Everything is ready! Come to the banquet!”

Again, they refuse. They even kill some of the slaves sent by the king.

So the king, in return, kills them and destroys their city.

This king just won’t take no for an answer.

Which, by the way, reminds me of the time Jesus taught his disciples to let their “yes” be “yes,” and their “no” be “no.” I always thought of this as a teaching to be honest in what I say, in what I promise… but it also works the other way… to accept the “yes” or “no” that someone gives to you.

Let their yes be yes. Let their no be no.

If someone says no to you, you accept their answer. 

The king didn’t do that.

It reminds me of another king: King David. Israel’s greatest king.

**** King David really wanted Bathsheba for himself. So he didn’t give her a chance to say no. He just took her. Nevermind that she was already the wife of a man named Uriah.

And when it was discovered that Bathsheba was pregnant, David arranged for Uriah to be killed. All because he couldn’t accept “no” for an answer.

Now, such behavior was acceptable for kings in ancient times. Kings had the right to do whatever they wanted, at least in the eyes of men.

But not in the eyes of God. And God held David accountable for his actions.

*****Two years ago, at Cornell University, a sexual assault took place that you may have heard about in the news lately. 

Apparently, a young woman at a college party was assaulted by 7 members of a fraternity. More than 50 other young men were part of a group chat inviting them to take their turn. None of them honored the “no” of this young woman, or even gave her the opportunity to say “no.” She never gave consent. 

Yet they didn’t let the fact that she never said “yes” stop them.

And now, people are wanting them to be held accountable.

Let your “yes” be “yes.” Let your “no” be “no.” And let your neighbor’s “no” be “no” as well. 

***** The king in our story today would not take no for an answer. 

And he kills all those important, powerful people who refused to come to his party.

Because that’s how kings behave when they don’t get what they want.

Now, Jesus told this parable in the temple, to a group of chief priests and elders, men with some level of power and influence.

But there were others there as well: common people; Jews without power and influence.  And they may not have taken this story about the king who threw a wedding banquet seriously. They may have laughed at all these rich and powerful people fighting with each other, killing and being killed, getting what was coming to them.

And then the king sends his slaves out into the streets, to invite anyone they could find to the banquet. Not the wealthy. Not the powerful. But average, common people. He wanted that banquet hall full!

And the people listening to this story may have thought to themselves: “Like that would ever happen…” yet they also were interested in seeing where this story was going. So they started listening more intently…and the parable begins to call them out as well.

Because now, in the story, the banquet hall is filled not with rich and powerful people, but with people like them. 

And there was one guest there who was not wearing the proper clothing. 

It’s not clear why this person was improperly attired. One commentary I read said that, at a banquet like this, if someone didn’t have the proper attire, the host would provide them with the proper attire.

So there really should be no excuse to not be dressed appropriately.

And evidently this particular guest had not heard of how ruthless this king could be. If he had, I doubt he would have refused the clothing provided to him.

And the king ordered that this person be bound hand and foot, and thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And that is a turn in this story that the people did not expect. When it started, it sounded like a parable being told against the rich and powerful, but in the end, it was a person just like them who suffers from the king’s wrath.

Not the ending to the story they were hoping for.

And this parable, Jesus says, is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

Well. How? How does this parable show what the kingdom of heaven is like?

Matthew ends the parable with this statement: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” 

Really?

Thanks, Matthew, but that’s not helpful. There is so much more going on here. So much that challenges us. So much that provokes us. 

As is often the case with parables. Parables often start out heading in a direction we want them to go, but then there’s a twist, and the parable becomes a burr, poking us in the side, irritating us, challenging us.

Here is what I think:

This king does not act the way God would act. This king lacks mercy, lacks compassion, lacks kindness. This king compels people to obey his commands through threat of force, violence, and death. This king does not allow anyone to make a choice other than what the king has already chosen for them.

As for the poor individual who wore the wrong clothes… despite the harshness of this story, it does lead me to wonder about what is appropriate in terms of dress. I think one question on the minds of those hearing this story would be: “Come on! He’s a poor commoner! How could he have known how to dress? How should he have dressed?”

This person’s attire seems far more important in this story than it should be. 

And yet, the story also makes me think about how much time we do spend on figuring out what we should wear.

***** The invitation to my nephew Zander’s wedding (that took place at the beginning of summer) said that dress for the event was “summer chic.” 

I had no idea what that meant. So I looked it up online, and the search results… were quite interesting.

I texted Zander and said, “this?” And he texted back, “Yeah… pull up in that!”

Well, after thinking about it some, I decided that maybe this would not be the proper attire for his wedding… especially since I was officiating…

***** Whenever we have a baptism here at church, like we did last week, there is one thing I dread, and that’s making my way through the centrum in the shorts and t-shirt I’m going to baptize people in, just as folks are arriving for worship. That’s always a little weird for me… because I, like everyone else, is probably a little too obsessed over what I wear, how I appear, whether I’m properly dressed or not…

Especially since I’m the pastor. People expect certain things of the pastor in terms of appearance, especially when they are walking into church…

Well, what is the proper attire? For church? For anything?

I don’t know what proper wedding attire looked like in the first century… 

**** But several places in the New Testament do describe how followers of Jesus are to clothe themselves.

Eph. 4.24: “Clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Col. 3.12-14: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience… and above all, with love.”

Gal. 3.27-28: “Clothe yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.” 

(In that passage, clothing is equated to identity, and people identified themselves as part of a group, separate from people in other groups. But now they are to identify themselves, first and foremost, as followers of Christ. United. And perhaps this is important, because before, one might—upon being invited to a banquet (say, a banquet featuring the Lord’s Supper) be tempted to ask: “who’s going to be there? Will there be Jewish men like me? Or will there be gentiles? Or women?” In other words, will there be people there like me, people who speak my language, who look like me, who dress like me?” But, clothed in Christ, those divisions are overcome, for we are all one in Christ.)

***** After last Sunday’s worship I had a conversation with someone about baptism, and I remembered that, in many early Christian communities, those being baptized would strip naked as they entered the water. The clothes that they cast off, they would then trample underfoot. This symbolized the casting off of their worldly identities. Then upon emerging from the baptismal waters, they were given new clothes to wear, made of white cloth, symbolizing that their identity was now wrapped up in Christ.

Being reminded of that made me thankful for the shorts and t-shirt I got to wear in the baptistry last week.

—-------------------------

***** I don’t think there is one specific way to read this parable. I don’t think you can simply say: “the king represents God;” many interpreters do say that, though you can probably guess that I have problems with that interpretation. At the very least, it’s too simplistic. If the king is meant to represent God, I think we can at least say that not every act or behavior by the king is consistent with how God acts.

Some have also said that those who refused the invitation are the Jews who rejected Jesus. But that interpretation quickly becomes a justification for anti-semitism, and is also problematic. Instead of saying that they represent “the Jews,” at most one could say that they represent those among the Jews with power, the Jewish authorities—the chief priests and elders, perhaps—and certainly not the Jewish people as a whole.

And any interpretation of a parable that casts those hearing it as the “good guys” and casts some other person as the “bad guy” is problematic, because just about every parable is meant to provoke and challenge you, the hearer. Parables are meant to shake us out of our complacency and rock our self-righteous attitudes. 

For me, this parable does that in two ways:

It reminds me that I need to honor the “yes” or the “no” that someone gives me…

And it challenges me to consider how I dress… and to always clothe myself in Christ.

All That's Required (Matthew 22:34-40)

 All That’s Required

Matthew 22: 34-40

Jesus’ father, Joseph, was a carpenter, and it is assumed that Jesus grew up learning how to work with wood, and that he worked as a carpenter before he began his ministry. As a carpenter, he learned how to build furniture and utensils, doors, and door frames; he also learned how to prepare roofing beams; and he may at times have doubled as a brick mason or a metalworker.

It was a lowly craft, putting him in the artisan class, far removed from the aristocracy. 

Yet, I imagine that working with wood was something Jesus found pleasant and perhaps even enjoyable. Sometimes, he was probably able to add his own creativity into the work he did, adding designs and ornamentation, depending on the desires of the one he was working for. 

At other times, when the work was more mundane, more monotonous, he could get lost in his thoughts, as he worked to sand and smooth a particular piece of wood. As his hands moved back and forth and back and forth over the wood, he could pray, meditate, and reflect on the Torah as he worked. Perhaps, specifically, he would meditate on the Shema.

The Shema is the central affirmation of Judaism. It appears in the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy.

In Hebrew, “shema” means hear, Because the Shema begins with the words: “Hear O Israel!”

Then, the next line says: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

And then, finally, it says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”

Put all together, the Shema goes like this:

“Hear O Israel! The Lord your God, the Lord is one… Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”

This passage in Deuteronomy then goes on to instruct God’s people to “recite these words to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol. Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates.”

And many Jews did just that. They literally wrote the Shema on little pieces of parchment, then placed those little pieces of parchment in tiny containers, which they strapped onto their wrists and onto their foreheads; and they did indeed write these words on their door frames.

Perhaps Jesus, when he was doing his woodwork, building door frames for Jewish neighbors, made sure there were spots on those doorframes where the Shema could be displayed… And while he was busy building such things, it’s quite likely that Jesus himself recited the Shema and meditated on it.

Because of how centrally important the Shema was and is to Jewish faith, it should not have surprised anyone that, when asked what the most important command is, that Jesus recited the Shema.

This little episode—when Jesus is asked what is the most important command, and Jesus answers by quoting the Shema—appears in all three synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

There is some slight variation, which I appreciate:

In Deuteronomy (as it has been passed down to us), it says: “Lord the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength…,”

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.”

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus says: “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

In Luke’s gospel, it says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.” Interestingly, in Luke’s gospel it appears that a lawyer is actually the one who recites the Shema, and then, when he does, Jesus responds: “You are right.”

And, in all three synoptics, not only the Shema from Deuteronomy is quoted, but also a command from Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

And then it is affirmed that these are the most important commands.

I like how it spells out that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. My own reflection on this command has led me to believe that, in order to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, that I need to take care of every aspect of my being. I need to take care of my emotional health, my spiritual health, my mental health, and my physical health.

Because when I am emotionally strong and healthy, and spiritually strong and healthy, and mentally strong and healthy, and physically strong and healthy, then I am able to better love God and do what God calls me to do, and go where God calls me to go, and live as God calls me to live.

Some of you may remember that, once upon a time, several years ago, I preached a series of four sermons, and each one focused on one of these different aspects: Taking care of our emotional health, taking care of our spiritual health, taking care of our mental health, and taking care of our physical health, so that we could love God to the best of our ability.

Of course, taking care of our emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health is also how we love ourselves.

Hence, the addition of the command from Leviticus, to love your neighbor as yourself.

Then, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says something very interesting. He says: “On these two commands hang all the law and the prophets.”

I always thought that the use of the word “hang” here was peculiar, that maybe another word would have been better, until I remembered that Jesus was a carpenter. Once I remembered that Jesus was a carpenter, I realized that he was picturing a door like the ones he used to make, the doors he would then hang on the frame after making them, hanging them on the two hinges that would attach the door to the frame.

The two hinges are what hold the door. The door hangs from the hinges. 

These two commands—love God, and love your neighbor as yourself—are like the two hinges. Everything else hangs from them.

If you don’t have strong hinges, then it doesn’t matter how strong or beautiful the door is; it will come crashing down.

If love for God and loving one’s neighbor as oneself isn’t holding up what you believe in, then that belief will fall to the ground.

In fact, if someone tells you a command that isn’t rooted in love for God and love for your neighbor and yourself, then that command should fall to the ground. It should fall to the ground and be swept out with the trash. 

Because a command not rooted in love is a command you shouldn’t follow.

Now, as I said, you may remember me preaching on all this before. It is the Shema, after all. The most important command.

But what I want to say to you today, is how grateful I am to have been your pastor, because you all take seriously the command to love God and love your neighbor, and you’re not content to just keep loving at the same level, but to constantly be growing in love.

I firmly believe that there is no such thing as perfection in these types of things, but there is improvement, there is growth, and there is goodness. Even Jesus demonstrated the capacity to learn and grow and improve when he was chastised by the Syrophoenecian woman. 

You all have been willing to learn and grow in love, to look inward and find the areas where your love could improve, and then to make the commitment to actually do better… to love better.

And it’s hard work, as some of you know. There are some people, some neighbors, we just don’t want to love, or whom we find it so very difficult to love.

And you’ve prayed to God about that, and you’ve described to me how you are growing in love, working to expand your love to be more like Jesus, whose love was radically inclusive and all-embracing and wholly affirming.

Somebody posted online this week that Jesus’ greatest commandment wasn’t convert your neighbor; it was love your neighbor.

Many Christians forget that.

And some Christians think that their highest calling is to “out-debate” their neighbor, or “prove wrong” their neighbor, instead of love their neighbor.

Mostly, the only people Jesus debated were the teachers, who believed they were right—more right than anyone else—and who spent most of their time debating and defending their way of practicing their faith. 

Jesus did engage in some debates with them… but far more than that, he simply loved the people who followed him. And he challenged everyone, including the religious teachers, to be more loving.

So I am grateful for the love you have shown, to one another, to me, to my family, to all who walk in our doors, and to our neighbors near and far. The hinges on your doors are strong. I do believe that you have taught me more about how to love as Jesus loved than I have taught you. 

And that really is all that’s required. You know what is the most important thing, and you live it out. And I know that the love that is shared here will remain strong, for many months and years to come.

And if you’ve been a recipient of that love; if your life has been transformed by the radically inclusive and all-embracing and wholly affirming love that you’ve experienced here… then you’ll want to share it. Right? Don’t you want to tell others the news that Jesus’s love is so much greater than anything else the world has to offer? Don’t you want them to know that here, at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, we’re learning about that kind of love, and we’re practicing that kind of love, and we’re growing in love for the world?

The world is desperate for that kind of love. A lack of love is the root of every kind of evil in this world, every kind of violence, every war.

Let’s continue growing in love. Let’s invite the world to grow in love with us. Let’s transform the world with the love of Christ. 

A Trap for Jesus (Matthew 22.15-22)

So: what do we know about the Pharisees? They appear a lot in the gospels, and they are usually arguing with Jesus. We like to think of them as the villains of the story.

And yet, the apostle Paul was himself a Pharisee, and that was something he remained proud of even after his conversion. And there were times when Jesus spoke favorably of the Pharisees, lifting up their faith and their adherence to religious practices.

The Pharisees were one of many groups within Judaism… not quite separate denominations… maybe a little bit more like the different schools of thought within the Catholic church… the Jesuits, the Dominicans, etc. Although that comparison also isn’t quite exactly right, it does give an idea.

And among these groups there were different ideas about how one should live out one’s faith. Should one be engaged in public life, or separate oneself from the world? Should one resist Roman oppression violently, nonviolently, or not at all? 

All Jews anticipated the day when God would actively intervene to get rid of Rome and establish a new, holy, heavenly kingdom of God. But the Pharisees did NOT think it was right for Jewish people to actively resist Rome. The Pharisees taught that if the Jews were faithful enough in their personal devotional practices, God would see their holiness, and God would be motivated to intervene and set the people free from Roman oppression.

So the Pharisees taught people to be holy in their personal lives, and leave issues of oppression and injustice to God.

Other groups - like the Zealots - believed just the opposite. They believed that a faithful response to the times was to resist Roman oppression by any means necessary, even if it meant taking up arms against Rome. The zealots didn’t want to just sit around and pray and perform rituals. They wanted action. They believed God was calling them to act.

Roman rulers - people like Herod - obviously liked the approach of the Pharisees better than the way of the Zealots. Zealot activism often led to crucifixions; but because the Pharisees helped keep the people calm and obedient, the Romans allowed them to continue doing what they were doing, and even gave them a fair amount of power.

And the power the Pharisees received from Rome made it even less likely that they would encourage any form of resistance.

You see the same thing among Christians today. Some argue that Christians should be active in the world, fighting against injustice, protesting in the streets, and resisting all forms of oppression; while other Christians preach that it’s one’s inner, personal life of faith that matters. And, naturally, many of the Christian leaders who emphasize personal piety and who downplay the importance of protest and justice are those who are often seen getting their photos taken with the President.

Now, what do taxes have to do with all this?

In today’s scripture, the issue of taxes comes up, because some Jews who openly resisted Roman rule believed it went against the teachings of the faith to pay taxes to Rome, to give money that would be used to support their oppression. Withholding taxes, for them, was an act of holy defiance.

But other Jews - like the Pharisees - said one should obey the governing authorities, because they were put in place by God, and to not obey would be to not obey the God-ordained government… and if God wanted to get rid of that government, then God would do so, but it wasn’t up to the people.

So you can see how paying taxes became such a hot-button issue in Jesus’ time. The question of whether or not to pay taxes helped determine what kind of a Jew you were… 

The question was used as a test, much like the question of whether abortion should be legal or not is used as a test today, to determine what kind of Christian you are. Right? 

If you describe yourself as pro-life, some will see you as standing against women and against justice. But if you describe yourself as pro-choice, some will say you aren’t a real Christian, and they’ll call you a baby-killer. It is an emotionally charged issue; the question and the labels are meant to entrap; and whether you answer pro-choice or pro-life, there’s no way to avoid getting in trouble with one group or another.

That’s what the question of taxes was in Jesus’ day. It was the question to ask to determine what kind of a Jew you were - whether you were a “real” Jew or not in the mind of the one asking the question. It’s a question that was almost always used as a trap.

Why did they want to trap Jesus? Well, he was stirring up the people’s discontent with Roman rule. He had already paraded into Jerusalem in a procession that mocked the processions held by Herod and Caesar. Riding on a donkey instead of in a chariot; people raising up sticks and branches instead of swords. It made a mockery of Herod and the whole Roman system.

Then, Jesus went and flipped over the tables in the temple courtyard and very nearly caused a riot, all in protest of the economic system that benefitted both the temple and the government, but which oppressed the poor. And so the Pharisees, who defended the government, and who were given a fair amount of power by the Roman government, saw Jesus as a threat to their power.

Asking Jesus about taxes was the perfect way to catch him and turn the people against him.

So they send their disciples to him, along with some Herodians. The Herodians (you can guess by the name) also supported Herod and Roman rule. 

And this group of people says to Jesus: “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.”

Ok. They’re butter-ing him up. And when they say, “We know you do not regard people with partiality,” they’re saying, “we know you don’t take sides; you haven’t aligned yourself with any of the various factions that argue and debate over these things. You haven’t come right out and said you’re pro-tax, and you haven’t come right out and said you’re anti-tax. But we want to know: Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”

Jesus knows exactly what they are doing. “Why are you putting me to the test? You hypocrites!”

He calls them hypocrites because, by the way they phrased the question, they tried to cast themselves as impartial seekers of truth, when really, all they want to do is trap Jesus by getting him to say that he’s against paying taxes. If he says that, then they know they’ve got him, and they can arrest him.

But Jesus doesn’t say that. He says: “bring me a coin. Whose face is on the coin?”

They answer, “The emperor’s.”

And Jesus says, “Then give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor, but give to God what belongs to God.”

What does Jesus mean by that? Well, the scriptures say that the earth is the Lord’s. Everything that exists belongs to God. The Pharisees read the scriptures - they know what it says. So now they are forced to wrestle with the question they asked. 

It was not their plan to actually wrestle with the question, they merely wanted to use the question to trap Jesus. They were using the question as a weapon. They didn’t even really care what the answer was when they were asking it. But now, Jesus has forced them to care. Jesus has forced them to actually ponder the question that they themselves asked.

He’s pretty wise, that Jesus!

Now, this has me wondering: what if this scripture were set in modern-day America? And what if it were about today’s hot-button issue, the question used today by Christians to divide and entrap one another? Instead of being about paying taxes to Rome, what if it were about abortion? 

Abortion is a huge issue right now, and has been my whole life; but it’s especially big right now, because of the election, and because of the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

People are using the abortion question as a test. It’s used the way creeds have often been used in history, to define who’s in and who’s out. Do you agree to every word of the creed? OK, you’re in. Do you have a problem with anything in the creed? OK, you’re out. 

There’s a reason why Disciples of Christ congregations like ours recite no creeds.

So how do you think Jesus would respond? I invite you to imagine with me how this scripture story would play out… Hear, then, the scripture reading for today, set in a more modern context...

Then the evangelical leaders went and plotted to entrap him in what he said… so they sent their disciples to him, along with some pro-life supporters, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think: Is it right for a woman to have an abortion?” 

But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test? You hypocrites! Find a woman who wants an abortion, and ask her WHY.” Well, they went and brought him a woman, and he said to them, “Why does she want an abortion?” 

They asked her, and she told them it was because her boyfriend had talked her into having sex, told her she could trust him, but she got pregnant because they had no contraception. He disappeared, and now she has no job, no healthcare, no way to care for the baby...

So Jesus said to them, “Then give her contraception, give her a job, give her healthcare and give her family leave, so she can care for the baby.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.